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

I can't believe this poll will likely not have Straight Outta Compton. That's kind of mindblowing to me.

xxxp Martian - The 10th could be Back In Black, Deceit, Youth of America, Reign In Blood or Master Of Puppets. Probably the latter. I really, really doubt it will be Computer Love.

ILM was never OG, and excepting "Express Yourself", the second side of Compton is nowhere near as good. I'd go so far as to say I like Yo, Bum Rush the Show more.

others: the tenth, so many suggestions including

Master of Puppets
JuJu
A Secret Wish
Peter Gabriel 3
Computer World
Colour of Spring
Love
Low-life
Back in Black
Deceit
Youth of America
Reign in Blood

maybe ilm will, like, not automatically vote an REM record into its top 10

(that's the assumption that's annoying me the most, by far. why does it have to be this way? someone convince me.)

I wish the tenth was something totally wtf leftfield like Locust Abortion Technician or Children Of God

xxxp: That's fine, I'm not discounting anyone's individual opinion of it, but I can't believe that there aren't collectively enough people voting for it to push it onto this list. Besides, The Chronic and Doggystyle both placed in the top 50 of the 90s poll, and I would expect Straight Outta Compton to be more ILM-friendly than either of those.

unless everyone thinks Tango In The Night is too obvious to mention

I voted it highly, and really expected it to make the list. I doubt it's top 10, though.

man 100-150 is going to be good

The Chronic

I'd give this album negative points if I could, but that's because I heard it about 6,000 times one summer when my downstairs neighbor would play it full blast all day every day.

I had it in my top 10 fwiw

(straight outta compton, not tango in the night)

in an era dominated by Rob Base and Young MC, it definitely cleared a few cobwebs

(nb i would vote the fuck out of some Rob Base and Young MC in a singles poll)

Singles polls probably have more shiftable results over time, based on how songs age, nostalgia, etc. People's favorite albums are usually set in stone early on.

prolly should have voted the Pretty In Pink soundtrack a bit higher on that basis

Listening to the Madonna debut-- WTF was I thinking not throwing this a vote. It belongs in my top 20.

I had no idea ILM was so into REM until this poll.

if this was just British ilxor's voting i would expect no R.E.M

I had no idea anyone was so into REM until ILM!

i should have voted, then the church might have had a hope of appearing in this poll

or section 25

I ranked Starfish really high, but it's not going to make it. :(

I didnt vote either, i should pay more attentiomn to ILM :/

I didn't vote for some reason (did I know about it?), but just want to say, this has been engrossing reading all day. Big ups to Tuomas for doing this.

'70s (re)poll nominations begin in a couple days. Make sure you're all on board for the process at the beginning.

Can't wait! I also can't stand the suspense with this poll -- WHICH LP WILL REIGN?

predictions

9

Sign o’ The Times
Remain In Light
Hounds Of Love
Doolittle
Daydream Nation
Murmur
Thriller
Purple Rain
Nation Of Millions

but was will be the 10th?

― djmartian, Tuesday, December 1, 2009 5:57 PM

Computer World, Straight Outta Compton or Peter Gabriel (3) are my guesses. Tango in the Night as a long shot shockah.

i kinda have doubts about thriller tbh. not saying it won't make it, and if i was a bookie, i'd say the odds are in its favor, but i still got my doubts...

rest seem otm. computer world seems like it's got about as good a chance as thriller, especially given that a number of people seem super concerned about it. (assuming they voted, but who knows?)

would love to see reign in blood or master of puppets take up the slack, but i'm not holding my breath.

i might be naive but i still hope 'colour of spring' has a chance

yeah, that's another one that lots of posters seem concerned with, so it seems reasonable to hope. plus ilm talk talk cru pretty dedicated in general.

So which of these would people be most disappointed to see NOT place (at all)?

i can assure you that Murmur would be the least-missed one

If Murmur ends up highly ranked, wouldn't it by definition NOT be the least-missed one?

the question was if it failed!

anyway if hounds of love didn't show i think there'd be blood on the streets - KB kroo be hardcore

I guess if it failed it would by definition be the least-missed one.

xpost Yeah, Hounds Of Love for me: not necessarily blood in the streets, but tears certainly... although I'm now resigned to no Gun Club in the list and am already dejected.*

*Hmmm, hounds, fire, what's the difference?

yeah, i kinda agree on murmur. i voted for it (relatively high on the list too iirc), but it wouldn't hurt my butt to see it fail. don't see that as a possibility tho...

won't be surprised if straight outta compton is omitted. it takes a nation... seems a lot more rock-critic friendly, and i much prefer the production on efil4zaggin.

top 5 will be Remain in Light, Daydream, Nation of Millions, and Sign O' the Times. Computer World? hell nah lol

Computer World definitely has a shot.

Given Arvo P made it, I had expected Tehillim to show up somehwere in the 100, but I doubt it could have mustered 300+ points.

I have to confess that five of Arvo's points were tactical, designed to push The Queen Is Dead down a slot in my rankings. I'd never heard of him.

10. Pixies – Doolittle [1989] (323 points, 31 votes)

http://afgmustrock.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/doolittle-by-pixies_i47h1bxwskmx_full.jpg

I don't want to disappoint Vic Funk so I'll offer my two cents, for whatever that's worth (two cents, I guess).

I think the Pixies made good records, though I can't listen to them anymore. For about a year (in the mid-90's, when I was a teenager, and the band was long broken up) I couldn't imagine a better rock band existing and now, six years later, I think the only Pixies record I still own is a 12" promo of live recordings. And I only kept that because I think it's kinda rare. I got rid of everything else. The Pixies are old hat for me now, but I don't hold it against them.

If a young kid likes loud catchy guitar music and hasn't gotten into much rock beyond what's on the radio, I think the Pixies can be a nice thing to hear. I know that Doolittle made me lose interest in the Eddie Vedder/Kurt Cobain angst-rock that I was listening to on the radio at the time. They're a nice "training wheels" band and I think they'll continue to be that for awhile.

― Oliver, 29. marraskuuta 2001 3:00

Pixies are the best and most important band of my life, so, CLASSIC of course.
I'll argue Surfer Rosa and Doolittle as two of the best rock albums ever. "Hey" might be the best song ever.

― Shaun (shaun), 7. marraskuuta 2003 0:20

I'm not saying their goth in the bauhaus sense, Alex. But Doolittle could easily be described as "goth bubblegum."

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), 6. tammikuuta 2004 20:44

i just recently gave a copy of this to my 13 year old niece. she had never heard of them. i saw her the other day and she said that's about the only CD that her and her friends have been listening to.

― carne asada, 3. elokuuta 2007 23:36

i dont think any of the other albums can hope to end as well as doolittle does. the "silver"/"gouge away" ending is perfect. i think this lends a lot to my opinion that doolittle is much better as an album than any of the others. that said, i should really give the ones after doolittle more of a chance. ive heard them each a few times, but wasnt really wowed...

― peter smith (plsmith), 24. elokuuta 2004 17:07

love doolittle more than my own mother tbh

She's not a fan?

I think the Pixies can be a nice thing to hear. I know that Doolittle made me lose interest in the Eddie Vedder/Kurt Cobain angst-rock that I was listening to on the radio at the time. They're a nice "training wheels" band and I think they'll continue to be that for awhile.

one has to be impressed by this level of condescension.

What are Pixies meant to be training wheels FOR? One thing that makes this record still sound fresh, twenty years later, is that it didn't really have successors -- what the Pixies did ended with them, whatever K Cobain may say.

I think I cut a class to go buy Doolittle the day it came out. I was hugely disappointed. The production job defanged them, and what the f is this "La La Love You"? Or the Stones soundalike "Hey"? Even "Gouge Away" seemed contrived. I sold it soon after in disgust. I was hard to please back then. While it still baffles me why anyone could think it's better than Surfer Rosa, it's grown on me some. Still too flawed to be top 10 though.

Back in the day, Doolittle helped to re-ignite my interest in guitar bands, after two or three years where I took next to no notice. Never heard Surfer Rosa, other than tracks on the Death To... comp.

I didn't vote or nominate or anything and only started lurking at number 40 or so, but it's been thought-provoking and fun.

My friend made me a C90 of come on pilgrim, surfer rosa (but with the single versions of gigantic and river euphrates instead) and the best of doolittle round about when doolittle came out, and i thought it was astonishing, the best thing ever. I think of them all as one album though, really, and was never entirely sure what was actually on what.

Regardless, I still can't think of it as the 10th best album of the decade. I think this has a lot to do with a mental separation between "the 80s" and the 80s as I experienced them, which musically meant v mainstream stuff absorbed through TOTP, square things like Genesis (and Peter Gabriel) and Dire Straits, and then a Melody Maker/NME led explosion of MBV/Pixies/Sugarcubes/Dinosaur Jr/Mudhoney/Sonic Youth and er the Wonder Stuff and the Cult ... in 89. None of which I now think of as the "80s" records I like.

9. Michael Jackson - Thriller [1982] (331 points, 35 votes)

http://robertsravings.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/michaeljackson_thriller.jpg

Fuck people who don't like Michael Jackson's music. That basically how I break it down to an extent.

cosign

Alex is a dude for whom I will rep any day all day & puts up with being given shit better than pretty much anybody I know, but we will never see eye to eye on the question of MJ. Prince is a genius but between the Jackson 5 & Off the Wall and Thriller & even a few of the later singles it's gotta be Michael Jackson for the permanent win. people should talk about him in the same way they talk about Stevie Wonder, because at his best that is the level of genius we are talking about.

― Just one thing I was thinking about as I was getting on the copter (J0hn D.), 26. huhtikuuta 2009 1:50

the thing is, those vocal performance that kid Michael did for the Jackson 5 - no herd mentality told anybody to love those. they're just possessed of an energy so pure & electric that they are irresistible. and this energy carries on all the way through much of Thriller, though that's the point at which that sound - the sound of pure engagement, total involvement with the song at every level (melodic, rhythmic, lyrical) - starts to fray, and things start to go to pieces.

when I saw the Billie Jean video in, what, '82, I had no idea he even still existed as an artist. I was only listening to Lou Reed and David Bowie. there was no herd to tell me "this is good." but me & my two friends with whom I talked about music could not stop discussing that video, airing not on MTV but on the meaningless zero-cultural-pull SoCal show MV3. the effect was natural, there was no hype for us. his power as a performer is and was legit. I don't side with pure popists who'll decry any claims of game-rigging as misinformed rockism (I think Britney's a real example of "we're going to make this one famous somehow, and people will learn to love it"), but in the case of Michael Jackson, any such claims are 100% bullshit that can't be backed up by anything other than "that's how it seems to me." his talent is truly incredible, and the tragedy of its total dissolution is terrible.

― Just one thing I was thinking about as I was getting on the copter (J0hn D.), 26. huhtikuuta 2009 3:27

Thriller. I cannot separate it from my childhood, it being my first exposure to popular music and, as such, pretty fucking monumental. Somewhere I still have a cassette that my one sisters made for me of singles recorded from the radio (I was not allowed to own the actual record for some reason) on which I recorded snippets of myself, at age 5, singing along to the choruses.

― SORCEROUSES..roll on stage! (Pillbox), 26. huhtikuuta 2009 5:11

yeah so... i consider him my favorite vocalist ever because during the late 70's and early 80's he did guest singing and featured vocals on lots of songs that were crappy to begin with but suddenly got good when he sang on them (ie Torture, Somebody's Watching Me, that song from Captain EO), and in some cases ok songs that suddenly became kinda awesome (Say Say Say, State Of Shock) .. and similarly in the case of his own songs, a song like "Man In The Mirror" would probably be unlistenable if sung by anyone else..

I can't think of anyone else who did anything like that as many times as Michael, although this streak obviously didn't maintain itself forever since he was unable to save that terrible Eddie Murphy song from 1992 and most of the songs he sang on after 1987.

― billstevejim, 26. huhtikuuta 2009 7:39

I love Purple Rain but Thriller easily wins this for me. Yeah, 'The Girl Is Mine' is terrible but everything else on there is classic. I really think there's this joyful head-rush quality to Jackson's performance which makes the whole thing so compelling (although the material is obviously great too) - the sound of an artist at their absolute peak really getting carried away. I mean Prince does that too but Purple Rain feels more like a snapshot of someone still developing and working things out (which is still fascinating, and in a way this is sort of unfair to Prince; "Oh, just another great Prince record").

Also I don't know how much of it is down to the mastering on the CD version I've got (the 2001 remaster one, I'd only ever heard the songs on tape/the radio previously) but the production on Thriller really shines through, so many little details in the mix, it's almost like they're taking the piss with how good it all sounds.

― Gavin in Leeds, 28. huhtikuuta 2009 0:32

c'mon. Thriller was THE pop event of our (mostly) era; choosing anything else is pretty much tantamount to hating the time in which you live.

― \m/ anger on stick \m/ (Ioannis), 27. huhtikuuta 2009 16:07