Left of the Dial: Dispatches From the '80s Underground

by Various Artists

Left of the Dial: Dispatches From the '80s Underground cover art

This sprawling, four-disc box set from Rhino Records is widely celebrated as the definitive syllabus of 1980s American college rock and British post-punk. By sequencing canonical alternative anthems alongside crucial, lesser-known independent singles, the compilation perfectly maps the diverse, underground guitar-pop explosion of the decade. It effectively chronicles the exact musical DNA that eventually birthed the massive 1990s alternative rock revolution.

Genres

  • Post-Punk
  • New Wave
  • Alternative Rock

Tracklist

  1. Radio Free Europe
  2. Going Underground
  3. A Forest
  4. Holiday in Cambodia
  5. I'm in Love With a German Film Star
  6. I Will Dare
  7. That's When I Reach for My Revolver
  8. Johny Hit and Run Paulene
  9. Just Like Honey
  10. Black Celebration
  11. Tell Me When It's Over
  12. Hollywood (Africa)
  13. Temptation
  14. Ghosts
  15. A Song From Under the Floorboards
  16. Oblivious
  17. Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely
  18. Rise Above
  19. Back in Flesh
  20. Cattle and Cane
  21. Message of Love
  22. Vienna
  23. Freak Scene
  24. This Charming Man
  25. Stigmata
  26. Ways to Be Wicked
  27. Wardance
  28. Enola Gay
  29. Mirror in the Bathroom
  30. Fairytale in the Supermarket
  31. Behind the Wall of Sleep
  32. Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing
  33. Punk Rock Girl
  34. Still in Hollywood
  35. Love Will Tear Us Apart
  36. Blister in the Sun
  37. Lake of Fire
  38. Amplifier
  39. When Love Breaks Down
  40. Goo Goo Muck
  41. This Corrosion
  42. Senses Working Overtime
  43. The Cutter
  44. Pay to Cum
  45. Birthday
  46. Madonna of the Wasps
  47. We Care a Lot
  48. Teen Age Riot
  49. To Hell With Poverty
  50. Fa Cé-La
  51. Ana Ng
  52. Swamp Thing
  53. The Mercy Seat
  54. I Look Around
  55. All That Money Wants
  56. Under the Milky Way
  57. Rise
  58. Kundalini Express
  59. Gravity Talks
  60. Adrenalin
  61. She Bangs the Drums
  62. Monkey Gone to Heaven
  63. Uncertain Smile (original 7'' version)
  64. Bela Lugosi's Dead
  65. Christine
  66. Straight Edge
  67. I Want to Help You Ann
  68. Our Secret
  69. Jane Says
  70. World Shut Your Mouth
  71. Running Up That Hill
  72. Sex Beat
  73. Take the Skinheads Bowling
  74. Institutionalized
  75. Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops
  76. 24 Hour Party People
  77. I Want You Back
  78. Suburban Home
  79. A Pair of Brown Eyes
  80. Jet Fighter
  81. Moving to Florida
  82. A New England