Music: Best Albums of the Year Series: 1984

[Saturated Fats]

1965: The Beatles - Rubber Soul
1966: The Beatles - Revolver
1967: The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
1969: The Beatles - Abbey Road
1970: Black Sabbath - Paranoid
1971: Led Zeppelin - IV
1973: Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
1975: Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
1977: Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
1979: Pink Floyd - The Wall
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
1989: Pixies - Doolittle
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
1999: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
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
2014: Behemoth - The Satanist

2005: Coldplay - X & Y (7 votes)

2nd Place (TIE): Kanye West - Late Registration (6 votes)
2nd Place (TIE): The White Stripes - Get Behind Me, Satan
4th Place (TIE): The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute (5 votes)
4th Place (TIE): The National - Alligator

Well, I can honestly say I'm surprised by this one. Considering their two earlier (and I'd argue, significantly better) albums didn't really get much love in the 2000 and 2002 polls, I didn't really think X & Y would get much attention. I do genuinely appreciate Coldplay, and recognize that there are some beautiful songs on the album, but I'm having a bit of a tough time with this one. Ah, democracy!

1984 doesn't really feel like the best year in terms of quality, but there is some depth and definitely some works that are part of the popular canon. I think I can foresee a winner based on voting trends, but we'll see. I've been surprised before

9/27: 2011
9/29: 1972
10/01: 1992

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[Eisen]

Twisted Sister - Stay Hungry
Dio - The last in Line
New Model Army - Vengeance
Hanoi Rocks - Two Steps from the Move

84 is a great year for me.

I wouldn't be surprised if Ride the Lightning wins this.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Again, I didn't have the time I wanted to go back to the albums, so the ranking is approximative and done on memory. The pace of these polls is just a little too fast for me right now!

1. Ghédalia Tazartès – Une éclipse totale de soleil
2. Boyd Rice & Frank Tovey – Easy Listening for the Hard of Hearing
3. Swans – Cop / Swans – Young God
4. Butthole Surfers – Psychic...Powerless...Another Man's Sac
5. Violent Femmes – Hallowed Ground
6. Current 93 – Dogs Blood Rising / Current 93 – Nature Unveiled (Nature Unveiled would have made for an amazing horror film soundtrack)
7. Nick Cave Featuring The Bad Seeds – From Her to Eternity
8. XTC – The Big Express
9. Test Dept – Beating the Retreat
10. The Fall – The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall

HMs:
Bérurier Noir – Macadam Massacre
Black Flag – My War
The Young Fresh Fellows – The Fabulous Sounds of the Pacific Northwest
Flipper – Gone Fishin'
John Zorn & Sato Michihiro – Ganryu Island
Hüsker Dü – Zen Arcade
Voivod – War and Pain
Meat Puppets – Meat Puppets II
Celtic Frost – Morbid Tales
The Cars – Heartbeat City

Curiosities:
Lizzy Mercier Descloux – Zulu Rock (ambitious mix of French pop and African influences – would love to like it, but I kind of hate it)
The Royal Family and the Poor – The Project, Phase 1: The Temple of the 13th Tribe
Minutemen – Double Nickels on the Dime
The Style Council – Café Bleu
Psychic TV – Those Who Do Not
Coil – Scatology (almost great, but some of those 80s feels and sonorities kind of kill it for me)
The Durutti Column – Without Mercy (same)
Danielle Dax – Jesus Egg That Wept (another one that could have been.... what is it about the 80s shitty sound?)
History of Unheard Music – History of Unheard Music (rare and amateurish and crazy, often interesting)
The Art of Noise – Who’s Afraid of the Art of Noise?

 

[Smelling Salt]

Also:

Bryan Adams - Reckless
Madonna - Like a Virgin
Honeymoon Suite - Honeymoon Suite
Wham - Make It Big
Footloose - Soundtrack
Ratt - Out of the Cellar
Chicago - 17
Duran Duran - Arena (maybe doesn't count)

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Ahah, I love that Celtic Frost is a poll option, but not Madonna, Bryan Adams or Wham!

 

[Saturated Fats]

Ahah, I love that Celtic Frost is a poll option, but not Madonna, Bryan Adams or Wham!

Gotta play to the audience!

 

[Mescaleroman]

Echo & the Bunnymen - Ocean Rain
Billy Bragg - Brewing Up With Billy Bragg
the Style Council - Cafe Bleu
Aztec Camera - Knife
the Bluebells - Sisters
the Pale Fountains - Pacific Street
Lloyd Cole & the Commotions - Rattlesnakes
Talk Talk - It's My Life
Husker Du - Zen Arcade
the Replacements - Let It Be

HM' s

the Pretenders - Learning to Crawl
Hoodoo Guru's - Stoneage Romeo
the Waterboys - A Pagan Place
the Stranglers - Aural Sculpture
the Cramps - Bad Music for Bad People

 

[frisco]

Other than Born In The USA, Unforgettable Fire, Reckoning:
The Works-Queen
This Is Spinal Tap-Spinal Tap
Talk Show-The Go-Go's
Self Control-Laura Branigan
Caught In The Act-Styx
Street Talk-Steve Perry
The Swing-INXS
Hard To Hold Soundtrack-Rick Springfield
Signs Of Life-Billy Squier
Desert Moon-Dennis DeYoung
Girls With Guns-Tommy Shaw
Red Sails In The Sunset-Midnight Oil
Vital Signs-Survivor
Big Bam Boom-Hall And Oates
Agent Provocateur-Foreigner
Remote Luxury-The Church
All I Need-Jack Wagner

My Best-Carey

 

[Oxbow Lakes]

Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime
REM - Reckoning
Hüsker Du - Zen Arcade
Prince - Purple Rain
The Fall - The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall
Meat Puppets - Meat Puppets II
Metallica - Ride the Lightning

 

[WetcoastOrca]

In other I’d add:
Billy Idol: Rebel Yell
Scorpions: Love at First Sting
Pretenders: Learning to Crawl

 

[MoreOrr]

Stealing Fire - Bruce Cockburn

 

[reckoning]

1. Reckoning - R.E.M.
2. The Unforgettable Fire - U2
3. Learning To Crawl - Pretenders (not on poll)
4. Let It Be - Replacements
5. Valotte - Julian Lennon (not on poll)

This was the year that I started working part-time on weekends and finally had some money to spend on stuff like records. A lot of the albums I listened to back then aren't the same type of music I listen to today, but I still love the five albums listed above. The top two would make my top five of the decade.

At the time I listened to Springsteen's Born In The U.S.A. more than any other album, but today (while I don't hate it) I'd rate it as of one of his weakest albums from that era. Blue collar rock shouldn't sound slick and over-produced.

And while I love Prince as much as anybody, a lot of Purple Rain sounds dated today. "When Doves Cry" is brilliant, but a lot of the stuff on the album like the sermon at the start of "Let's Go Crazy", the Wendy/Lisa dialogue in "Computer Blue" or the backwards message at the end of "Darling Nikki" sound somewhat silly 36 years later.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Flipped a coin between Ride the Lightning and Purple Rain

 

[Roo Returns]

Monster year for music and monster year for movies. The question is; which one was better?

 

[Smelling Salt]

All I Need-Jack Wagner

A guilty pleasure of mine

 

[plank]

Have I told you people how much I hate 80's music, and cars, and fashion, and hairstyles! I lived it people, it was a shitty* decade. Still found a few albums to like in this especially shitty* year

1. The Unforgettable Fire - U2
2. New Sensations - Lou Reed
3. How Will the Wolf Survive - Los Lobos
4. Learning to Crawl - Pretenders
5. Reckoning - REM
6. Couldn't Stand the Weather - Stevie Ray Vaughan
7. Double Nickels On the Dime - The Minutemen
8. 1984 - Van Halen( Jump is the worst DLR song ever)
9. Slide It In - Whitesnake
10. Warrior - Scandal
11. Word of Mouth - The Kinks

love Bruce, hate Born in the U.S.A.

*shitty is comparatively speaking

 

[Teemu]

Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime
The Replacements - Let It Be
Husker Du - Zen Arcade
Prince and the Revolution - Purple Rain
R.E.M. - Reckoning
Talking Heads – Stop Making Sense
Van Halen - 1984

 

[Eisen]

Again, I didn't have the time I wanted to go back to the albums, so the ranking is approximative and done on memory. The pace of these polls is just a little too fast for me right now!

1. Ghédalia Tazartès – Une éclipse totale de soleil
2. Boyd Rice & Frank Tovey – Easy Listening for the Hard of Hearing
3. Swans – Cop / Swans – Young God
4. Butthole Surfers – Psychic...Powerless...Another Man's Sac
5. Violent Femmes – Hallowed Ground
6. Current 93 – Dogs Blood Rising / Current 93 – Nature Unveiled (Nature Unveiled would have made for an amazing horror film soundtrack)
7. Nick Cave Featuring The Bad Seeds – From Her to Eternity
8. XTC – The Big Express
9. Test Dept – Beating the Retreat
10. The Fall – The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall

HMs:
Bérurier Noir – Macadam Massacre
Black Flag – My War
The Young Fresh Fellows – The Fabulous Sounds of the Pacific Northwest
Flipper – Gone Fishin'
John Zorn & Sato Michihiro – Ganryu Island
Hüsker Dü – Zen Arcade
Voivod – War and Pain
Meat Puppets – Meat Puppets II
Celtic Frost – Morbid Tales
The Cars – Heartbeat City

Curiosities:
Lizzy Mercier Descloux – Zulu Rock (ambitious mix of French pop and African influences – would love to like it, but I kind of hate it)
The Royal Family and the Poor – The Project, Phase 1: The Temple of the 13th Tribe
Minutemen – Double Nickels on the Dime
The Style Council – Café Bleu
Psychic TV – Those Who Do Not
Coil – Scatology (almost great, but some of those 80s feels and sonorities kind of kill it for me)
The Durutti Column – Without Mercy (same)
Danielle Dax – Jesus Egg That Wept (another one that could have been.... what is it about the 80s shitty sound?)
History of Unheard Music – History of Unheard Music (rare and amateurish and crazy, often interesting)
The Art of Noise – Who’s Afraid of the Art of Noise?

I always find your lists very interesting because there are often bands I never heard about. That being said, I can't even begin to say how much I hate Current 93. I think it's the only band that makes me aggressive when I have to listen to it.

Edit: thinking about it, that's not true. There are a lot of recent mainstream pop acts that have a similar effect on me for different reasons.

 

[Eisen]

Have I told you people how much I hate 80's music, and cars, and fashion, and hairstyles! I lived it people, it was a shitty* decade. Still found a few albums to like in this especially shitty* year

1. The Unforgettable Fire - U2
2. New Sensations - Lou Reed
3. How Will the Wolf Survive - Los Lobos
4. Learning to Crawl - Pretenders
5. Reckoning - REM
6. Couldn't Stand the Weather - Stevie Ray Vaughan
7. Double Nickels On the Dime - The Minutemen
8. 1984 - Van Halen( Jump is the worst DLR song ever)
9. Slide It In - Whitesnake
10. Warrior - Scandal
11. Word of Mouth - The Kinks

love Bruce, hate Born in the U.S.A.

*shitty is comparatively speaking

DLR = Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt?

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

I always find your lists very interesting because there are often bands I never heard about. That being said, I can't even begin to say how much I hate Current 93. I think it's the only band that makes me aggressive when I have to listen to it.

Edit: thinking about it, that's not true. There are a lot of recent mainstream pop acts that have a similar effect on me for different reasons.

There's quite a few albums by Current 93 that I hate too. Probably one of the less consistent avant-garde act, but I think their 2 albums here are among their top ones. [Intertextual anecdote: echoing the Jesus [...] Wept album by Danielle Dax, there's a moment in the Current 93 Dogs Blood Rising album that goes "Jesus wept, Jesus wept [...] Jeessuuus weeeeeeeept" that is feakin' chilling. I don't care about the Bible, to me this is a Hellraiser line, but it's even more effective here.]

[31:50-32:20]


I'm glad you find stuff to have fun with in these lists, I always include the "curiosities" in case some readers would like to explore stuff that I don't necessarily enjoy myself but are still of interest.

 

[Eisen]

There's quite a few albums by Current 93 that I hate too. Probably one of the less consistent avant-garde act, but I think their 2 albums here are among their top ones. [Intertextual anecdote: echoing the Jesus [...] Wept album by Danielle Dax, there's a moment in the Current 93 Dogs Blood Rising album that goes "Jesus wept, Jesus wept [...] Jeessuuus weeeeeeeept" that is feakin' chilling. I don't care about the Bible, to me this is a Hellraiser line, but it's even more effective here.]

[31:50-32:20]


I'm glad you find stuff to have fun with in these lists, I always include the "curiosities" in case some readers would like to explore stuff that I don't necessarily enjoy myself but are still of interest.

You are right, for a horror movie they wouldn't be bad.
Man, I have such bad memories about that band. Our whole gang on Easter holiday, listening to punk and Indie the whole day, getting caned and then one of the guys tossing in Imperium whenever we are not near the stereo and that whiny voice totally grinding my gears. Going to bed, Imperium, going to the lavatory, Imperium, doing some gardening, Imperium etc. When he found out that I hate it, he made a joke out of it.

 

[Chili]

Heartbeat City
1984
Diamond Life
Private Dancer
Unforgettable Fire

Added:

John Waite-No Brakes
Julian Lennon-Valotte

 

[Ceremony]

Hold the phone, a f***ing Coldplay album won last time? Good god.

 

[kihei]

REM: Reckoning
Jane Siberry: No Borders Here
U2: Unforgettable Fire
Talk Talk: It's My Life
Psychedelic Furs: Mirror
Public Image, Ltd: This Is What You Want...This Is What You Get
David Bowie: Tonight
The Pretenders: Learning to Crawl
Ultravox: Lament
Frankie Goes to Hollywood: Plleasure Dome/
Durutti Column: Without Mercy

 

[Ouroboros]

Roland Kayn - Tektra [Electroacoustic/Drone]
Hellhammer - Apocalyptic Raids [Thrash/Black Metal]
Die Kreuzen - Die Kreuzen [Hardcore]
Maurizio Bianchi - Armaghedon [Industrial/Drone/Ambient]
Saint Vitus - Saint Vitus [Doom Metal]
Swans - Cop [No Wave/Noise Rock]
Ingram Marshall - Fog Tropes/Gradual Requiem [Minimalism/Ambient]
Slayer - Haunting The Chapel [Thrash Metal]