Dez's Five Star Albums: The Rest of the P's(-Q)

This may be the first entry with no 1960’s or 70’s releases (OK, there is one from the tail end of ’79). I doubt that will happen again.

Pearl Jam – Ten (1991): Their monstrous debut announced the arrival of what many people thought would be one of the most important bands of the next couple of decades; they may be one of those bands, but not for the reasons or in the way that was expected.

Pearl Jam – Vs. (1993): I actually like the follow-up to Ten even more; it was more daring, more diverse and more sonically interesting, but they were also still trying to impress, instead of being, shall I say, willfully perverse with their releases.

Pell Mell – Star City (1997): This instrumental group from Portland has recorded sporadically since the early 80’s; they are rarely flashy but quite melodic, many of these tunes have since shown up in films and TV shows.

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – Damn the Torpedoes (1979): His third release put him on the musical map, and granted there is some filler here, but the strong songs are so strong that it remains his most potent record; the “& the Heartbreakers” is crucial, what a great, great band.

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – Hard Promises (1981): If you married The Byrds to The Stones, you’d get prime-era Petty.

Liz Phair – Exile in Guyville (1993): Self-consciously tries to be a 90’s girl power version of The Stones’s Exile on Main Street, but the surprising thing is how close it comes to succeeding.

Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (2009): Great pop rock lives (even if they are French).

The Pixies – Doolittle (1989): This is when the Pixies strike the perfect balance between creating accessible rock and still maintaining their alt credibility.

The Pretenders – Learning to Crawl (1984): Chrissie Hynde is the coolest chick in rock, and LTC is their strongest set of tunes with a wide dynamic range.

Prince & the Revolution – ‘Purple Rain’ motion picture soundtrack (1984): Epic stuff here from The Purple One, he ads “awesome guitarist” to his long list of musical talents.

The Psychedelic Furs – Forever Now (1982): I could say here what I said above about the Pixies, the Furs maintain their underground credentials but allow some more pop sensibility into their music for a perfect balance.

ABOVE: The Psychedelic Furs’s biggest hit, “Pretty in Pink” (from Talk Talk Talk) was actually a song before the film was made. John Hughes was so inspired by the song that he then wrote the film from the song. Then the song itself became a bigger hit once it was used (and re-released as a single) for the film.