What a strange year. Many artists make their first appearance on the poll. Interesting note: the only year from 1981-1989 in which REM, U2 or the Replacements didn't release an album. Rap was still in its nascency and for some reason, not a lot of good R&B was released in this year. I'm sure I'm leaving out something vital, and I'm sure it will be pointed out in just a few minutes...
NOTE Prince's 1999 is February 1983
Omissions:
# Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band * Ice Cream For Crow (Virgin)
# The Fall * Hex Enduction Hour (Castle/Sanctuary)
# Orange Juice * You Can't Hide Your Love Forever (Polydor)
# Dream Syndicate * Days of Wine and Roses (Big Time)
# Virgin Prunes * If I Die, I Die (Mute)
# X * Under The Big Black Sun (Elektra)
# The Clean * Compilation (Homestead)
# Liliput (Rough Trade/Kill Rock Stars)
# James Blood Ulmer * Black Rock (Columbia)
# Orchestra Baobob * Pirates Choice (Nonesuch/World Circuit)
# King Sunny Ade * Juju Music (Mango)
# Comsat Angels * Fiction (Polydor)
# The Sound * All Fall Down (Korova/Renascent)
# The English Beat * Special Beat Service (IRS)
# Fun Boy Three (Chrysalis)
# The Passage * Degenerates (Cherry Red/ltd)
# Crispy Ambulance * The Plateau Phase (Factory Benelux/LTM)
# Chrome * 3rd from the Sun (Siren)
# Kate Bush * The Dreaming (EMI)
# Lora Logic * Pedigree Charm (Rough Trade)
# Iron Maiden * The Number Of The Beast (Capitol)
# Rip Rig + Panic * I Am Cold (Virgin)
# Massacre * Killing Time (Celluloid)
# The Gun Club * Miami (IRS)
# Trouble Funk * Drop The Bomb (Sequel)
# Fela Kuti * Original Suffer Head (Capitol)
# Elvis Costello & the Attractions * Imperial Bedroom (Columbia)
# Gregory Isaacs * Night Nurse (Mango)
# Husker Du * Everything Falls Apart (Reflex)
# Lydia Lunch * Honeymoon In Red (Atavistic)
# Cabaret Voltaire * 2 X 45 (Mute)
# Venom * Black Metal (Neat/Combat)
# Nina Hagen * Nunsexmonkrock (Columbia)
# James White & the Blacks * Sax Maniac (Ze/Infinite Zero)
# Discharge * Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing (Clay)
# The Jam * Dig The New Breed (Polydor)
# Savage Republic * Tragic Figures (IP/Fundamental)
# Einsturzende Neubauten * Kollaps (Zick Zack)
# Devo * Oh No! It's Devo (WB/Infinite Zero)
# Siouxsie & The Banshees * A Kiss In The Dreamhouse (Polydor/Geffen)
# Scritti Politti * Songs To Remember (Virgin)
# Gang of Four * Songs of the Free (WB)
# Raven * Wiped Out (Roadrunner)
# Colin Newman * Not To (4AD)
# Au Pairs * Sense And Sensuality (Kamera)
# Thomas Dolby * The Golden Age Of Wireless (Capitol)
# New Age Steppers * Foundation Steppers (On-U Sound)
# Big Black * Lungs EP (Homestead)
# Descendents * Milo Goes To College (SST)
# Chrome * No Humans Allowed (Siren)
# Laurie Anderson * Big Science (WB)
# Brian Eno * On Land (EG)
# Killing Joke * Revelations (EG)
# Virgin Prunes * If I Die, I Die (Mute)
# The Vandals * Peace Thru Vandalism (Suite Beat)
# Black Uhuru * Chill Out (Mango)
# MDC * Millions of Dead Cops (Radical R.)
# Crass * Christ - The Album (Crass)
# Bauhaus * Press the Eject & Give Me The Tape (Beggars Banquet)
# Orange Juice * Rip It Up (Polydor)
# Wall Of Voodoo * Call Of The West (IRS)
# Robert Wyatt * Nothing Can Stop Us (Gramavision)
# The dB's * Repercussion (EMI)
# John Cale * Music For A New Society (Rhino)
# Psychedelic Furs * Forever Now (Columbia)
# T.S.O.L. * Thoughts Of Yesterday (Posh Boy)
# T.S.O.L. * Beneath the Shadows (Restless)
# The Clash * Combat Rock (Epic)
# Associates * Sulk (V2)
# Meat Puppets * Meat Puppets (SST)
# Bad Religion * How Could Hell Be Any Worse? (Epitaph)
# King Crimson * Beat (WB)
# Die Haut & Nick Cave * Burnin' The Ice (Hit Thing)
# The Abyssinians * Forward (Alligator)
# Ludus * Danger Came Smiling (New Hormones/LTM)
# Anvil * Metal On Metal (Attic)
# 23 Skidoo * Seven Songs (Fetish)
# Simple Minds * New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) (Virgin)
# Peter Gabriel * Security (Geffen)
# Haircut One Hundred * Pelican West (Arista)
# The Exploited * Troops Of Tomorrow (Captain Oi!)
# Subhumans * The Day The Country Died (Bluurg)
# Rush * Signals (Polygram)
# Soft Cell * The Art Of Falling Apart (Mercury)
# Tank * Filth Hounds Of Hades (Action Music)
# The Damned * Strawberries (Virgin)
# The Glove * Blue Sunshine (Rough Trade)
# The Teardrop Explodes * Everybody Wants To Shag (Fontana)
# Lora Logic * Pedigree Charm (Rough Trade)
# Japan * Oil On Canvas (Virgin)
# Stiff Little Fingers * Now Then . . . (Chrysalis)
# The Church * The Blurred Crusade (Arista)
# Fear * The Record (Slash)
# Witchfinder General * Death Penalty (Heavy Metal)
# The Names * Swimming (Factory)
# Lou Reed * The Blue Mask (RCA)
# G.B.H. * City Baby Attacked By Rats (Clay)
# Kid Creole & the Coconuts * Wise Guy (Sire)
# Lydia Lunch * 13.13 (Ruby)
# Pere Ubu * Song Of The Bailing Man (Geffen)
# Heavy Load * Death Or Glory (Thunderload)
# Misfits * Walk Among Us (Plan 9)
# Flipper * Generic Flipper (Subterranean/American)
# Anti-Nowhere League * We Are...The League (WXYZ)
# Modern English * After The Snow (Sire)
# Robert Wyatt * The Animals Film (Rough Trade/Thirsty Ear)
# Iggy Pop * Zombie Birdhouse (IRS)
# Haircut One Hundred * Pelican West (Arista)
# Judas Priest * Screaming For Vengeance (Columbia)
# Tom Waits * One From The Heart (Columbia)
# Ultravox * Quartet (Chrysalis)
# Bauhaus * The Sky's Gone Out (Beggars Banquet)
# Scorpions * Blackout (RCA)
# Tuxedomoon * Divine (Operation Twilight)
# Adam Ant * Friend Or Foe (Columbia)
# Altered Images * Pinky Blue (Portrait)
# The B-52's * Mesopotamia (WB)
# Diamond Head * Borrowed Time (MCA)
# Twisted Sister * Under The Blade (Secret)
# Tank * Power Of The Hunter (This Record)
# Motorhead * Iron Fist (Castle)
# XTC * English Settlement (Geffen)
# Agent Orange * Bitchin' Summer EP (Posh Boy)
# Ozzy Osbourne * Speak Of The Devil (Jet)
# Circle Jerks * Wild In The Streets (Frontier)
# Ruts D.C. * Rhythm Collision Dub (ROIR)
# Manowar * Battle Hymns (Liberty)
# George Clinton * Computer Games (Capitol)
# Richard & Linda Thompson * Shoot Out The Lights (Hannibal)
# Talk Talk * The Party's Over (EMI)
# Depeche Mode * A Broken Frame (Sire)
# More * Blood & Thunder (Atlantic)
# Torch * Fireraiser (Metal Blade)
# Krokus * One Vice At A Time (Arista)
# Torch (Tandem)
# The Fixx * The Shuttered Room (Varese)
# Donald Fagen * The Nightfly (Warners)
# Krokus * One Vice At A Time (Arista)
# Queen * Hot Space (Elektra
Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
Quote:
There is an adage in the record business that a recording artist's demos of new songs often come off better than the more polished versions later worked up in a studio. But Bruce Springsteen was the first person to act on that theory, when he opted to release the demo versions of his latest songs, recorded with only acoustic or electric guitar, harmonica, and vocals, as his sixth album, Nebraska. It was really the content that dictated the approach, however. Nebraska's ten songs marked a departure for Springsteen, even as they took him farther down a road he had been traveling previously. Gradually, his songs had become darker and more pessimistic, and those on Nebraska marked a new low. They also found him branching out into better developed stories. The title track was a first-person account of the killing spree of mass murderer Charlie Starkweather. (It can't have been coincidental that the same story was told in director Terrence Malick's 1973 film Badlands, also used as a Springsteen song title.) That song set the tone for a series of portraits of small-time criminals, desperate people, and those who loved them. Just as the recordings were unpolished, the songs themselves didn't seem quite finished; sometimes the same line turned up in two songs. But that only served to unify the album. Within the difficult times, however, there was hope, especially as the album went on. "Open All Night" was a Chuck Berry-style rocker, and the album closed with "Reason to Believe," a song whose hard-luck verses were belied by the chorus -- even if the singer couldn't understand what it was, "people find some reason to believe." Still, Nebraska was one of the most challenging albums ever released by a major star on a major record label.
Duran Duran - RioQuote:
From its Nagel cover to the haircuts and overall design - and first and foremost the music -Rio is as representative of the eighties as it gets, at its best. The original Duran Duran's high point, and just as likely the band's as a whole, its fusion of style and substance ensures that even two decades after its release it remains as listenable and danceable as ever. The quintet integrates its sound near-perfectly throughout, the John and Roger Taylor rhythm section providing both driving propulsion and subtle pacing. For the latter, consider the lush semi-tropical sway of "Save a Prayer" or the closing paranoid creep of "The Chauffeur," a descendant of Roxy Music's equally affecting dark groover "The Bogus Man." Andy Taylor's muscular riffs provide fine rock crunch throughout, Rhodes' synth wash adds perfect sheen, and Le Bon tops it off with sometimes overly cryptic lyrics that still always sound just fine in context courtesy of his strong delivery. Rio's two biggest smashes burst open the door in America for the New Romantic/synth rock crossover. "Hungry Like the Wolf" blended a tight, guitar-heavy groove with electronic production and a series of instant hooks, while the title track was even more anthemic, with a great sax break from guest Andy Hamilton adding to the soaring atmosphere. Lesser known cuts like "Lonely In Your Nightmare" and "Last Chance on the Stairway" still have pop thrills a-plenty, while "Hold Back the Rain" is the sleeper hit on Rio, an invigorating blast of feedback, keyboards and beat that doesn't let up. From start to finish, a great album that has outlasted its era.
Mission of Burma - Vs.Quote:
The EP Signals, Calls and Marches suggested that Mission of Burma had the talent and vision to become one of America's great rock bands; the subsequent album Vs. proved beyond a doubt that the group had arrived and was fully realizing its potential. MOB's blend of punk rock fury and post-collegiate musical smarts had been honed to a razor-sharp point by the time Vs. was recorded, and they had fully worked through the British influences that occasionally surfaced on Signals, Calls and Marches, maturing into a band whose sound was as distinctive as anyone of its generation. Roger Miller's guitar work had gained greater depth and confidence in the year since Signals, the rhythm section of Clint Conley and Peter Prescott epitomized both strength and intelligence, and MOB was exploring trickier structures and more dramatic use of dynamics this time out; the subtle tension of "Trem Two" and the powerful mid-tempo angst of "Einstein's Day" were a genuine step forward in the group's development, while "The Ballad of Johnny Burma," "Fun World," and "That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate" made it clear that the band had lost none of its rib-cracking impact along the way. It's daunting to imagine just how far Mission of Burma could have taken its music had Roger Miller's hearing problems not caused the band to break up the following year, but regardless of lost potential, very few American bands from the 1980s released an album as ambitious or as powerful as Vs., and it still sounds like a classic.
The Birthday Party - JunkyardQuote:
The Party's second and final full studio album, also the final release with the five-person lineup, was perhaps its scuzzy masterpiece, its art/psych/blues/punk fusion taken to at times outrageous heights. Right from its start, nobody held back on anything, Cave's now-demonic vocals in full roar while the rest of the players revamped rhythm & blues and funk into a blood-soaked cabaret exorcism. Nearly every tune is a Party classic one way or another, from the opening slow, sexy grind of "She's Hit," Cave's freaked tale of death and destruction matched by clattering percussion and a perversely crisp guitar from Howard, to the ending title track's crawl toward a last gruesome ending. Tips of the hat to literary influences surface at points, notably "Hamlet (Pow, Pow, Pow)," though the protagonist isn't so much the indecisive tragic figure of Shakespeare as a Romeo-quoting criminal on the loose. The ultimate Party song sits smack dab at the center -- "Big-Jesus-Trash-Can," a hilarious and blasphemous blues/jazz show tune with some great brass from Harvey to top it all off.
The Cure - PornographyQuote:
Later hailed as one of the key goth rock albums of the '80s and considered by many hardcore Cure fans to be the band's best album, Pornography was largely dismissed upon its 1982 release, witheringly reviewed as a leaden slab of whining and moping. The truth, as usual, is somewhere in between: Pornography is much better than most mainstream critics of the time thought, but in retrospect, it's not the masterpiece some fans have claimed it to be. The overall sound is thick and murky, but too muddy to be effectively atmospheric in the way that the more dynamic Disintegration managed a few years later. For every powerful track like the doomy opener "One Hundred Years" and the clattering, desolate single "The Hanging Garden," there's a sound-over-substance piece of filler like "The Figurehead," which sounds suitably bleak but doesn't have the musical or emotional heft this sort of music requires. Pornography is an often intriguing listen, but it's just a bit too uneven to be considered a classic.
Dead Kennedys - Plastic Surgery DisastersQuote:
aving proved themselves masters of the quick, vicious smash and bash, on their second full-length album the Kennedys continued in that vein while finding other effective ways to express their all-encompassing message of resistance and satire. Absolutely nobody is safe, whether it's the more expected targets of conservative society, or those who claim to follow what the Kennedys and punk promised but only ended up acting like idiots. For the most part, though, it's a well-deserved smackdown of all the jerks the early '80s produced, set to some fantastic music. Bookended by random noise jams -- the first one with a wonderfully dismissive spoken-word analysis on societal programming for The Good Life -- Plastic Surgery Disasters shows East Bay Ray, Klaus Fluoride and D.H. Peligro turning into an even more awesome unit than before. Ray's sheet-metal intense guitar may once or twice get slammed into too much treble for its own good, but his spaghetti-western-cranked-to-ten playing is fantastic stuff at its best. The others have their moments, like Peligro's rolling drum breaks on "Government Mechanic." When the band aims for subtlety, the results are grand -- the sudden silences on "Trust Your Mechanic," the goofy hipswing start to "Forest Fire." Unsurprisingly, Biafra is still at the center of it all; once again, the song titles make it clear what's at play. "Terminal Preppie," rips into an example of the type with gusto, and the wonderfully sneering "Winnebago Warrior" is just the tip of the iceberg. The real highlight can be found at the end -- "Moon Over Marin," with a soaring, anthemic surf-rock line from Ray offsetting Biafra's semi-apocalyptic vision of the Bay Area's snooty region.
Richard Hell and the Voidoids - Destiny StreetQuote:
No one ever accused Richard Hell of being the hardest working man in rock & roll, and not only did it take him five years to get around to making a follow-up to his first album, the remarkable Blank Generation, but he didn't even bother to come up with a full LP's worth of new material for 1982's Destiny Street; the opening song, "The Kid With the Replaceable Head," first appeared as a B-side to a single in 1979, and three of the album's ten tunes are covers, which hardly speaks well of his productivity. But if it's hard to imagine why it took five years to come up with Destiny Street, there's little arguing that Hell's second album is nearly as strong as his first. While the covers might seem like padding, the interpretations of the Kinks' "You Gotta Move" and Them's "I Can Only Give You Everything" are wildly passionate and overflowing with ideas and energy, and Hell's dour, jagged take on Dylan's "Going, Going, Gone" nearly surpasses the original. Robert Quine's guitar work on Blank Generation staked his claim as one of the most interesting and intelligent guitarists to emerge from the New York underground scene, and if anything, he was in even stronger form on Destiny Street, while new members Naux (on guitar) and Fred Maher (on drums) give him all the support he needs. And though Blank Generation made it clear Hell was among the brainiest members of punk's first graduating class, the handful of new originals here show he'd actually grown since his debut; on "Downtown at Dawn" and "Ignore That Door," Hell subtly but implicitly rejects the dead end of night-life decadence, "Time" is a meditation on mortality that's unexpectedly compassionate, and the title cut proved Hell had not only begun to recognize his own faults, but had even learned to laugh at them. Destiny Street sounds looser and more spontaneous than Hell's debut, but it's just as smart and every bit as powerful, and it's a more than worthy follow-up.
Michael Jackson - ThrillerQuote:
Off the Wall was a massive success, spawning four Top Ten hits (two of them number ones), but nothing could have prepared Michael Jackson for Thriller. Nobody could have prepared anybody for the success of Thriller, since the magnitude of its success was simply unimaginable -- an album that sold 40 million copies in its initial chart run, with seven of its nine tracks reaching the Top Ten (for the record, the terrific "Baby Be Mine" and the pretty good ballad "The Lady in My Life" are not like the others). This was a record that had something for everybody, building on the basic blueprint of Off the Wall by adding harder funk, hard rock, softer ballads, and smoother soul -- expanding the approach to have something for every audience. That alone would have given the album a good shot at a huge audience, but it also arrived precisely when MTV was reaching its ascendancy, and Jackson helped the network by being not just its first superstar, but first black star as much as the network helped him. This all would have made it a success (and its success, in turn, served as a new standard for success), but it stayed on the charts, turning out singles, for nearly two years because it was really, really good. True, it wasn't as tight as Off the Wall -- and the ridiculous, late-night house-of-horrors title track is the prime culprit, arriving in the middle of the record and sucking out its momentum -- but those one or two cuts don't detract from a phenomenal set of music. It's calculated, to be sure, but the chutzpah of those calculations (before this, nobody would even have thought to bring in metal virtuoso Eddie Van Halen to play on a disco cut) is outdone by their success. This is where a song as gentle and lovely as "Human Nature" coexists comfortably with the tough, scared "Beat It," the sweet schmaltz of the Paul McCartney duet "The Girl Is Mine," and the frizzy funk of "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)." And, although this is an undeniably fun record, the paranoia is already creeping in, manifesting itself in the record's two best songs: "Billie Jean," where a woman claims Michael is the father of her child, and the delirious "Wanna Be Startin' Something," the freshest funk on the album, but the most claustrophobic, scariest track Jackson ever recorded. These give the record its anchor and are part of the reason why the record is more than just a phenomenon. The other reason, of course, is that much of this is just simply great music.
Roxy Music - AvalonQuote:
Flesh + Blood suggested that Roxy Music were at the end of the line, but they regrouped and recorded the lovely Avalon, one of their finest albums. Certainly, the lush, elegant soundscapes of Avalon are far removed from the edgy avant-pop of their early records, yet it represents another landmark in their career. With its stylish, romantic washes of synthesizers and Bryan Ferry's elegant, seductive croon, Avalon simultaneously functioned as sophisticated make-out music for yuppies and as the maturation of synth pop. Ferry was never this romantic or seductive, either with Roxy or as a solo artist, and Avalon shimmers with elegance in both its music and its lyrics. "More Than This," "Take a Chance With Me," "While My Heart Is Still Beating," and the title track are immaculately crafted and subtle songs, where the shifting synthesizers and murmured vocals gradually reveal the melodies. It's a rich, textured album and a graceful way to end the band's career.
