536. Minor Threat - Out Of Step (1984)

















Track Listing

1. Betray
2. It Follows
3. Think Again
4. Look Back and Laugh
5. Sob Story
6. No Reason
7. Little Friend
8. Out of Step
9. Cashing In

Review

Do you like Black Flag? Chances are you'll like Minor Threat. Yes, unfortunately this album is nothing really that new, it last for only 23 minutes and sounds like Black Flag. The lyrics are supposedly more political but as you can't understand that much of what is being sung, you'd do better to look at a lyrics sheet.

If you are into hardcore punk this might very well be for you. There are, however, some things here that annoy me. The whole idea of Straight Edge seems to define people I don't trust, I can't trust anyone who has no vices and Minor Threat's advocacy of clean living just pisses me off. It just ain't human.

The music is however pretty good, like a very good, very short Black Flag album, and track by track it might beat Damaged in terms of quality, but while Henry Rollins is a character I can very easily empathise with Ian MacKaye not so much. So meh.

Track Highlights

1. Cashing In
2. Look Back And Laugh
3. Out Of Step
4. Betray

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The original vinyl version of this album is quite different from the one on the Complete Discography compilation; most notably, the guitar on the bridge and Ian's scream at the end of Out of Step are entirely removed from the CD compilation. It was ranked 100 on Pitchfork Media's list of the 100 best albums of the 1980s.

Out Of Step, with helpful inter-titles:

535. Cocteau Twins - Treasure (1984)

















Track Listing

1. Ivo
2. Lorelei
3. Beatrix
4. Persephone
5. Pandora For Cindy
6. Amelia
7. Aloysius
8. Cicely
9. Otterley
10. Donimo

Review

4AD is a rarity of a record company. One of the few record companies which didn't put any shit out there for more than 10 years in a row from 1980 to the mid 90's at least. This is another example of 4AD's discerning taste in the acts they signed up.

The cover of the album pretty much says it all it is dark and gossamery music. This is a really beautiful and original album, nothing sounded like this before and very little after, this is the band that opened the doors to stuff like Sigur Ros many years later.

There are not bad tracks in the album but the first three and the last song definitely stand out as even better than very good. If you are in anyway interested in music that created a very specific ambient, slightly post-punk, very otherworldly, this is definitely a must have.

Track Highlights

1. Lorelei
2. Donimo
3. Beatrix
4. Ivo

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Some of the song titles seem to be inspired by Gerard de Nerval's book Aurélia or his Les Filles du Feu.

Lorelei:

534. Sade - Diamond Life (1984)
















Track Listing

1. Smooth Operator
2. Your Love Is King
3. Hang On To Your Love
4. When Am I Gonna Make A Living
5. Frankie's First Affair
6. Cherry Pie
7. Sally
8. I Will Be Your Friend
9. Why Can't We Live Together

Review

This is a most tremendously uncool album to love. This is of course a prelude to me saying that I do indeed love it. I am not sure if it is because one of my earliest memories is seeing the Smooth Operator video on TV, or because this is quite a flawless soft-soul-jazz album for the 80's.

The first three songs are the really well known singles, but I am pretty sure they could have kept releasing tracks from the album and made a hit with them. It is just so different from what was going on at the time, it is a pretty original album. There were many imitations at the time and all of them vastly inferior.

Sade Adu's voice is in an icy contralto which works perfectly for its time, there was always something about the 80's that revealed a certain coldness behind the superficial gaudiness. And this album is not gaudy in the least, they are good songs, perfectly performed. It is of course terribly dated, and something you probably wouldn't put on in polite company for fear of blushing, but I don't care, this album is very deserving of being in this list.

Track Highlights

1. Smooth Operator
2. Hold On To Your Love
3. Your Love Is King
4. Sally

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Although initially not a big seller, the album was catapulted into the spotlight once the track "Your Love Is King" went top ten. The album for many years held the record of best-ever debut by a female solo artist, remaining on the British chart for ninety-nine weeks.

Smooth Operator, 8 minutes 27 of pure 80's video bliss:

533. Run-D.M.C. - Run-D.M.C. (1984)
















Track Listing

1. Hard Times
2. Rock Box
3. Jam Master Jay
4. Hollis Crew (Krush Groove 2)
5. Sucker MC's
6. It's Like That
7. Wake Up
8. Thirty Days
9. Jay's Game

Review

Run-D.M.C. explode onto the scene with an album that completely re-defines the whole genre of hip-hop. This is probably one of the most influential albums of all time, and really a pretty great one.

The beats are aggressive, the voices are aggressive, and execution is perfect. The way Run and D.M.C. bounce off each-other is amazing, and shows a kind of close relationship essential to make the album work. Then you have the unsung hero, the late Jam-Master Jay, bringing some amazing scratching and sounds that top the whole thing perfectly.

The whole purity of sound here is quite amazing, there is no real R&B influence, there is no superfluous sounds, it works in a very sparse and effective way, almost minimalistic. One of the very best hip-hop albums.

Track Highlights

1. It's Like That
2. 30 Days
3. Rock Box
4. Hard times

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

In 1998, the album was selected as one of "The Source Magazine's 100 Best Rap Albums".

In 1989, the album was ranked #51 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 greatest albums of the 1980s". In 2003, the album was ranked number 240 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

It's Like That:

532. Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Welcome To The Pleasuredome (1984)
















Track Listing

1. World is my oyster
2. Welcome to the pleasure dome
3. Relax
4. War
5. Two tribes
6. (Tag)
7. Fury
8. Born to run
9. San Jose
10. Wish the lads were here
11. Ballad of '32
12. Krisco kisses
13. Black night white light
14. Only star in Heaven
15. Power of love
16. Bang...

Review

If there is a first impression to this album ,it is the fact that it is much stranger than I expected at first. But then it is also much better, and probably for the same reason. The album has an internal coherence that makes it quite uncommon pop.

Actually the whole band is uncommon, they are very much coming from a Post-punk background, and get producer extraordinaire Trevor Horn to make their album. It becomes some kind of gaudy masterpiece sounding like a gay apocalypse party in the mid-80's.

This is a long album, and it has a little interesting interlude with three nice covers, but the real strengths here are the originals, from the 14 minute long title track to the huge hits. One cannot stop from thinking what would the world have been like if Frankie would have kept going instead of imploding, I think it would be a funner world.

Track Highlights

1. Two Tribes
2. Relax
3. Welcome To The Pleasuredome
4. The Power Of Love

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

On Thursday 5 January, Frankie Goes to Hollywood performed "Relax" on the BBC flagship TV chart show, Top Of The Pops, and in less than a week, the song had risen to number 6 in the UK singles chart. On 11 January 1984, Radio 1 disc jockey Mike Read expressed on air his distaste for both the record's suggestive sleeve (designed by Yvonne Gilbert) and its lyrics. Perhaps Read's decision was based on his interpretation of the song's lyrics as being sexually explicit: "Relax, don't do it, when you want to suck it to it, Relax don't do it, when you want to come." He announced his refusal to play the record, not knowing that the BBC had just decided that the song was not to be played on the BBC anyway.

In support of their DJ, BBC Radio banned the single from its shows a reported two days later (although certain prominent night-time BBC shows - including those of Kid Jensen and John Peel - continued to play the record, as they saw fit, throughout 1984). The now-banned "Relax" rose to number 2 in the charts by 17 January, and hit the number one spot on 24 January. By this time, the BBC Radio ban had extended to Top of the Pops as well, which displayed a still picture of the group during its climactic Number One announcement, before airing a performance by a non-Number One artist.

This went on for the five weeks that "Relax" was at number one. The single remained on the charts for a record consecutive forty-two weeks. It would rise up from a declining chart position to number two during the UK summer of 1984 whilst Frankie's follow-up single "Two Tribes" held the UK number one spot.

The ban became an embarrassment for the BBC, especially given that UK commercial radio stations were still playing the song. Later in 1984 the ban was lifted and "Relax" featured on both the Christmas Day edition of Top of the Pops and Radio 1's rundown of the best-selling singles of the year.

Two Tribes:

531. Culture Club - Colour By Numbers (1983)




















Track Listing

1. Karma Chameleon
2. It's A Miracle
3. Black Money
4. Changing Every Day
5. That's The Way (I'm Only Trying To Help You)
6. Church Of The Poison Mind
7. Miss Me Blind
8. Mister Man
9. Stormkeeper
10. Victims

Review

Get the strains of the opening track out of your head, because even though it is a great song, the fact that the rest of the tracks are not as well known permits one to have a fresh approach to the "oeuvre" of the Culture Club.

And you suddenly realise that the album is not bad at all. It consists of a kind of repackaging of Soul for the 80s. And it kind of works, it is not an amazing album, but it is much better than I was honestly expecting.

Nothing on the album is as immediately single-friendly as Karma Chameleon, and that is actually a good thing, as that's maybe a bit too single-friendly. The lyrics are also nothing to write home about, but the album is all in all pretty pleasant stuff to listen to, listen to it, you might be surprised.

Track Highlights

1. Karma Chameleon
2. Victims
3. Church Of The Poison Mind
4. Black Money

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The album sold more than 16 millions copies worldwide and, like its predecessor, contained several hit singles. Released worldwide "Church Of The Poison Mind" went Top 10 in UK, USA, Canada, Australia and many European countries. "Karma Chameleon", however, was the signature track from the album and charted #1 almost everywhere. "Victims" was released in Europe and Oceania only but was a surprising Top 5 hit in the UK and Australia for an orchestral ballad. "Miss Me Blind" was released in Japan, Australia, plus North and South America with great success (Top 5 in Canada and USA). "It's A Miracle" was issued next almost everywhere, while "Mister Man" was released only in South Africa.

You've all seen Karma Chameleon, so here's Church of the Poisoned Mind:

530. Meat Puppets - Meat Puppets II (1983)
















Track Listing

1. Split Myself in Two
2. Magic Toy Missing
3. Lost
4. Plateau
5. Aurora Borealis
6. We're Here
7. Climbing
8. New Gods
9. Oh, Me
10. Lake of Fire
11. I'm a Mindless Idiot
12. Whistling Song

Review

Here's the birth of country-punk, yes, you heard me correctly, country-punk. And it is pretty nifty as well, from the middle of the 90's we have had some very interesting bands of Americana, and many of them owe something to this album.

If there is one problem with the album it is some lack of sense of focus, although they are pretty good in all the genres they dabble in, the more countrified songs are actually the better, such as Plateau, famously covered by Nirvana.

Meat Puppets II is something truly original, and not many albums have that merit. And the influence is also so wide-ranging that this is obviously an essential addition to the list of 1001 albums. Good stuff.

Track Highlights

1. Plateau
2. Aurora Borealis
3. Lake Of Fire
4. Whistling Song

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Rykodisc reissued the album in 1999 with extra tracks and b-sides, including a cover of the Rolling Stones' Aftermath-era track "What To Do."

The term "cowpunk" has been used to describe the blend of punk and country found on this album and elsewhere in the Puppets' catalogue; they are generally credited as being the main pioneers of this style.

Plateau:

529. The Police - Synchronicity (1983)
















Track Listing

1. Synchronicity I
2. Walking In Your Footsteps
3. O My God
4. Mother
5. Miss Gradenko
6. Synchronicity II
7. Every Breath You Take
8. King Of Pain
9. Wrapped Around Your Finger
10. Tea In The Sahara


Review

This is The Police's best album, in such a way that the last 7 tracks are all pretty great and the first three aren't that bad either. That said, the most famous track in the album has been overused to the point of rape. And Every Breath You Take is now, because of that, the only song that kind of grates in what is an otherwise great album.

The Police moved further from their Ska origins here, making an album that is just on the right place between the pretty good Ska Police albums and the excesses of solo Sting, making it their best album.

Of course there is the usual "Sting showing how cultured he is" on this album, but it kind of works, particularly in Wrapped Around Your Finger, and Tea In The Sahara. Basically if you ever need a Police album, this is it.

Track Highlights

1. Synchronicity II
2. Tea In The Sahara
3. Wrapped Around Your Finger
4. King Of Pain

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Synchronicity topped both the Billboard Pop Albums and Billboard 200 charts (ending the reign of Michael Jackson's Thriller for a while in the US). It won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.

In 2001, the TV network VH1 named Synchronicity the 50th greatest album of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 455 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

The album marked a significant reduction in the reggae influences that were a part of the band's first four records, instead featuring production-heavy textures and liberal use of synthesizers that, at times, drove entire songs ("Synchronicity I", "Wrapped Around Your Finger"). Sting's material dominates the album, with the two short tracks by Andy Summers ("Mother") and Stewart Copeland ("Miss Gradenko") being seen by the band themselves as concessions.

As with their prior album, Synchronicity was recorded at AIR Studios, Montserrat. For sound engineering reasons, the three band members recorded their parts in separate rooms: Copeland with his drums in the dining room, Sting in the control room, and Summers in the actual studio. This physical separation underscored the increasing tension and strain in the relationship between the bandmates.

Synchronicity II:

528. U2 - War (1983)
















Track Listing


1. Sunday Bloody Sunday
2. Seconds
3. New Year's Day
4. Like A Song...
5. Drowning Man
6. The Refugee
7. Two Hearts Beat As One
8. Red Light
9. Surrender
10. "40"

Review

I never really got into U2, the more time goes by the less will I have to get into U2, mainly because Bono annoys me. His smug self-rigtheousness is a bit too much, he might have good intentions but he just goes about it the wrong way, taking tea with God and coffee with the Devil. His half-arsed, politically uncommitted approach really puts me off, also the fact that he is the big creator together with Geldof of the "Make the Poor Help the Poorer" type of initiatives.

This should not, of course, reflect on the music, I like Wagner and he was an anti-Semite. But Wagner didn't sing his own tunes, and when I hear Bono doing his "yeah"'s I feel a bit like punching him. I have the same problem to a larger extent with Morrisey, who isn't even well intentioned.

That said, this is probably the best U2 album, there much less reliance on echo effects than would be the case later and you can see them coming from a pretty established post-punk background. Also the music sounds quite surprisingly fresh, maybe because U2 were so influential and have kept quite a consistent style through the years. So, I really don't mind this album, I kind of like it, but I won't be putting it on my Ipod.

Track Highlights

1. Sunday Bloody Sunday
2. New Year's Day
3. Seconds
4. "40"

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The album opens with "Sunday Bloody Sunday", an ardent protest song and already a departure from the themes of innocence and spirituality displayed on the group's first two albums. In many live shows, such as the performance recorded for their Under a Blood Red Sky video, Bono stated that "this is not a rebel song". In interviews, he's stated that it's a positive protest song about things we can't forget but should. Originally written about the 1972 Bloody Sunday incident in which 14 Irish protesters were shot and killed in Derry, Northern Ireland by the British Parachute Regiment, the song has been applied to other conflicts in the years since, most notably during the performance at a Denver, Colorado show in 1987. This version was eventually included in the film Rattle and Hum. Before the song, Bono referred to the previous day's bombing in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland and directed angry and controversial comments towards Irish-born Americans "talking to me about the resistance; the revolution back home."

Sunday Bloody Sunday:

527. Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) (1983)
















Track Listing

1. Love Is a Stranger
2. I've Got an Angel
3. Wrap It Up
4. I Could Give You (A Mirror)
5. Walk
6. Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
7. Jennifer
8. This Is the House
9. Somebody Told Me
10. This City Never Sleeps

Review

Annie Lennox never sounded as frigid and unapproachable and angry as she does here again. There's an almost Grace Jonesy feel to her delivery, but fortunately with a lot more nuances to it, and that only makes this album the best ever to come out of the Eurythmics. The delivery works perfectly in the songs, making the album a great one indeed.

Of course the big highlight here is Sweet Dreams, that even with all the covers that were made of it has not lost any of its power in the original. Of course some people seem to forget the other side of the Eurythmics, Dave Stewart is a brilliant musician who complements Annie's vocals perfectly.

This is an album which has definitely been much imitated in style, but never bettered, therefore as an example of hard electro-synth-pop it is up there with Soft Cell, maybe just one little step down.

Track Highlights

1. Sweet Dreams (Are Made OF This)
2. Love Is A Stranger
3. I Could Give You (A Mirror)
4. The Walk

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Stewart, together with Robert Crash and ex-The Selector bassist Adam Williams, produced the album in Eurythmics' own relatively primitive 8-track studio, winning awards for the quality of the end-result which belied its low-budget origins. Sweet Dreams saw the duo move away from the psychedelic, guitar-tinged band-orientated sound of In the Garden, instead focusing on raw analogue synthesizers (including the Oberheim OB1 and EDP Wasp) and drum machines (particularly the Movement Systems Drum Computer, which featured a graphic visual display of the drum patterns). Whilst the "synth pop" genre had grown in popularity in the preceding years, it was often associated with all male groups and somewhat clinical, emotionless music. Eurythmics (particularly with Lennox's vocal stylings) brought a soul music twist to the electronic sound, which proved popular with broader audiences.

There is no embeddable Sweet Dreams, so here you get Love Is a Stranger:

526. ZZ Top - Eliminator (1983)















Track Listing

1. Gimme All Your Lovin'
2. Got Me Under Pressure
3. Sharp Dressed Man
4. I Need You Tonight
5. I Got The Six
6. Legs
7. Thug
8. TV Dinners
9. Dirty Dog
10. If I Could Only Flag Her Down
11. Bad Girl

Review

Unfortunately this album is not another Tres Hombres, ZZ Top have moved quite a bit far from their original dirty blues-rock sound, the influence is still there but all the paraphernalia of the 80's has been added on top of it.

The album is quite a fun one to listen to, however, from the great hit singles to some of the less well known songs, but I don't seriously think this would be anything I would put on for my listening pleasure.

That said, it is not a bad album, just not a really great one. The playing is pretty good, the lyrics are appropriately inane and the beat is extremely solid, but it still sounds more like a novelty album than anything else.

Track Highlights

1. Legs
2. Sharp-dressed Man
3. I Got The Six
4. Gimme All Your Lovin'

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

It was the band's most successful album, having reached Diamond status. The album is a successful blend of blues rock and analog synthesizers. In 1989, it was ranked #39 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the The 100 Greatest Albums of the 80's. In 2003, the album was ranked number 396 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Great Video for Legs:

525. Echo and the Bunnymen - Porcupine (1983)
















Track Listing

1. The Cutter
2. The Back Of Love
3. My White Devil
4. Clay
5. Porcupine
6. Heads Will Roll
7. Ripeness
8. Higher Hell
9. Gods Will Be Gods
10. In Bluer Skies

Review

This album starts off with two amazing songs and unfortunately the rest of the album is not as strong as those two tracks. But this is Echo we are talking about making the rest of the not so amazing tracks still pretty amazing by any other standards.

I love Echo, and this is the second album on the list, the best one is still to come and Crocodiles was also better than this one, but Echo as a band were quite consistently good and so is this album. Ian McCulloch's vocals are becoming more and more operatic and I quite like that, the lyrics keep going in their mix of profundity and nonsense which make them perfect for you to imprint any interpretation you want on them and the sound is as rich as ever.

There is an interesting Eastern vibe to this album, from the opening strains of The Cutter you can tell that in what is almost a throwback to the psychedelic age, Echo have delved into the Asian influence. But then the rest of the sound is unmistakably post-punk, a great album which could have been greater, but none of the songs is a dud, just that some aren't as interesting as the others.

Track Highlights

1. The Cutter
2. The Back Of Love
3. Porcupine
4. Higher Hell

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Porcupine was reissued in 2003/2004 (varying by country) in an expanded and remastered edition, with several bonus tracks. "Fuel" was a b-side of "The Back of Love", tracks 12–16 were early studio recordings, and "Never Stop (Discotheque)" was a non-album single.

The Cutter:

524. Paul Simon - Hearts and Bones (1983)
















Track Listing

1. Allergies
2. Hearts and Bones
3. When Numbers Get Serious
4. Think Too Much
5. Song About the Moon
6. Think Too Much
7. Train in the Distance
8. Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War
9. Cars Are Cars
10. Late Great Johnny Ace

Review

Sometimes the logic of this list escapes me, this is one of those cases. There are so many Paul Simon albums that might deserve to be included on this list but that weren't and then there is this one, which is, in my opinion definitely inferior to Still Crazy After All These Years, There Goes Rhymin' Simon or Rhythm Of The Saints, but is here. Oh well.

This is still a good album, just not a great one, some tracks here are definite highlights, such as the title track or Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War or even the Late Great Johnny Ace with its ending written by Phillip Glass. But then you have Cars Are Cars... and that is pretty much the lowlight of his career.

So this album sold very little making it kind of a hidden gem, but it isn't that much of a gem considering the amazing career of Paul Simon. Thankfully we will have Graceland eventually which is a much better example of what Paul Simon can do at the top of his game.

Track Highlights

1. Hearts and Bones
2. Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War
3. Late Great Johnny Ace
4. Train In The Distance

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The title track is about Simon and his then-wife Carrie Fisher as they travel through New Mexico ("one and one-half wandering Jews"), and also about love in general. The album also contains one of the few songs about numbers (and love) — "When Numbers Get Serious", which evokes the beginnings of the Information Age. Also unusual is "Think Too Much", actually two different songs with the same title and chorus line, dealing generally with thinking (and love).

Hearts and Bones:

523. Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual (1983)













Track Listing

1. Money Changes Everything
2. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
3. When You Were Mine
4. Time After Time
5. She Bop
6. All Through The Night
7. Witness
8. I'll Kiss You
9. He's So Unusual
10. Yeah Yeah

Review

The queen of pop before the queen of pop brings us songs about implied lesbianism (When You Were Mine) and masturbation (She Bop), in some pop with a pronounced post-punk slant to it. And is she better than Madonna at the same time!

This is not to say this is a great album, actually the songs are quite uneven in their quality, being mostly songs that the record company wanted her to sing more than her production. Although the album is always more successful when Lauper's ideas take the front stage such as in Girls Just Want to Have Fun, which she heavily modified or Time After Time which she wrote or in the last duet of songs with their Betty Boop like vocals.

In the end this is quite good pop, but not amazing, still ti is listenable today, and the same does not happen with all 80s pop, there is not the same amount of Lauper saturation as there is of Madonna for example, or even Michael Jackson.

Track Highlights

1. When You Were Mine
2. Time After Time
3. Girls Just Want To Have Fun
4. Yeah, Yeah

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

With a series of quirky videos, Lauper dominated MTV for several months. Her bizarre fashion, consisting of multiple layers of thrift store clothing and dozens of accessories, influenced fashion for the last half of the 1980s.

The album was nominated for five Grammies: Record of the Year (Girls Just Want To Have Fun), Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (Girls Just Want To Have Fun), Song of the Year (Time After Time), Album of the Year, and Best New Artist, winning the last one.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 494 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Time After Time:

522. Hanoi Rocks - Back to Mystery City (1983)
















Track Listing

1. Strange Boys Play Weird Openings
2. Mental Beat
3. Until I Get You
4. Lick Summer Lover
5. Ice Cream Summer
6. Malibu Beach Nightmare
7. Tooting Bec Wreck
8. Sailing Down The Years
9. Beating Gets Faster
10. Back To Mystery City

Review

Firstly, and even going against the Allmusic.com labelling, Hanoi are not a metal band, I repeat, not a metal band. No matter what they look like, music genres are still defined by sound and not fashion sense. They are much more on the harder side of Glam, in the sense of Mott The Hoople and maybe a bit of New York Dolls and even Rolling Stones.

That being said Hanoi Rocks is less than the sum of its parts. The music is not innovative, being pretty much a throwback to the mid to late 70's, it has some hooks but very simplistic ones, the best being probably the one from Metal Beat, and the lyrics are quite poor.

They are not totally devoid of redeeming qualities, they have a sense of humour (look at the first track)and they are trying to revive what was a pretty interesting style, unfortunately they fail.

Track Highlights

1. Until I Get You
2. Metal Beat
3. Tooting Bec Wreck
4. Ice Cream Summer

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Musically the band is influenced by artists such as the New York Dolls, The Stooges and The Rolling Stones. Their music fuses elements of blues, punk, garage rock, glam rock as well as the original rock 'n' roll of Chuck Berry and Little Richard. Lyrical themes revolve around the topics of love and its trials and tribulations, and suburban alienation.

The group is often mistaken as glam metal, largely due to their image, which many of the American acts in the 1980s would imitate. Musically however, Hanoi Rocks are not part of that movement nor were they influenced by heavy metal.

Until I Get You:

521. The Blue Nile - Walk Across The Rooftops (1983)
















Track Listing

1. Walk Across The Rooftops
2. Tinseltown In The Rain
3. From Rags To Riches
4. Stay
5. Easter Parade
6. Heatwave
7. Automobile Noise

Review

This is a growy album, is there such a word as growy? There is now. Meaning, it grows on you, from the level of quite indifferent to it to loving it quite a bit by now. As the music itself sinks in, together with the great, emotive lyrics and arrangements, the thing starts being more and more likeable, and by the time you notice it you are really liking it.

Therefore here is an album which demands repeated listenings. It does not promote instant gratification in the least, this is not to say, however that it is inaccessible, but that it does have hidden depths. It is synth-pop, that is never giddy or new-wavy, more like Synth-ambient-pop, like Peter Gabriel or a new Peter Murphy album.

The album is a beautiful piece of work, really, each song takes its time, never lasting much less than 5 minutes and often going over the 6 minute mark, and that time really is needed to explore the textures and feel of the music. Highly recommended stuff.

Track Highlights

1. Tinseltown in the Rain
2. Walk Across The Rooftops
3. Easter Parade
4. From Rags To Riches

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The Blue Nile now have a workroom in Glasgow, which they try to use every day.

Paul Buchanan and Robert Bell toured England and Scotland in May and June 2006, followed by Scotland and Ireland in November 2006, billed as "Paul Buchanan sings the songs of The Blue Nile". The band consisted of Paul Buchanan on vocals and guitar; Robert Bell on bass guitar and keyboards; Alan Cuthbertson and Brendan Smith on keyboards; Stuart McCredie on guitar; and Liam Bradley on drums. The future of The Blue Nile under that name is unclear in the light of this tour.

Paul Buchanan is currently collaborating with Shirley Manson (lead singer of Garbage) on her upcoming highly anticipated solo album.

On July 14th 2007 Paul Buchanan and Robert Bell played Manchester's Bridgewater Hall as part of the Manchester International Festival. Although advertised as The Blue Nile it appeared likely in the run up to the concert that PJ would not be playing with them and that the same band as toured in 2006 would be utilised once again. Bridgewater Hall's website previewed the night as "One of the jewels of British music, The Blue Nile have infrequently yet consistently created music of rare truth and beauty. For their first appearance in more than seven years they perform their only UK show at Manchester International Festival. The perfect Saturday night".

Tinseltown in the Rain:

520. Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones (1983)
















Track Listing

1. Underground
2. Shore Leave
3. Dave The Butcher
4. Johnsburg, Illinois
5. 16 Shells From A 30.6
6. Town With No Cheer
7. In The Neighbourhood
8. Just Another Sucker On The Vine
9. Frank's Wild Years
10. Swordfishtrombone
11. Down, Down, Down
12. Soldier's Things
13. Gin Soaked Boy
14. Trouble Braids
15. Rainbirds

Review

We come now to what is probably the best Tom Waits album ever. Someone had the brilliant idea to leave the man alone in the studio and what we got for that was the most eclectic, yet brilliant set of songs that he ever put to vinyl. Swordfishtrombones has the capacity to be at the same time one of the strangest and most beautiful albums to ever be put out.

Alternatively heart-breaking and manic this embodies all the best that Tom Waits can do. The lyrics are an interesting shift from previous album focusing more on freaks, outlaws and the down and out. Musically it is unlike anything, a throwback to an earlier age while sounding like nothing that came before or since, it is extremely evocative of an underworld of the 50's sounding half beatnik, and completely brilliant.

I am of course gushing about this, but no praise I can give this album is quite enough for it. This is an album that really makes me tick, from laughing darkly at Frank's Wild Years to being moved almost to tears with Soldier's Things there are just not enough superlatives... but here are some: Superb, incredible, amazing, beautiful.

Track Highlights

1. Frank's Wild Years
2. Soldier's Things
3. In The Neighborhood
4. Rainbirds

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Stylistically different from his previous LPs, Swordfishtrombones moves away from the piano and string orchestra arrangements of the late seventies replacing them instead with unusual instrumentation and a somewhat more abstract songwriting approach.

Swordfishtrombones peaked at #164 on Billboard's Pop Albums and Billboard 200 albums chart.

In 1989, Spin Magazine named Swordfishtrombones the second greatest album of all time.

Frank's Wild Years:

519. The The - Soul Mining (1983)
















Track Listing

1. I've been waiting for tomorrow (all my life)
2. This is the day
3. The sinking feeling
4. Uncertain smile
5. The twilight hour
6. Soul mining
7. GIANT

Review

Well, this is a great album, it sounds very ahead of its time for 1983, although it doesn't really sound that fresh today, because there have been so many bands who have taken pointers from this.

If you can think of the spate of Techno/Jazz or even Acid-Jazz albums of the mid to late 90's, you can see what this led to, even if this album is more related to the New Wave sound of the early 80's, the dance, jazz and experimental elements are strong enough for it to be an early precursor. This is a pretty nifty album, and it is not just the music that is good or original, the lyrics are particularly good, reflecting the disappointment among some people in the Thatcherite years in Britain.

I was not familiar with The The before this, I had heard of them (he really, as Matt Johnson is the only consistent member of the group), but I hadn't heard them, and it was a pleasant surprise. Looking forward to the next The The album on the list.

Track Highlights

1. The Sinking Feeling
2. Uncertain Smile
3. GIANT
4. This Is The Day

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

There are four different versions of the album in existence. Johnson originally intended the album to finish with Giant, but EPIC insisted that 7 songs were too few and a rerecorded version of "Perfect" was added, much to Johnson's annoyance. The vinyl, CD and cassette versions contained "Perfect". The cassette version also included the 5 extra tracks listed below. For the 20th anniversary of Soul Mining, the album was digitally remastered without "Perfect", as Johnson had originally intended.

The Sinking Feeling:

518. R.E.M. - Murmur (1983)
















Track Listing

1. Radio Free Europe
2. Pilgrimage
3. Laughing
4. Talk About the Passion
5. Moral Kiosk
6. Perfect Circle
7. Catapult
8. Sitting Still
9. 9-9
10. Shaking Through
11. We Walk
12. West of the Fields

Review

Much of what R.E.M. will eventually be can already be heard here, and that has the interesting side-effect of making the album sound like it came from the early 90's rather than the early 80's, seeing as that is when R.E.M. get famous. Nonetheless, their whole aesthetic is pretty much here.

This is not an album that is immediately loveable, it does take a while to sink in, with the possible exception of Radio Free Europe, the most famous song of the album, deservedly. The rest of the tracks might be initially bland, but as you go along with the album they will slowly sink in to make a very strong album indeed.

We might all be jaded now to what R.E.M. sound like, but if we were listening to them for the first time in 1983 we certainly wouldn't be. And it is this originality which really shows them as the artists that they are. So the great seeds of something great are definitely here and starting to sprout.

Track Highlights

1. Radio Free Europe
2. Catapult
3. Pilgrimage
4. Perfect Circle

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The cover art features sepia-toned photos of a trestle and kudzu vines covering the ground and nearby trees. The song titles are written over the brown tones in blue, rendering them almost unreadable, particularly with "Moral Kiosk" cutting vertically through the titles.

The trestle featured on the album's cover, originally part of the Georgia Railroad line into downtown Athens, has become something of a local landmark. Plans to demolish the trestle, now commonly referred to as the "Murmur Trestle," met with public outcry. On October 2, 2000, the Athens-Clarke County Mayor and Commission voted to save the trestle.

Radio Free Europe:

517. Def Leppard - Pyromania (1983)
















Track Listing

1. Rock Rock (Till You Drop)
2. Photograph
3. Stagefright
4. Too Late For Love
5. Die Hard The Hunter
6. Foolin'
7. Rock Of Ages
8. Comin' Under Fire
9. Action Not Words
10. Billy's Got A Gun


Review

Def Leppard are one of the greatest bands to have ever graced God's green earth. Well... not really. They are one of the greatest shitty lowest common denominator hard rock bands ever. That's more like it. In that respect I actually prefer them to Aerosmith.

But this hard rock is not exactly as you know it. The 80's have creeped in in force here, from drum machines and synths to just the way the music is sung, there are many of the things that make people hate the 80s in here.

Today the album lives on its kitsch merits more than anything, Def Leppard are quite a funny band, but not always intentionally. But there is some quite good playing here as well as some good guitar hooks, which unfortunately do not bring the whole genre above mediocre.

Track Highlights

1. Rock Of Ages
2. Photograph
3. Foolin'
4. Comin' Under Fire

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Def Leppard is one of only five rock bands with two original albums selling over 10 million copies each in the U.S. The others are The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Van Halen.

Rock Of Ages:

516. Malcolm McLaren - Duck Rock (1983)
















Track Listing

1. Obatala
2. Buffalo Gals
3. Double Dutch
4. Merengue
5. Punk It Up
6. Legba
7. Jive My Baby
8. Song For Chango
9. Soweto
10. World's Famous
11. Duck For The Oyster

Review

Mr. McLaren is probably one of the most annoying characters in the history of music. You hear him speak in an interview and you just feel like punching him, he is all that is wrong with British snobbery.

Frankly if it wasn't for his direct contributions to the album, particularly in terms of voice, it would have been a perfectly good album. But when McLaren's voice kicks in I just feel like punching my speakers.

The concept of the album is interesting, it is built as if it was a radio show by the World's Famous, and then it explores "world music" with a hip-hoppish slant. Now it is only natural that track number two would have been sampled by Eminem, McLaren and him could be shot on the same rocket into the sun and I would sleep better at night.

The music in its base is not bad, but McLaren manages to ruin each track with some kind of unwanted or unnecessary addition. Could have been good.


Track Highlights

1. Soweto
2. Double Dutch
3. Song For Chango
4. Jive My Baby

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Guest musicians featured on this album include Trevor Horn, Anne Dudley, J. J. Jeczalik. Side recordings that these three artists did in-between Duck Rock takes would eventually become the first album for Art of Noise. Clips of the World's Famous Supreme Team radio show appear between songs.

McLaren shits all over the great song that is Soweto, just look at him, playing the white twat that he is:

515. Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes (1982)
















Track Listing

1. Blister in the sun
2. Kiss off
3. Please do not go
4. Add it up
5. Confessions
6. Prove my love
7. Promise
8. To the kill
9. Gone daddy gone
10. Good feeling

Review

This is a truly great album again, the Violent Femmes produce one of those rare things which is an album from the 80s that really feels like it could have been made tomorrow, or five years before it was done or five years from now. This is a totally timeless piece of music (well it could hardly be from before the 60's, but you know what I mean).

Ok, you might listen to this and think, "Wow someone has been listening to the Modern Lovers on repeat". And you wouldn't be wrong, this is not completely original and owes a big debt to Jonathan Richman, that said the Femmes pull it off spectacularly, furthering a style which had the population of 1 in the short lived Modern Lovers.

This is basically the time for the birth of alternative music as we know it today, and the Violent Femmes are definitely at the head of the thing. They never made anything as good as this, but then they didn't need to in order to become legends. There is not a single not amazing track in the album.

Track Highlights

1. Blister In The Sun
2. Add It Up
3. Kiss Off
4. Gone Daddy Gone

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

* Ethan Hawke's character in the 1994 film Reality Bites, plays a cover of "Add It Up" with his band Hey That's My Bike.

* A May 2005 episode of the television series How I Met Your Mother featured engaged couple, Marshall and Lily, trying to sneak into a high school prom to see if the band, The 88, who Marshall had tentatively booked for the wedding, could play the couple's song, which was "Good Feeling."

* Gnarls Barkley's 2006 debut album St. Elsewhere featured a cover version of "Gone Daddy Gone."

* "Add It Up" was used as a track in the video game Tony Hawk's Underground 2.

* The film, Lost and Delirious features "Add It Up" in a scene.

* Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine covered the song "Add It Up" into a Lounge style on their 2005 album "Aperitif for Destruction".

* "Gone Daddy Gone" borrows a complete verse from Willie Dixon's 1954 song "I Just Want To Make Love To You." The Femmes give proper credit for this in the liner notes of their debut album.

* The song "Blister in the Sun" is the song on the previews for the show Psych on the USA Network.

* The song "Blister in the Sun" plays at the beginning of the My So-Called Life episode entitled "Betrayal," originally aired January 12, 1995.

* "Blister in the Sun" appears in the movie Grosse Pointe Blank as part of a radio retrospective on the '80s.

* "Gone Daddy Gone" also features in the seminal '90's Italian film Jack Frusciante è uscito dal gruppo.

* Songs from this album were covered by Guster (with some assistance from its creators) on an episode of MTV2's short-lived Album Covers series in 2004.

* The song "Blister in the Sun" is played as the background music in a 2007 Wendy's commercial. This was seen as a point of contention by bassist Brian Ritchie, who filed suit against Gordon Gano in August 2007.

Add it Up: