The Hideaway: issue 441

In 1985, Rolling Stone was still HERC's primary source of music information. Spin would debut in March of that year and it slid nicely into the slot vacated by his beloved Trouser Press which celebrated its ten year anniversary and ceased publication with the April 1984 issue. (The main man behind Trouser Press, Ira Robbins, contributed a few album reviews to Rolling Stone in 1985.) Lesser influences included copies of New Musical Express read in the basement of the University's library and the occasional issue of Musician, Smash Hits, Creem or Circus he purchased or read at the newsstand or record store.

Issue 441, dated February 14, 1985, featured Mick Jagger on the cover and seven albums reviewed near the back of the issue. Neither the Dylan nor Anderson live albums ever made it onto HERC's shelf. Nor did that UB40 album but the other four reviewed albums were already in or soon would be in HERC's collection irregardless of their reviews in this issue. In the case of the Hüsker Dü and Minutemen albums, they had been on his shelf for months. It was then, and remains now, all about the music and the most played album of this lot is The Replacements by far.

In addition to cover art, each album below has the title (with Spotify link when available), album artist, label, release date, the critic's name and the original 1985 rating (number of stars) as well as the ratings from Rolling Stone Album Guide (1992) and The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004). HERC Included those last two ratings because sometimes history doesn't repeat itself - it rewrites or revises itself.

Follow HERC's record buying adventures in 1985:

1985: A Vinyl Odyssey