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TOP TEN: Critic picks '83's best pop discs By DON MC LEESE It's been awhile since there has been anything close to a consensus about popular music. The last record that served as a rallying point was the Clash's "London Calling," a 1979 release that combined the grandeur and glory of rock 'n' roll's past with an aggressive determination to seize the future. In the years since, the Clash has muddled itself into inconsequentiality. So has much of the contemporary music scene. These days, people want different things from different records.

There are all sorts of divergent opinions about what should do or be. What is rock's relationship to tradition? Is the music a mindless diversion or social force? With the current emphasis on "new music" (whatever THAT is), is newness to be valued for its own sake? What and how does music mean? I find myself in a funny position these days. I've long championed the idea of as music for the moment: music that arises from the times and, in turn, gives shape and definition to the times. Whether the problem lies with the music or the moment, too much of what currently passes for fashionability seems depressingly sterile and smug. I'm not very interested in much of what's been hot in England or on MTV the past year.

The video age is producing a generation of rock 'n' roll Hollow Men, inflating themselves with the misguided notion that substance is bankrupt, that style is all. I'm sick of sophomoric artistes who think they have too much to offer, and of audiences that are willing to settle for far too little. What am I looking for? I'm looking for intelligence that never succumbs to elitism. I'm looking for cleverness that isn't overly impressed with itself. I'm looking for fun.

I'm looking for exhilaration, immediacy and raw power. I'm looking for music that hits you where you're most human, that's most fully alive. In 1983, here's the best of what I found: 1. NON FICTION (Warner Bros) by the Blasters: Because both rockabilly and 4. MURMUR (I.R.S.) by R.E.Mc: The new "sounds of the South" and the best album debut of the year.

While the musical mix is seductively accessible, the lyrical connections seem dream-level rather than linear. The more you listen, the more you hear. 5. TOUCH THE SKY (Tamla) by R.E.M. 'best album debut' social realism are commonly perceived as last year's musical fads, this album never received the attention it deserves.

Hairstyles notwithstanding, the Blasters are no more (or less) revivalists than Bruce Springsteen or are. Songs as strong, rich and deep as "Bus Station" and "Long White Cadillac" represent classic work in the American grain. Taken as a whole, the album is marked by passion and craft, intelligence and empathy qualities that should never fall from fashion. 2. NONA (RCA) by Nona Hendryx: A collaboration with Material, this was the best dance record in a year of dance music.

What set Hendryx apart was her determination to provide food for the heart (and the head and the soul) as well as rhythm for the feet. A dance-club smash, "Keep It Confidential" merited a lot more airwave exposure than it received. 3. HEARTS AND BONES (Warner Bros) by Paul Simon: While recording this album, Simon broke with one partner and married another. Simon's solo music has consistently been more interesting than his work with Garfunkel, and "Hearts and Bones" is his best yet.

The title tune and "Train in the Distance" show a sensitivity that goes way beyond the Eng Lit 101 lyricism that once dominated his writing. Smokey Robinson: Smokey's been singing and writing so well for so long that perhaps he's been taken for granted. There are few songs that are better than "Tracks of My Tears" and "You Really Got a Hold On Me," but at least half of "Touch the Sky" is every bit as good. With the huskiness that has his voice has acquired with age, the sweet sensuality of his upper register is all the more striking. 6.

RIDING WITH THE KING (Geffen) by John Hiatt: The songwriter as consummate craftsman, Hiatt also has a twisted side that sets these songs of mad love, bad love and lost love apart. Some find his vocal inflections affected, and I still think he needs to find the right producer (Nick Lowe produced one side of this, Ron Nagle and Scott Matthews the other), but this is his most consistent and varied work to date. 7. LIVING IN OZ (RCA) by Rick Springfield: No apologies or justifications are necessary. While some might consider this choice tough to defend (Dr.

Noah I found the album impossible to resist. There'll always be a place on my turntable for melodic, hard-driving rock, especially when it's as sincere and hookladen as this. 8. HAND OF KINDNESS (Hannibal) by Richard Thompson: The material isn't quite as strong as on Thompson's past albums (with former wife Linda), but Thompson and his stellar band combine for textures that are as rich and interplay as exciting as any I heard this year. Thompson remains a distinctively soulful singer and a brilliant sometimes stunning guitarist.

9. THE REAL MACAW (Arista) by Graham Parker: The mood is brighter, but the intensity is still there. While Parker can still snarl with the best of them, as he shows on "Just Like a Man," the album finds him opening himself up vocally GRAHAM RICK PARKER SPRINGFIELD and emotionally. PAUL SIMON SMOKEY ROBINSON 10. BUSY BODY (Epic) by Luther Vandross: If the second side were half as strong as the first, this album would have ranked much higher.

Vandross and producer Marcus Miller are masters at employing a variety of production techniques intricate vocal arrangements, judicious use of strings that sharpen the music's cutting edge while they and sweeten the sound. HONORABLE MENTION: "Punch the Clock" (Columbia) by Elvis Costello and the Attractions; "Born to Laugh at Tornadoes" (Geffen) by Was (Not Was); "More Fun in the New World" (Elektra) by "The Crossing" (Mercury) by Big Country; "One Night with a Stranger" (Mercury) by Martin Briley; "Inarticulate Speech of the Heart" (Warner Bros) by Van Morrison; "Information" (Columbia) by Dave Edmunds; "Classified" (Rounder) by James Booker; "Situation (Island) by Michael Gregory; "Electric Universe" (Columbia) by Earth, Wind Fire. Chicago Sun- The 9 best albums of 1983 (a 5-way tie for 10th) Just what the world needs; Rock Beat presents 1984's first "Ten Best Albums Of 1983" column. What a year, '83. We're five days into the new one, and already this column can barely remember anything of note happening during the year just ended.

Bland? I never knew the true meaning of the word until Rock now! Let me put it this way: beat my thusiasm level of for enrock and roll 1983 style was roughly similar Pete to the warm sense of personTomlinson al fulfillment one gains through avenues of expression like adding a second coat of paint to a living room wall. (Actually, things weren't all that dreary. That "coat of paint" imagery was too vivid to waste, though, don't you think?) It is Rock Beat's belief, however, that. 1983 will not go down in rock 'n roll history as a great year for classic albums; it took this columnist a full three minutes to think of ten albums merely released last year, much less good ones. In fact, the use of albums as a yardstick of musical excellence may be just the tiniest bit outmoded, as such new creative vehicles as twelve-inch "dance" singles, mini-lps (four or five-song "albums" that run about twenty minutes), and the everpresent "music videos" continue to make their mark.

So why "ten best It's in my Rock Columnist's Guild contract, that's why. Don't mess with the Guild, I always say. In no particular order: T-Bone Through The Night: Except here. Far and away my Album Of The Year; probably of the year to come, as well. Honesty, power, and emotion to spare, and as winningly reckless as great rock and roll must be.

Incidentally, Burnett's New Brunswick appearence (covered here previously) still ranks as Rock Beat's Musical Experience Of The Year. The At Once: This Los Angeles quartet drags Sixtiesstyled garage-rock into the present day with more verve than the other paisleyshirted revivalists currently cropping up (The Three O'Clock, True West, Rain Pa- rade, etc.) "A Million Miles Away" remains a classic example of a Hit Single That Wasn't. Marshall Day: This bombastically-produced followup to 1982's strongest debut gathered its share of critical brickbats upon release; it didn't sell too well, either. However, a bit of distance puts the whole lp in a much more favorable light. Appealing American pop-rock.

Deemed by their American record company as being too "uncommercial" for this country's MTVtrained eyes and ears, this uncharacteristically introspective offering from one of Britain's quirkiest groups remains unreleased here; available as an import only. Not for everyone; grows on you. Tears For Hurting: Of all the angst-ridden, fashion-plated English synth-pop duos (Soft Cell, Naked Eyes, et al), this pair features the most solid songwriting and arrangements. Form and substance. Dense, practically incomprehensible (yet consistantly interesting) modern pop that racked up surprisingly large sales figures.

Richard Of Kindness: Not the dazzler that Thompson's previous Shoot Out The Lights was, but an off- Richard is still superior to 99.4% of everything else. Stunning guitar playing on the title track; unfortunately, most of it's too intricate to steal. Tom A dizzying, vaguely disturbing wash of musical styles as diverse as Kurt Weill and Howlin' Wolf combine with Waits' usual lyrical examination of the seamy side of life to create what. Good late-night stuff that, incidentally, also had its problems getting released. Nothing new to say here; a terrific album by any standard, particularly if one considers the ratio of musical risks taken here (plenty) to sales figures (plentier).

That's nine. Tenth place should be a tie between all the records that, while good, fall just below the above in terms of consistancy: Big Country; David Dance; With Wings (actually, only this record's "mini-lp" status prevents its inclusion on the "main" list); Aztec Camera; Elvis The Clock It seems as if 1983 was a pretty good year for albums after all, doesn't it? Better hand me that paint brush.