XTC · 1986 Spin it Again - Todd Rundgren produced it, Andy Partridge hated him for it, and the record came out better for the argument.

Prefab Sprout · 1985 Spin it Again - Paddy McAloon sat down in 1985 and wrote melodies so precisely sad they made Thomas Dolby's production feel like the only logical place to put them.

Arvo Pärt · 1984 Spin it Again - Arvo Pärt figured out that silence was doing most of the work and just wrote around it.

Anita Baker · 1986 Spin it Again - There is no album called "Mute" by Anita Baker from 1986 — her 1986 record was "Rapture," and getting that wrong would embarrass us both.

Grace Jones · 1981 Spin it Again - Grace Jones, Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespeare, and a cold synth bass in a room together — that's the whole story.

Sade · 1985 Spin it Again - Sade Adu singing like she has nowhere to be and all the time in the world to get there, over jazz that never once tries to impress you.

The Cure · 1989 Spin it Again - Robert Smith turned thirty and decided the only honest response was eighty minutes of cathedral reverb and velvet dread.

Donald Fagen · 1982 Spin it Again - Donald Fagen cashed out his Steely Dan ticket and spent it all on one quiet, fluorescent-lit night in 1982 that still sounds like it knows something you don't.