"Transitional" is what I said! It's got some of the miserabilism of "Movement" and some of the hedonism of later New Order. "Our love is like the flowers" is not a line Ian Curtis was ever going to come up with! Age Of Consent is upbeat! etc.
― Zelda Zonk, Friday, 21 November 2008 16:03 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah, upbeat with that extended fadeout of "I've lost you"...
― What a broad smile! It is like a delta! (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 21 November 2008 16:09 (fifteen years ago) link
x-post -- Fair enough, but for a sec I'm all, "Wait, WHAT?"
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 21 November 2008 16:10 (fifteen years ago) link
Because nothing's more pop hedonist than an album with that name!
'Hedon the Door'?
― NickB, Friday, 21 November 2008 16:21 (fifteen years ago) link
Blueski's list of good songs is impressive!
I really like 'owner of a lonely heart'.
― the pinefox, Friday, 21 November 2008 16:34 (fifteen years ago) link
thread is total bullshit. I mean, yeah interesting things weren't on the radio and a small group of bands in the UK started putting out crap, but so what? albums I still listen to from '83, some of 'em all-time favorites:
butthole surfers - a brown reason to livesonic youth - confusion is sexthe fall - perverted by languagethe fall - in a holeglenn branca - symphony no 1birthday party - mutiny / the bad seedswans - filthrem - murmureinsturzende neubauten - drawing of patient o.t.rudimentary peni - death churchthe cramps - smell of femalemisfits - earth adsuicidal tendencies - s/tminutemen - what makes a man start fires?husker du - everything falls apartcreatures - feastbig black - bulldozerthe comes - no side
also stuff by jandek, the ex, daniel johnston, harmonic choir, etc etc
and this happenedhttp://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/s365578.jpg
― Edward III, Friday, 21 November 2008 16:41 (fifteen years ago) link
You're missing the point. The point was that there were some quirky things getting into the UK charts in the early eighties, but then by 1983 or thereabouts that didn't happen so much. Which may or may not be true, but there is no parallel universe in which Jandek or Daniel Johnston were storming the charts in 1983.
― Zelda Zonk, Friday, 21 November 2008 16:52 (fifteen years ago) link
In other words, none of the above was happening VISIBLY, whereas a year earlier they might have done.
― What a broad smile! It is like a delta! (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 21 November 2008 16:54 (fifteen years ago) link
In the US, I think the decline started a bit later - around 1985.
― o. nate, Friday, 21 November 2008 16:55 (fifteen years ago) link
(I mean the decline in Top 40 radio - not talking about small, independent releases.)
― o. nate, Friday, 21 November 2008 16:57 (fifteen years ago) link
A song like Ashes To Ashes is a good example I think. A number one in 1980. Could a song like that - with its Kafka-quoting lyrics, its ghostly, treated piano sound - have got to number one a few years later? Bowie obviously didn't think so when he released Let's Dance.
― Zelda Zonk, Friday, 21 November 2008 17:07 (fifteen years ago) link
there is no parallel universe in which Jandek or Daniel Johnston were storming the charts in 1983
it's right here inside my head. also in this universe stan brakhage's the garden of earthly delights outgrosses return of the jedi.
― Edward III, Friday, 21 November 2008 18:28 (fifteen years ago) link
When I look at the overall number of great releases, it was a slump for sure. But I certainly didn't think it at the time. As a tweener kid, I was was just discovering how much there was beyond Queen and Rush, but was enjoying a wide spectrum, from Iron Maiden, Metallica, Slayer, Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Accept, Dio, The Fixx and Cheap Trick on one end to R.E.M., Tom Waits, Bad Brains, U2, Violent Femmes, Social Distortion, Minutemen, Husker Du, X, The Fall, The Wipers, Big Black, Talking Heads, Kid Creole, Lou Reed, Suburbs, Pretenders, Shriekback, Big Country, Minor Threat, Birthday Party, James Blood Ulmer, King Sunny Ade, etc. on the other.
― Fastnbulbous, Friday, 21 November 2008 19:07 (fifteen years ago) link
Boring Pazz & Jop results imo.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 1 November 2019 02:02 (four years ago) link