Men At Work:

Business As Usual:(1981)

I consider this a classic album. That said, I didn't pay much attention to it until my Grandfather's neighbor impressed it's value on me. I was fourteen/fifteen, and getting way into music. A new family moved into the house next door to my Grandparents, and I would often hear music blasting from the work shop they had out back. The first time I met Calvin, he invited me to come check out his record collection. There in that metal building of a work shop he had a pool table, and all four walls lined with records. He told me he had been collecting records since 1968, and he told me how he'd made his living for a decade in Chicago as a pool shark. So we played pool, and listened to records. Now, I'd heard the hits of this album on the radio, but always just relegated it out of hand to the bin of cheesy 1980's music, that I (at the time) had no use for. Calvin said, no man You've got to check this out. This guy Colin Hay is a really good songwriter, just listen. So I did. And, right there, that day I became a fan of Men At Work. As I stated, this is a classic album.

Eurythmics:

Be Yourself Tonight:(1985)

The Eurythmics' best selling album. 80's pop at its best. Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves. Mostly I remember, as a child of the 80's, the song, There Must Be An Angel, being used in a Disney MTV send-up called DTV where they combined Top 40 hits with some of their old cartoons.  

Echo & The Bunnymen

Ocean Rain:(1984)

Crocodiles is my favorite Echo & the Bunnymen album, but Ocean Rain is the one I have on vinyl. ...Yard sales... Actually, I picked this record up at a radio station vinyl sale in Grand Junction, CO. Anyway, this is the album where the band decided to go with more orchestration, and less straight rockin'. Still, there's good moments here like Thorn of Crowns, and Killing Moon.

Dire Straits:

Dire Straits:(1978)

Very rarely do you hear a band's debut album where they sound as fully formed as Dire Straits do on this one. From the mysteriousness of the hushed intro to Down To The Waterline to the guitar dancing of the final tune Lions, this album is solid. If I had to pick a favorite track, I'd probably pick Water Of Love, but Sultans Of Swing is a close second. 

Brothers In Arms:(1985)

This is probably the biggest hit record Dire Straits ever had with hits like So Far Away From Me,  Walk of Life, and maybe the biggest, Money For Nothing. Dire Straits has always felt like an honest no flash band that relied on old fashioned hard playing instead of gimmicks and such. And as a guitar player, Mark Knopfler's playing floors me. If I have one complaint about this album it's the artwork. I have always hated this cover, and felt that it didn't fit the music, but that's just me. Haha.