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

Mind you, getting ilx metal fans to vote is like getting blood from a stone so no guarantees either will make it, but they should.

4 of the top 32 sounds about right for PRINCE.
80's Prince still gets played all the time around my parts. It still sounds super fresh.
easily the writer/producer/performer of the decade.

It feels too obvious to even bother writing it.
Let me now tell you how great the sun, moon, and the stars are...

wow, so ultramagnetic's critical beatdown won't even chart?

― DustyLoops, Sunday, 29 November 2009 22:16 (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

dude i'm gonna be happy if 6/100 are hiphop albums

I'll bet EPMD just missed.

I'm really nervous about the Beastie Boys. If it's on the list, I'm glad it's doing better than I thought.

2 of my favorites I'm starting to give up on are TMBG and the Pyschedelic Furs.

i think hiphop will be better represented than country and metal somehow
xposts

yeah but country and metal suck

Its pretty funny there is no metal (G&R aside so far) considering at one point in the 80s, it was all about the hair metal - Bon Jovi, Poison, Europe, G&R, Metallica...

And late to the party but I'm suprised at the complete "buh?" UK response to the first Femmes album. I thought it was one of those embedded 80s canon albums - it certainly has been in Australia for decades. Even little kids recognise the opening riff of "Blister".

I'm wondering if there's any more metal/hard rock to come? Is Back In Black in with a shot? Can't think of anything else that'd make it this high up.

― Gavin in Leeds, Sunday, November 29, 2009 2:13 PM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark

i had reign in blood, psychic...powerless, the number of the beast, youth of america, born too late, ace of spades and dial 'm' for motherfucker on my list, but i dunno man. really thought theindie/punk stuff had a solid shot at the bottom end of the list - but i can't see pussy galore, the butthole surfers or even the wipers cracking the top 25.

suppose slayer, iron maiden and metallica have better odds, but i ain't got my fingers crossed...

There's a staggering amount of huge 80s missing completely from this list (I didnt see the noms so I'm not sure what was there). Wither Ultravox, Spandau Ballet, even *cough* Genesis?

King Crimson ffs!

Trayce, I think everyone knows 'Blister in the Sun', but they were pretty much a one-hit wonder - as far as I'm aware, no albums ever broke through in Britain.

is Spandau Ballet a ilm favourite?

as any fule kno ultravox were better when they had an exclamation mark, and genesis when they had a gabriel, i.e. 70's 70's 70's

lol also king crimson

agree w trayce that there is tons of stuff missing that i wouldn't in a million years have voted for had it been present

Yeah ok ok you lot, give it a rest ;P

(also I said Spandau for lols tbh)

they were pretty much a one-hit wonder - as far as I'm aware, no albums ever broke through in Britain

Violent Femmes' legacy isn't built on actual "hit" hits. It's one of those albums that gets passed down from older sibling to younger sibling, parent to child, high school friend to middle school friend, etc.

they were also played on 'collage radio.' did britain have the equivalent of this in the 80's.

as may have already been noted, 'Appetite For Destruction' beating 'The Stone Roses' is lolz

Funny that PSB, Springsteen and The Smiths have all placed back-to-back w/o having any ties.

bodes well for a Thompson Twins one-two

Violent Femmes' legacy isn't built on actual "hit" hits. It's one of those albums that gets passed down from older sibling to younger sibling, parent to child, high school friend to middle school friend, etc.

that album was weird that way. i was listening to college radio when it came out and so i heard it all the time, and the small hipster-music circle at my high school all had the cassette, but it had zero mainstream/commercial presence at all. and then i got to college and it seemed like everybody had it, everybody knew all the words, and "blister in the sun" and "add it up" were on the mandatory frat-party soundtrack. i'm still not sure when/how that happened.

It went platinum 10 years after its release.

ILM 80s poll = Imagine at the end of 1980s if Sounds, Melody Maker, NME, Record Mirror, Spin, Alternative Press and Rolling Stone had a combined music poll

The last suprise placing (in the top 100) may be Colossal Youth at 29, and before that, Doc at the Radar Station at 45, though it seems there are at least 3 of us who rate Children of God highly. Otherwise, I'm much more interested in 101-125 than 1-25.

surprised that anyone would be surprised by colossal youth's ranking, though doc at the radar station raised my eyebrows a bit, too

i mean, world of echo and e2-e4 were much less a part of the (semi) mainstream indiemag consensus than colossal youth - at least in the 80s/america.

e2-e4 seems to have an interesting role as a stepping stone between Kraftwerk & Berlin school electropop towards both 90s IDM and minimal house, though its a role that only critics seem to attest to.

heard it for the first time last night and liked it a lot. like world of echo, it seems to be one of those albums that's much more popular and well-known now that it ever was in its day. or maybe i was just reading the wrong magazines, i dunno...

Like so much else from the 80s, I knew about E2-E4 at the time from college radio play (but that station played a lot of prog., Krautrock, and electronic music).

It was largely unknown in the day (at least outside of krautrock revenant mags). I first heard of e2-e4 on a number of ambient music mailing lists in the mid-90s. Ie, krautelectronica fans postulating roots for Aphex etc.

i think there are documented stories of the first generation detroit techno guys listening to e2-e4.

I don't know why people are saying certain entries are "too low." There's easily a couple hundred worthy albums that won't make the list at all.

Most of these probably won't make it:
Orange Juice - You Can't Hide Your Love Forever
Wipers - Youth Of America
Comsat Angels - Sleep No More
Mission Of Burma - VS.
The Birthday Party
The Birthday Party - Prayers On Fire
King Sunny Ade - Aura
U2 - War
This Heat - Deceit
Gang of Four - Solid Gold
The Au Pairs - Playing With A Different Sex
Bad Brains - I Against I

Surely not even ILM could have a list with def leppard in it but not metallica and slayer.

it boggo the mind

and i like that def leppard album. Wonder if Hysteria will make it?

Infact I'm changing it to Surely not even ILM could have a list with def leppard in it but not metallica and slayer AND AC/DC.

Listening to the Feelies "Original Love" for the first time right now and it's kind of amazing -- like Peter Murphy fronting the Modern Lovers.

Dear alex in mainhattan,

Dirty Mind was my #1. Poop on you.

personally I was hoping for some more white guitar bands tho

yes please let's make this about race

I feel like that's one element that always gets ignored in these poll threads

elvis costello was a hero to most

if i'm not mistaken, several of these bands have a fairly traditional gtr/bass/drums lineup, and at least three involve white people.

though this isn't reflected in my ballot, i'm thinking that arthur russell might be my favorite producer of music in the 1980s. tonight anyways. he for instance was in large part white to some degree.

25. The Clash - Sandinista! [1980] (211 points, 11 votes, 3 first place votes)

http://quimby.gnus.org/circus/jukebox.php?image=display.jpg&group=The%20Clash&album=Sandinista!

No Clash fan can be without this one.

How about a little love for Broadway, which is easily one of Joe Strummer's best vocal performances.

Plus, there's Charlie Don't Surf, Something About England, and The Street Parade.

A sprawling, weird classic. Much better than Combat Rock.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), 17. lokakuuta 2005 20:40

If the "filler" and dub versions (which I like to an extent) were chucked and replaced with the circa-'80 material that appears on Black Market Clash ("Bankrobber/Robber Dub" and "Armagideon Time") and the single "This is Radio Clash" then Sandinista! would be the best album of the decade up to '84. Without them, it's their second-best, maybe third by hit-miss percentage and best by sheer number of great songs. So go for it.

― disco violence (disco violence), 18. lokakuuta 2005 3:05

Definitely the best Clash album, followed by Combat Rock.

I always thought the orthodox view regarding Clash albums was strange. The two worst (the debut and "London's Calling") were lauded to the skies, and the two best were vilified. And this by their "fans"!

I think the original band of Clash groupies (Tony Parsons et al.) just didn't like music at all. The Clash were an action-adventure, so when they disappeared for months in the studio to actually craft something worth listening to, they were spoiling the fun of the accolytes.

If more people started with "Sandindista", there'd be a lot less Clash-hate in the world today.

― PhilK, 1. syyskuuta 2007 18:03

I also prefer the US version of the debut. But yeah, Sandinista and Black Market are my favorite Clash albums. A pox on whoever decided to leave the single version of Bankrobber off Super Black Market Clash, though, making it less super than the 12" version.

"Looking for music" sums up this phase of the Clash perfectly. They were totally fearless and confident that having summed up where rock had been with the last testament of London Calling, they were going to discover the future. It was so diverse and challenging that it would shake the attention span of a casual listener, and only a music nerd was going to find it fulfilling.

I still remember the weekday night as a teenager when I first played it. As the needle came up on the 6th side, I thought this is the most ambitious and mind expanding thing I'd ever heard. Of course it's a rambling mess, but like a Cassavettes or Wim Wenders movie, it uncovers feelings that can only be brought about by meandering.

― bendy (bendy), 23. marraskuuta 2006 16:34

3 first place votes!

GTF tbh

I definitely would not have expected that.