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: