Well, it's my birthday today, and I only wish I had started this blog earlier to coincide with the year I was born. Oh well, I guess I'll have to settle for this.

I know it's difficult for some people to stand, but metal had a huge year in 1986, with Slayer and Metallica arguably releasing their best records. I started and ended this mix with a track from each, both to emphasize their importance and to give people to chance to use their skip button conveniently.

Other than that, 1986 was a step up from 87, though we're still in the dog days of the 80s. "Kiss" is a great Prince song, and "Don't Dream It's Over" is quickly becoming my favorite easy listening pop song. But mostly, the year was filled with soulless rock. I chose "My Adidas" over "Walk This Way," not just because I hate the latter, but because the former was the first real commercial tie in in hip hop.

A good New Order song and a good Pet Shop Boys song represent the dance music of the time (with a cheesy showing by Yello that most people will remember from the greatest movie of the 80s, Ferris Beuller's Day Off). Then there's Paul Simon, whose Graceland was, despite my joke that every song sounds the same, a major work of art and an important political development.

That's about it for this one, I hope you enjoy.

Download the mix here.

EDIT:Here is the new link.

Also, from now on I will not be re-upping mixes in later weeks, though I will continue to put them up like this if they max out before the Friday of the week they go up. So get 'em while they're hot, folks. And thanks for letting me know, Claire.

1. Angel of Death - Slayer - 4:51
2. Fight For Your Right - The Beastie Boys - 3:27
3. My Adidas - Run-D.M.C. - 2:47
4. Nasty Boys - Janet Jackson - 4:03
5. Kiss - Prince - 3:46
6. Walk Like an Egyptian - The Bangles - 3:24
7. Cities In Dust - Siouxsie & the Banshees - 4:07
8. Living on a Prayer - Jon Bon Jovi - 4:10
9. Oh Yeah - Yello - 3:02
10. West End Girls - Pet Shop Boys - 3:57
11. Sledgehammer - Peter Gabriel - 4:55
12. Graceland - Paul Simon - 4:51
13. Don't Dream Its Over - Crowded House - 4:00
14. Bigmouth Strikes Again - The Smiths - 3:14
15. Dear God - XTC - 3:37
16. Bizzare Love Triangle - New Order - 6:42
17. Rise - Public Image Limited - 6:16
18. Master of Puppets - Metallica - 8:37

The 80s are often maligned for bad music, bad movies, and bad presidents. Though it's hard to argue with that last one, you can find some good stuff in the first two categories if you just know where to look; after all, any decade that started the Coen Brothers' career can't be all bad. Musically, there were a number of great developments, two of which are featured on Coldcut's Seven Minutes of Madness mix of Eric B and Rakim's "Paid in Full." That record really began (or at least peaked) the remix craze and Rakim's modern era rhyme style featured on the duo's debut Paid in Full is basically where all modern rhyming comes from.

But now that we are really smack dab in the middle of the 80s, you can see where the reputation comes from. For the most part, this was a really, really weak year, all the more so if, like me, you think Joshua Tree is a monotonous, self-important, overrated piece of trash which committed the unforgivable crime of inspiring Scott Stapp to make music. Though I would love to forget about it entirely, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" is a decent enough song for me to not ignore what was, sadly, the most important record of the year.

There are, of course, a couple great songs on here. "Alex Chilton" and "Just Like Heaven" are great rock songs, displaying the best of two different sides of the 80s rock coin. Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Emmylou Harris collaborated on Trio, an extremely traditional country record that proved there is always an audience for traditional country, even if the industry is so stupid they need to rediscover this fact every fifteen years. Their cover of "To Know Him is To Love Him" is equal to, though worlds apart from, the Phil Spector version.

Check out an early Bjork on the Sugarcubes' "Birthday," and a late Michael Jackson off his last worthwhile record on "Bad." And I even had enough to stick some true cheese on here: the quintessential eighties-ness of "I Think We're Alone Now" and the now-punchline ready "Faith" (I couldn't bare to use "I Want Your Sex").

And then there is "Boyz in the Hood," orignally released in 1986, but included on the 1987 debut by NWA, N.W.A. and the Posse. Spare and gritty, it's the beginning of a new form of hip hop, and it's an unforgiving classic. Maybe the eighties weren't so bad after all.

Download the mix here.

1. Paid In Full (7min of madness) - Coldcut - 7:09
2. Sign O The Times - Prince - 4:56
3. Sweet Child Of Mine - Guns n' Roses - 5:56
4. Alex Chilton - The Replacements - 3:15
5. Just Like Heaven - The Cure - 3:32
6. To Know Him Is To Love Him - Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt & Emmylou Harris - 3:50
7. I Still Havent Found What Im Looking For - U2 - 4:38
8. Lips Like Sugar - Echo And The Bunnymen - 4:54
9. Birthday - Sugarcubes - 3:59
10. Hit the North Part 1 - The Fall - 4:01
11. The Bridge Is Over - Boogie Down Productions - 3:27
12. Top Billin' - Audio Two - 3:35
13. Push It - Salt N Pepa - 3:29
14. I Wanna Dance With Somebody - Whitney Houston - 4:52
15. Bad - Michael Jackson - 4:06
16. I Think We're Alone Now - Tiffany - 3:45
17. Faith - George Michael - 3:16
18. Boyz In The Hood - N.W.A. - 5:38

I was on holiday yesterday, but now I'm back a ready for some action.

Now the shorthand reference to the golden age of Hip Hop, '88 was the year in the young genre's development. It seems ridiculous to believe the hype and buy into the idea that some "golden" year changed everything, but the evidence is undeniable: Eric B and Rakim, EPMD, Stetasonic, Big Daddy Kane, NWA, MC Lyte, Slick Rick, Boogie Down Productions, and Marley Marl were all putting out classic music at the top of their game, just to name a few. Two of the records produced in that year, It Takes a Nation of Millions to hold Us Back and Straight Outta Compton are without a doubt the two most important Hip Hop records of all time. The mix here reflects this leap forward by featuring an unusual amount of one genre. As we go further back, hip hop will be a smaller and smaller component, until pre-1979 when it completely disappears.

Rock, on the other hand, was in a serious slump, at least in terms of popularity. Sonic Youth and the Pixies were putting out great records, but not too many would be looking at their style of rock for another few years, this was when their sound was truly "alternative." Metallica put out a decent single surrounded by their most commercial record until their next one, and everyone else just kind of waded in the water.

Two really notable songs here are Nenah Cherry's "Buffalo Stance" and the Cowboy Junkies' spectacular cover of The Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane." The former is one of the greatest singles of the Eighties, and deserves a big rediscovery, while the latter, which gained renewed interest in the mid-90s after being featured in Natural Born Killers, is evidence of the capacity for good that soundtracks afford music supervisors.

Hope you enjoy this week's offering.

Download the mix here.

1. Bring The Noise - Public Enemy - 3:45
2. Teen Age Riot - Sonic Youth - 6:57
3. Waiting Room - Fugazi - 2:54
4. You Gots To Chill - EPMD - 4:28
5. Children's Story - Slick Rick - 4:02
6. Talkin' All That Jazz - Stetsasonic - 4:47
7. I Need You Tonight - INXS - 3:02
8. Voodoo Ray - A Guy Called Gerald - 3:40
9. Buffalo Stance - Nenah Cherry - 4:03
10. Where Is My Mind??? - Pixies - 3:53
11. Freak Scene - Dinosaur Jr. - 3:38
12. Crash - The Primitives - 3:14
13. Colors - Ice T - 4:28
14. Express Yourself - N.W.A. - 4:25
15. One - Metallica - 7:24
16. Microphone Fiend - Eric B. & Rakim - 5:17
17. Jane Says - Janes Addiction - 4:46
18. Sweet Jane - Cowboy Junkies - 3:34

1989

A little late this week, but here none the less.

The Eighties are everyone's ironically favorite decade, made of crappy movies and crappier fashion. Probably the worst decade since the seventies, the eighties were also where Mtv came from, so naturally it's where one-hit wonders began to take over.

Yeah, there are some established stars on here, like Madonna, The Beastie Boys (whose Paul's Boutique was a massive bomb when released), and Public Enemy, who created "Fight the Power" for Spike Lee's now-classic Do the Right Thing. And in fact, there are primarily memorable artists on this mix, even more than 1990. But the tail end of the decade is still the decade, and there are also the ones you only hear about on late-night commercials for Time Life comps: Fine Young Cannibals, Young MC, and let's be honest here, Biz Markie.

A couple tracks I included, 808 State's "Pacific" and Lil' Louis's "French Kiss" you might not know, but they were major club hits, with Lil' Louis's "French Kiss" often cited as the classic of House's commercial peak. I think it's the sexiest beat ever made, even without the simulated orgasm.

1988 will see the golden age of hip hop, but this year was when rock tried to reestablish its dominance, a move that would eventually culminate in Nirvana. But stripped of the excess pop of the early nineties, and (mostly) past the dated production techniques of the mid-eighties, 1989 seems to be a broad year encompassing some of the strongest music each genre has to offer. I hope you enjoy.

Download the mix here.

1. I Wanna Be Adored - The Stone Roses - 4:52
2. Debaser - Pixies - 2:52
3. Just a Friend - Biz Markie - 4:06
4. Me So Horny - 2 Live Crew - 4:36
5. Love Shack - B-52's - 5:23
6. Like A Prayer - Madonna - 5:50
7. Hey Ladies - The Beastie Boys - 3:47
8. Pacific - 808 State - 3:46
9. Back To Life - Soul II Soul - 3:52
10. French Kiss (The Original Underground Mix) - Lil Louis - 4:51
11. Epic - Faith No More - 4:53
12. Head Like A Hole - Nine Inch Nails - 4:59
13. Fight The Power - Public Enemy - 4:42
14. Free Falling - Tom Petty - 4:09
15. She Drives Me Crazy - Fine Young Cannibals - 3:36
16. Bust A Move - Young MC - 4:26
17. Me Myself And I - De La Soul - 3:50
18. Love Song - The Cure - 3:30