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

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.

I voted for three of those 30 ('Hole', 'Atomizer' and 'Rum, Sodomy and the Lash'). Not expecting too many of my 30 to appear in the next 70 but you never know.

I haven't even heard a handful of these but I'll try to make a point of giving them a go.

Run-DMC my only vote so far

This is a fine list so far. Many thanks Tuomas.

Wild Gift is my only vote so far.

I must listen to too much music, because I have heard all of these except for I Just Can't Stop It (which I've only heard some of).

This list is inspiring to check out a few names that I've seen floating around in the past but never followed up on: such as Foetus and Spacemen 3.

Yay, happy to see the Chills on there -- it was my #4. Only album I voted for to show up at this point.

Wish something by The Clean had been nominated.

My #22, 27 and 30 have showed up so far. The Chills are a brand new name to me, which is surprising considering the 80s is when I was devouring the most new music.

Amateurist's take on Avalon is dead right, if the tune on the clips thread is at all representative. I like the arrangement, but the vocals are curiously flat. I never paid it any heed on my trips to the library as a teenager - the other Roxy albums always seemed more intriguing for some reason.

Didn't vote for it, but that Chills album is great. For those who don't know it, if you like the Galaxie 500 record, I can't really see you hating the Chills. Same sort of smart, sad indie pop, though a bit less guitar-ish and Velvets-y.

"Wild Gift" is the first from my top 10 to make the list. I love that Exene and John Doe had similar sounding voices and always seemed to be singing at the top of their range. It gave their music an urgent desperate quality. Their sound was completely unique. I can't even think of any bands who tried to imitate them.

I also think "Wild Gift" is their best album.

Up On The Sun rubbing shoulders with The Joshua Tree is a nice contrast. Both going after that desert vibe to some extent, but two radically different results.

For those of you who are going to check out The Chills, you should also look for Submarine Bells, from 1990. That could be their best.

Except for the ultra el cheapo ones, we've had a fantastic collection of cover art.

I'm still shut out! Though I did vote for Talking Heads and the Chills -- just not these albums. (TH live records + "Brave Words") Sort of surprised at all the "Chills, whodat?" In my (weird, I guess) conceptual universe they are loads more famous than Meat Puppets, Foetus, and the Associates, more or less comparable with Galaxie 500.

Same here. I thought The Chills were universally loved among people of a certain age and musical disposition.