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

I wish people would comment on the albums instead of month names.

That was in my top ten. Couldn't really understand where it was coming from when I first heard it. It didn't sound like a lot anything else SST, and tbh I still haven't heard all that much like it since. Three fried minds getting gloriously baked in the sun.

76. U2 - The Joshua Tree [1987] (95 points, 7 votes, 1 first place vote)

http://snuffleupagush.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/the-joshua-tree1.jpg

The first half of that album is extremely classic. The second half of the album is a turgid, uninvolving mess.

― Dan Perry, 25. kesäkuuta 2002 3:00

To those who dis the B-side of Joshua Tree, just remember that Eno produced it. Remember Bowie's 'Berlin Trilogy' how the A-sides were all semi-accessible singles and the B-sides were arcane ambient mood music. Joshua Tree is the same way. Straightforward Anthems of the A-side; moody, experimental stuff on the B-side. (Kind of reminds me of a prog-rock Midnight Oil, on qualuudes, especially "Red Hill Mining Town" and "One Tree Hill")
Wow, I didn't anticipate anyone would complain about "Trip Through Your Wires"; People usually get worked up about "Bullet the Blue Sky."

― Lord Custos III, 25. kesäkuuta 2002 3:00

Strange how "Red Hill Mining Town" was one of my absolute favourite song when I was 10 years old. I havent heard it in ages, like the rest of the record. It's classic, without a doubt, although the fact that I now despise U2 and have despised them for a decade now kinda prevents me from really saying anything nicer about the record or the band. That's a strange phenomenon. The Rolling Stones, for instance, released far many more bad records than U2, and made real fucking bad moves etc., but this does not change my undying love for them. On the other hand, my dislike of U2 now has a strange retroactive effect. Does this happen to you sometimes?

― Simon, 25. kesäkuuta 2002 3:00

Organic. Layered. Strained. Quiet. Windy. Dusty. Gone. Heroic. Light. Dark. Classic.

― the pinefox, 15. lokakuuta 2002 23:04

Hate me now, ILM! That right there was my #1 vote.

well at least it's outside the top 75.

the only u2 album i would've even considered -- boy -- wasn't even nominated.

It was somewhere in my top 10 too Johnny. Partly for its cultural impact - it's rare that a record makes a band the biggest thing in the world, and I want to celebrate the ones that do - and partly because that Pogues quote about the album creating its own world applies equally to this, and this world is far stranger.

75. Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual [1983] (95 points, 9 votes)

http://robsrecordscdsdvds.com/Cyndi%20Lauper%20Shes%20So%20Unusual.jpg

the big critical thing at the time was, 'madonna will go nowhere because she can't sing, cyndi lauper will have the long term career' because they were very much seen as doppelgangers when they appeared, with madonna being the 'fake' cyndi. it was in Time magazine. i prefer 'she's so unusual' and 'time after time' to anything madonna's done, but at the same time, in a certain sense, i think madonna had better taste. but i HATE taste, i absolutely despise it, and i love the terrible orchestration and use of synthesizers on side two of 'she's so unusual' so that you have to listen THROUGH the songs, you have to put in an effort, to really cry over 'witness' and so on. some of madonna's early stuff is a bit like that, but basically it's so bland you can become attached to it with an act of will, but not a very difficult one. and as for madonna's later stuff, like kylie's new stuff, it's so french, in such good taste. and of course you like it.

― maryann, 25. heinäkuuta 2002 3:00

I've only heard She's So Unusual, but based on that I'd say classic all the way. If only she'd been Madonna instead of Madonna.
-- Justyn Dillingham

EXACTLY what I was gonna say! Ya just KNOW that in an alternate universe, it's not Madonna but Cyndi who...etc.

Well, the videos are all excruciating, but at least Cyndi had Lou Albano in hers.

-- Ned Raggett

Sorry Ned, couldn't disagree more. I hated "Girls..." and Cyndi herself when I first heard her, mostly because she didn't sound like Black Sabbath. But the video for "Time After Time" was quite moving, and won me over. Utterly Charming & Disarming: The bit right at the start when she awakens her boyfriend by allowing a ceramic dog (modeled after RCA Victor's "Nipper", I think) to "lick" his cheek. And later, in the "She Bop" video, she endeared herself to me all over again with her fairly clumsy (and so what!) top-hat-and-cane soft shoe number. And there was even a little animated bit accompanying the synth-break! I was always fairly indifferent to video - most of 'em were forgettable, which means that I've forgotten them! Cyndi Lauper's videos I never forgot.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), 12. toukokuuta 2005 12:20

i'll fuck with "time after time" til the end of days

― prostitutes all over the place (k3vin k.), 5. huhtikuuta 2009 8:55

At the wedding reception, Madonna can make your gay friends dance, but Lauper can make your 30-something aunts get on the dancefloor. I vote Madonna.

That's one of my favorite album covers ever, btw.

30-something aunts, eh?
xp

Anybody else still waiting for something they voted for to show up?

Cover shot here?

"Also in 1981, Mark played with Ian Lloyd, (Louie, Louie) highlighted by the Halloween Rock Jam two shows at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico 10/31/81. (Blue Angel featuring Cyndi Lauper, was the opening act for those shows.)"

As for U2, we all lost by not getting the Martin Hannett produced album that would have made the Comsats and Chameleons hide in their bedrooms. Our post-1987 feelings are inextricably tied to how we feel about Bono's public persona - Eno and the band are always quietly competent, but "all bad poetry is earnest".

xp: kornrulez, I'm still waiting. Lots of stuff I'm like "how did I not vote for this?" until I look at what I actually voted for. Cyndi Lauper a good example. Non-vote because: as much as I love the singles, I never owned or listened to the album; I excluded all such records as a means of getting my list down to 30.

I've only had one show up - The Beat - and if we're up to the point of albums getting around nine votes I don't hold much hope of seeing too many of my other choices, the obvious big hitters aside.

I'm still hoping that a lot of the stuff I voted for will show up higher on the list.

On my list of 20 records, there are 10 that are firmly in the canon and will definitely place somewhere. I don't have much hope for the Vulgar Boatmen, though.

U2 and Cyndi were the first things on my ballot to appear. 30 seems like a lot of choices, but it really isn't.

74. Galaxie 500 - On Fire [1989] (96 points, 10 votes)

http://www.maths.dundee.ac.uk/~sanderso/music/on_fire.jpg

On Fire was beyond seminal for me when it came out. I couldn't believe music could be so beautiful. So classic, hell yes.

― Mark, 5. joulukuuta 2001 3:00

They were a classic group!.. but "This Is Our Music" was not perfect... although it had many gems, it was their weakest of the 3.. "On Fire" is perfect... an amazing Lp.. perfect from start to finish.. "Another Day" is amazing!

Damon & Naomi is great and Luna is cool too.. but Galaxie 500 is amazing!

Did you ever see the movie HIGHBALL?.. Dean Wareham is in it and does the music.. He plays Justine Bateman's date... He sings "Frankie And Johnny" kereoke.

― Todd, 6. joulukuuta 2001 3:00

Sundar --

I'm thinking your question deserves a thoughtful reply, so I'll offer this: the value of On Fire lies in the fact that it's surprisingly un-like "slowcore," as that particular genre happened to accrete. "Slowcore" gradually became concerned with its own sonic smoothness: low bubbling organ lines, richly-processed guitars, a pervasive sense of stillness, comfort, a fluffy-pillow phenomenon. On Fire has some resemblances in this sense. But On Fire is one of few records I can think of which are tagged as "slowcore" despite sounding surprisingly real, almost garage -- despite the only processing being reverb, really, and tracks like "Strange" letting you hear the band very much as you'd imagine them sounding in a really large garage. "Slowcore" went for this richness and softness, whereas G500 had a hollowness to their sound that's always really appealed to me.

More importantly, On Fire is not really slowcore, when you get down to it: if you get a chance, go back and listen to "Strange" and notice how really active and passionate it is. (The guitar solo practically makes me imagine fireworks launching.) Quite a bit of the record feels this way to me: what I tend to marvel at is the way three instuments, free of much processing or adornment, lock together to form these fairly dramatic constructions. Hyperbolic as it sounds, the word I'm looking for is probably "glorious." Honestly, the starts of those guitar solos on "Strange" sum it up: they come sweeping in so gloriously.

― [nabisco], 28. joulukuuta 2001 3:00

On Fire was my #31 album. Barely missed my list.

great album, should be higher than a bunch of records i haven't heard coming up.

A friend of Finnish descent with a particularly fine booty had other friends calling it "The Pride of Finland."

YSI?

The only thing so far to appear from my list has been Pet Shop Boys – Please, though I voted for other (i.e., better) Spacemen 3 and Prince albums that I’m hoping will make the countdown. I enjoy the NIN, U2, Talking Heads and Bowie albums as well, but none made my top 30 and I figured they’d get enough votes anyway.

Oh wait, I voted for Please too. I forgot because I ranked it #22 on my ballot, and at that point I was just shooting blind because I'd never truly be satisfied.

how far are you going tonight tuomas?

73. X - Wild Gift [1981] (97 points, 9 votes)

http://dkpresents.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/r-925952-1183073207.jpg

this is embarassing but when I was a kid I'd heard of them but I never actually botherd to buy any of their records until I read 'Less Than Zero' *ducks* the same applies to Elvis Costello *cowers* I was very, very young. Anyhow, the cd with 'Los Angeles' and 'Wild Gift' is on any top x00 cd list I'd ever make, though I do wish I could go back in time and keep Ray Manzarek the hell away from them.

― James Blount, 18. tammikuuta 2003 7:42

Eh I object to both albums being smooshed together like this. So best song off the debut is the title track. Best song off Wild Gift is "We're Desperate." "We're Desperate" gets the vote.

"White Girl" was a contender. But I've never been 100% certain what it was about. 90% certain but not 100. And "Adult Books" always eluded me. The singles scene clearly repulsed them, esp. the one at The Masque. But what's with the Tomata Du Plenty reference?

"Some Other Time" I get, esp. this great line: "This midnight I will/Turn into a beer I will." Perfect way to get John's attention.

― Kevin John Bozelka, 21. tammikuuta 2008 2:59

the double cd of los angeles/wild gift might very well be my #1 DID, if i had such a thing

― ron (ron), 16. tammikuuta 2003 22:59

if that cardiacs album doesn't show up on this i'm gonna regret having missed voting

a little man... i mean

I'll be posting the results up until 71 tonight. Since it turned out I have time tonight but I'm quite busy tomorrow, I thought I'd do 15 today in the case I won't have the time for this tomorrow. I'll try to slow down to 10 albums per day after 71.

Pretty wacky mixture of stuff so far.

Pretty wacky mixture of stuff so far.

True. Yet I like all of it.

That X album was my #5, the highest-placing album from my ballot to have shown up yet. It's become almost a bit too familiar to me through over-playing, but it's amazing how not-dated it sounds. Could have been recorded yesterday.

Alright! I am finally on the board. Thanks X.

This is an astoundingly great record. Their best, but Los Angeles will probably finish higher.

glad to see that nail made it (go foetus) as well as pogues & up on the sun, tho i didn't vote for either.

re a hoy hoy: the album i was actually banging on about ("best american album of the 80s") = speaking in tongues

72. The Chills - Kaleidoscope World [1986] (98 points, 7 votes, 1 first place vote)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/46/152406988_d5bad5d319.jpg

I've still got the Kaleidoscope World album on vinyl! God loves me!

― Ozzy Goth Beatles (Bimble), 1. helmikuuta 2009 7:47

Well, well, well. Hello, Selzer. I only know "Kaleidoscope World." Does "Brave Words" sound different than that album? Because "KW" arguably sounds "muddy," but it's got a cool echo-y timelessness to it. I love the reverb drench in "Pink Frost." Goosebumps, man. Goosebumps.

― Ben Boyer (Ben Boyer), 17. lokakuuta 2003 0:31

You are a mean mean mean old man Mr K. CLASSIC, "Heavenly Pop Hit" got me into pop music. That and "STand", I guess. "Lost EP"! Fantastic shit! Kinda stands up the best now I think, tho I could stand to hear the Lps again. My fav band up till I heard the Beatles. My taste ranges far and wide obv... anyway dunno if it's been mentioned but if the Cd of "Kaleidoscope World" has the Lost EP on it (and I think it does) yr kinda fine, yeah get Brave WOrds next... really really weird rememebering how for about 3 yrs they were meant to be Nz's big rockpop hope for Us sales, haha. HAHA cos they synced up w/NIRVANA'S BOOM rather than w/REM's, which might've worked. And they had a better Lp at the time. Oh well.

― 808 the Bassking (Andrew Thames), 28. tammikuuta 2007 9:06

Christ, ILM polls always make me feel embarrassingly unknowledgeable. I've heard maybe five of these. There's some I haven't even heard of.

haven't heard the last 2 but man do they both have great covers

Yeah, The Chills is a total unknown to me, but that cover almost makes me want to listen to them.

Best covers on this thread belong to Scraping Foetus Off the Wheel (who are one of the bands I'd never heard of).

and there goes my third album choice. kiwi indie pop at its finest. a compilation of the early singles and stuff. some of these innocent tunes are too beautiful for this fucked-up world.

That spotify link again for anyone who missed it:
http://open.spotify.com/user/thomp1985/playlist/7vewFkAlw3bKDbMNziktOF

Currently at 254 tracks or 15.5 hours of 80s goodness :)

The Chills are one of my favorite bands that I never listen to enough. But I make that times that I do really count.

(Also, I think this is the fifth album I voted for to make the final list.)

71. Roxy Music - Avalon [1982] (99 points, 10 votes)

http://grungehouse.com/cd_cover/010/lg/Roxy_Music_-_Avalon.jpg

after years of listening to this album at other people's houses (for some reason it has a strange habit of turning up in apartments where i'm staying for some time--this has been true for years) i finally just out and bought this on sale at FNAC.

this strikes me as an experimental album in the older, less voguish sense. a new approach to arrangement above all. it's hard to reconstruct the context in which this album first appeared because we've had 20 years of various forms of rock music and muzak whose aims seem to converge here.... in a way the record seems to embody what it in fact (in part) anticipates...certain musical gestures that now scream (not unappealingly mind) THE EIGHTIES.

what is it about the synth washes and arpeggiated guitar in the chorus of "take a chance with me" that seem so fervently of their time?--and for me both unnerving and a bit exciting for conjuring up an entire world that belongs to my past. it's not really so far from the structure and affect of this song to things like Toto and Sade and other songs that remain lodged in my memory but refuse to name themselves.

as an experiment this album seems to fail--again, in part--a lot of the time. maybe it's that the minimalist gestures--the perfectionism--of the arrangements are often betrayed by melodies that strike me as kind of banal, unimaginative, falling back without due skill on certain overfamiliar ploys. the album escapes this sense of disappointment at certain points in every song, but especially in "more than this" and the title track (though the former much more than the latter) whose structures really work for me...the gauging of expectation that is the crux of pop songwriting is really fine in "more than this" and thus it's very satisfying. the changes propel you through the song but are sufficiently spartan and slow to allow for appreciation of the arrangement. the guitar is particularly nice except for one moment when it seems to get a bit too wanky for me

looking forward to hearing this song in lost in translation

please let's not make this a classic.dud thing as i'm tired of hearing things like "this rocks" etc which seem even more a hopeless abstraction of actual reactions to music than the stuff i've written above

― amateur!st (amateurist), 21. tammikuuta 2004 16:41

The thing that strikes me most about this album is that with the possible exception of Diamond Life by Sade, it seemed to be every hopeless collegiate frat schmuck's means of "setting the mood" for bump'n'grind sessions with doe-eyed sorrority whistleheads back in the mid to late 80s. Surely Roxy Music deserve of a better legacy. Still, a fine album, that notwithstanding.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), 21. tammikuuta 2004 17:01

Avalon is, I think, one of the first albums that sounds so smooth and polished that it leaves the production nowhere to go, no improvements left to make. Through the 60's and 70's, the idea of the studio virtuo was someone who could work beyond the technological limitations of the equipment, but in Avalon it sounds like all the barriers have fallen and the sky's the limit. There's no sharp attack on anything on the record, least of all Ferry's voice. It's my favorite Roxy Music album by far, and a template for all of Talk Talk's subsequent work.

Also, the r&b bass on the title track is fantastic.

― Brian Miller, 21. tammikuuta 2004 18:56

Grooveshark can fill in some of spotify's gaps e.g. http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/album/Pretty_Hate_Machine/140859

That's it for tonight, see you later!

the roxy music album for people who don't like roxy music. the 4th album from my list.

Good work Tuomas.

100. Robyn Hitchcock: I Often Dream of Trains [1984] (75 points, 5 votes)
98. (tie) Scraping Foetus off the Wheel - Hole [1984] (76 points, 5 votes)
98. (tie) Spacemen 3 - The Perfect Prescription [1987] (76 points, 5 votes
97. Big Black - Atomizer [1986] (77 points, 8 votes)
96. Associates - Sulk [1982] (79 points, 6 votes)
95. Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking [1988] (79 points, 7 votes)
94. Def Leppard - Pyromania [1983] (80 points, 6 votes, 1 first place vote)
93. Thomas Dolby - The Golden Age of Wireless [1982] (80 points, 7 votes, 1 first place vote)
92. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Dazzle Ships [1983] (80 points, 9 votes)
91. Run-D.M.C. - Raising Hell [1986] (80 points, 10 votes)
90. Meat Puppets - Meat Puppets II [1984] (81 points, 9 votes)
89. Prince and the Revolution - Parade [1986] (83 points, 10 votes)
88. Bruce Springsteen - Tunnel of Love [1987] (86 points, 7 votes)
87. Pet Shop Boys - Actually [1987] (86 points, 8 votes)
86. Pet Shop Boys - Please [1986] (87 points, 8 votes)
84. (tie) Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine [1989] (87 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote)
84. (tie) Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues [1983] (87 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote)
83. David Bowie - Scary Monsters [1980] (89 points, 6 votes, 1 first place vote)
82. Scraping Foetus off the Wheel - Nail [1985] (91 points, 5 votes, 1 first place vote)
81. The Beat (aka The English Beat) - I Just Can't Stop It [1980] (91 points, 13 votes)
80. Various - The Indestructible Beat of Soweto [1985] (93 points, 6 votes, 1 first place vote)
79. The The - Soul Mining [1983] (93 points, 7 votes, 1 first place vote)
78. The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy & the Lash [1985] (93 points, 16 votes)
77. Meat Puppets - Up on the Sun [1985] (94 points, 8 votes)
76. U2 - The Joshua Tree [1987] (95 points, 7 votes, 1 first place vote)
75. Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual [1983] (95 points, 9 votes)
74. Galaxie 500 - On Fire [1989] (96 points, 10 votes)
73. X - Wild Gift [1981] (97 points, 9 votes)
72. The Chills - Kaleidoscope World [1986] (98 points, 7 votes, 1 first place vote)
71. Roxy Music - Avalon [1982] (99 points, 10 votes)

Yay, very glad to see the Chills on here.

some very fine writing about avalon there, but i'm wondering how alex in nyc managed to get into every hopeless collegiate frat schmuck's bedroom during those bump'n'grind sessions

critical profile of the chills & clean seems to have risen quite a bit over the last 5 years - in america at least. not sure why this is but i'm happy to see it.