My gateway to X was "Unheard Music," although I heard Elastica and Stephen Malkmus's 1997 cover before the original. That's an amazing song, though, as is pretty much all of Los Angeles, or for that matter the first 3 or 4 albums. That John Doe/Exene Cervenka vocal interplay is so unique and perfect, the band's whole off-kilter melodic sense and odd way of looking at the world coming through in those two voices that are more in unison than in harmony. But I was pleased to find how varied the band's early albums are, though, they kind of go all over the map and divert from punk orthodoxy pretty quickly. Billy Zoom's saxophone on "Come Back To Me" is surprisingly lovely. 

X's 7th album, 1993's Hey Zeus!, isn't currently available on streaming services. Ironically, the album you can't easily listen to was their most successful radio record, with two singles on the Modern Rock charts. X's first four albums were produced by Ray Manzarek of The Doors, with Los Angeles featuring several songs with Manzarek on keyboards and even a cover of the Doors deep cut "Soul Kitchen" (and arguably they should've stuck with Manzarek, because the production is much less suited to the band on Ain't Love Grand!). It's funny to think how The Doors were really highly revered in early punk circles and played a major role in one of the coolest punk albums of the '80s, but became incredibly unhip in alternative rock circles from the '90s onwards. Maybe it was the Oliver Stone movie, I don't know (I like the movie). 

It amused me to learn that X released a song called "Love Shack" in 1985, a few years before The B-52's had their enormous hit of the same name. It could be a coincidence but it also feels highly possible that one influenced the other, the first "Love Shack" is pretty goofy in its own right and sounds about as much like The B-52's as you could imagine an X song sounding. "What's Wrong With Me..." is kind of a travelogue with some amusing lyrics, including "downtown Baltimore is crowded with pimps and whores." 

More Fun In The New World is evidently a big favorite of Eddie Vedder, who's covered at least 4 songs from the album with Pearl Jam and other artists over the years, including "Devil Doll," "Poor Girl," and "I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts." "Devil Doll" also holds the distinction of being the b-side of the band's 1983 cover of "Wild Thing" that kind of inadvertently became one of X's most popular tracks (although I only realized recently that the '80s "Wild Thing" cover I'd heard and assumed was by Joan Jett was actually by X). The director of the 1989 movie Major League happened to like the cover and made it a big part of the movie, and just this year it also became the entrance music for pro wrestler Jon Moxley. They have a lot of much better tracks, though.