Now this is how it started: THE ILX 1980s ALBUM POLL RESULTS!!

91. Run-D.M.C. - Raising Hell (80 points, 10 votes)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OYwl0HsJtPc/SrjSY5EC8MI/AAAAAAAAADc/__npQdaaMHo/s400/RUN+DMC+RAISING+HELL+Cover.jpg

All of Raising Hell ... the Exile on Main Street of pop rap. Rocks in the corny charming way.

― Chris O., 8. maaliskuuta 2006 6:40

I was listening to "Peter Piper" in the car the other day v loudly when a dude on a motorcycle rode by blasting it at the exact same moment in the song. It was sorta magical.

― ENBB, 28. huhtikuuta 2009 5:38

I voted for Reign In Blood, but now that I think about it I like Raising Hell a lot more.

― fritz, 5. syyskuuta 2007 19:57

(For some reason there doesn't seem to be too many good posts about that album on ILM.)

Isn't Dazzle Ships kind of an odds-and-ends collection?

I'm not sure if I have much time to do this tomorrow, so I think I'll post 90-86 tonight too.

(x-post)

Compilations were allowed in the poll.

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too low.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzuZtOvzoQ8 for gods sake

90. Meat Puppets - Meat Puppets II (81 points, 9 votes)

http://i37.tinypic.com/1490efl.jpg

Search/Classic: Whichever album(s) have "Plateau" and "Lake of Fire." Worth it just for those songs. I'd remember the album name(s) and whether or not they're on the same album or not (I want to say they are, but that may be because Nirvana covers them both on Unplugged), but I'm on cold medication and it's all I can do to type this much with minimal interruptions of "meat puppets -- heheh, that would be funny," and then mentally assigning different kinds of meat to the various muppets.

Like Miss Piggy would have to be made of baloney, obviously. And Kermit wouldn't be meat at all, but rather those "sandwich stacker" pickles which are already sliced, neatly arranged and knitting-needled together into a more-or-less froggic shape.

So "Plateau" and "Lake of Fire," then.

― Tep (ktepi), 19. marraskuuta 2002 14:15

II is the best. "Lost" "Climbing" excellent. I talked to Curt Kirkwood a while ago, when that Eyes Adrift came out and he said that as far as he knows, II was the first record anyone made on MDMA, which would later be known as Ecstasy, for reasons still lost to me.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), 24. maaliskuuta 2003 17:53

89. Prince and the Revolution - Parade (83 points, 10 votes)

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/41/51/3589228348a088afa29d0110.L.jpg

"Mountains" was so stunning to hear on the radio back then - just utter majesty in the chorus rising up so naturally from the verses

however e'eybody otm on how Prince is mental about snow in April, when is there not at least a dusting of snow in the upper Midwest in April - April is like the month when you go "Jesus fuckin' Christ if these cold gusts don't stop frosting my nuts at the bus stop I am going to fucking kill myself" though admittedly that'd make for a much less singable chorus

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), 18. huhtikuuta 2006 16:45

that's why it's SOMETIMES it snows in april, not IT RARELY snows in april, or WOW AM I BUMMED OUT ABOUT THE FACT THAT IT snows in april. dude's just like all 'hey that's life, deal with it by painting all yr shit purple and lighting a million candles and doing kim basinger'.

― Haikunym (Haikunym), 18. huhtikuuta 2006 16:58

Guys, this is maybe the greatest album ever recorded. "Sometimes It Snows In April" is the only piece of music that has ever made me cry (lots of personal baggage attached to that) and even though I'm a massive "Alphabet St" booster, it's hard to maintain my controversial stance that "AS" is secretly the best Prince single when looking at "Kiss" and especially "Mountains".

"New Position" rocks the balls off the walls, too. Really this entire album is flawless from top to bottom, including the flaws.

― Dan (Haters Beware) Perry (Dan Perry), 18. huhtikuuta 2006 23:34

I was surprised to see Parade place so low, I though folks of ILX had lots of love for it. Personally I've always felt kinda confused by Parade: half of it is brilliant, half of it is just a bunch of undeveloped ideas. Also, I don't really like the dry sound of it, except on "Kiss", where it of course makes the song.

"Sometimes it Snows on April" is Prince's best ballad though; probably the only one of his songs that I've cried to.

'Alphabet Street' is the best Prince single!

I'm dying to know what's the album that got one #1 vote and no other votes.

Prince is going to be the Radiohead of this poll but with like 10 more albums and people being comfortable with admitting voting for him. So not Radiohead at all then. Anyway, I predict vote splitting stops Prince making the top 10.

"New Position"
"I Wonder U"
"Girls & Boys"
"Life Can Be So Nice"
"Mountains"
"Do U Lie?"
"Kiss"
"Anotherloverholenyohead"

are all jams imho.

88. Bruce Springsteen - Tunnel of Love (86 points, 7 votes)

http://images.coveralia.com/audio/b/Bruce_Springsteen-Tunnel_Of_Love-Frontal.jpg

This Springsteen album is an undeniable classic. If for no other reason than he canned the B.S., self-mythologizing and the bombast of Born in the USA and actually made some first- rate pop tunes. It's sorta the Springsteen equivalent to David Bowie's Station to Station (another after-cutting-the- crap classic).

Tunnel of Love and E-Street Shuffle are the only 2 Springsteen albums I can listen to all the way through.

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, 30. toukokuuta 2001 3:00

Apart from "Nebraska" and "....Tom Joad", "Tunnel Of Love" is the closest Bruce Springsteen ever came to a true dud.

From "Tunnel Of Love" onwards, he has sounded a bit old and tired, seemingly not any more willing to rock like he did on "Born In The USA".

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), 9. maaliskuuta 2003

I have actually changed my mind somewhat about this album. I still prefer Bruce Springsteen when he rocks, but at least some of the songs on this album are quite good. There are 2-3 exaggaratedly bluesy ones that I don't like at all, but tracks like "One Step Up" and "Where You're Alone" are really beautiful.

― Geir Hongro, 12. helmikuuta 2009 0:36

I played this album on the night before my wedding, much to the consternation of my groomsmen.

― Euler, 12. helmikuuta 2009 0:44

Yea, ILX for putting this album on the list.

Good work Tuomas, thanks for this. I'm glad to see my high placing of the Foetus and Big Black albums helped them scrape into the top 100.

87. Pet Shop Boys - Actually (86 points, 8 votes)

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8Sc1JvrfFRA/SkcOeMJllpI/AAAAAAAACRU/U7CQwACt4pM/s400/pet+shop+boys-actuallyfront.JPG

Recently put on Please and Actually for nostalgia's sake (I DID grow up in the 80s) and was surprised by how well they held up! Why do New Order get so much indie love while the Pet Shop Boys - a far better band - are comparatively ignored?

― Manalishi, 20. toukokuuta 2007 8:07

Actually is fucking brilliant. Even the songs that shouldn't work ("Shopping", "Hit Music") do.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), 5. heinäkuuta 2005 16:22

Ik stond laatst bij een concert van Miki Mikron, en die liet de naam Pet Shop Boys ergens bij een introductie vallen. En toen dacht ik: Die moet ik eens een keer live gaan zien.

Disco, Actually en Perspective zijn hele mooie popplaten, en daarna maakten ze me nog vaak aan het lachen.

― Dwars (dwars), 30. toukokuuta 2006 16:05

They were very much thought of as a 'pop group' by people when I went to school. During the year or so when I tried not to like pop music and listen to proper stuff ('87 or thereabouts) the PSBs were very much on the no-go side of the divide. Then Actually came out and I had to admit it was ace and I pretty much gave up on the whole pop-is-bad concept. I think critics started liking them because they were 'intelligent pop' at around that point. Also of course even if the "poppists" disliked the music they all loved Smash Hits so maybe there was a nuff-respect-to-Neil thing going on.

― Tom (Groke), 9. lokakuuta 2002 17:48

So far, only my #7 for Atomizer has placed, but I have a lot of respect for Prince's Parade. "Girls and Boys" is every bit the equal of "Raspberry Beret". I remember the album, however, as an overconcentration of maudlin ballads, that made this (rather than his later double albums) the definitive break in the former Artist's commercial streak. That said, if Parade makes it, so will Confrontation, 1999, Purple Rain, and Sign o' the Times at a minimum. Artist of the Decade. And I didn't vote for a single one of them.

Perhaps I'm the only one that feels about Neil Tennant's voice the way many feel about Bob Dylan's. Whatever merit the backing, or poetry/commentary have, THAT FUCKING NASAL VOICE. Couldn't they have found someone with chords that didn't grate my skin? Sorry, no love for them.

Actuallyis the first of mine to chart. I'm a little dismayed to see it so low - it's worked its way into my brain as a fundamental key to the decade.

Sorry, Ismael, I forgot to post your blurb on Actually:

"This is brilliant - you lose sight of what an unlikely record this is."

I predict vote splitting stops Prince making the top 10.

i dunno. i didn't split my prince votes. tho i didn't place parade, for reasons of consistency mentioned above. but i still had 4 prince albums in my top 15, to try balance out the no-account prince-deficient ballots.

I was actually kind of relieved.

"Raising Hell" just barely got edged out of my final ballot, glad to see it in the results.

86. Pet Shop Boys - Please (87 points, 8 votes)

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_ZC8AWOly7vE/Ruy1GTR3-wI/AAAAAAAAH34/yRmyrXwGXmY/please.jpg

Also, the Pet Shop Boys' first two album titles were conceived as elaborate jokes, as in a customer walks into a record store and asks for "The Pet Shop Boys, Please...." A year later the clerk sees the same customer and asks "You here for the new ... um ...Depeche Mode wasn't it?" The customer says, "No, The Pet Shop Boys, Actually..."

― mottdeterre, 19. marraskuuta 2009 0:37

Up to "Very" their albums got better and better, after which there was a drop in quality

I don't know - it seemed like "Please" had the best songs, followed by "Actually", followed by "Introspective" - I still have those three on cassette. After that I stopped listening to them much.

― o. nate (onate), 14. kesäkuuta 2005 20:58

Voted for Please cuz I heard it most recently, on the strength of "Two Divided By Zero," "Why Don't We Live Together?" and, oh yeah, the singles.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, 6. marraskuuta 2007 14:52

I forgot to put Actually in my list, I think Very and Behaviour are better albums but this is almost perfect. One of those albums where just about every song could have been a single. Rent has to be one of the most perfect songs to ever make the top ten.

i didn't even realise that they put out albums, i always thought they only had singles...

something tells me just-ice won't make the list :(

And that is it for tonight, most likely I'll continue the countdown tomorrow evening. I leave you to comment on #86-#100.

all that psb stuff didn't age well btw, even the singles sound rather dated now. thanks for the great start tuomas, see you tomorrow on the same programme.

this reminds me i never typed up the full placings for the tv poll. will def. do so by the end of the week. good work tuomas.

One of those albums where just about every song could have been a single.

My 3rd-placed record is absolutely like this, and will almost certainly be top 10

If my #1 pick isn't top-5, maybe top-3, I'm going to go on a drunken mod deletion rampage, and encourage other mods to do the same.

Now That's What I Call Music 8?

Now I'm worrying that my #1 is the one that scored no other votes.

mine was cardiacs and so possibly scraped 60 points

but my numbers 2-4 are gonna be high high high

I think my #1 would have got at least another vote. Hopefully it will make the list but I really don't know what is coming. That said, my lol prediction for the top 20:

Daydream Nation
Sign O'
Purple Rain
Doolittle
Surfer Rosa
The Queen Is Dead
Double Nickles
Appetite fo' destruction
Straight outta compton

oh wait, i have no idea what will place or win. some new order maybe?

if raising hell placed so low i cannot see any rap records other than nwa or maybe de la placing high.

It Takes A Nation Of Millions will probably place high, no?

I'm most interested to see what my #2 does - I'd had it down as dadrock for years, but rediscovered it recently as part of a context where it seemed to be attracting goodwill from all men.

I like Technique well enough, but I'll be very disappointed if the top ten is all New Order.

never discount the ilm techno massive

oh yeah, forgot pe.

and their pipecockpuppets

'It Takes a Nation Of Millions' and '3Ft High' both better be in the top 50.

I actually have never heard Tunnel Of Love. I remember seeing it as a BMG selection of the month at the time and thinking, yuck, having been so burned out on Born. I've been looking for it at the library and used.

I kind of think "It Takes a Nation..." is likely to be in the top 10?

of course it will, i just forgot it for a second. i hope eric b and rakim make the top 50 as well, but i'm not expecting like ultramagnetic or anything crazy like that.

I love how us English speakers get learn the days of the week in Finnish from the posts that Tuomas is quoting. Bonus!

Actually I guess those are months of the year?