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

Awesome, used to be my fave kraftwerk album so glad to see it top 10. I was confident it would be top 10.
I think that's going to be the last of my votes to place.

I want something at #1 which is still interesting for me to listen to-- either Prince choice would be great. Remain In Light is a cool record but it's just completely stale to me at this point.

i never understood the appeal of later kraftwerk. the early stuff with michael rother and before was great experimental and occasionally wildly improvised music. but from autobahn on they were just cashing in with boring repetitive electronic music with simplistic tunes.

7. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation [1988] (356 points, 28 votes, 3 first place votes)

http://www.diskull.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/daydream.jpg

So SY are typically dud with lyrics, and DN stands as a great exception with the title track, Trilogy, and especially Sprawl (my vote for the best SY track) where Kim's vocals just soar. DN is hard to look back at partially because it WAS so influential, but I think that it marries the art and pop aspects in a way only paralleled in small parts of Dirty and Experimental Jet Set (my other fav SY album). DN is not exactly a concept album, but not just sequencing either. There's an epic proto-postrock feel to the work, which I've heard described as "one big riff from start to finish" -- SY's later experimental noise stuff is similarly immersive (Silver Sessions, Diamond Sea, Thousand Leaves) but harder for the most part to wrap your head around, and less likely to get stuck in yer head. All of which is not to piss on Sister, which is utterly brilliant, especially "Catholic Block" but which has no flow and rests more on a feel of bursts of aggression rather than catharsis. DN is when SY ceased to be Punk in any sense of the term, and they're well served for having moved on.

― Sterling Clover, 2. huhtikuuta 2001 3:00

I'm not sure about dismissing albums on the 'for non-fans' ticket. I love 'Daydream Nation' and am not that bothered about a lot of there other stuff, but I don't think this devalues my opinion. I'll try to explain my preference.

All this is from the viewpoint of someone who isn't a 'close listener' to a lot of records, like I sense a lot of the people on ILM are. I dismiss things quite quickly and rely on an instinct for what I like. Sometimes time makes me reconsider, sometimes not.

The pinefox once quoted me as saying that I don't think pop music should aspire to being 'epic in sound and scope'. By and large that's true. I generally find that records with such ambitions are boring and just make me think of tedious men with nothing else in their lives but their record collections. I don't think artrock, prog rock or shoegazing music has ever taught anyone anything very much, nor do I find it interesting for its own aesthetic sake. A few artists make terrific 'mood music' (eg. Air's 'Virgin Suicides' soundtrack') and if they achieve that by the use of interesting chord progressions then good for them.

For a band to make a beautiful, coherent slab of an aesthetic statement that relies more on guitars than lyricism or pretty melodies is for me, pretty rare but I think 'Daydream Nation' does it. It's all tied up with all sorts of things that 'serious fans' might consider trivial. The sleeve, for starters. Can't be doing with all that pre-DN scratchy indie look. The title. The fact that it's a double album. The band looking and acting so fucking NY cool.

Then, on a more substantive note: The sequencing of the tracks, That build-up to 'Teenage Riot'. The blank, knowing dumbness and numbness of that Lee Renaldo line that you hate ("my girlfriend's beautiful/looks pretty good to me"). Those soaring vocals. 'Providence' and its part in the dynamism of the album. All the things that Omar said ('horny, paranoid, spaced out'). The way the whole thing comes across like the defining statement of a generation that probably never really existed. It's a fucking great ride and I'm going home to listen to it right now.

― Nick, 3. huhtikuuta 2001 3:00

Daydream Nation is my favorite. I never thought about the production until I read complaints about it, but then I took notice and decided I actually liked it. It was one of the aspects of the sound I really liked without thinking about it. It bathes the whole thing in a eerie silence and somehow makes everything sound wet, which for some reason I have always liked ("wet" sounds of recordings).

― dean ge, 26. heinäkuuta 2007 15:14

Yes, DN is best. Lee Renaldo is actually not boring when he sings. The guitars are amazing, dizzying and new and the production is what makes it fantastic, so I don't know what the guy was talking about with the "flat production". Just listening to the track with mellow guitar and "sweet desire sweet desire we will fall" followed by one of the coolest melodic blasts ever played is enough to put it head and shoulders above the rest. EVOL is a great album but strikes me as more of a dramatic college kid's record and Sister used to entertain me but now I just find it half-assed with stupid lyrics. It very much echoes the attitude of their lame Master Dik ep and Ciccone Youth nonsense. I think there was a carefree period where they were taking too many drugs to bother thinking things through and just played from the gut. Sure, that's how rock is supposed to be. Don't bore me with this speech. If you spend time writing songs and playing them over and over and humming 'em in your spare time, quite often the song goes through a few alterations and comes out sounding much better than if you go to the studio with some bare bones song that your just going to rip through.

― Nude Spock, 5. marraskuuta 2001 3:00

Oh, it's a 10

I really couldn't ask anything more of an album.

― Roy Williams Highlight (diamond), 22. lokakuuta 2004

This sleeve always reminded me of http://ludix.com/moriarty/images/together.jpg

haha is that Nude Spock answering Nude Spock aka Dean Ge there?

my #1, hi haters!

my highest ranking album that didn't place is the Pretenders s/t, kinda pissed it got the shaft

Ah, I didn't know it was the same person. Wouldn't have included two quotes by him if I knew.

(x-post)

I could be wrong, I just remember when Dean Ge was run outta town on a rail there was a lot of speculation that he was a n00d sp0ck sock.

Ah, the good old days where people would get run outta town, as opposed to death by means o 51 cuts..

Still, on with the motley.

Don't want Daydream Nation to overshadow this:

i never understood the appeal of later kraftwerk. the early stuff with michael rother and before was great experimental and occasionally wildly improvised music. but from autobahn on they were just cashing in with boring repetitive electronic music with simplistic tunes.

― alex in mainhattan, Wednesday, December 2, 2009 5:16 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark

I like the early stuff better, but what?

Heh, no #1 votes for the Werk.

Was my #2.

i heard autobahn in 1975 or whenever it came out and i didn't get it. more than 30 years on i still don't get it. i came to teh conclusion that maybe there is nothing to get. btw i have the impression that kraftwerk are hold in much higher esteem outside of germany than in germany itself. the reason could be the lack of lyrics and/or the occasional translation of the poor lyrics into english (the model). a band like fehlfarben was so much more interesting and said something to me about my life but nobody knows them outside of germany. that pisses me off. they were not even nominated.

my highest ranking album that didn't place is the Pretenders s/t, kinda pissed it got the shaft

Oh shit that should have been on my list too. The second half of that record is incredible.

alex: it is the invention of a music that depends entirely upon technology.

Bach's "Well-tempered Clavier" could easily be adapted to harpischord.

Not so with electro. It requires a sequencer, analog synthesizer, and analogue effects. They can have digital substitutes, but the sequence of composition -> sound generation -> sound manipulation has remained the same for 40+ years now.

And its now emotionally meaningful to many, a resonance that didn't exist when the genre was invented.

As for Daydream Nation. I have it, I like it. It was bloated on release and it might be competitive with Sister after editing.

I had two top 10 choices that didn't chart: A Walk Across The Rooftops (my #7) and Soul Discharge (my #10). Then I have a shitload of 11-30 that didn't chart.

xpost I think you mean Bach's WTC could easily be adapted for piano? It was composed during the age of the harpsichord.

I'm not a Kraftwerk fan either - despite repeated attempts they just do nothing at all for me. To each his own, etc.

My highest ranking album not to place was Fugazi's 13 Songs; I had it at #3. Five other of my top ten didn't place.

6. R.E.M. - Murmur [1983] (359 points, 30 votes, 2 first place votes)

http://www.therocker.nl/Pictures/R.E.M.-Murmur.jpg

Alfred has it, I think. There are few R.E.M. songs I love more than the highs of Reckoning but Murmur has this wonderful out of the swamp magical feel to it. An artefact, yes. I still don't really get where R.E.M. came from, so it feels more special.

― Alba (Alba), 24. helmikuuta 2005 1:04

Murmur. More consistent more original. Cool weird lyrical fragments like "Laocoon, with two sons", "Marat's bathing," "Combien de temps." Reckoning I like a lot, but it's less dense and cryptic, sounds more like other stuff, has more obvious high and low points.

(xxpost! Alba OTM)

― Ken L (Ken L), 24. helmikuuta 2005 1:07

Good points all.

Even though Murmur has the hazy, kudzu quality to it, it has those two or three songs with loud scratchy guitar riffs that just kill (can't remember the names right now....). And "Talk About the Passion" is undeniable.

Also, Murmur might be my favorite album name, as album-names-that-sound-how-the-album-feels names go.

― PB, 24. helmikuuta 2005 1:56

For my money they never came close to touching this again. Reckoning, life's rich pagean, etc. are all fine. Great, even. But Murmur and Chronic Town are pretty unfuckwithable as a mission statement(s).

Tepted by radio, but I know if I listened to it now I could easily be swayed

― my inbox so hot (will), 11. joulukuuta 2008 21:3

Yeah, production really is incredible. I couldn't put a name to what they were doing at the time (this record being my introduction to "post-punk" music), but it blew me away. All the ambience, distance and textural obsession of Martin Hannett's Factory style, but softened, sweetened, blurred into a dreamy haze. That "chock chock" sound the chorus of Moral Kiosk...

― Suggest Ban Permalink (contenderizer), 11. joulukuuta 2008 21:55

^^^Damn right.

But WHAT??? YOU WANT ME TO PICK A FAVE TRACK ON THIS??? WHAT???? DOES. NOT. COMPUTE. &*()&$*()#)_@!+@ {{{{HEAD EXPLODES}}}}

― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, 11. joulukuuta 2008 22:02

xp

Yay, DN my #1. Probably I've overplayed this, but it still sounds great to me. Can't remember the last time I've listened to it all the way through, but it's great for just dipping into as well.

For a sec just there I read part of Alex's post as "i have the impression that kraftwerk are hold in much higher esteem outside of germany than germany itself"

I'm so glad Bimble is still a big part of this thread. Nice touch, Tuomas.

I'm fairly surprised with most of mine that didn't chart (all except maybe Duck Rock, Slick Rick and the Traveling Wilburys), but I'm especially surprised at these ones:

13. Van Halen - 1984
14. Metallica - Master of Puppets
17. Madonna
18. AC/DC - Back in Black

my highest ranking album that didn't place is the Pretenders s/t, kinda pissed it got the shaft

Oh shit that should have been on my list too. The second half of that record is incredible

xpost: was that nominated? came out in '79 i'm quite certain

Sanity prevails and Murmur is recognized as REM's finest hour. I don't have a single nit to pick with that placement.

I hope no one is offended by it, I thought that by quoting him here I would pay a small tribute to him, since he had so much love especially for 80s music.

(xxx-post)

I think he would've loved it. I was taken aback the 1st time I saw it as it came as a surprise but then i realised why you had done it and I thought it was a great touch. Because I just couldn't imagine an 80s poll without him, so i really like the fact he's still part of it. I don't know if he could've limited himself to just 30 albums though haha

I hope he's sitting on a cloud right now cursing each album as too low a placing

Yay, Murmur my #1. (XP:

The ascending/descending bass in the bridge of "Radio Free Europe" alone means more to me than many of the albums on this list.

Four of my top five now in, two of them (Doolittle and Murmur) in the top 10. No hope for _Kilimanjaro_ I imagine!

I feel bad that I didn't rate Kilimanjaro higher - I had it at #19.

starting to think maybe The Lion and The Cobra won't be making it in...

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.

― Fastnbulbous, Wednesday, December 2, 2009 6:16 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

from a ways back, but wanted to respond.

it's funny cuz i bought doolittle like the week it came out (on cassette) and spent the following month playing it everywhere i went, especially in the car. and i was at the time a HUGE fan of big black and of albini's scathing production on surfer rosa, which i'd been listening to since it came out. and i doolittle to death to bits and pieces from the first time i played it. every song sounded amazing to me, and absolutely perfect, like this series of beautiful miracles that had never before existed, each of which conjured out of the air as i listened. [/hyperbole]

i was kinda embarassed - as a card-carrying killdozer/flipper/melvins/buttholes stan - to so absolutely LOVE something so slick and bright and pop pop pop, but i couldn't help myself. it was, in that moment, the no-holds-barred BEST GODDAM RECORD I'D EVER HEARD. and i love it still (though like somebody said, i almost never want to hear it anymore).

ummm, "...i LOVED doolittle to death to bits and pieces..."

starting to think maybe The Lion and The Cobra won't be making it in...

Stay strong big man.

Doolittle was actually my introduction to Pixies, though it didn't take me long to work backwards and find Surfer Rosa (and later Come on Pilgrim). When it gets scorned for silly things like Gil Norton's bright, but also kind of boxy, production, or picked apart for being "defanged" or "contrived," I'm just glad I heard it first and was never given a chance to pick out its comparative flaws so early.

(also, it was #2 on my ballot)

"Silver" popped up on my MP3 player shuffle yesterday. It's not a very typical Pixies tune, but I found myself really getting into it and asking myself what other bands have sounded like that. It reminded me everything from the Keith Richards tune "You Got the Silver" to Duane Eddy surf-rock to an Ennio Morricone spaghetti-western soundtrack - plus it has a great guitar solo - and all in less than 2 and a half minutes.

True confessions: when Nirvana went huge in 1991 I was all 'ok, Pixies with hard rock vocals, who cares?'

happy that murmur and daydream nation placed so high. both big favorites of mine at the time, the music that for me defined the "real 80s" (or at least the real mid-to-late 80s).

can't call DN my favorite sonic youth album, but back then i would have said different. evol kinda crept up on me, but DN blew me away the first time i heard it - just like doolittle (and sister). in part i suppose that's because it's so cohesive compared with their charmingly ramshackle previous records. it seemed like an experience to me, almost like an ordeal - in that sense i guess it did what "double albums" are supposed to do. i used to get SO CRUSHINGLY STONED and listen to it late at night, with the lights out, and watch the little stereo diodes burn in the darkness. it seemed of that technology and of the future in ways that most "futuristic" music (for instance kraftwerk's computer world) didn't. i would pretend that my machines played the record when i was away.

and murmur is great. so easy to hate or dismiss, but so important to me at the time. i didn't get it at first, but listened obsessively, religiously until every song was a hit. and because it was sort of the gateway album for me, since i've listened to it so seldom over the last 20 years, i find it a lot easier to go back to and enjoy than either doolittle or daydream nation. plus the production. if you spend enough time with it, every sound on the record becomes this weird little experience unto itself. and not in a flashy, oversculpted way. it's all very restrained and organic, very little jumped out at me on the first pass. i like that aesthetic: a warm, mossy, puddle of sound that only reveals its depths when you spend some time looking.

nostalgia. makes me wish i'd nominated all night lotus party...

my highest ranking album that didn't place is the Pretenders s/t, kinda pissed it got the shaft

Oh shit that should have been on my list too. The second half of that record is incredible

xpost: was that nominated? came out in '79 i'm quite certain

Nope, it was trailed by three '79 singles but the album dropped first week of January '80. It was nominated and I agree it ought to have made the 100. It was #9 in my ballot. Perhaps I should have put it higher instead of wasting loads of points on Yes.

I liked Doolittle when it came out, especially Debaser. But I didn't really give it much of a chance because it wasn't Daydream Nation. That record blew my 16 year old mind.

i will be your idiot, if you look into my eeeeyyyeeeees

instead of wasting loads of points on Yes

Still surprised 90125 wasn't at least in the lower part of the poll.

Ha! That record was really big back then. I remember being freaked out by the Owner Of A Lonely Heart video, with all the bugs on the dude's face.

murmur was huge, very important, in my musical experiences at the time. glad to see it place here.

I didn't vote for either Pixies album but they were a huge band for me between the ages of about 17 and 20, I got into them via the Death To... compilation which my brother kindly borrowed from the library on my behalf. I think I prefer Doolittle these days - always been surprised that some people dislike the production, to me it sounds shiny in a good way. I also back-loaded with great songs - No. 13 Baby, Silver, Gouge Away and - especially - Hey.