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Best album of the eighties? on 18:04 - Oct 10 by Monahoop
I have a large, extensive record collection, but very little stuff from the 80's. Musically [ and politically] I hated it for a number of reasons apart from the ska revival and some post punk stuff at the very turn of the decade. Nearly all genres seemed to suffer from the decades obsession with over production and the use of synths. Only BBC Radio 2 could run a mundane survey like this. For years they have been obsessed with 80's trite. That's a good enough reason for me to give it a wide birth when twiddling with the dial on the old wireless!
Yep, apart from the Blues Show with Cerys Matthews or the Rock Show with Johnny Walker.
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Best album of the eighties? on 21:01 - Oct 10 with 1769 views
Best album of the eighties? on 13:45 - Oct 10 by EastR
When you consider that 3 of the 4 members started the decade with Closer and ended it with Technique it really is impressive in terms of influence and impact.
It is and I've never thought about that. But I did spend most of that decade being obsessed with them and QPR
[Post edited 11 Oct 2020 9:22]
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Best album of the eighties? on 21:09 - Oct 10 with 1763 views
Best album of the eighties? on 15:03 - Oct 10 by francisbowles
The 80's was a very poor decade for music that seemed to get worse as it progressed. A lot of artists seemed to make their worst recordings during this period. It was the overblown production which makes the likes of Steve Winwood songs so much better now when redone than the original recordings.
There were honourable exceptions such as Deep Purple with Perfect Strangers and Rory Gallagher with Jinx and Defender, a well as London Calling and for me the best The River by the boss.
A controversial opening statement that. Luckily the many examples on this thread show it's absolute pony.
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Best album of the eighties? on 21:12 - Oct 10 with 1759 views
Best album of the eighties? on 13:45 - Oct 10 by merseyhoop
The 80s were so diverse and for me started with groups like Japan - Tin Drum, ABC - Lexicon of Love, Teardrop Explodes - Kilimanjaro onto Echo and the Bunnymen - Ocean Rain, Aztec Camera - High Land Hard Rain Simple Minds - New Gold Dream, Icicle Works , Talking Heads - Little Creatures, The The - Infected, New Order - Technique , Deacon Blue Raintown to Stone Roses and Happy Mondays Bummed.
Albums were always very personal when growing up, use to cherish the album sleeve artwork, listen to it countless times and play at full whack to wind your parents up.
Personally for me the best album is Stone Roses with New Order Technique & The The Infected close behind.
Infected is a wonderful album. Matt Johnson actually did a video album of that which was quite ahead of its time.
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Best album of the eighties? on 21:17 - Oct 10 with 1753 views
And Bowles is onside, Swinburne has come rushing out of his goal , what can Bowles do here , onto the left foot no, on to the right foot
That’s there that’s two, and that’s Bowles
Brian Moore
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Best album of the eighties? on 22:53 - Oct 10 with 1693 views
Kate Bush. Only artist I can think of who was in her 20s in the decade, a star throughout, and still producing great stuff 40 years later. Also primarily an albums artist (not just as opposed to singles, but as in each disk is a collection of work that belongs together).
Anything by, really, but Hounds of Love is her definitive 80s album and slap in the middle of the decade.
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Best album of the eighties? on 00:30 - Oct 11 with 1629 views
Kings of the Wild Frontier - Adam and the Ants Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel Like Gangbusters - JoBoxers Steeltown - Big Country Sons and Fascination/Sister Feelings Call - Simple Minds Shakespeare Alabama - Diesel Park West The Colour of Spring - Talk Talk Spirit of Eden - Talk Talk The Best of Altered Images - Altered Images East Side Story - Squeeze This Is The Sea - The Waterboys La Folie - The Stranglers Document - REM Kite - Kirsty MacColl A Walk Across The Rooftops - The Blue Nile Hats - The Blue Nile The Rise and Fall - Madness
All magnificent.
But the Mother, Father and all the saints above, below, sideways, diagonally and horizontally of the 1980’s is the work of f ucking art know as:
English Settlement by XTC.
Beautiful, gorgeous , annoying, too long but just right. It’s not not perfect but it’s The Right Answer.
Thank you and Goodnight.
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Best album of the eighties? on 07:49 - Oct 11 with 1590 views
I still listen to Sly & Robbie and one of my favourites is A Dub Experience.
Also, one of their great projects was Grace Jones. I still listen to the Compass Point Sessions to this day but that's a compilation so I'll go for Slave to the Rythm.
JTQ still does it for me so I'll have Wait a Minute.
Best album of the eighties? on 21:09 - Oct 10 by CroydonCaptJack
A controversial opening statement that. Luckily the many examples on this thread show it's absolute pony.
Well it's all about opinions, what kind of ears you have(Lol) and maybe what is the norm for different generations.
However, I'm not the only one who thinks it on this thread and lots of musicians who have been around from the 70s or earlier and are still performing, like Graham Parker and Andy Fairweather Low have been quite vocal about the 80s when talking over their experiences. Some of their recordings from that period were damaged by the overblown production and what was then new technology. Added to that many of the early CDs don't sound too clever, something to do with drums too high in the mix and cymbals sounding tinny, leading to digital fatigue and hence the huge number of remastered versions since released.
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Best album of the eighties? on 12:12 - Oct 11 with 1475 views
Best album of the eighties? on 11:40 - Oct 11 by francisbowles
Well it's all about opinions, what kind of ears you have(Lol) and maybe what is the norm for different generations.
However, I'm not the only one who thinks it on this thread and lots of musicians who have been around from the 70s or earlier and are still performing, like Graham Parker and Andy Fairweather Low have been quite vocal about the 80s when talking over their experiences. Some of their recordings from that period were damaged by the overblown production and what was then new technology. Added to that many of the early CDs don't sound too clever, something to do with drums too high in the mix and cymbals sounding tinny, leading to digital fatigue and hence the huge number of remastered versions since released.
Well maybe of you had added "in my opinion" it may have softened the blow a bit as you are right about it all being about opinions. I often find people who like seventies rock music with technically proficient musicians often look down on 80s music and dance music. Being technically proficient isn't the only thing that matters, sometimes people just like to feel the music and like it to have some soul.
[Post edited 11 Oct 2020 14:53]
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Best album of the eighties? on 15:14 - Oct 11 with 1417 views
Best album of the eighties? on 14:40 - Oct 11 by CroydonCaptJack
Well maybe of you had added "in my opinion" it may have softened the blow a bit as you are right about it all being about opinions. I often find people who like seventies rock music with technically proficient musicians often look down on 80s music and dance music. Being technically proficient isn't the only thing that matters, sometimes people just like to feel the music and like it to have some soul.
[Post edited 11 Oct 2020 14:53]
Everything on here is 'in my opinion' on behalf of the poster, so I didn't feel the need to add that.
However, you are correct about me liking 70s rock music and on the whole I am not keen on the 80s or dance music. I do however, like many genres most Jazz and Folk, some Country, a little Reggae, some Soul, I can appreciate Classical but I mostly love Blues, Rock and Rock n roll.
All music has soul, some more than others but that may well be in the opinion of the musician or listener. A lot of the technically proficient musicians have/had a lot of feel or soul in their playing, Pete Green and Paul Kossoff are just a couple of examples.
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Best album of the eighties? on 15:19 - Oct 11 with 1411 views
Best album of the eighties? on 15:14 - Oct 11 by francisbowles
Everything on here is 'in my opinion' on behalf of the poster, so I didn't feel the need to add that.
However, you are correct about me liking 70s rock music and on the whole I am not keen on the 80s or dance music. I do however, like many genres most Jazz and Folk, some Country, a little Reggae, some Soul, I can appreciate Classical but I mostly love Blues, Rock and Rock n roll.
All music has soul, some more than others but that may well be in the opinion of the musician or listener. A lot of the technically proficient musicians have/had a lot of feel or soul in their playing, Pete Green and Paul Kossoff are just a couple of examples.
You make some good points but to be clear I wasn't specifically accusing you of being elitist. It was just an observation of what I have often experienced.
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Best album of the eighties? on 15:51 - Oct 11 with 1395 views
Of course it's all about taste. I have been trying to shift all my old vinyl and loads of CDs that I know longer find worth keeping and subconsciously have got rid of virtually everything I have from the 80's whilst keeping the majority from the 70's and 90's. This is not any sort of gauge or is it? Rush's Permanent Waves/Moving Pictures Big Country's Steeltown are about it. Bands like Simple Minds and U2 whom I saw live a few times now somehow seem lame. There are many bands whose 70's stuff is miles better than their next decade of material. If I here them on the radio I generally don't turn it off but wouldn't go out of my way to listen either. If this makes any sense.
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Best album of the eighties? on 15:51 - Oct 11 with 1394 views
I'd suggest it was decades of 2 halves. For me soul and RnB of the first half of the 60's was infinitely better than the late 60's hippie stuff. Likewise, I found the second of the 70's with the emergence of punk was much more interesting than the first half, but recognise that was solely personal taste. I think that 80's was a much more interesting decade of music, but again had more a feel of two halves with the emergence of Synth pop and letter Techno, New Wave, New Romantics and Ska in the first half, before indie pop, Madchester and Hip Hop (Straight Outta Compton and 3 Feet High and Rising both issued in the late 80's) arrived to save us all from the banality of Stock Aitkin Waterman.
The 90's seemed to be arguably less innovative perhaps than the 80's, again there seems to be an element of when "the industry" takes over each time in telling us what is good and seeking to designate what we should be listening for. As Buggles would have it, video killed the radio star, and with the arrival of MTV that seems to have become increasingly true from that point on.
As for best album of the 80's I don't think its possible to say definitively there was a single one. There was just lots of very good new music, often influenced by what went before, but probably touched more people as so many genres emerged than ever before or since.
Was Joshua Tree a great album, it was certainly very good and it was a band coming to terms with maturing into themselves whilst trying to absorb America. But was it better than the other 6 albums that U2 released in the 80's? I think I prefer Unforgettable Fire as the point in which U2 used Eno's input to stretch them into creating a more polished and coherent album.
Never knowingly understood
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Best album of the eighties? on 17:26 - Oct 11 with 1363 views
I dont think any decade even comes close to the wonderful music of the1960's not sure why that is and that's not to say there hasnt been great stuff since but from 1962 to 1975 surely was the golden era of rock,pop.soul etc
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Best album of the eighties? on 23:32 - Oct 11 with 1277 views
Best album of the eighties? on 18:04 - Oct 10 by Monahoop
I have a large, extensive record collection, but very little stuff from the 80's. Musically [ and politically] I hated it for a number of reasons apart from the ska revival and some post punk stuff at the very turn of the decade. Nearly all genres seemed to suffer from the decades obsession with over production and the use of synths. Only BBC Radio 2 could run a mundane survey like this. For years they have been obsessed with 80's trite. That's a good enough reason for me to give it a wide birth when twiddling with the dial on the old wireless!
It was my decade. I was 18 in 1981. I should love its music but at the time I didn't.
I may have been sort of spoiled for it by having older brothers old enough to be into Bowie/Roxy and punk respectively. In hindsight I see a lot of the 80s was better than I thought at the time, there's some great albums in this thread. But mainly the stuff I love from the 80s and 90s, the songs that were the soundtrack of my life, were singles and often by people no-one will mark down as great artists. 99 Luftballons, Torn, What's Up (aka What's Going On), Anchored Down In Anchorage - I never bought the albums of any of those.
I kinda envy QPRXTC because he found a great band that he'd probably buy every album, go to every tour. Kate Bush was mine but she never toured and took years to put out an album.
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