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

My placed albums so far. I don't expect to see many more. My placing in bold.

3 98. (tie) Scraping Foetus off the Wheel - Hole [1984] (76 points, 5 votes)
4 97. Big Black - Atomizer [1986] (77 points, 8 votes)
15 78. The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy & the Lash [1985] (93 points, 16 votes)
16 63. (tie) Cocteau Twins - Treasure [1984] (106 points, 12 votes)
2 41. The Cure - Pornography [1982] (148 points, 9 votes)
6 28. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses [1989] (201 points, 15 votes, 2 first place votes)
1 20. The Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy [1985] (243 points, 23 votes, 1 first place vote)

No Soft Cell, Bauhaus or Nick Cave so far makes me think I lived through a different 80s to everyone else. I'd like to see the Sisters of Mercy get a mention as well but I accept all their best work came before the album, I'd like to think they'd make an appearance in an EP poll.

             R                                                           I                                                          O

someone was complaining earlier about the boringness of the 20s, relative to the rest of the list. seemed silly to me at the time, but i'm starting to get the feeling. total dominance of a very narrow range of 80s "college radio" / 120 minutes hitmakers is starting to feel oppressive. especially as it comes at the expense of every other kind of music imaginable. suppose it was inevitable that rap, mainstream radio & metal would be marginalized in favor of anglophilic indiepop, and that the top of the list would be narrower than the bottom, but the unflinching totality of it's still a bit dispiriting.

there is nothing so sad as pinning your hopes to the arrival of an iron maiden album that will never come...

not that graceland didn't make a dent in radio, but you know what i mean

Top Albums of the 80s on rateyourmusic.com
http://rateyourmusic.com/charts/top/album/1980s

stuff i voted for that's shown up (cuz i'm as indie fuck as the next guy):

1) Sonic Youth - Sister
2) Spacemen 3 - The Perfect Prescription
4) Arvo Part - Tabula Rasa
5) Laurie Anderson - Big Science
10) Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues
11) Robyn Hitchcock - I Often Dream of Trains
13) XTC - Skylarking
16) Grace Jones - Nightclubbing
17) Big Black - Atomizer
19) Prince - 1999
21) Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction
23) Scraping Foetus off the Wheel - Nail

still holding out hope for minutemen, a.r. kane, butthole surfers, slayer, maiden, metallica, wipers, devo, gun club, rush (not gonna happen). not much hope, but a little...

every poll we have ends up being filled with safe and boring music that everyone agreed on. that is because a poll is a way of finding out what people agree on.

grace jones should have been much, much higher in my ballot. at this point that's regret #1. even more so than the cold shoulder i turned to straight outta compton, master of puppets, and it takes a nation of millions (figuring that everyone else would rep those anyway)

ar kane? lol in yer dreams, they were obscure at the time let alone now (mores the pity)

every poll we have ends up being filled with safe and boring music that everyone agreed on. that is because a poll is a way of finding out what people agree on.

― iatee, Monday, November 30, 2009 3:15 PM (45 seconds ago) Bookmark

i no. big, agreed-upon stuff is always gonna come out on top. but at least half the list so far consists of recognized classics of some stripe or another. i'm bummed by the total aesthetic triumph of this one very narrow brand of melodramatic 80s dorm pop. the kind of music that you imagine edward scissorhands would listen to while pining over that shoplifting beetlejuice chick.

nothing against it, i love a lot of it, but one starts to feel a little squished.

This is what's made it off my ballot and where it placed:

1. The Clash - Sandinista! #25
2. Robyn Hitchcock - I Often Dream of Trains #100
10. De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising #37
15. The Replacements - Let It Be #19
21. The Smiths - Hatful of Hollow #34
22. The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy & the Lash #78
23. The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms #50
24. Donald Fagen - The Nightfly #65
25. Def Leppard - Pyromania #94
27. Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking #95

I figure there is one left from my picks that is still to come. That would push it just past 1/3.

the kind of music that you imagine edward scissorhands would listen to while pining over that shoplifting beetlejuice chick.

who do you think reads this site!! I dunno, it's just like ILMers be ILMing.

ILM doesnt stand for I Love Metal, that's for sure hehe

People think the CURE are done. I'll be very surprised if neither "Standing On The Beach" nor "The Head On The Door" are left.

so does louis like duran duran?

i actually don't really like any duran duran i've heard aside from that one album o_O i mean like 'the reflex' and 'girls on film' and 'notorious' are really pretty flat compared to the dark lush wonderland of rio

i had Rio #33 fwiw

'twas, my #20, subsequently demoted to #21 to make room for Rum, Sodomy and the Lash. If it misses the top 100 by a point I shall feel culpable. LJ: have you heard the 'blue silver' version of 'The Chauffeur'? I spent an entire evening a couple of weeks ago in awe at its wondrousness, plus of course the untouchable original version and their own cover of said track (now called 'drive by'), not to mention the various crazy videos and their sleazy glamor.

I think I'm the only one who prefers (albeit slightly) If I Should Fall From Grace with God to Rum....

I've never heard it. Like Television, The Pogues are a band who did the one album I've got so well that I have no urge to seek out anything else.

both indisputably classic but some albums are more classic than others qua albums. fwiw "Fairytale of New York" placed above "Sweet Child O' Mine" in the 1980s singles poll, so it's not as though there's lack of love.

Kraftwerk are probably the only one left from my ballot with a chance of placing now I think

I think I'm the only one who prefers (albeit slightly) If I Should Fall From Grace with God to Rum....

The rate your music link DJ Martian posted has If I Should Fall at #68 with Rum at #84 so you're not alone in being completely wrong

I'd put Rum... & Red Roses... before If I Should Fall... but I love all three.

this link
http://rateyourmusic.com/charts/top/album/1980s

Here's my records that have made it already. I've got 4 more "boring" records that are sure to come.

Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA
The Replacements - Let It Be
The Clash - Sandinista!
Prince - Dirty Mind
X - Wild Gift
Sonic Youth - Sister
Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Hüsker Dü - New Day Rising
Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
The Mekons - Fear and Whiskey
The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms
The Smiths - Louder Than Bombs

still holding out hope for english settlement but i'll settle for spirit of eden i guess

Kraftwerk are probably the only one left from my ballot with a chance of placing now I think

Computer World will go top ten.

i dunno that i can back you up, gukbe, in preferring if i should fall from grace with god to rum, sodomy and the lash, but it's still an excellent album. there are definitely days when i'd much rather listen to it.

rum's a much more impressive statement of band (and cultural) identity, and the songwriting is brilliant, but i do love the variety and experimentalism of if i should fall... it goes off in a million directions, takes huge risks in its songwriting and arrangements and pays most of them off. otoh, it's a good deal less consistent than rum. opening stretch through "thousands are sailing" is magnificent, but the drop-off after that is significant. rum doesn't have that problem - it's unflaggingly great from beginning to end.

I appreciate the fact that Rum is absolutely brilliant, a singular statement, etc. But Fall From Grace is a lot more fun. And it's got The Broad Majestic Shannon, a song I can hear 10000 times and never get sick of.

contenderizer OTM. I voted "If I Should Fall," however, becuz I'm a sucka for a variety-n-experimentalism, though, so gukbe: you are not alone. EDIT: korn, "Broad Majestic Shannon" is great by itself but it always bugs me that the instrumental break has a virtually identical melody to the "bum you're a punk" section of "Fairytale of New York". The one weak spot on the album for me.

I found the winnowing process really difficult and had to include only albums that a) had a significant impact on me at the time AND b) that I still listen to AND c) that if I could never hear them again I would be at least somewhat devastated. Even then, I had to leave a bunch off.

Hence no Metallica on my list altho Master of Puppets was HUGE for me at the time; pretty much the only metal I find myself returning to in my dotage is Maiden, for whatever reason, probably because they occupy the same nerdy narrative space as the best Decemberists material. What "heavy" music needs I have these days are fulfilled by stuff like Hüsker Dü and Fucked Up. If this was the Objectivist Best Of The Decade Editorial Board List there would have to be a more inclusive selection (like, there wasn't one single reggae album in the whole 1980s that was as good as 4 Cure albums?) but as was pointed out at the top of the thread, the results say more about demographics than music.

Next poll: 30 albums isn't enough. Not to knock your work, Tuomas; this has been awesome great fun. Thanks!

can't wait to see the cramps in the top 10

if the eurythmics dont make it i am going to be really angry at u all

same, but sub out eurythmics, sub in upstairs at eric's

i have been really enjoying the results of this poll. thanks Tuomas, you have done an amazing job.

i say do five a day over the next three days. make us wait, build the excitement and anticipation even more as this has been great fun.

If Low-Life makes it, I'll eat my shoe. This is getting exciting.

<3 <3 <3 broad majestic shannon

still holdin out for Architecture & Morality :-/

^ It got my OMD vote.

Me, I'm still deluding myself that the Blue Nile are gonna show up. Surely if they didn't place already they must be in the top 10!

Ned's piece here made me put on Technique for the first time in a long time, and I'm very glad I did.

Movement is my personal favorite of NO discography, followed by Low-Life and Power, Corruption and Lies. Hearing Technique when it came out I was disappointed, but I'm excited to hear it again. I may feel very differently about it now.

Daydream Nation was my personal #1 in this poll for various reasons (will explain later), but in the light of all of the above comments, I'm kind of hoping it doesn't win the poll. It would be almost too predictable. It would be nice if something like Spirit of Eden (which I almost voted for) or two that i did vote for - Remain In Light or Nation of Millions - were to win.

didn't have time to vote, but my number 1 vote will probably take the whole thing. what can i say, i love funk, i love surreal lyrics and i love dense production and this album had all 3 to spare.

i say do five a day over the next three days. make us wait, build the excitement and anticipation even more as this has been great fun.

I considered doing it like that, but once we get to number 6, most people can probably guess what the remaining 5 albums will be, so I think it's better to just post the whole top 10 tomorrow. Also, I have more time to do this tomorrow than on Thursday.

Bah, there goes my #1. You won't persuade me there are 16 better records than The Dreaming released in the 80s.

― Jeff W,

The Dreaming was my #1 vote...glad to see it earn so high a place.

― mascara and ties (Abbott)

And I was the third one.

I considered doing it like that, but once we get to number 6, most people can probably guess what the remaining 5 albums will be, so I think it's better to just post the whole top 10 tomorrow. Also, I have more time to do this tomorrow than on Thursday.

Yeah I think that's smart. The TV poll a few weeks ago pretty much went down like that, by the time we got to the top 10 everyone was like "we know what it is, just show us the order they're in already." There's still a little more mystery here than there was with that poll, though, at least for me.

15. Pixies - Surfer Rosa [1988] (273 points, 21 votes, 1 first place vote)

http://www.aggona.org/gallery/albums/album39/surfer_rosa.sized.jpg

Oh crap I can't decide. Maybe Vamos, maybe Broken Face. The album's such a time capsule for me: it immediately conjures up final year high school and my first boyfriend (whos name was Tony and whos mom was Rosa, which amused us when it came out). Funny thing is I dont get anywhere near as much out of it now as I did then. Just nostalgia.

― Trayce, 19. marraskuuta 2007 7:12

by the way this was the last great "indie" album ever made imho - there were some decent/good ones afterwards, but basically it was all downhill from here.

</ducks, runs for cover, rapidly puts on flame retardant suit while hiding behind a door with a chair wedged under the doorknob etc etc>

― messiahwannabe, 18. toukokuuta 2009 8:17

When these were out I had Come On Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa on either side of a cassette, and thought of them as two sides of the same album; I never really thought about how much more I like Come on Pilgrim. Though of course "Gigantic" is one of the best 3 Pixies songs probably and is a clear winner here. Loved, I think, because it's so majestically simple and strips out from the idea of song every element apart from "Pixiesness," and still flies.

― Guayaquil (eephus!), 18. toukokuuta 2009 16:34

Far and away my favorite Pixies, and "Broken Face" has always been the top track; the way it moves from the hanging sustained note to the full-on crush. If their legacy is the loud-soft thing, that's my favorite example of it. Also, I think the "I got no lips / got no tongue" expresses paralysis and confusion better than "Where is My Mind"

― bendy, 18. toukokuuta 2009 19:38

Way the best Pixies album and still worth a place lower down on this list but hey, here comes your zzzzzzzzz

I somehow managed to not vote for Pixies :/

Not into them.

the 2 best pixies albums came out in the 90s.