458. Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables (1980)
















Track Listing

1. Kill The Poor
2. Forward To Death
3. When Ya Get Drafted
4. Let's Lynch The Landlord
5. Drug Me
6. Your Emotions
7. Chemical Warfare
8. California Uber Alles
9. I Kill Children
10. Stealing People's Mail
11. Funland At The Beach
12. Ill In The Head
13. Holiday In Cambodia
14. Viva Las Vegas

Review

This is the Dead Kennedys album to get it's got all their smash number one hits - In some better, commie alternative reality - like Kill The Poor, California Uber Alles and Holiday In Cambodia and is all around a great album. Also it doesn't end there, I knew little more than those tracks by the Dead Kennedys and it was actually a revelation how good the rest of the album is, although it is not as accessible, songs like Drug Me and Chemical Warfare are so full of angry energy that they are great.

Actually there is nto a single dud here, even Viva Las Vegas is imbued with a critical snarl which changes the meaning of the song completely. This is politically active music at its best, you can sing along to it, headbang along to it, or write an essay about it.

This is where the Kennedys win at life, they eschew the puerile anarchism of previous punk band and go for a focused political agenda, even if it sounds a bit childish and utopic it is very much recognisable as a far-left agenda, still they do it with a great sense of fun, making great use of sarcasm, just Jello Biafra's snarl gives you the requisite hint of sarcasm while the lyrics are an exercise in making mini Swiftian Modest Proposals. Great stuff.

Final Grade

1. California Uber Alles
2. Holiday In Cambodia
3. Kill The Poor
4. Chemical Warfare

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

Musically, Fresh Fruit laid the blueprint for future Kennedy's releases: loud, noisy, fast, but with a sense of dynamics and musical individualism. The surf and rockabilly-inspired riffs owe something to the Ramones' most influential recordings, drawing from early American AM pop and rehashing it in the immediate, aggressive context of punk rock. The lyrics lend a significant bite to the breakthrough of the already strident (yet surprisingly catchy) musical assault. On the original vinyl version Side A was tracks 1-7 and Side B was tracks 8-14.

California Uber Alles:

457. The Cramps - Songs The Lord Taught Us (1980)
















Track Listing

1. TV Set
2. Rock On The Moon
3. Garbageman
4. I Was A Teenage Werewolf
5. Sunglasses
6. Mad Daddy
7. Mystery Plane
8. Zombie Dance
9. What's Behind The Mask
10. Strychnine
11. I'm Cramped
12. Tear It Up
13. Fever

Review

So The Cramps come out with the first Psychobilly album, and that is no bad thing, I like the concept and sound of psychobilly, but then in this album all songs sound a bit too similar. It's a nice trick that this pony does, but it is just one. That said the overall sound is quite good and I enjoyed seeing a cover of Strychnine by The Sonics, giving tribute to who they should for their sound.

That said it is not a bad album on first impression, but after a while you start asking yourself if they can do anything else or is this a long extended suite on psychobillyness? It seems like the second option is the case, and sure that's fine for a while, and as I said I quite like the sound of it. The gothy/Lynchian sound is a good thing, the endless repetition not so much.

So in the end this is a mediocre to good album, not excellent. Frankly don't know what their other albums sound like and if they make any departures form the same formula but if they don't you just need one album frankly. It is also quite telling that the two best tracks here are covers, Strychnine and Fever, and that doesn't say much for The Cramps.

Track Highlights

1. Strychnine
2. Fever
3. I Was a Teenage Werewolf
4. Garbageman

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Their sound was heavily influenced by early rockabilly and proto-rock'n'roll like Link Wray and Hasil Adkins, 1960s surf music acts such as The Ventures and Dick Dale, 1960s garage rock artists like The Standells, The Gants, The Trashmen, The Green Fuz and The Sonics, as well as the post-glam/early punk scene from which they emerged. They also were influenced to a degree by The Ramones and Screamin' Jay Hawkins, who is often credited for having pioneered their style of theatrical horror-blues.

I Was a Teenage Werewolf:

456. AC/DC - Back In Black (1980)
















Track Listing

1. Hell's Bells
2. Shoot To Thrill
3. What Do You Do For Money Honey
4. Given The Dog A Bone
5. Let Me Put My Love Into You
6. Back In Black
7. You Shook Me All Night Long
8. Have A Drink On Me
9. Shake A Leg
10. Rock 'n' Roll Ain't Noise Pollution

Review

Wow, look at those song titles, none more crass. And yet, and yet... This is a really fun album, It is hard for a band in a genre I pretty much dislike to make me bob my head at most songs and if AC/DC are experts at something it is shitting little gold nuggets. Particularly the deservedly famous Back In Black and You Shook Me All Night Long, which are supremely catchy tracks.

This wouldn't be an album that I would put on if I was by myself, but two summers ago while DJing a private 80's party I did include both Back In Black and You Shook Me All Night Long because they are both such fun little things. And I can tell you people were dancing to them.

AC/DC are pretty much lowest common denominator music, but that implies that it is hard to dislike at least some tracks by them whoever you are. Still, as an album it is probably too much, I'd stick to the singles and even then only a couple of them at any given time. After a full album you are actually quite tired of them. Still, fun.

Track Highlights

1. Back In Black
2. You Shook Me All Night Long
3. Hells Bells
4. Given The Dog A Bone

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Back in Black contained some of AC/DC's biggest hits, including the title track "Back In Black", "Hells Bells," and "You Shook Me All Night Long". Angus Young has stated that the album's all-black cover was a "sign of mourning" for Scott, as black is the traditional color of mourning. It went on to become AC/DC's most popular album, the fifth best-selling album of all time, and the biggest selling album by any band, with more than 42 million copies sold worldwide. In 2006 Back in Black was certified by the Recording Industry Association of America as the fifth best-selling album in the United States, with 21 million copies sold. Despite its massive commercial success, it is not AC/DC's highest charting album, peaking at #4; their next album, For Those About to Rock We Salute You, hit #1 in 1982.

Back In Black:

455. Dexys Midnight Runners - Searching For The Young Soul Rebels (1980)

















Track Listing

1. Burn It down
2. Tell Me When My Lights Turn Green
3. The Teams That Meet In Caffs
4. I'm just Looking
5. Geno
6. Seven Days Too Long
7. I Couldn't Help If I Tried
8. Thankfully Not Living In Yorkshire It Doesn't Apply
9. Keep It
10. Love Part One
11. There, There My Dear


Review

This is the first of all three Dexys albums on this list. This might seem strange to some people, particularly those who are in the US as there they are only seen as a one hit wonder. This has actually tainted their image to an extremely unfair point, as they have never, ever produced a bad, average or good album, they are all exceptional. Actually it annoys me that when a respectable band has a hit they are dismissed as crap, as a "one hit wonder" how many hits did so many great bands have? None that's how many, but if you have no hits then you are alternative and underground and suitably obscure enough to be respected. Now if you have the supreme bad luck of having one hit, in the States that is, you will forever be tainted as some kind of freak accident of nature, better to have no hits then. So Dexys are not a one hit wonder, firstly in the UK they are a multiple hit wonder, one of the songs on this album, Geno, reached number 1. Then they are one of the greatest bands of the 80's period. Rant done.

This is one of the most original albums that I have had the pleasure of listening to, imagine a mix of soul music, in the style of James Brown intertwined with new wave sensibility and some Jamaican influence and you get the drift, well maybe not the drift but might be intrigued enough to check it out.

Then this is one of those albums which is injected with a relentless energy which reflects the band's name pretty well, Dexys comes from Dexedrine and this is a very amphy album. The brass band is fantastic and Rowland's voice just howls and screams over it like a man possessed and then the lyrics are fantastic so shed your music snobbery and preconceptions and worship at the feet of Dexys. Actually the only thing that I dislike about this album is the lack of an apostrophe on the cover.

Track Highlights

1. Geno
2. Burn It Down
3. Keep It
4. Seven Days Too Long

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The album was ranked 98th in a 2005 survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time. In 2000 Q magazine placed it at number 85 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.

The first track, "Burn It Down", is a re-titled re-recording of the band's first single, "Dance Stance". "Seven Days Too Long" is a cover of the Northern Soul favourite originally recorded by Chuck Woods.

The Brighton-based new-wave punk outfit, Young Soul Rebels, took their name from this album.

Geno:

454. Adam And The Ants - Kings Of The Wild Frontier (1980)

















Track Listing

1. Dog Eat Dog
2. Ant Music
3. Feed Me To The Lions
4. Los Rancheros
5. Ants Invasion
6. Killer In The Home
7. Kings Of The Wild Frontier
8. Magnificent Five
9. Don't Be Square (Be There)
10. Jolly Roger
11. Making History
12. Human Beings

Review

This is the first album of the 80's and very appropriately we have what would be an icon for the age, Adam and the Ants, with the excess and fun that they brough and typified a certain kind of 80's.

Now, Adam Ant has himself called this the last nail in the coffin of punk and I couldn't agree more. It was the success of albums like this, glamorous, fun and neatly produced that brought down the last true punk trying to hang on. From now all is post punk and pop. This sits somewhere in the middle, you can tell that punk exerts its influence but also that there is a conscious effort to depart from it. And it is a successful effort, the music is great, sounds fresh and supremely catchy. If only all other pop/new wave albums in the 80'd would be the same.

And a great big welcome to the 80's, we'll laugh, we'll cry... with the most underrated decade of them all.

Track Highlights

1. Kings Of The Wild Frontier
2. Antmusic
3. The Human Beings
4. Jolly Roger

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

This album introduced the new Burundi Drum sound. After having his previous backing band wooed away by producer Malcolm McLaren, who used them to form Bow Wow Wow, Adam Ant recorded Kings of the Wild Frontier with guitarist Marco Pirroni his new writing partner. In spite of the difficulties with the recording, Kings of the Wild Frontier has become acknowledged as an inspiritational and unique sounding album, introducing two drummers, with Duane Eddy sounding guitar riffs. Unique in style and sound, it is hard to classify it as anything but Antmusic though some consider it fringe pop-oriented post punk rock.

Kings Of The Wild Frontier: