10 Greatest Lo-Fi Albums Of All Time

One of the biggest influences on indie pop and the more deliberately innocent sensibilities of indie music was Beat Happening's self-titled debut, released in 1985. 

Calvin Johnson sings purposefully simple lyrics with one of the most monotonous voices in music history, while Heather Lewis sings similar lyrics with an innocent, charming drawl. This bouncing back and forth between accessibility and difficulty is certainly not what one would call "instant," but its reward is eventual and its carefree spirit is evident from the beginning with songs like "Bad Seeds."

The deliriously earnest quality of this album is its strong suit. Its more twee attitudes, which it would serve as a progenitor of, may be uninviting to those who require something to divert from a strictly sugar-coated sound. But regardless of your stance on fragility in rock, it is one of the finest works of the 1980s.