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

by Various Artists

Left of the Dial: Dispatches From the '80s Underground cover art
  • Type: Compilation
  • Released: 5 October 2004
  • Label: Rhino
  • Country: United States
  • Length: 5:11:09
  • Community rating: 4.69/5 from 6 ratings

Album Notes & Community Reviews

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

Descriptors: melodic

Tracklist

  1. Radio Free Europe (4:05)
  2. Going Underground (2:56)
  3. A Forest (4:54)
  4. Holiday in Cambodia (4:38)
  5. I'm in Love With a German Film Star (4:01)
  6. I Will Dare (3:19)
  7. That's When I Reach for My Revolver (3:52)
  8. Johny Hit and Run Paulene (2:49)
  9. Just Like Honey (3:01)
  10. Black Celebration (4:53)
  11. Tell Me When It's Over (3:33)
  12. Hollywood (Africa) (5:03)
  13. Temptation (5:43)
  14. Ghosts (4:32)
  15. A Song From Under the Floorboards (4:11)
  16. Oblivious (3:11)
  17. Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely (3:32)
  18. Rise Above (2:26)
  19. Back in Flesh (3:42)
  20. Cattle and Cane (3:59)
  21. Message of Love (3:28)
  22. Vienna (4:39)
  23. Freak Scene (3:37)
  24. This Charming Man (2:43)
  25. Stigmata (5:44)
  26. Ways to Be Wicked (3:25)
  27. Wardance (3:48)
  28. Enola Gay (3:30)
  29. Mirror in the Bathroom (3:06)
  30. Fairytale in the Supermarket (2:59)
  31. Behind the Wall of Sleep (3:22)
  32. Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing (1:31)
  33. Punk Rock Girl (2:37)
  34. Still in Hollywood (3:45)
  35. Love Will Tear Us Apart (3:27)
  36. Blister in the Sun (2:24)
  37. Lake of Fire (1:57)
  38. Amplifier (3:07)
  39. When Love Breaks Down (3:44)
  40. Goo Goo Muck (3:05)
  41. This Corrosion (4:29)
  42. Senses Working Overtime (4:50)
  43. The Cutter (3:53)
  44. Pay to Cum (1:26)
  45. Birthday (3:59)
  46. Madonna of the Wasps (3:06)
  47. We Care a Lot (4:03)
  48. Teen Age Riot (6:57)
  49. To Hell With Poverty (4:59)
  50. Fa Cé-La (2:01)
  51. Ana Ng (3:20)
  52. Swamp Thing (5:56)
  53. The Mercy Seat (5:08)
  54. I Look Around (3:06)
  55. All That Money Wants (3:47)
  56. Under the Milky Way (4:59)
  57. Rise (6:18)
  58. Kundalini Express (5:51)
  59. Gravity Talks (2:37)
  60. Adrenalin (3:55)
  61. She Bangs the Drums (3:43)
  62. Monkey Gone to Heaven (2:56)
  63. Uncertain Smile (original 7'' version) (4:54)
  64. Bela Lugosi's Dead (9:34)
  65. Christine (2:59)
  66. Straight Edge (0:46)
  67. I Want to Help You Ann (2:30)
  68. Our Secret (2:48)
  69. Jane Says (4:53)
  70. World Shut Your Mouth (3:34)
  71. Running Up That Hill (5:00)
  72. Sex Beat (2:48)
  73. Take the Skinheads Bowling (2:30)
  74. Institutionalized (3:49)
  75. Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops (4:11)
  76. 24 Hour Party People (4:38)
  77. I Want You Back (3:11)
  78. Suburban Home (1:42)
  79. A Pair of Brown Eyes (4:53)
  80. Jet Fighter (3:27)
  81. Moving to Florida (4:31)
  82. A New England (2:13)

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