Belinda Carlisle “Circle in the Sand”

Did you know that the same guy who co-wrote this song and other Belinda Carlisle hits like “Heaven Is A Place On Earth” is also responsible for co-authoring the majority of the Lana Del Rey catalog (including “Shades of Cool,” “Summertime Sadness,” “West Coast,” “Young & Beautiful,” and all of Honeymoon), plus “You Get What You Give” by New Radicals, “Falling Into You” by Celine Dion, “I Follow Rivers” by Lykke Li, “White Flag” by Dido, “Loud Places” by Jamie xx, and “Good to Love” by FKA Twigs? His name is Rick Nowels, and it’s shocking that he’s not more well known, particularly as he’s become this go-to collaborator for indie-identified artists who want to have crossover hits.

“Circle in the Sand,” co-written by Nowels with Ellen Shipley, was one of his earliest hits, and song that cast Carlisle in a new light. Carlisle’s work in the Go-Go’s traded on youthful exuberance and a punk/new wave approach to bubblegum pop, but her solo work – and this song in particular – took the sort of broad, romantic yearning she did so well and nudged it in a darker, witchier direction. There’s a massive Stevie Nicks influence on this song, from the melody and arrangement on down to Carlisle’s voice, which gets a bit raspier than usual. Nowels had actually worked with Nicks prior to writing for Carlisle, so it makes sense that this influence would carry over, and this music came out around the same time as Fleetwood Mac’s Tango in the Night, which has a very similar aesthetic mixing rock mysticism with high-gloss late ‘80s production.

I love the way the melodies in “Circle in the Sand” seem to move in circles, so much that if the song gets stuck in my head – which it does very often – it sorta loops around without moving into a bridge. This motif works really well in songs about romantic love, gently suggesting a one-track mind, or endless devotion. Carlisle’s vocal performance is so earnest that it’d be hard to read this as any kind of dark obsession. The longing in this song is so pure; the only negative feeling is the drag of being separated for any length of time.

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Pavement “Old to Begin”

I took art classes at Pratt on weekends in my senior year of high school, and took the train down to Manhattan from where I grew up in the suburbs. Not long after Brighten the Corners came out, I developed a routine upon arriving at Grand Central. As soon as the door of the Metro North train opened, I’d start the album on “Stereo,” with its wobbling intro shifting into a mellow strut. I’d play the album through on my way to Bleecker Street, and like clockwork, “Old to Begin” would start up as I got out of the subway train and walked up to the street. I heavily associate “Old to Begin” with that visual, and the feeling of being a teenager so hyped up about New York City and art and music. (Still my three favorite things!) I don’t think I felt ~cool~, but I definitely felt cooler than I’d ever been, and just wanted to soak up as much of Stephen Malkmus’ casual genius and effortlessly chill in the hope that I could be even a little more like that. (Still a thing I’m trying to do!)

Malkmus was 30 when Brighten the Corners was recorded, and it’s pretty clear from the lyrics that he was thinking a lot about aging, and what aspects of adulthood and domesticity were appealing to him, and what just seemed like an empty ritual. He’s thinking about a lot of things that inspire a lot of anxiety and tension in other people, but at most, there’s only traces of those feelings on Brighten. It’s not about the fear of growing older, but rather what happens when you’re old enough to feel comfortable being yourself, and relax and go with the flow a bit. Everything on the record sounds sunny and nonchalant, even when he drifts into moments of doubt or regret. Music is rarely so well-adjusted, with every note, thought, image, and feeling given weight, but also a sense of appropriate perspective.

“Old to Begin” is loosely about a young person’s idea of feeling old, which is usually melodramatic self-deprecation, or reaching for a status that hasn’t been attained just yet. There’s a nice sturdy sway to the rhythm of this song – it doesn’t quite convey swagger, but it does get across a playful confidence. There’s a litany of minor complaints in the lyrics, but the sound shrugs it all off, and nudges in the direction of some bolder, brighter feeling.

And underneath all that, “Old to Begin” is a very low-key breakup song. He’s telling you that he’ll “set you back” in the chorus, and proposes a mutually beneficial end to a relationship: “Time came that we drifted apart and found an unidentical twin.” I’ve always liked that line because there’s no ill will in it at all, just this acknowledgment that a relationship has run its course, and that it doesn’t have to be a sad thing. From his perspective, they both need something challenging and new, and he doesn’t want to get in the way. I can see how being told this could be infuriating, but I think it’s ultimately very thoughtful and kind.

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Belly “Puberty”

I have long associated the sound of this sound with the beginning of spring, and the first warmish, sunny days after weeks of winter greyness. The days when you see a lot of people willing the day into actual summer, and running around dressed like it’s the middle of July. There’s a sunny sound to “Puberty,” particularly in the chords and wordless vocal melodies, but there’s a slight chill to it too, and the rhythm at the start sounds slightly tentative, like the song is peeking out and looking for permission to gallop and strut.

Tanya Donnelly’s voice is what really makes this song, though. I love the way she sounds hopeful and a little coy on the verses, like she’s heading into some unknown situation with cautious optimism. I suppose that’s why it’s called “Puberty” – it’s the cusp of adulthood, and that all seems great except for everything that’s awkward and weird, which is a majority of it. The lyrics on the chorus and bridge are cryptic but lovely, with Donnelly imagines having deliberate control over some magical light. The contrast is clever – the rest of the song is about feeling uncertain, and the part that’s most emphatic is about imagining agency, power, and meaning.

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Enon “Conjugate the Verbs”

The structure of “Conjugate the Verbs” is so dynamic that it feels volatile, as though the song is a building that’s collapsing one floor at a time. Every time the chorus kicks in it seems like the bottom drops out of the song, and the plunging sensation is both thrilling and terrifying. The song is all about that moment, and as cryptic as the lyrics get, the feeling of them is keyed into a sense of relief that something is being – or has been – destroyed.

It’s probably the latter, since most of these lyrics are written in the past tense. (The provocative opening line – “she’s on an unconscious mission to destroy you” – could be an ongoing concern.) The line that always lingers in my head is the chorus, “when we were 12 or 22,” partly because I like the way that disparity in age undermines its nostalgia. It’s so specific yet entirely vague, just random times in a past that’s not worth holding on to.

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This is the fifth in my series of 1980s survey mixes, which are moving backwards in time from 1989 to the start of the decade. These compilations are designed to give more context to the music of the ‘80s, and give a sense of how various niches and trends overlapped in this cultural moment.

We are now in the weird, dark, ultra-Reagan/Thatcher center of the 1980s. This year lends itself to the survey concept pretty well, because if you only focused on representing 1985 in hits, you’d get this rather stifling and cheesy mix of pop and rock songs, and if you only focused on the cool music – the punk, the rap, the indie, the early techno – you wouldn’t get a crucial sense of opposition. People talk about the ‘80s in terms of “monoculture,” and lament that we can’t have that anymore, but I don’t think that’s true right now. We absolutely have monocultural things now; it’s the thriving oppositional subcultures that have faded away.

Please note that the majority of disc 5 in this set covers the “Roxanne Wars,” a key moment in early rap history. It was basically a meme.

Thanks to Rob Sheffield and Paul Cox for their help in compiling this survey. All of the previous surveys are still available – 1989, 1988, 1987, 1986. The 1984 survey should be ready at the end of March.

DOWNLOAD DISC 1

R.E.M. “Feeling Gravity’s Pull” / The Smiths “How Soon Is Now?” / Tears for Fears “Head Over Heels” / Level 42 “Something About You” / Til Tuesday “Voices Carry” / Prince “Pop Life” / Madonna “Crazy for You” / The Cure “Close to Me” / Whitney Houston “How Will I Know” / Scritti Politti “Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)” / Aretha Franklin “Freeway of Love” / DeBarge “Rhythm of the Night” / Sade “Smooth Operator” / Sheila E “A Love Bizarre” / Phil Collins “Sussudio” / Wham! “I’m Your Man” / U2 “Bad” (Live)

DOWNLOAD DISC 2

Simple Minds “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” / A-Ha “Take On Me” / Huey Lewis and the News “The Power of Love” / Hüsker Dü “Celebrated Summer” / Minor Threat “Good Guys (Don’t Wear White)” / David Lee Roth “Just A Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody” / Run-D.M.C. “King of Rock” / Schoolly D “P.S.K. What Does It Mean?” / Tina Turner “We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)” / Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers “Don’t Come Around Here No More” / Paul Young “Every Time You Go Away” / The Commodores “Nightshift” / Klymaxx “I Miss You” / Wayne Smith “Under Me Sleng Teng” / Don Cherry “I Walk” / Yello “Oh Yeah” / Jellybean featuring Madonna “Sidewalk Talk” / Grace Jones “Slave to the Rhythm” / Siouxsie and the Banshees “Overground”

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INXS “What You Need” / Talking Heads “And She Was” / New Order “Love Vigilantes” / Prefab Sprout “Faron Young” / Camper Van Beethoven “Take the Skinheads Bowling” / Volcano Suns “Jak” / Game Theory “Curse of the Frontier Land” / The Mary Jane Girls “In My House” / Sheena Easton “Sugar Walls” / Book of Love “Boy” / Dead or Alive “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)” / World Class Wreckin’ Cru “World class” / Chicago Bears “Super Bowl Shuffle” / Marshall Jefferson “Move Your Body” / Ready for the World “Oh Sheila” / Tenor Saw “Ring the Alarm” / Kurtis Blow “If I Ruled the World” / Morris Day and the Time “Jungle Love” / Faith No More “We Care A Lot” / The Hooters “And We Danced” / The Verlaines “Lying In State” / Lone Justice “Sweet Sweet Baby (I’m Falling)” / Mötley Crüe “Home Sweet Home”

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The Jesus and Mary Chain “Just Like Honey” / The Fall “Cruiser’s Creek” / The Minutemen “Tour-Spiel” / Black Flag “Annihilate This Week” / Megadeth “Killing Is My Business…and Business is Good” / Big Black “Racer X” / 10,000 Maniacs “Scorpio Rising” / The Replacements “Swingin’ Party” / Phranc “Amazons” / Ronnie Milsap “She Keeps the Home Fires Burning” / Professor Longhair “Mardi Gras in New Orleans” / John Cougar Mellencamp “Small Town” / Reba McEntire “How Blue” / Suzanne Vega “Marlene on the Wall” / Dolly Parton featuring Kenny Rogers “Real Love” / The Blasters “Dark Night” / Artists United Against Apartheid “Sun City” / Duran Duran “A View to A Kill” / Big Audio Dynamite “The Bottom Line” / Felt “Primitive Painters” / Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds “Tupelo” / Simply Red “Holding Back the Years”

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U.T.F.O. “Roxanne, Roxanne” / Roxanne Shanté “Roxanne’s Revenge” / The Real Roxanne “The Real Roxanne” / Sparky D “Sparky’s Turn (Roxanne You’re Through)” / Dr. Freshh “Roxanne’s Doctor – The Real Man” / Doctor Rocx and Co. “Do the Roxanne (Dance)” / Gigolo Tony and Lacey Lace “The Parents of Roxanne” / Crush Groove “Yo My Little Sister (Roxanne’s Brothers” / Ralph Rolle “Roxanne’s A Man” / The East Coast Crew “The Final Word No More Roxanne (Please)” / Mantronix “Needle to the Groove” / Marley Marl featuring MC Shan “Marley Marl Scratch” / Word of Mouth featuring DJ Cheese “King Kut” / Too Short “Girl” / Strafe “Set It Off”

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Kate Bush “Running Up That Hill” / Eurythmics “Would I Lie to You?” / Cameo “Attack Me With Your Love” / Stevie Wonder “Part Time Lover” / LL Cool J “I Can’t Live Without My Radio” / Alexander Robotnik “Problems D’Amour” / Talk Talk “Life’s What You Make It” / Depeche Mode “Shake the Disease” / Sonic Youth “Death Valley ’69” / Shriekback “Nemesis” / Circle Jerks “American Heavy Metal Weekend” / Bruce Springsteen “Glory Days” / Jimmy Barnes “Working Class Man” / The Judds “Girls Night Out” / Meat Puppets “Away” / Dead Milkmen “Bitchin’ Camaro” / Rosanne Cash “I Don’t Know Why You Don’t Want Me” / Tom Waits “Jockey Full of Bourbon” / Jason and the Scorchers “Last Time Around” / The Cult “She Sells Sanctuary” / Godley & Creme “Cry”

DOWNLOAD DISC 7

USA for Africa “We Are the World” / Starship “We Built This City” / Katrina and the Waves “I’m Walking On Sunshine” / Mick Jagger & David Bowie “Dancing in the Streets” / Eddie Murphy “Party All the Time” / John Parr “St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)” / Bryan Adams “Summer of ’69” / John Fogerty “Centerfield” / Fetchin’ Bones “A Fable” / Robyn Hitchcock “The Man with the Lightbulb Head” / Einsturzende Neubauten “Yu-Gung” / Model 500 “No UFO’s” / Lola “Wax the Van” / Nile Rodgers “State Your Mind” / Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam & Full Force “I Wonder If I Take You Home” / JM Silk “Music is the Key” / ABC “Be Near Me” / Teena Marie “Lovergirl” / Double “The Captain of Her Heart”

DOWNLOAD DISC 8

Dire Straits “Money for Nothing” / Mr. Mister “Broken Wings” / Boogie Boys “A Fly Girl” / Newcleus “I Wanna Be A B-Boy” / Jan Hammer “Crockett’s Theme” / Tangerine Dream “Love On A Real Train (Risky Business)” / Allison Moyet “Lover Resurrection” / The Fat Boys “Fat Boys Are Back” / Barrington Levy “Here I Come” / Alabama “Can’t Keep A Good Man Down” / The Chills “Kaleidoscope World” / Fishbone “Party at Ground Zero” / Foetus “Pigswill” / Shannon “Don’t You Wanna Get Away” / The Style Council “Walls Come Tumbling Down” / Marillion “Kayleigh” / Bryan Ferry “Slave to Love” / Corey Hart “Never Surrender” / Kenny Rogers “Crazy”

Helium “What Institution Are You From?”

If you pressed me at any point in the past 20 years or so to name the sexiest songs I know, this Helium track is one of the first things that would come to mind. A lot of it is in the bass groove and the thick, strange atmosphere of the recording. Some of it is in Mary Timony’s voice, which switches between this disaffected “cool girl” tone and a breathy, angelic tone. And I’d be lying to you if I didn’t admit that a bit of it had to do with the weird mix of anxiety and desperation in it, and the implication that this song could be coming from someone in a literal mental institution. There’s something very damaged and sordid and intense about this song, and that bleakness is kinda sexy to me.

The way Timony says the title phrase sounds very glib, very “whatever.” It could just be mean-spirited flirtation, a cruel parody of pick-up line. I love the way the verses are kinda aimless and dead-eyed, but the emotions become more urgent when the chorus clicks in. She’s basically singing about having a crush on someone you don’t really like and makes you feel bad, but you feel powerless around them and that is calming in some way. She’s indecisive, and unsure about how much agency she has in anything. “Everything that I do makes me want you,” she sings. “Aren’t I supposed to?” It’s not surprising to me now that I connected with this song so much as a teenager – it’s such a great evocation of having no idea what to make of your attraction to other people, and just figuring that all sorts of shitty feelings are just how it’s meant to be.

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10,000 Maniacs “Candy Everybody Wants”

“Candy Everybody Wants” is an essentially condescending song, but when I was a teenager, I slightly misheard some key lyrics in a way that made it much more so. Each time Natalie Merchant sang “so their minds” I heard “southern minds,” so it turned into this song about how everyone in the south is a hateful rube, and being a New Yorker listening to a band of New Yorkers, I just rolled with that. Thankfully, I was wrong about that.

The song is, in fact, a cheerful parody of cynicism, in which Natalie Merchant sings about a culture that thrives on indulging vice. The main hook is a shrug: “Hey! Give ‘em what they want.” The quasi-Motown arrangement makes it all sound fun and breezy, like the song could literally just be about candy. To further hammer it home, “Candy Everybody Wants” is structured so that it’s basically three different chorus hooks in rotation, because people like hooks, and hey, give ‘em what they want, right?

It’s hard to imagine a song like this being a hit now, or anyone even a little bit like Natalie Merchant being a pop star in this era. Even in a period when the internet media is full of think pieces informed by social justice rhetoric, anyone as Pollyanna-ish, prim, and politically didactic as 10,000 Maniacs-era Merchant would have trouble catching on in the indie world, much less crossing over to the mainstream. (The intro to the video of this song actually includes the phrases “marginalized member of a spectator democracy” and “manufactured consent.”) But I think this song is very relevant right now, as this “hey, let’s shamelessly indulge the worst in people” has become the guiding principle of Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy, and if we’re being honest, most of the internet economy. Merchant is asking the listener to consider who benefits from vice, and everyone being distracted from the incredibly boring important things in society. But asking is all she’s doing. Everything else is just giving you what you want.

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Steely Dan “Black Cow”

Music is an abstract medium, but “Black Cow” sounds unmistakably like midtown Manhattan, or at least a somewhat romantic notion of it. There’s just something in the sway of it, the architecture of the chords, the way the tones evoke chrome, neon, and concrete. It insinuates classiness and grime in equal measures. It just matches.

The lyrics of “Black Cow” are firmly rooted in Manhattan, and are just as vivid as the sounds. Donald Fagen’s character in this song is a put-upon guy who’s trying to get out of a toxic relationship with some party girl with ambiguous addictions and a lot of other dudes on the side. Or so he says – Fagen’s men are unreliable narrators, and I think we should take it as a given that this dude is insecure and upset. The song is asking you to give him the benefit of the doubt, so let’s just roll with that.

Fagen’s lyrics draw a lot out of his characters with only a few careful details. The song starts out with the guy noticing her at Rudy’s, a dive bar in Hell’s Kitchen that actually still exists. She’s high again, and he’s disappointed in her, but he quickly ends up back at her place, where his issues with her are right there on the counter – her little black book, and her “remedies.” I think he’s jealous, sure, but I think the main frustration comes out later in the song: “I’m the one who must make everything right / talk it out till daylight.” He’s exhausted by having to take care of her, and the benefits of that – the sex, really – isn’t the draw that it used to be.

In the chorus, he takes her to a diner and breaks up with her, admitting that he doesn’t care anymore why she’s doing any of this. He’s not angry, just tired and bored. I like that there’s so little contempt for the woman in this song – the worst you get is just weary condescension. I get the impression that even if he thinks she’s being weak or self-destructive, he respects her and kinda wishes he was like her. The whole song is like that shrug older people have to do around the youngish: “Yeah, that all sounds like fun, but I’ve got to be responsible and go to work.” He knows it’s time to call it off when the vicarious thrill of being around a hot young trainwreck is gone.

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Straitjacket Fits “Brittle”

“Brittle” comes the perspective of someone knows they’re being selfish and petty and have decided to really lean into it, mostly because it’s emotionally honest but partly because they know it’s kinda funny to be so pathetic. A lot of Elvis Costello songs are written with this point of view, and Shayne Carter even kinda sounds like him here. It’s amazing how long it took me to realize that, actually – I’ve known this song well for over 20 years and that only hit me a few weeks ago.

Carter is singing to an ex, and making a dubious case for why they ought to get back together, or something like that. I’m not even sure if this guy even wants that, so much as he wants to make it clear that no one needs it more than him. That’s the exact word he uses – it. The love, the spark, the sex, the feeling of being wanted? Maybe all of it, who can say. He’s ambiguous in the details, but adamant about wanting it, and is off-handedly spiteful about his competition: “Just because another’s words can touch you better / don’t make ‘em measure up to mine.” I love that bit of ego there, because it’s what you do when you’re grasping for any reason to feel better than your rival. Evidence is unnecessary, you just need to believe that you’re better because, well, you’re biased.

The bridge is where the song reveals what’s really going on in this dude’s head, and wrings a bit of soulfulness of it: “Buried deep, there’s a hope that I remain so endless and boundless, you spin when you dream.” All he really wants is to matter to this other person, and he doesn’t care whether it’s good or bad. It’s just to leave a mark, because he doesn’t want to be alone in thinking this was a significant connection. It’s “an eye for an eye,” but for romantic jealousy. And of course this ends on a coy, passive-aggressive note: “Anyway, could be something you’d be best off to consider.”

Yeah, I love this song. And I hate that I see some version of myself in it.

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Björk “5 Years”

I’ve only seen Björk perform once, at the Capitol Ballroom in Washington, D.C. in 1998 on the Homogenic tour. I still have some very clear memories of this show, and one of them surfaces every time I hear this song: When she got to the chorus and sang “you can’t handle love,” she would wave her hands, as if to say to the audience – “no no no, YOU can handle love, I’m singing about this other lame dude.” It has always struck me as a very charming and generous gesture.

“5 Years” is about feeling totally exasperated by someone’s fear of commitment, and pitying them for it. I like that as contemptuous as this song gets, it’s rooted in genuine concern for this man: “You’re the one who’s missing out / but you won’t notice til after 5 years / if you live that long! / you will wake up all loveless.” There are a lot of songs, particularly over the past decade and a half, that are brutal and petulant in how they address rejection, and a lot of the time I just think “Well, I can see why that didn’t work out.” But “5 Years” comes from a place of emotional maturity, and it’s less about telling someone how awful they are, and more about being completely disappointed by a person you actually love.

Björk’s performance on this track is so wonderfully expressive, especially as it goes along and she puts this guttural growl into emphasis words: “I’m so BORRRRRED with COWAAAARRRDS!!!” I love the way she refuses to blame herself for this guy’s fears and flaws, and how the song is just her impatiently waiting for someone to get on her level. Like most of the songs on Homogenic, the track juxtaposes lovely strings with deliberately ugly electronic noise that sounds jagged and violent, and this mirrors the feeling of lyrics and vocal perfectly – simultaneously gracefully serene and furious. By the end of the song, she’s demanding to know what’s so scary about love, and daring him to give it a shot. It’s so emotionally raw, but it’s also as self-possessed and self-respecting as a “baby, come back!” sentiment can get in a pop song.

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