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

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never discount the ilm techno massive

my fave thing to do on the computer is what im doing right now (acoleuthic), Monday, 23 November 2009 23:13 (fourteen years ago) link

oh yeah, forgot pe.

9-1 never forget (a hoy hoy), Monday, 23 November 2009 23:13 (fourteen years ago) link

and their pipecockpuppets

my fave thing to do on the computer is what im doing right now (acoleuthic), Monday, 23 November 2009 23:13 (fourteen years ago) link

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

nicky lo-fi, Monday, 23 November 2009 23:17 (fourteen years ago) link

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.

Fastnbulbous, Monday, 23 November 2009 23:19 (fourteen years ago) link

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

Chillwave Is an Ill Wave (askance johnson), Monday, 23 November 2009 23:21 (fourteen years ago) link

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.

9-1 never forget (a hoy hoy), Monday, 23 November 2009 23:23 (fourteen years ago) link

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

Paul in Santa Cruz, Monday, 23 November 2009 23:27 (fourteen years ago) link

Actually I guess those are months of the year?

Paul in Santa Cruz, Monday, 23 November 2009 23:37 (fourteen years ago) link

I had my hopes up about Slick Rick placing, but yeah after Run DMC this low probably not. Feeling the same way about Up On The Sun coming ahead of II too.

turkey turkey turkey let's all get basted (some dude), Monday, 23 November 2009 23:42 (fourteen years ago) link

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.

EPMD's Strictly Business ought to go Top 50 in a perfect world, it's the best hip-hop album of the decade!

I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Tuesday, 24 November 2009 00:45 (fourteen years ago) link

Wow, this was really fast, Tuomas. I opened this expecting it to be a prank thread of some sort.

_Rudipherous_, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 00:48 (fourteen years ago) link

i gave high marks to 3 the bottom 4 finishers but nothing else i rated has shown up yet. weird. didn't even save a spot for run-dmc or meat pups 2 (shame & horror). love both dearly, but there was so much competition from other sentimental faves y'see and uh...

anyway, here's some blurbs i was too rushed to jot down on my ballot sub:

ROBYN HITCHCOCK - I OFTEN DREAM OF TRAINS
my introduction to robyn came couple years later, with the element of light, fegmania and the live gotta let this hen out. saw him w/ his egyptians on that tour, was converted instantly and for life. i suppose he defines the "cult artist": cerebral, technically adept but self-effacing, clever to the point where it might become grating. but there's something dark and emotionally immediate underneath the surface folly that's always spoken to me. i often dream of trains, a longtime fan favorite, is the ideal gateway drug for the hitchcock-curious, a lovely acoustic showcase for his wit, pop smarts and bone-deep melacholy (avoid expanded versions that stick bonus tracks, like the execrable "mellow together", in the middle, wrecking the album's flow - even the 1st cd edition from 86 is fucked in this regard.)

SPACEMEN 3 - THE PERFECT PRESCRIPTION
at the height of my weed intake (a period lasting a decade or so) i often called this my favorite album of all time. and while i'd be hard pressed to say that about anything these days, the perfect prescription still comes awful damn close. takes the crushing headlong hypno-psych of their 1st lp (a sound that loop would, as everyone says, make a career of) and entirely subtracts the "crushing". what's left is this beautiful pool of sound, clear ringing guitars over miasmic organ tones, narrated by whispering voices on the edges of narcotic slumber. a warm welcoming drone that feels instantly familiar and timeless, appropriate to both sunburned daydreams and candlelit nods. hell, it's as fine a inversion/perversion of rock's formal conventions as anything can or suicide managed, and while i'm glad it placed, i'm kinda bummed it placed so low.

BIG BLACK - ATOMIZER
this has to be the best and weirdest and most influential american post-punk/hc record ever ever ever. ministry and godflesh and young gods and a hundred wax trax floorcrushers owe EVERYTHING to the tools first struck on chicago's finest forges, whether or not they'll admit it. and nobody worked the sarcastic faux-working class tough guy psycho shtick as well as albini circa atomizer, not even killdozer. memorable songs, incredible guitar tones and textures, razor-sharp lyrics and a totally unique sound. i don't pull it out much these days due to massive overplaying once upon a time (hello pixies) but this was about as good a reason to endure life in the mid 80s as was legally available.

a dimension that can only be accessed through self-immolation (contenderizer), Tuesday, 24 November 2009 03:18 (fourteen years ago) link

IMO Hysteria > Pyromania

Is there any chance it will show up here?

I'm a bit sad that my fav 80's album (Actually) has already charted.

one boob is free with one (daavid), Tuesday, 24 November 2009 04:00 (fourteen years ago) link

I think Hysteria is pretty much unlistenable so I hope it doesn't beat Pyromania. High 'N' Dry is the real classic.

EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 04:19 (fourteen years ago) link

anyone tells me there were 93 records better than Pyromania release in the 80s is frontin' big time

all yoga attacks are fire based (rogermexico.), Tuesday, 24 November 2009 04:21 (fourteen years ago) link

^^truth

EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 04:22 (fourteen years ago) link

My favorite 80's album, and my #1 vote, has already charted, too (in 93rd place). I'm just pleased that Thomas Dolby made it into the top 100. He's on #94, too, as a session keyboardist.

Paul in Santa Cruz, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 04:24 (fourteen years ago) link

i guess this means Introspective is gonna be the highest placed PSB album? neat.

jabba hands, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 04:26 (fourteen years ago) link

Wouldn't surprise me...

Paul in Santa Cruz, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 04:28 (fourteen years ago) link

p.s. original the perfect prescription cover art, as the taang reissue art is an affront to the eyes:

http://991.com/newGallery/Spacemen-3-The-Perfect-Presc-179681.jpg

a dimension that can only be accessed through self-immolation (contenderizer), Tuesday, 24 November 2009 04:37 (fourteen years ago) link

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?

― 9-1 never forget (a hoy hoy)

I'm betting for Stone Roses getting the top place, can't remember if I did vote for it and how high in my list but all of the albums you've got there are quite probably rounding the top scores.

feisty, Spanish, girl (Moka), Tuesday, 24 November 2009 05:16 (fourteen years ago) link

anyone tells me there were 93 records better than Pyromania release in the 80s is frontin' big time

― all yoga attacks are fire based (rogermexico.), Tuesday, 24 November 2009 04:21 (59 minutes ago) Permalink

^^truth

― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 04:22 (58 minutes ago)

y'all I know we like some of the same things but in my world there are like 500 albums from the 80's that are better than Pyromania. Maybe a thousand.

sleeve, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 05:23 (fourteen years ago) link

pleasantly surprised that The Perfect Prescription, one of my entries, made the Top 100. Nothing's Shocking is also good but really don't know the rest.

great start.

Bee OK, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 05:43 (fourteen years ago) link

y'all I know we like some of the same things but in my world there are like 500 albums from the 80's that are better than Pyromania. Maybe a thousand.

― sleeve, Monday, November 23, 2009

^^ frontin' big time. i was never even a big fan but that record was as game-changing as thriller.

all yoga attacks are fire based (rogermexico.), Tuesday, 24 November 2009 05:55 (fourteen years ago) link

yeah but c'mon, worlds is different. i'm not saying it's crap, but i've got cheap trick records, motorhead records, SLAYER RECORDS that didn't make my list. not wasting tears over pyromania.

a dimension that can only be accessed through self-immolation (contenderizer), Tuesday, 24 November 2009 05:58 (fourteen years ago) link

better is not the same as "game-changing", it means there are a thousand albums from the 80's that I prefer and would rather listen to. thought that's what we were voting on, yeah?

xp

sleeve, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 06:01 (fourteen years ago) link

little of both for me

all yoga attacks are fire based (rogermexico.), Tuesday, 24 November 2009 06:04 (fourteen years ago) link

I have all of these except for Tunnel of Love and Please, so I certainly can't complain about the choices. I made a playlist with the albums listed so far. What jumps out is the diversity of production styles. Such a wide range of technology in the 80s, and of course aesthetics between Foetus, Big Black, Meat Puppets, Prince, Jane's Addiction, Associates, OMD, etc. They're all ripped from disc to flac, and MediaMonkey's Level Playback Volume option helps, but still jarring going from even the remastered versions of Def Leppard to Meat Puppets.

Fastnbulbous, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 06:55 (fourteen years ago) link

Having been an adult in the 80s who was actively seeking new music, my goal in coming up with my list was to inclued stuff that I was blown away by, or had a deep emotional connection to, at the time. I haven't had to do too much revisionist thinking -- these still hold up for me. Pyromania belonged to a type of music that wasn't on my radar in the 80s. Will have to give it a listen.

So far two of my lower-charting albums have maded the list: "Atomizer" which at the time was shocking in both its intense hate and its precision (from "Jordan Minnesota" on the record was relentless), and "Nothing's Shocking", a perfect batch of songs that appealed to both the musical aesthetes and the all-purpose partiers...

Dan S, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 07:01 (fourteen years ago) link

damn somehow i completely missed the whole nominating/voting stages for this

or was this the one that was in limbo for like 5 years

bread has no effect on you (ciderpress), Tuesday, 24 November 2009 07:10 (fourteen years ago) link

It was, but we re-kicked it off last month (full renomination process).

Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 07:43 (fourteen years ago) link

mine was cardiacs and so possibly scraped 60 points

erm...I forgot to vote. ah well.

m the g, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 07:58 (fourteen years ago) link

Considering the placings of the Associates, Big Black Parade and Please in particular, this poll is already a sorry fucking joke.

Herman G. Neuname is the first European president (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 24 November 2009 08:03 (fourteen years ago) link

84. (tie) Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine (87 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote)

http://www.thefrontloader.com/imagesforblogs/album_covers/nin_prettyhatemachine.jpg

i'll be mr. obvious dude and say "head like a hole". i guess i like him punky. also, i got tired of him pretty quickly, so pretty hate machine is my de facto favorite nin album.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), 5. elokuuta 2006 5:36

Reznor should do soundtracks, production, etc., as others have said.
His songwriting and clear desire to make noncommercial-yet-popular music has been holding him back for years.

Pretty Hate Machine is still amazingly innovative, even if its sound is dated at this point.

― cdwill, 28. maaliskuuta 2005 17:36

i really forgot what a good album pretty hate machine was in places. big chunks of it are funny (in an intentional way) (i think) and yes, alex is right that he's an exceptional pop songwriter when he wants to be. what the fuck happened to his sense of humor? or am i just hearing what i want to, as usual?

― strng hlkngtn, 5. kesäkuuta 2005 0:03

Tuomas, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 08:58 (fourteen years ago) link

(I'm sorry about the quotes, but it was kinda difficult to find unambiguously positive comments about this album on ILX.)

Tuomas, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 08:59 (fourteen years ago) link

yo Tuomas is there any chance you could put the year of release in each result? love your work btw!

jabba hands, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 09:07 (fourteen years ago) link

suppressing the urge to complain

a dimension that can only be accessed through self-immolation (contenderizer), Tuesday, 24 November 2009 10:00 (fourteen years ago) link

... and there's my first place vote, although that high placing was a bit of a holdover from the 2005 poll's point system, where #1 votes were counting for 3X the points of #2 votes. I'm not saying that PHM is definitely the best album of the 80's (although I didn't discover it until Feb 1990, along with most people I'm sure) but it seemed like it needed my vote more than the other albums in my top five.

NoTimeBeforeTime, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 10:29 (fourteen years ago) link

you're saying that you take full responsibility

a dimension that can only be accessed through self-immolation (contenderizer), Tuesday, 24 November 2009 10:38 (fourteen years ago) link

Of course!

Seriously though, I played the fuck out of that album when it was released. I missed the boat on bands like the Smiths (a few years before my time), so PHM was MY soundtrack for teenage angst and alienation, which was helped by the fact that only about four other kids in my high school listened to NIN and even my gf was a bit afraid of me because I listened to this stuff. Good times.

NoTimeBeforeTime, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 10:45 (fourteen years ago) link

yeah i like it too. :) my favorite nin album by a long shot. didn't make my list, but i aint too bummed that it came in higher than x, y and z things that i love more. them's the breaks.

a dimension that can only be accessed through self-immolation (contenderizer), Tuesday, 24 November 2009 10:47 (fourteen years ago) link

Yeah, I'm going to try to enjoy the poll and not complain about exact rankings for once (I'll probably fail at this, but at least I'll try). The range of albums I listened to in the 80's was actually fairly limited, and my ballot was a bit boring (= canonical) so I'm really interested to see how this poll turns out.

Re: most friends being freaked out by NIN ... none of the NIN fans I knew were wearing black clothing and eyeliner every day, we were, for the most part, normal kids who just didn't want to hear GnR 24/7. Today it's a bit hilarious to think that the majority opinion considered NIN to be the most screwed-up music imaginable, but anyone who grew up around the same time as me hopefully understands :)

NoTimeBeforeTime, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 10:57 (fourteen years ago) link

Some short Atomizer threads for further reading:

POLL: Best Song on Atomizer
Best song on Atomizer that isn't 'Kerosene'
BAZOOKA JOE vs. PASSING COMPLECTION

you like this yam? (onimo), Tuesday, 24 November 2009 10:59 (fourteen years ago) link

none of the NIN fans I knew were wearing black clothing and eyeliner every day, we were, for the most part, normal kids who just didn't want to hear GnR 24/7. Today it's a bit hilarious to think that the majority opinion considered NIN to be the most screwed-up music imaginable, but anyone who grew up around the same time as me hopefully understands

truth. occupying the demographic middle ground between metalheads, indie kids and electro-pop fans, NIN had really broad appeal.

m the g, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 11:10 (fourteen years ago) link

84. (tie) Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues [1983] (87 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3e/Talking_Heads_-_Speaking_in_Tongues.jpg

some talking heads fans are fond of saying that speaking in tongues was the beginning of the end. while this is certainly not remain in light, it deserves far better than that. matter of fact, i think that it's the closest TH rekkid in spirit to talking heads '77 -- that is, when they were as much about quirky FUN as being innovative (or whatever).

― Eisbär (llamasfur), 19. toukokuuta 2005

I think this is a perfect record.

― On a Strict El Cholo Diet (Bent Over at the Arclight), 19. toukokuuta 2005 7:52

the later albums are good when you're older. like my mom is always listening to speaking in tongues.

― Pablo Cruise (chaki), 28. marraskuuta 2003 7:44

Tuomas, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 11:11 (fourteen years ago) link

see that's how you do it

a dimension that can only be accessed through self-immolation (contenderizer), Tuesday, 24 November 2009 11:37 (fourteen years ago) link

I'm betting for Stone Roses getting the top place

No way. I'm hoping for The Queen Is Dead to be No. 1, but I know it won't be.

Daniel, Esq., Tuesday, 24 November 2009 11:48 (fourteen years ago) link

The Queen Is Dead was the early leader, if I read between Tuomas's lines correctly. I've become much less fond of it as time passes - the bit round the turn just seems weaker and weaker.

I've been working my way through the Talking Heads albums - haven't got to Speaking In Tongues yet, but they're not bad as bands go.

Ismael Klata, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 11:55 (fourteen years ago) link

ACTUALLY

though i'm glad it placed - how could it not? - i'm pretty surprised for the low numbers here. only 8 of a hundred or so people even included? i weep for thee, ilm.

this is pretty close to the best american album of the 80s. i put it in at something like #10, in retrospect a hideous travesty of justice but hey i was in hurry. in its pop ambitions, humor, variety and rhythmic drive, it easily eclipses the now more lauded remain in light - the perfect fusion of the dark funk experimentalism of their previous records and the wide-eyed art pop to come.

god i love this record! maybe the first i ever listened to with headphones on, a pen and pad of paper at hand, furiously pausing and rewinding so i could transcribe and understand every word. this when i was about 15, so i call bullshit on this being an old people's record. there is no way in which it fails to rule and i am a goddam chump for not putting it in at #1.

a dimension that can only be accessed through self-immolation (contenderizer), Tuesday, 24 November 2009 11:57 (fourteen years ago) link


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