The Best Rock Albums at Midyear

Robert Hilburn / LA Times
1986

The Jesus and Mary Chain's "Psychocandy" was the most stimulating album of the first half of 1986 - but was it a hit?

The answer is no if you measure success only by the Billboard magazine best-seller list. But the album was a hit according to the CMJ New Music Report, a biweekly industry newsletter.

While it also surveys play lists of a few commercial "new wave" stations like KROQ-FM, the CMJ newsletter reports on the music played around the country on college and non-commercial radio, the most daring outlet for contemporary pop.

"Psychocandy" - a record that combines some of the melodic charm of '60s pop-rock and an overlay of relentless though artful guitar feedback - never made the Billboard Top 200 because the album was virtually ignored by mainstream rock and Top 40 stations. Yet, it was intriguing enough on the college and non-commercial circuit to reach No. 3 in the CMJ Report.

One reason for the wide gap is that the college and non-commercial audience is more interested in original and challenging than in the familiar and easily absorbed.

No one knows exactly the tolerance level of the wider pop audience, but radio programmers operate on the theory that it is low. They avoid records like "Psychocandy" - even though several singles from the album were big hits in England - because they fear the strident guitar feedback will antagonize listeners.

The worlds of commercial and non-commercial radio aren't mutually exclusive. Peter Gabriel's "So" and the Bangles' "Different Light" are albums with enough distinctive edge and accessibility to make the Top 10 in both Billboard and CMJ. However, most of the albums on today's mid-year list of best albums fared much better in the CMJ charts.

There's a tendency to interpret the presence of unfamiliar or "underground" groups (like the Jesus and Mary Chain) on a best 10 list as sign that a critic is trying to be elitist or snobbish. The suspicion is that no one really listens to these records. But think of it this way: If some of these records are unfamiliar to you, you may just be listening to the wrong stations.

The 10 best albums so far this year.

1. The Jesus and Mary Chain's "Psychocandy" (Reprise) - After repeated playings, I find there is a certain sense of "age" to the album - but in a positive sense. It is one of those few records that achieve a magical balance between being fresh and exciting, and having the classic feel of being part of your musical experience for years.