Grace Slick WELCOME TO THE WRECKING BALL / SOFTWARE

BGO's 2015 two-fer combines Grace Slick's two '80s albums for RCA: 1981's Welcome to the Wrecking Ball and 1984's Software. Both records are transparent attempts to ride the '80s zeitgeist, heavy on synthesizers, drum machines, guitars cranked to fill arenas, muddled protest tunes, and botched reggae. Neither record is good -- far from it, actually -- but they're bad in interesting ways, showcasing a Slick who's lost but no less brazen as she roams through the byways of Reaganite Los Angeles. More than the hit albums of 1981 and 1984, these are pure time capsules, as they captured every bad idea of their years and then hid them away from public view, only to be discovered by pop archaeologists many years later. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

• Format: CD
• Genre: Rock