Music: Best Albums of the Year series: 1979

[Saturated Fats]

1965: The Beatles - Rubber Soul
1967: The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
1969: The Beatles - Abbey Road
1970: Black Sabbath - Paranoid
1973: Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
1975: Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
1977: Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
1980: AC/DC - Back in Black
1982: Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
1985: Tears for Fears - Songs from the Big Chair
1988: Metallica - ...And Justice for All
1991: Nirvana - Nevermind
1994: Nirvana - MTV Unplugged in New York
1996: (TIE) Soundgarden - Down on the Upside // Rage Against the Machine - Evil Empire
1998: (TIE) Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill // System of a Down - System of a Down
2000: Radiohead - Kid A
2002: Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
2004: (TIE) Madvillain - Madvillainy // The Killers - Hot Fuss // Green Day - American Idiot
2007: Radiohead - In Rainbows
2010: The National - High Violet

1989: Pixies - Doolittle (14 votes)

2nd Place: Nirvana - Bleach (11 votes)
3rd Place (TIE): Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine (9 votes)
3rd Place (TIE): Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever
5th Place: The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses (8 votes)

A legendary album, and fully-deserving of the win. Wasn't sure what was going to challenge it, but pleased to see Bleach, which I think is Nirvana's best album, get some love. A little disappointed in the lack of De La Soul love, but it's in keeping with past results, I guess.

This poll is an extremely top-heavy year. 1979 features some of the biggest album releases of all-time, but I nonetheless struggled to cobble together 29 well-known poll options. Strange discrepancy.

9/11: 1971
9/13: 2014
9/15: 1999

Click to read more...

 

[YoSoyLalo]

IMO about as as strong as it gets for a year of music. Especially if you’re into post punk

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

1) Smegma – Glamour Girl 1941
2) Jim French – If Looks Could Kill
3) Lizzy Mercier Descloux – Press Color
4) Ghédalia Tazartès – Diasporas
5) Univers Zéro – Hérésie
6) Henry Kaiser – With Friends Like These
7) The Pop Group – Y
8) Swell Maps – A Trip to Marineville
9) Art Bears – Winter Songs
10) Chrome – Half Machine Lip Moves

HMs:
Zorn, Centazzo, Chadbourne, Cora, Kondo & Bradfield – Environment For Sextet
Plume Latraverse – Chirurgie plastique
Stiff Little Fingers – Inflammable Material
Public Image Ltd – Metal Box
XTC – Drums and Wires
Henry Cow – Western Culture
The Raincoats – The Raincoats
Conventum – Le bureau central des utopies
Philip Glass – Einstein On the Beach
Renaud – Ma gonzesse
Contortions – Buy
Electric Light Orchestra – Discovery
Buzzcocks – A Different Kind of Tension
Gang of Four – Entertainment!
The Undertones – The Undertones
Pere Ubu – New Picnic Time
This Heat – This Heat
The Inmates – First Offence
The Damned – Machine Gun Etiquette
The Clash – London Calling
Funkadelic – Uncle Jam Wants You

Curiosities:
New York Gong – About Time
Serge Gainsbourg – Aux armes et cætera
Polly Bradfield – Solo Violin Improvisations
Robert Ashley – Automatic Writing
The Residents – Eskimo
Frank Zappa – Orchestral Favorites / Frank Zappa – Sleep Dirt / Frank Zappa – Joe's Garage, Act I / Frank Zappa – Joe's Garage, Act II & III / Frank Zappa – Sheik Yerbouti
Holger Czukay – Movies
Tubeway Army – Replicas
Lubomyr Melnyk – Lubomyr Melnyk Performs KMH

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Metal Box, Unknown Pleasures, Drums and Wires for me.

 

[Mescaleroman]

John Otway - Where Did I go Right
the Jam - Setting Sons
Stiff Little Fingers - Inflammable Material
Robert Gordon - Rock Billie Boogie
the Ruts - The Crack
the Specials - s/t
the Undertones - s/t
the Clash - London Calling
Angelic Upstarts - Teenage Warning
UK Subs - Another Kind of Blues

HM's to
Gang of Four - Entertainment
the Buzzcocks - A Different Kind of Tension
Elvis Costello - Armed Forces
Japan - Quiet Life
the Cure - Three Imaginary Boys
Joe Jackson - Look Sharp
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
Marriane Faithful - Broken English
Squeeze - Cool For Cats
the Stranglers - The Raven
XTC - Drums and Wires

And what I time to be checking out local acts in the Toronto area with albums or EP's out from Teenage Head - s/t , the Demics - Talk's Cheap , Blue Peter - Test Patterns for Living and the Forgotten Rebels - In Love With the System.

 

[Oxbow Lakes]

The B-52’s - The B-52’s
The Damned - Machine Gun Etiquette
Kollaa Kestää - Jäähyväiset Aseille
Stiff Little Fingers - Inflammable Material
Talking Heads - Fear of Music
Fleetwood Mac - Tusk
Gang of Four - Entertainment!
Motörhead - Overkill
PiL - Metal Box
The Raincoats - The Raincoats

 

[Cas]

Judas Priest's Unleashed in the East is the definitive Judas Priest album and the greatest live heavy metal album of all time (dubbed vocals and all).

I know by copy of Hell Bent for Leather says it was released in 1979, but it's a 1978 album. I wouldn't consider the American release to count when nearly the same record (the only difference is their cover of "The Green Manalishi") was released six months earlier.

Overkill has to be the second-best metal album released in 1979. I really need to check out the Saxon, Rainbow, and Thin Lizzy releases sometime.

Iron Maiden and Girlschool both had their first releases in 1979 (a widely-distributed demo and a single, respectively).

Riot's Narita certainly has some of the "best" album art of 1979...

 

[frisco]

Other than Tusk, Eat To The Beat:
Spirits Having Flown-Bee Gees
Live At Budokan-Cheap Trick
Voulez-Vous-Abba
Live Killers-Queen
Dream Police-Cheap Trick
Head Games-Foreigner
Cornerstone-Styx
Christopher Cross-Christopher Cross

My Best-Carey

 

[WetcoastOrca]

A really strong year!
From the list:
1. Neil Young: Rust Never Sleeps
2. Tom Petty: Damn the Torpedoes
3. Pink Floyd: The Wall
4. The Clash: London Calling
5. Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures
6. Supertramp: Breakfast in America
7. Fleetwood Mac: Tusk
8. The B-52’s

Other:
9. Van Morrison: Into the Music
10. Joe Jackson: Look Sharp

 

[kihei]

The Clash: London Calling
Pink Floyd: The Wall
Neil Young: Rust Never Sleeps
Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures
Mick Taylor: Mick Taylor
Gang of Four: Entertainment!
XTC: Drums and Wires
Public Image, Ltd: Metal Box
Marianne Faithful: Broken English
Fleetwood Mac: Rumours/tie
The Police: Regatta de Blanc

Just a monster of a year--nice combination of the old and the new

 

[plank]

1. Damn the Torpedoes - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
2. II - Van Halen
3. The Wall - Pink Floyd
4. Candy-O - The Cars
5. Breakfast In America - Supertramp
6. The Long Run - Eagles
7. Deguello - ZZ Top
8. s/t - George Harrison
9. Thanks, I'll Eat It Here - Lowell George
10. In Through the Out Door - Led Zeppelin
11. Highway to Hell - AC/DC

 

[Saturated Fats]

Philip Glass is an artist whose work has always mesmerized me, and Einstein on the Beach is his masterpiece. On one hand, it is this seemingly oxymoronic genre of 'operatic minimalism' at its finest, distilled to a bizarrely hypnotic quintessence. On the other hand, it has some of the most creative, unique, and otherworldly musical arrangements ever put to frequency. I have a tough time describing it to people when I praise it, and an even tougher time to do so when they are listening to it - but dammit, do I love it.

My Top 10

The Philip Glass Ensemble - Einstein on the Beach

Gang of Four - Entertainment!
The Clash - London Calling
The Damned - Machine Gun Etiquette

Wire - 154
Marianne Faithful - Broken English
Contortions - Buy
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle
The Soft Boys - A Can of Bees

For the record, I don't really rate The Wall. I consider Pink Floyd the greatest band of all time - I just think The Wall is too much of Waters indulging in his own vision, and not enough finding that sweet spot of authenticity alongside the other three.

 

[Teemu]

Pink Floyd - The Wall
The Clash – London Calling
Neil Young – Rust Never Sleeps
Neil Young – Live Rust
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Damn the Torpedoes
Supertramp - Breakfast in America

 

[Saturated Fats]

1) Smegma – Glamour Girl 1941
2) Jim French – If Looks Could Kill
3) Lizzy Mercier Descloux – Press Color
4) Ghédalia Tazartès – Diasporas
5) Univers Zéro – Hérésie
6) Henry Kaiser – With Friends Like These
7) The Pop Group – Y
8) Swell Maps – A Trip to Marineville
9) Art Bears – Winter Songs
10) Chrome – Half Machine Lip Moves

HMs:
Zorn, Centazzo, Chadbourne, Cora, Kondo & Bradfield – Environment For Sextet
Plume Latraverse – Chirurgie plastique
Stiff Little Fingers – Inflammable Material
Public Image Ltd – Metal Box
XTC – Drums and Wires
Henry Cow – Western Culture
The Raincoats – The Raincoats
Conventum – Le bureau central des utopies
Philip Glass – Einstein On the Beach
Renaud – Ma gonzesse
Contortions – Buy
Electric Light Orchestra – Discovery
Buzzcocks – A Different Kind of Tension
Gang of Four – Entertainment!
The Undertones – The Undertones
Pere Ubu – New Picnic Time
This Heat – This Heat
The Inmates – First Offence
The Damned – Machine Gun Etiquette
The Clash – London Calling
Funkadelic – Uncle Jam Wants You

Curiosities:
New York Gong – About Time
Serge Gainsbourg – Aux armes et cætera
Polly Bradfield – Solo Violin Improvisations
Robert Ashley – Automatic Writing
The Residents – Eskimo
Frank Zappa – Orchestral Favorites / Frank Zappa – Sleep Dirt / Frank Zappa – Joe's Garage, Act I / Frank Zappa – Joe's Garage, Act II & III / Frank Zappa – Sheik Yerbouti
Holger Czukay – Movies
Tubeway Army – Replicas
Lubomyr Melnyk – Lubomyr Melnyk Performs KMH

K, wow, I just listened to that Lizzy Mercier Descloux album - and holy shit, I loved it. So warm and enticing - dance punk at its best!

This is why we do these threads. Discovery.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

K, holy smokes, I just listened to that Lizzy Mercier Descloux album - and holy shit, I loved it. So warm and enticing - dance punk at its best!

This is why we do these threads. Discovery.

Really glad you liked it! It is quite something indeed. The bonus material was new to me (gotta love YouTube) and there's some very nice things in it too.

some of the most creative, unique, and otherworldly musical arrangements ever put to frequency

This comment makes me believe you should listen to the first 2m30s of the Ghédalia Tazartès album too. Afterwards might get a little too off the wall, but this part should find the same kind of enjoyment (IMO).

 

[Chili]

Some great music

Regatta de Blanc
Breakfast in America
Rust Never Sleeps
The Wall
Damn The Torpedoes

Added:

Christopher Cross-Christopher Cross
The Cars-Candy-O
Dire Straits-Communique
April Wine-Harder Faster

 

[Eisen]

Madness - One Step Beyond

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Motörhead - Overkill

 

[Mescaleroman]

Missed one which may not have cracked my top ten but would definitely be at the top of my HM's for '79 .

Fashion - Product Perfect