August 4, 2002

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 Rumours by Fleetwood Mac

One of the finest and best-selling soft rock albums in history, Rumours is also Fleetwood Mac at their zenith. They had the occasional hit afterward, but for a wide variety of heavily documented reasons, they were never able to produce another album as good as Rumours. Of course, few bands can.

 Welcome to the Pleasuredome by Frankie Goes to Hollywood

Aside from being the definitive dance album of the '80s, Welcome to the Pleasuredome is also notable for its blatant pro-sex/anti-war lyrics. The Trevor Horn production is super, as is typically the case with his work, but it was on Pleasuredome that people really started to sit up and take notice. Horn was simply doing things with samplers and production that nobody had done before (though plenty have done since). Some might be bothered by the group's goofy pretentiousness but most will be too busy dancing.

 Invisible Touch by Genesis

It seems like every track could be yet another beer anthem, so label this one a guilty pleasure if awareness of Tonight, Tonight, Tonight's crass commercialism offends you. Either way, every song here is solid, and five of them were Top 10 hits. Admittedly, Genesis' reliance on drum loops and weak synth sounds means that their material tends to age rather poorly, but it's still better-than-average pop, and it's a great encapsulation of the music of the times.