My Top 2000 Songs #1027: No Easy Way Down

Rain Parade's 1983 debut, Emergency Third Rail Power Trip , remains one of my all-time faves, 60s Byrds-y psychedelia updated for the 80s college radio jangle pop scene, and thus seemed pretty hard to top. Especially after co-founder David Roback left the band, first for Opal and later for the more commercially successful Mazzy Star.

Yet 1984's follow-up EP, Explosions In The Glass Palace, came surprisingly close (albeit at half the length). "You Are My Friend" and "Blue" are both pretty, jangly t...