Music: Best Albums of the Year Series: 1984

[Langdon Alger]

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

Damn right it did. That’s a good album.

 

[cupcrazyman]

Bruce Springsteen-Born In The USA
U2-The Unforgettable Fire
Van Halen-1984
The Cars-Heatbeat City
Tina Turner-Private Dancer
Run-DMC -Run DMC
Frankie Goes To Hollywood-Welcome To The Pleasure Dome

 

[Cas]

I think I voted for more releases in this poll than any previous one:

Bathory - Bathory
Celtic Frost - Morbid Tales
Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Judas Priest - Defenders of the Faith
Mercyful Fate - Don't Break the Oath
Metallica - Ride the Lightning
Rush - Grace Under Pressure

To those, I would want to add:

Cirith Ungol - King of the Dead
Dio - The Last in Line
Hellhammer - Apocalyptic Raids
Jag Panzer - Ample Destruction
Manowar - Hail to England and Sign of the Hammer
Metal Church - Metal Church
Queensryche - The Warning
Running Wild - Gates of Purgatory and Victim of States Power EP
Saint Vitus - Saint Vitus
Slayer - Haunting the Chapel EP and Live Undead
Sodom - In the Sign of Evil EP
Trouble - Psalm 9

This was a great year for early black metal (Celtic Frost, Hellhammer, Sodom, and Bathory), thrash metal (Metallica and Slayer), and traditional heavy metal, with some burgeoning doom as well (Trouble, Saint Vitus). But my favorite release of the year was Mercyful Fate - Don't Break the Oath.

View media item 8067
This was from Halloween years ago.

 

[Saturated Fats]

This was one of the most active and participated-in polls of the entire series thusfar. Awesome.

I personally dug a little deeper this year, as it was a year I was unfamiliar with. Outstanding year for metal, even for someone like me who is a little less in love with the mainstream/thrash stuff. But it was just a really fantastic year for pop music, if I'm being honest. Prince at his pinnacle; Bruce, REM, Depeche Mode, The Replacements with some peak albums. But I went back and listened to The Unforgettable Fire this week, and was reminded just how friggin' good that five-album run from U2 was. And, at the same time, I was reminded how sad it is that they suck so much ass nowadays. Because, holy man, that run from War/The Unforgettable Fire/The Joshua Tree/Rattle & Hum/Achtung, Baby! was about as good as post-70's rock and roll gets. So, for me, it just edges out pioneering hardcore classic Double Nickels on the Dime.

My Top 10

U2 - The Unforgettable Fire
Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime

Prince and the Revolution - Purple Rain
The Fall - The Wonderful, Frightening World of The Fall
The Blue Nile - A Walk Across the Rooftops
Saint Vitus - Saint Vitus
Swans - Cop
Bathory - Bathory
Dead Can Dance - Dead Can Dance
Metallica - Ride the Lightning