485. Brian Eno/David Byrne - My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts (1981)
















Track Listing

1. America Is Waiting
2. Mea Culpa
3. Regiment
4. Help Me Somebody
5. Jezebel Spirit
6. Very Very Hungry
7. Moonlight In Glory
8. Carrier
9. Secret Life
10. Come With Us
11. Mountain Of Needles

Review

I remember listening to this album for the first time many, many moons ago, long before I started this list thing and thinking that it was one of the strangest things I had ever heard. Now I put it on again for the purposes of this list and while not the most harmonious thing I have ever heard I did not find it in the least strange.

This is one of those album that is more important than known and also more important than a joy to listen to. There are just so many bands who have built their whole careers around this that it is hard to imagine the face of music today without it. Firstly the use of sampling made the career of countless artists from Beck to Moby, in fact Play by Moby is basically a more harmonious version of this. Oh, and 20 years later.

This is just incredibly ahead of its time, using field recordings, putting beats to it both electronic and analogue and making music like that does not seem so impressive today, but this is all before digital mixing, this is all trial and error sampling and cutting, this is an amazing piece of art. And it works! Some tracks here are just brilliant, the first track being possibly the best example. Some of them are less successful but as an achievement this is truly impressive.

Track Highlights

1. America Is Wating
2. Regiment
3. The Jezebel Spirit
4. Help Me Somebody

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The track "Qu'ran", which features samples of Qur'anic recital, was replaced by "Very, Very Hungry" in some later releases. On some early editions of the record, "Very, Very Hungry" was included along with "Qu'ran" as a non-cassette and non-LP CD only release.

"Way back when the record first came out, in 1981, it might have been '82, we got a request from an Islamic organization in London, and they said, 'We consider this blasphemy that you put grooves to the chanting of the Holy Book.' And we thought, 'Okay, in deference to somebody's religion, we'll take it off.' You could probably argue for and against monkeying with something like that. But I think we were certainly feeling very cautious about this whole thing. We made a big effort to try and clear all the voices, and make sure everybody was okay with everything. Because we thought, 'We're going to get accused of all kinds of things, and so we want to cover our asses as best we can.' So I think in that sense we reacted maybe with more caution than we had to. But that's the way it was."

And on Super Tuesday, America is Waiting:

484. Orchestral Manoeuvers In The Dark - Architecture and Morality (1981)
















Track Listing

1. New Stone Age
2. She's Leaving
3. Souvenir
4. Sealand
5. Joan Of Arc
6. Joan Of Arc (Maid Of Orleans)
7. Architecture And Morality
8. Georgia
9. Beginning And The End

Review

More synthpop and I just can't get enough of the stuff, this album is actually a quite strange one, it is a mix of pretty good pop tracks and some very impressive almost ambient tracks. This is no Eno album but still quite good.

OMD were one of those bands whose most successful tracks really are not truly representative of their body of work, we have some of those tracks here with a special nod to Souvenir, but right after the very catchy and pop-oriented souvenir there is an amazing almost 8 minute piece called Sealand which is completely different, the last track in the album reminds me of Sigur Ros for example.

All said this is a thoroughly enjoyable album which throws you some surprises, and that is always welcome in my world. Also notice the particularly good album cover by the master of all album covers Peter Saville.

Track Highlights

1. Souvenir
2. The Beginning and the End
3. Sealand
4. The New Stone Age

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

It is the group's most commercially and critically successful album, selling over 3 million copies. Released just eighteen months after their debut, it demonstrated both OMD's continuing musical maturity and advancement of their style.

Musically, the album was notable for making liberal use of the mellotron, a mechanical tape-replay keyboard more commonly associated in Britain with progressive rock bands of the early 1970s than with "synth pop".

Souvenir:

483. Soft Cell - Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret (1981)
















Track Listing

1. Frustration
2. Tainted Love
3. Seedy Films
4. Youth
5. Sex Dwarf
6. Entertain Me
7. Chips on My Shoulder
8. Bedsitter
9. Secret Life
10. Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

Review

Well, I came at this sceptically, knowing little more than Tainted Love and Sex Dwarf, and I must say I was pleasantly surprised, hell more than that, I fucking loved it. I did, so sorry Sara for never paying much attention when you get on Marc Almond mode, I will now pay attention.

This is just the seediest coolest, sexual apocalyptic music. Well it actually sounds like the kind of world I'd like to live in which is quite accurately described in the album title. The album does sound like a non-stop erotic cabaret, few titles have ever been as accurate.

The music is synthpop used the way it should, to create a sense of artificiality and "futureness" (new word!) which really fits the environment of neon-lights, clubs and sex dwarves. Then the lyrics are all fucking brilliant, it is a very much NSFW album but who gives a shit anyway? Working is for the weak!

Track Highlights

1. Sex Dwarf
2. Tainted Love
3. Say Hello, Wave Goodbye
4. Secret Life

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Soft Cell were and are, in some ways, more famous for their singles than for their full-length albums. Many of their most acclaimed songs (including "Torch" and "Where Did Our Love Go?") do not appear on their LP releases. An example of this is "Tainted Love," which, when originally recorded, was over eight minutes long because it gradually segued into "Where Did Our Love Go?" After it was recorded, the session was split into two different songs, with "Where Did Our Love Go?" only being listenable as the B-side to "Tainted Love" or on the full eight-minute cut, which was sold as a 12-inch single. As a result, many of their singles have become quite valuable. Their first release, the single "Memorabilia" b/w "A Man Could Get Lost" may fetch prices as high as $85 (approximately £50), because the original version was for many years unavailable on CD (although a remix appears on their 1982 release Non-stop Ecstatic Dancing).

Sex Dwarf, live at the Old Grey Whistle Test in the absence of the great original video, which you should look for:

482. Motorhead - No Sleep 'til Hammersmith (1981)

















Track Listing

1. Ace Of Spades
2. Stay Clean
3. Metropolis
4. Hammer
5. Iron Horse
6. No Class
7. Overkill
8. We Are The Road Crew
9. Capricorn
10. Bomber
11. Motorhead

Review

Imagine a pony who could play poker, couldn't do anything else, even show jump, but he was a damn good poker player. It would be a one trick pony, but it's a fucking good trick anyway. This is exactly what happens with Motorhead, they do one trick and its pretty good and then they make variations on that trick. This should really be called The Ace Of Spades Variations, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Motorhead is really one of the more listenable Metal bands around, particularly because they are not so much metal as just fast and dirty rock , there is very little of the wankery associated with most metal bands, and that just makes them likeable and less likely to make you tired of them.

Motorhead just sound like a band who genuionely likes to play fast and hard on guitars, no pretentious solos or lyrics just doing what they do right, and that is refreshing, also for a live album this is pretty much non-stop stuff, these guys must be exhausted after a night. So more of the same old Motorhead, but I like the same old Motorhead. Still, it is a bit redundant with their other album on the list sharing a lot of the same songs.

Track Highlights

1. Ace Of Spades
2. The Hammer
3. Overkill
4. Motorhead

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

This album was famously parodied by the Beastie Boys on the Licensed to Ill album for the track "No Sleep Till Brooklyn". Another obvious nod was by Strapping Young Lad when the band titled their live album No Sleep 'till Bedtime.

Ace Of Spades, again:

481. The Go-Go's - Beauty And The Beat (1981)

















Track Listing

1. Our Lips Are Sealed
2. How Much More
3. Tonight
4. Lust To Love
5. This Town
6. We Got The Beat
7. Fading Fast
8. Automatic
9. You Can't Walk In Your Sleep
10. Skidmarks On My Heart
11. Can't Stop The World

Review

How many times does the sentence "When Belinda Carlisle was good" cross your mind, lips or anyone else's? Not many I would imagine, but get this album and you might have to revise your opinions, or commit suicide whichever is less painful. This is a good album. actually it's one of the funnest albums on the list for a while now.

It isn't pretentious, it doesn't try to be anything other than what it is, surf music to dance to clearly coming out of a punk sensibility, and if you don't believe Belinda was punk check out the earlier stuff by the Go-Go's that was only published quite recently. Still this is really fun music with some great lyrics as well, nothing deep, but there is also no need, requirement or expectation to go under the surface.

So yes, I approve of this album, and just how influential is it? The most obvious followers would be girl bands of the 80's like Bananarama, but early No Doubt is also coming from here and for the less mainstream people out there: there is a lot of this in Throwing Muses for example. So definitely check it out.

Track Highlights

1. We Got The Beat
2. Automatic
3. Lust To Love
4. Our Lips Are Sealed

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Formed in 1978, the group originally featured Belinda Carlisle (vocals), Jane Wiedlin (guitar, vocals), Charlotte Caffey (lead guitar, keyboards), Margot Oliveira (bass), and Elissa Bello (drums). They started out playing at seminal punk rock venues such as The Masque and the Whisky A Go Go in Los Angeles. In 1979, Gina Schock replaced Bello on drums. During that year, the band recorded a demo and supported the British ska revival group Madness in both Los Angeles and England. Go-Go’s spent half of 1980 touring England, earning a sizable following and releasing "We Got the Beat" on Stiff Records.

We Got The Beat: