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

I started listening to the Smiths when I was maybe 15 or 16, under the influence of my college-grad brother who brought them home...this would have been in 1995 basically, so I completely missed "their time" -- and yet I still kinda know what Noodle Vague is saying, insofar as I've listened to them and listened to them and listened to them and now kinda feel no real need to do so again. Classic band burnout I guess. Checking my ballot, it looks like Louder Than Bombs made my #3 slot, which is funny to me since I almost never put it on, but clearly I was honoring its lifelong impact on me. I also voted for Strangeways, the one I got into most recently (like five or six years ago), but not The Queen Is Dead, which I would have spent several high school years swearing as one of the all-time classic albums, etc etc.... the two dreary songs early on really knock the wind out of it for me, even though the rest are just undeniable classics.

Is Louder than Bombs a bit bloated? Hatful seems more coherent, more winsome.

Quick Tuomas, post another entry!

I like their later period songs better is the main reason I think. With the possible exception of Side 1 of Meat is Murder which in and of itself is perhaps their best single side.

Louder Than Bombs is the only one I voted for. Even though it runs out of steam towards the end, it's just loaded with hits. The some of the slow ones on Queen Is Dead are momentum killers.

isn't louder than bombs just the us version of hatful of hollow?

No no, TQID gets weak after the two dreary ones, and only picks up at the end. I gave it a minor vote for old times' sake, but it's only the unpopular albums that do anything for me now. Hatful of Hollow's still great though. Agree with NV.

Trivial comment, but wau do I love the color of this album cover.

When I was in college (1989-93) the records that were in essentially EVERYONE's dorm room were Marley: Legend and Joshua Tree. Among the 40% who ascribed to themselves any amount of musical sophistication, add Louder than Bombs. Not sure this is an argument for or against LtB but yes I voted for this big satchel of hits that defined a way of being for many.

I did grow up in The Smith's "time," and their appeal has never dimmed for me. They're among the greatest rock acts ever. I hope Strangeways charts here, tho I doubt it will. I'd bet The Queen Is Dead will be Top 5. Curious about which songs on The Queen Is Dead Dr. C and Kornrulz consider "dreary" and "momentum killers," respectively.

I Know It's Over / Never Had No One Ever

Glad that that Grady story about E2-E4 made it; i was thinking of that when i put it on my ballot.

xpost Yeah, those. I like the campiness of a line like "Oh Mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head" but it isn't enough to really save a song for me. Much prefer them in full jangle mode.

32. Prince - 1999 [1982] (191 points, 17 votes, 1 first place vote)

http://img.imeem.com/ai/6WZ7QEGYF43VDTOVVJ5U4HP3HBF4QDIB.jpg

i have been listening to 1999 a lot lately. the hits -- "1999," "Little Red Corvette," "Delirious" -- are all great, but the rest (the stuff that was "too weird" when i was a teenager) is absolutely stunning almost twenty years hereafter. esp. "lady cabdriver" and "something in the water (does not compute)."

it also must be the anti-Geir album ever made.

― Tad (llamasfur), 2. joulukuuta 2002 14:47

Call me a popists, but most of the tracks go on a bit long for me. "Free" and "International Lover" are just too silly. The singles rock though, and I can see why technoids love this album. But I'll take Purple Rain, Dirty Mind and especially Sign O' The Times over this one. I might even take Controversy over it too.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), 3. joulukuuta 2002 1:17

But of course they go on long--they are robo-sex!

― Ben Williams, 3. joulukuuta 2002 2:56

Well my dick starts chafing before they're done. So I'm right to complain.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), 3. joulukuuta 2002 3:05

29. The end of "1999" when it strips down to just the rhythm guitar you never noticed was there all along even though you've heard this damn song 800 thousand times and one and it's all like EPIPHANY!

― The Reverend, 26. marraskuuta 2007 8:57

The great thing about LtB (and, I guess, Hatful and/or World Won't Listen) is being a teenager and wanting to check out this band, and buying this weird kitchen-sink collection that just has these amazing songs on it, and then you realize that none of these songs are on their albums and oh man, how much more great music like this must there be? The answer is a lot, but it's tough to find the equals of some of the songs on here. In hindsight you realize a lot of them are kind of weird one-offs or digressions or whatever, but in an alternate reality where this was the only Smiths compilation you could believe these were all their smash hits on one disc. "Panic," "William," "Is It Really So Strange?" "Sweet & Tender Hooligan," "Hand In Glove," etc - great stuff. And then the material in between, which has lots of good slow-growers eg "Rubber Ring" and "Golden Lights."

The last five or so tracks are real slow-growers, though, and I still haven't really fall in love with "Please, Please, Please..." Love "Stretch Out and Wait" though - It's the Eskimo blood in my veins!

I dunno, this is just one of those comps that's hard-hitting enough to be plausible as someone's only needed Smiths record, but sprawling enough to give you lots of things to pick over after the first wave of excitement.

One of these days I really should check out Prince.

Double Nickels in the top 5 or I'm permabanning somebody at random.

― Bob Saget's "Night Moves": C or D (WmC), Saturday, November 28, 2009 4:26 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ayo tuoma count my #1 vote for 2xnickels dawg yeah

That's 2 for Prince. Purple Rain and Sign o' the Times are sure to make an appearance too. I wonder if he'll get 5.

1999 is the second best of 1980s Prince albums, after SotT. It's where he took the approach he'd started on Dirty Mind and Controversy to its logical conclusion: like Chicago house producers around the same time, he realized that stripped-down synth grooves that go on and on, backed by a relentless 4/4 beat, can be just as appealing and sexy as songs with a traditional beginning and ending. It's also where he truly found his freaky, experimental edge (which had been hinted on previous songs like "Annie Christian")... Tunes like "Something in the Water" and "Lady Cab Driver" are sociopsychosexual mini-epics that are queer both sonically and in their unresolved drama. It's kinda understandable that after an extreme statement like this Prince would go on to a more maximalist direction, but the three albums that followed 1999 can't really reach the same heights as this one. With those albums Prince expressed his experimental side in a more rockist-traditional, "progressive" way, but ironically they aren't quite as progressive as the detached, nervous robot sex of 1999.

i am listening to 1999 and so far so sexy

29. The end of "1999" when it strips down to just the rhythm guitar you never noticed was there all along even though you've heard this damn song 800 thousand times and one and it's all like EPIPHANY!

― The Reverend, 26. marraskuuta 2007 8:57

^^^^^
as true today as it was in marraskuuta 2007

In a world where 1999 doesn't crack the top 30...

just listened to 1999 in its entirety for the first time - pretty sweet, uplifting record...am feeling happier! how can u be sad when prince plays

Purple Rain and Sign o' the Times are sure to make an appearance too. I wonder if he'll get 5.

i'll be surprised (as in appalled) if dirty mind doesn't chart. but who knows?

I don't wanna be a poet
cuz I don't wanna blow it.
I don't care to win awards.

all I wanna do is dance
play music, sex, romance
try my best to never get bored

I saw him take a huff at the o2 - that made me sad

That's 2 for Prince. Purple Rain and Sign o' the Times are sure to make an appearance too. I wonder if he'll get 5.

Dirty Mind will make it too I'm sure.

It's funnier if you swap "huff" for "dump"
xp

but less accurate

no anecdote is safe from pfunkboy's "dump" substitution

I have time tonight, should I do the countdown up to 26 or should I stop at 31?

26!!

He was pissing about, starting tunes then dumping them after 20 seconds, and threw a strop when he got booed and closed things down early - a poor show

Don't make the same mistake, Tuomas

dn throw a strop

or a dump

"I started lurking here years ago in part because of past polls, which (seemed to) place a hazy focus on strands of music emerging out of the common hinterlands of (mostly european) pop and experiment in the 80s, but welcomed genius arriving from other corners. Thats more or less my trajectory, too. Those who see the best of modern music as a continual divergence of musics of the African diaspora, and there's a lot of merit to the idea, generally found other forums."

Eye-stabbing time for me too. I guess it needs to be said: For many white kids, not just myself at age 14, punk was a way INTO the music of the African diaspora, not out of it--into seeing all rock and roll as part of that tradition, and into looking beyond the radio. Because radio and MTV were much less of an open all-genre mashup through the '80s than we like to remember, Prince/Madonna/Michael Jackson aside. Rap was pretty much entirely underground except "I Feel For You," go-go was a rumor, and '70s funk records were still collectors items until sampling and the CD boom. My No. 1 and 2 were Sandinista! and Double Nickels, unthinkable without music of the African diaspora right up to the years they were recorded, and my No. 3 was It Takes a Nation, an answer to the Clash. Those are probably white-boy choices, but are they Eurocentric ones?

glad to see 1999 do well, it was the album I felt the most guilt about cutting from my ballot (although SOTT and Purple Rain are on there).

31. Sonic Youth - Sister [1987] (199 points, 21 votes, 1 first place vote)

http://sonicyouth.com/mustang/lp/lp05a.jpg http://www.hollowearth.org/blog/uploaded_images/sister.jpg

No, Kate you're not - your description of DN is spot-on. AND I agree with you on 'Sister' - definitely the best - Schizophrenia, Catholic Block, Pipeline/Kill Time, and especially Cotton Crown and White Cross are fantastic. It seems like their whole sound, vision and attitood all came together in such a sharp focus on this album. EVOL nearly gets there, but afterwards DN blurs it out too much.

The other album I REALLY like is 'Dirty'. SY diehards may not agree, and it does feel like a step towards the 'mainstream', which is what I really like about it, I guess. Search for "Theresa's Sound World", but it's all great.

I lost interest after Dirty - I always intend to pick up some of the 90's albums cheap, and never do.

Destroy : Bad Moon Rising and the awful Death Valley '69.

― Dr. C, 6. kesäkuuta 2001 3:00

Key phrase: "when i was 17, man, all the time."

When I was 17, playing Sister would result in the feeling of being in the presence of a higher power. So how can something like Washing Machine affect me?

― masonic boom, 8. kesäkuuta 2001 3:00

Another vote for Sister. The first of them I heard back then. "Schizophrenia" still gives me the chills. That intro is unbelievable - so simple, so effective.

― willem, 24. kesäkuuta 2007 14:35
Evol was my favourite album ever once but now it doesn't hold up as well for me as Sister does. "Green Light"/"Death to Our Friends"/"Secret Girl" are really great and creepy-pretty like they should be but parts of it feel a bit enervated. Sister moves more. The sound (lo-fi approximation of 80s production values?) seems a bit off. Even "Expressway" drags a bit. I don't know if it's just that I've heard more ambient guitar music or if it's that I just played the album to death from 16-23.

I think "Schizophrenia" is the best thing they've done. Is it the catchiest song that has no recurring sections at all? I think Sister maximizes their strengths within the form of creatively structured songs that have memorable tunes and beats. Sonic Nurse might be my 2nd choice!

― Sundar, 26. kesäkuuta 2007 7:12

TOO. FUCKING. LOW.

TOO. FUCKING. LOW.

― henry man see u (some dude), Sunday, November 29, 2009 11:56 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

about right tbh.

it's cool to see the 2 best sonic youth albums on this list, but kind of a shame that 'daydream nation' will certainly place much higher

^ We are of one mind

too low in that evol and sister will be below the inferior daydream nation

30. Hüsker Dü - Zen Arcade [1984] (200 points, 13 votes)

http://www.everythingathon.com/husker-du-zen-arcade-750.JPG

I love the Huskers, but I am suprised Zen Arcade not only lost this one, but by this much. Zen Arcade is the monolith and it should get bonus points for inspiring Double Nickels on the Dime.

I concede on the song New Day Rising and a few other songs being as good as Husker Du ever did, but the second half of that album isn't near as strong. Zen Arcade really pushed things and the crazy noisy stuff like Hare Krishna, What's Going On, Dreams Reoccurring and I Will Never Forget You is so much better to my ears than something like How to Skin A Cat.

They are both raw recorded albums, but all of that reverb that Spot drenched on SST records starting about that takes away some of the impact. Zen Arcade is real dry and direct sounding.

I like New Day Rising, but Zen Arcade to me is the zenith of what Husker Du accomplished.

― earlnash, 25. kesäkuuta 2007 4:10

I've been listening to Zen Arcade a lot lately; it's one of three CDs that has found a home in my car. It stands up to me much better than New Day Rising and Flip Your Wig because it's so weird. The piano interludes, backwards guitars, weird spoken thingeees, etc all break up the punkier stuff very well. And I love the final track. I also think the lack of production is really great.

― Ian c=====8 (orion), 2. heinäkuuta 2004 2:01

Hard one! But Zen Arcade for me, partly cos of its huge significance for me when I was young - it was my Catcher In The Rye if you will, though I don't really feel that exact adolescent emotional identification with it anymore. But also (and more importantly) the sonics still have that wild scorch, Bob Mould sounds like a man with his throat on fire.

― NickB (NickB), 14. maaliskuuta 2006 19:07

Zen Arcade cos 'Reoccurring Dreams' sounds better than almost anything else ever when you're off your tits

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), 15. maaliskuuta 2006 0:55

like double nickels, it is good but not enough to vote for

lurkers win again

xp re: SY DN

daydream nation is better tho

not for me!

Daydream Nation possibly isn't fucking shit, but I always compelled to say that Daydream Nation is fucking shit because compared to Evol and Sister, Daydream Nation is fucking shit.