I would add Van Halen II.  After the Great debut, this had to be the biggest letdown of 1982.

I’m down with the whole list except for Stone Roses. Maybe if the critique consisted of more than “I couldn’t stand all the people I met who liked it” I could go along.  But it didn’t and I still dig the shit out of Squire and Brown.  And Remi! And Remi! And Remi!

The Meat is Murder bit is spot on, though in their defense I used to have a live bootleg cassette from the tour for this record and it was smoking hot.

I’d add U2’s “The unforgettable fire” to the list: after three reasonable to decent albums (and the throwaway filler of “Under a Blood Red Sky") this was going to either make or break the band—and break it it did. By the seond track (and the big single) “Pride (in the name od love) this was clearly a band that lost whatever spark they once had and were now believeing their own publicity material, rather than reality. Souding for most of the album like an Irish “Big Country” (and really, what more need be said?), the initial reaction was that Brian Eno had somehow seriously damaged the band—time would later show he’d done the best with what he was given; the also-eno-produced “Joshua Tree” confirmed the decline which continues unabated to this day.