Animals by Pink Floyd
The forgotten masterpiece between DSotM, WYWH and The Wall and a masterpiece it is with three very long tracks and the longest track of all (Dogs) is the best. Very beautiful guitar parts and the album goes from the 25th to the 5th rank.
An album on my wishlist and again one on Roma's list (nr 1046):
Rough Mix by Pete Townshend And Ronnie Lane
An album from two veterans of the sixties, Pete Townshend of The Who and Ronnie Lane of The Faces. In contradiction to Roma I like the Townshend songs best but all in all a good album which lands at the 41st rank of the year.
Outlandos D'Amour by The Police
For me a classic not only because it contains the absolutely wonderful you don't know why you like them but you love them So Lonely, Roxanne Can't Stand Losing You but also because the rest is great. The Police were a defining band at the end of the seventies and the beginning of the eighties, not in the least because of this album. And it goes from the 13th to the 3rd rank of the year.
An album on my wishlist:
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Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts by The Adverts
A fairly common British punk album with Gary Gilmore's Eyes as the hit but which isn't so much different from the rest. All in all an ok album but nothing more and lands at the 29th rank.
Tusk by Fleetwood Mac
Of course I adore Rumours as the true classic it is. And this double album is the follow up and completely different. It is totally Lyndsey Buckingham's album and fairly experimental but somehow I don't really like his approach. Of course the title track is great and there are some other good tracks on it and in that way still earns to be in my year chart. But I don't think it will ever be a favorite of mine although it moves from the 54th tot the 41st rank.
An album on my wishlist:
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Teenage Head by Teenage Head
A punk band of Canada that I had never heard of so I don't know how it landed in my wishlist. This is fairly common punk: maybe the songs are a bit too long to be really punk; The lyrics are awful and maybe their sound becomes a bit repetitive after a while especially at the second half of the album; and the production is not really good. So all fairly negative points and it still got to my year chart at rank 27. Why: because the songs are overall catchy enough that's why.
Seventeen Seconds by The Cure
I don't know what better album to enter the eighties than this one which is all about atmospherics. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. The bad thing is that a number of the tracks here are not really good but absolutely contribute positively to the album vibe which means that in the way I score my albums this one can't get a very high one which is a pity because it is some kind of a classic, even if there two tracks here that are absolute favorites of mine: Play For Today and of course A Forest. To me this is the perfect new wave song in which the build-up and the way the song sizzles into oblivion at the end is just masterclass. And the middle part is even better. Sorry but I can't vote it higher than the 16th rank of the year (which is of course one of the best in musical history) coming from the 38th.
And for the albums on my wishlist I have, of course to refer, to repo/Jeff's latest posts on this year and two albums I had even never heard of justed screamed for my attention and to me they are two complete opposites in a certain sense:
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Inside My Brain by Angry Samoans
This punk album was over before I knew it because it has only 6 tracks and lasts for 10 minutes. This is one of those records that never reached the European continent (at least I think so) and I must say that by listening to it, it didn't really blow me away. Of course it's fairly good and with that length it simply cannot be boring and it earns it's 28th rank but no more than that.
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Have An Idea by The Heats
This album is the opposite in the sense that it's got 13 tracks and to me it drags itself to the end. I didn't really like the album as a whole and to me this is more pop than power and only gets to the 52nd rank of the year.
So for me two not really essential albums of 1980 so sorry Jeff. But of course many others on your current list are essentials which is certainly the case for Seventeen Seconds.
My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts by Brian Eno & David Byrne
I know this album already for a long time and it has really grown on me although I liked the album better than the actual songs if that makes any sense. But I played it again and in fact all but maybe the last four track are actually great. In some tracks like Help Me Somebody and The Jezebel Spirit are a good as on the best Talking Head albums and also the more world music songs are actually world class so the the album moves from the 41st to the 15th rank.
An album on my wishlist and nr 338 from Roma's diary:
Pirates by Rickie Lee Jones
RLJ's second album after the very succesful self-titled one which also featured her greatest hit: Chuck E.'s In Love. But this one also has two semi-hits: Woody And Dutch On the Slow Train To Peking (it's in any case sometimes played on Belgian radio) and Pirates which I like best. RLJ has one of the best voices under this sun and she can use it to all means: jazzy, soulful or just poppy. But somehow I'm not completely convinced and most of the songs especially the ones on the second half are a bit underwhelming: so a near miss.
Land Speed Record by Hüsker Dü
OK I admit this is by no means even a good album if not for it's historic value. I'm a great fan of Hüsker Dü and this first EP (even if it has seventeen tracks) is just a muddled mess of very short tracks which just pass by at a high speed but are not very interesting yet. Maybe with one exception: Data Control is not only the longest track with over 5 minutes but also their best. It still ends up at the 53rd and lowest rank of the year but it just has to be part of my year chart because this is just the start of a great career of one of the best bands ever.
An album on my wishlist and another one from Roma's blog on nr 923:
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Call Of The West by Wall Of Voodoo
Unfortunately I had to revert to Youtube to listen to this album but it was worth it. Of course, like nearly everybody, I know Mexican Radio and I even heard some other tracks of this album before but I should have made the effort to listen to this album earlier in my life because it's the weirdest trip but every tracks is worth it. Of course the very distinctive but fantastic voice of Stan Ridgeway plays a large role in this. Like Roma says: spaghetti western atmospheres are never far but the way it is used here is just great. A good album for the 12th rank of the year.
Just an aside: after I listened to Call Of The West Youtube advised me to listen to this live version of Gouge Away:
which features a very long version of that great bass intro (not even played by Kim Deal: I should be ashamed of myself). But in whatever version: isn't this the greatest single most addictive bass intro ever? And while I'm in the Kim Deal subject: and the intro of Cannonball the most inventive.
Piece Of Mind by Iron Maiden
One of the albums from the golden period of Iron Maiden although it's generally viewed as the lesser one of that period. But I don't really agree and even I underrated this album previously as tracks like Die With Your Boots on are easily underrated but this track is in fact very multi-layered (don't laugh) and is every bit as epic as a lot of the Maiden classics. And there are of course the real classic: The Trooper and Flight Of Icarus and To Tame A Land. So the album moves up from the 6th to the 3rd rank.
An album on my wishlist:
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Secret Messages by Electric Light Orchestra
There's the hits: the title track, Rock'n Roll Is King and Four Little Diamonds are all fairly good, but I think that most of the critics got it right: this album completely not in the same league as the former albums. While those albums shone with their lush orchestration the synths here sound very cheap. It was originally meant as a double album and that's (about) the version I listened to but most of the extras are complete filler except maybe for the last long track Hello My Old Friend and it's a pity this didn't feature on the original album. So all in all just but only just good enough to be included in my year chart of 1983 at rank 34.
Have An Idea by The Heats
This album is the opposite in the sense that it's got 13 tracks and to me it drags itself to the end. I didn't really like the album as a whole and to me this is more pop than power and only gets to the 52nd rank of the year.
So for me two not really essential albums of 1980 so sorry Jeff. But of course many others on your current list are essentials which is certainly the case for Seventeen Seconds.
Wow! So surprising. Thought for sure you'd like this one, Dihansse! Thanks for trying!!! 😁
Sparkle In The Rain by Simple Minds
In those times there was a real competition between U2 and Simple Minds: both had charismatic and good singers and tried to accomodated to stadion rock festivals and did very well at that. And it's clear which one of the two bands who won and it's still unclear to me why Jimm Kerr ran away with Chrissie Hynde and not Bono 😉 .
To me New Gold Dream was great but this follow-up a bit less just because of the fact that the songs are a bit less memorable. Nevertheless the album goes from the 38th to the 29th rank.
An album on my wishlist:
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The Strange Idols Pattern And Other Short Stories by Felt
There are two Felt albums of this year on my wishlist and this is one of them. The voice of the singer is to me nearly exactly like Tom Verlaine and the fact that the guitar playing is also fairly special is another link to Television All in all I like the jangly songs here but the instrumental inbetweens a bit less. Good for the 20th rank of the year.
After a bit of holidays in hot Corfu here are my entries for 1985:
First an album I already own:
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Rain Dogs by Tom Waits
In general this is not the Tom Waits I love mosts because here he uses his raspy voice as an addition to fairly basic sounds of the other instruments. The most immediate songs are also the best: Downtown Train and Hang Down Your Head. So the album only moves from the 31st to the 27th rank.
Then an album on my wishlist from an album I already know most of the songs of:
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Easy Pieces by Lloyd Cole And The Commotions
Nothing can match Rattlesnakes but this album also stands out from the main crowd. Maybe a little more polished but that doesn't hurt most of the songs especially since Lloyd Cole's voice shines once more. Quite a number of these tracks were hits or semi-hits in Belgium: Lost Weekend, Rich, Pretty Gone and Brand New Friend and they're all very fine songs. In fact the only miss on the album is James. So no wonder this album immediately enters at the 9th rank of the year.
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