Yeah I feel like this kind of fell out of fashion in the race to name EVERY GOOD ALBUM THAT CAME OUT THAT YEAR.

Or people just aren't as interested in writing anything or finding reviews to quote. I don't know.

I agree with this. I'm much more interested in a few lines describing a couple different things than a list of a hundred records or 50 pics with no descriptions. But pretty much all the music threads around here seem to be more about cover shots than descriptions.

I used to offer a write-up and a link for stuff I thought people might not know. It all just disappears into the usual Obner void for everything that isn't sports, TV, or the Grateful Dead. I'm done with it.

I've just become busier, and lazier about write ups lately. I'm happy to start doing them again, for when I do happen to post something.

For other years, I've posted a couple of sentences or more about albums that I thought people probably wouldn't know. I don't think anything I posted in this thread would be unknown to anyone who would tend to like them anyway. Looking over other people's posts, I see a lot of things I know well and a small handful of things I don't but those pretty clearly are not things that I doubt I'd ever want to hear. I don't think 1984 should hold a lot of mysteries for the typical obner.

I think when these threads first started they went on and on and were enjoyable specifically because a lot more than usual people were actually jotting down a few lines about things. Even if it's not something I've never heard before I like to hear someone else's take on something I've heard and have some thoughts on. I actually think people get way too worried about having to post shit no one's ever heard before like it's so tragic if we swap some words about an album most people have heard before.

Ok, DW just for you...

The Smiths - Hatful of Hollow:

If you are going to own one Smiths album, this should be it. There's a lot of overlap with the S/T that someone else posted, but imo all of the versions on here are better. There's just a punk energy and pop whimsy that is missing from alot of their albums (and I say that as a big fan). This is the one Smiths album that I still listen to semi-regularly.

Lloyd Cole & the Commotions - Rattlesnakes

I'm probably the board's biggest LC fan. There was about a 15 year stretch in my life when he was my favorite artist. For most, this is his best album. For me, my favorite changes regularly but this is never a bad answer.

The Church - Remote Luxury

I like early Church much more than 90's -00's Church. This isn't their best from that period but it's still pretty good. All of those albums used to be bargain bin staples. Not sure why as they are all pretty good.

Hoodoo Gurus - Stoneage Romeos

Their best album and most consistently pop friendly... one of the best albums of the 80's.

The Pogues - Red Roses for Me

Hey, it's early pogues....do I need to say more?

Pretenders - Learning to Crawl

I don't own this anymore. The Singles album is enough for me. Lots of great tunes on here though.

U2 - the Unforgettable Fire

I played the hell out of this and still get the urge to listen to it around the 4th.

Leonard Cohen - Various Positions

Not his best, but still really good.

Psychedelic Furs - Mirror Moves

Sounds a little dated now but I loved this back in the 80's.

The Style Council - Cafe Bleu

I still think the Style Council are much better than they're given credit for. If you can listen without blaming Weller for the death of the Jam, there's a lot to like.

Inxs - the Swing

This is the type of album that shouldn't age well yet I think it has. By far, the best Inxs album. Love the horns on Johnson's Aeroplane.

Jazz Butcher - A Scandal in Bohemia

I've only been listening to Jazz Butcher for about 5-10 years and I think it was Billz who turned me on to them. Catchy intelligent indie/alt pop that's similar to a lot of the things I loved in the 80's. I know of them but never got around to checking them out. If you haven't either, you should. I'm not a JB expert but this is my favorite of the albums I have by them.

Steel Pulse - Earth Crisis

I may have played this as much as any album from '84. It's their best and by a pretty good measure. It's not the first reggae album I reach for anymore but it's pretty good.

Everything But the Girl - S/T

EBTG got big when they went soft electronica. I hate that stuff but really like their early albums. It's pretty light stuff but Tracey Thorn has a great voice and Ben Watt's isn't bad either.

Aztec Camera - Knife

Not as good as High Land, Hard Rain and maybe not as good as Love (although I think most would disagree with me on this), but it's easily top 3 of their albums.

General Public - All the Rage

A bit dated and I don't pull it out much anymore but I've heard Dave Wakeling play these songs a lot over the years and I still think it has a lot of good songs.

UB40 - Geffrey Morgan

UB40's followup to Labour of Love showed that they were capable of being more than a cover band. At least as long as they didn't care about selling a lot less albums. It's good but not great reggae. I like it but wouldn't really pimp it too hard to anyone who doesn't have a large reggae collection.

Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense

Great live album. I've heard it so many times that I'm not sure I ever need to hear it again though.

Gilberto Gil - Raca Humana

Probably comfortably in the top half of GG albums which is to say that it's pretty good but I'm probably the only person here who needs it.

The Special AKA - In the Studio

Worth the price of admission for Free Nelson Mandela. There are a small handful of other good songs on here but it's not nearly as deep as the first two specials albums.

Linton Kwesi Johnson - Making History

Great dub poetry. One of his best albums.

Excellent, and nice, rare surprise!

I used to open my radio gig w/ "Graveyard Shift" every time I did the 2 - 6 am stint. Saw them open for Iggy at the Ritz in NY back in '86...pretty tight live, even if the audience didn't know what to make of 'em.

Some more:


Dumb-ass punks from New Jersey, but the closer "Paul's Not Home" is legendary.


Even their Breakfast Club and later schlocky stuff is pretty good, but they're hitting on all cylinders here. "Catwalk" is a tremendous song.


One of Jon Langford's early non-Mekons projects...this debut hearkens more toward the staccato, dare I say "angular", feel of early Gang Of Four than to the more straightforward powerpop of the follow-up "World By Storm". The old blues and gospel samples interspersed from song to song are pretty great.

Well, this is bullshit. I may not have commented, but I downloaded and enjoyed most everything you've recommended.

One more since the post window was acting up...

Production on this one sounds pretty dated now, but the songs are gold....the cover of "Let It All Hang Out" was a staple 25 years ago, and for good measure, they threw in an updated "88 Lines". "Home of the Brave" still brings a smile...."take the Train to the Plane"...anyone from NYC remember the Train to the Plane?

Oh man, we are done with you, too, you whiny piece of shit. Please fucking stop posting here.

I love how you take on the royal "we". Get over yourself, you small-town, small-time, small-minded hick loser.

I'm not sure how you even find the time to grace us with your presence, what with your Big City cosmopolitan lifestyle and all. And then to spend most of the time complaining when you do manage to clear your schedule?

It just seems a waste, my friend, it just seems a waste.

I bet you won't hit him!

Rads? Nah, I like Rads.

His Boo Hoo McSad routine just wears me out about twice a year and I have to vent.

Mitch Easter's band. Really good jangle pop.


Stuck between two better Go-Between albums, this is still quite solid. My favorite track is probably "Part Company."

Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow. Billy G's list unthread reminds me what a good year 1984 was. Everything on it is superior. Style Council was way under appreciated. And There's something about the way Cole's voice is recorded on Rattlesnakes that immediately takes me back to that time. It is so up front in the mix.. He is whispering but loud. He is singing in your ear. He is singing between your ears. Just something about that record that adheres, uplifts, purges and infests the consciousness.

A lot of my friends in high school in college considered this their second-best album after Master of Puppets, but I have a strong point-of-entry bias for ...And Justice for All. "For Whom the Bell Tolls", "Fade to Black", and "Creeping Death" are essential tracks.



One of the central pieces of the Holy Minimalism movement (along with Górecki's 3rd symphony, et al.), Tabula Rasa was originally composed by Estonian Arvo Pärt in 1977. Its definitive recording was released by ECM in 1984 and features two versions of Pärt's Fratres. The leadoff track is Fratres as a violin/piano duet with Kremer (see below) and Keith Jarrett, and I loved it so much I put it on a mix I made for e-stone.

That was a general comment, hoping one of you would restsart a 54'40 or fight scuffle.

Another member of the Minneapolis crowd; this one, of course, from the funk branch.
There are few songs more contagious than the two singles that came off of this record: "Jungle Love" and "The Bird". If those don't get you dancing, or at least get some part of your body moving, you are most-likely dead and should report immediately to your local morgue.
Funk me!!!

I pretty much agree with you on Hatful of Hollow. In fact, oddly enough with the Smiths I find that this compilation and the Louder than Bombs collection are two of the best things they ever released. I guess a lot of that though has to do with the era and particularly English groups in those days releasing enough non-album singles that you needed a compilation to get them all.

I somehow passed over red Roses in the Pogues catalog, despite loving the hell out of Rum, Sodomy and the Lash. How do they compare?

Oh, and I listened to the shit out of that Steel Pulse back then. Not sure how well it holds up today but probably should go listen and see. Agreed on that Specials EP too.

I have a love/hate thing with this group. Basically when I first heard this and the needle hit Waters Part I was totally sucked in. Then the rest of the album and everything else I heard form them just seemed pretty bland. But damn, great song off this album.

I'm not a Nick Cave fan, but I really dig this record:

From Her to Eternity
For a long time the only Nick Cave I'd heard was Murder Ballads and Let Love In, and I didn't care much about either. Lately, though, I decided to look a little further into his catalog, starting with the earliest Bad Seeds albums and the last Birthday Party album. I haven't moved beyond those yet, but of the three records I've been listening to, this is far and away my favorite. The Bad Seeds, right out of the gate, perfected an even more primitive, sinister, and unhinged Stooges Fun House sort of vibe, at least on the two songs below:

Is there much country from '84 worth hearing? Any at all?
The 80's really pretty much sucked for country music, didn't it?
And, '84 is still a couple of years away from the debuts of Lovett, Earle, and Yoakam.

Willie's "City of New Orleans" is worthwhile, Todd. The title track won the Grammy for best country song.