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

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.

Okay, so assuming Computer World was our "album x" in the top 10, that means the following are left...

Hounds of Love
It Takes a Nation of Millions
Sign 'o' the Times
Purple Rain
Remain in Light

Is it possible one of these slipped through enough cracks to not place?

5. Prince - Sign “☮” the Times [1987] (381 points, 28 votes, 2 first place votes)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/signo.jpg

Prince was my first pop love: boy, was I obsessed with him as a youngster. The Lovesexy tour at Wembley Arena was just unbelievable. I *was* a screaming girlie. 'Parade' and 'Sign O' The Times' are the best two, imo. Not really listened to anything after that crap 'Batman' album. His decline since then has been absolutely heartbreaking for yours truly... all that facial hair nonsense... nearly as bad as George Michael. Where did it all go wrong, my old mucker?

But, still, CLASSIC. At his best, the greatest pop star bar none.

― Johnathan, 11. heinäkuuta 2001 3:00

I think that if "Adore" wasn't on the album I would have a much higher opinion of "Slow Love". But yeah, every song on the album does have something amazing to recommend it.

― Dan Perry '08 (Dan Perry), 13. lokakuuta 2004 20:39

goddamnit I've got like 80 new (or recently bought) albums to listen to and just when I'm about to crack into it I've got a psycho hankering to put this album on. Like I don't know it by heart already. Yeargh!

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), 13. lokakuuta 2004 22:02

Sign 'O' The Times >>>>> any Bowie album ever (and I adore Bowie)

― I'm crossing over into enterprise (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), 12. huhtikuuta 2009 6:12

there isn't a single note/sound/whatevah on sign o the times that isn't precisely where it should be

― James Blount (James Blount), 11. heinäkuuta 2003 14:46

Is it weird that I'm disappointed this is only #5?

i always thought that SOTT would come above Purple Rain. (Ok I voted PR>SOTT but still) So now I'm thinking... no, surely, it has to place right?

ok in the realm of unrealistic predictions i am saying that hounds of love and remain in light didnt make it, and master of puppets and straight out of compton did

nothing against hounds of love, i voted for it

I thought that would be the highest Prince album also, Maybe Purple Rain was overlooked? I voted SOTT and Dirty Mind by the way.

Hounds of Love
It Takes a Nation of Millions
Sign 'o' the Times
Purple Rain
Remain in Light

I voted for none of these.

wait did straight out of compton already place?

no nwa on the list

no license to ill either, which is crazy

Heh, my #1 vote followed by my #30... I did think this would place higher than Purple Rain, yeah.

Remain in light and purple rain are locks, Nation of Mil deserves it, but we'll see. Hounds of Love and Compton are not great albums

my long-shot hopeful: Stands for Decibels

this list is pretty similar to pitchfork's list, except pitchfork had more hip hop.

It's unlikely that Purple Rain was overlooked (though I wouldn't mind it not being here). I've given up on PG(3) and Tango in the Night, though.

Hounds of Love and Compton are not great albums

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/noodle_vague/Chinatown.jpg

SOTT was my number #2. It's one of those canonical "best album by X" choices where it really it really is the best. Everything that makes Prince the biggest popular music genius of the last 30 years is in there: the odd psychosexual politics, the brilliant pop choruses, the left-field experimentation, the androgyny, the maximal in minimalism, the religious imagery, the hard funk and the soft sentimentality. It starts with the words "in France a skinny man died of a big disease with a little name" and ends with "for all time I am with you, you are with me", and everything you can imagine between those two phrases is there.

Listening to it makes me feel there's something that's been largely missing from pop music since the 1980s. Can you imagine one of the biggest stars on the planet releasing a single like "If I Was Your Girlfriend" today? The androgyny, the queerness, it just present in today's pop like it was then. (Maybe this is simply misplaced nostalgia for a time that wasn't really mine, as I was born in 1979?) I think was one of the reasons Prince had such hard time adapting to the 90s. The tougher image that was required during that decade, he tried to do it, but it never really fit. In twenty years we've gained so much, but maybe we've lost something too?

this list is pretty similar to pitchfork's list, except pitchfork had more hip hop.

Who would have thought?

xpost Stands For Decibels wasn't nominated, the two records after it were.

amazed that didn't win, so kudos for not having a predictable no 1 after all.

It was leading the poll for quite a while, I too thought it was gonna win, but then it started going down.

I think that's a decent point, Tuomas xp. It's not just androgyny - Prince was trying to be all things to all people, all the time. That sort of stopped after him for a while. Outkast, Eminem or Justin Timberlake have shown similar ambition since. I've never thought of the 90s as a hard decade though.

I was going to blame MTV or whoever first separated music-for-white-people from music-for-black-people - but maybe it's more that as the music industry got too fat it found it could make good money from a smaller audience, so it was happier to ghettoise its marketing and the acts just responded accordingly.

this is pretty funky - i am listening to it, prince is good people - and i am only 2 3/4 trax in

LJ, pleeeeez get Matos' book on SOTT, it will enhance your listening tremendously and it's not expensive.

i have decided this is an excellent poll for introducing me to things, especially OMD and Prince...maybe I will even 'get' Remain In Light...hmm

For now I'll just immerse myself. I'm liking it! I'm even liking 'It'. Right now. Why does everyone hate that song?

Who hates It?

The 'NOOKER' on the Sign ☮ the Times cover, that's presumably a snooker hall, right? Is snooker really the sort of thing that advertises itself in American strip-lighting?

rank the songs on Sign O' The Times

^^good reading - it appears that all the songs are good, which is nice

4. Kate Bush - Hounds of Love (422 points, 35 votes, 2 first place votes)

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WuoebR2yeLk/Su9mr_HPShI/AAAAAAAABBg/CriUYQTWEyA/s1600/kbush-hounds_03.jpg

Hmmph ignore Dastardoor, side 2 is lovely. Well, okay "Waking The Witch" is only for the real Bush fans (the ones who choke up with emotion when Kate breaks out into donkey-speak on The Dreaming) but it's still fun, and everything else is marvellous. "And Dream Of Sheep" is incomparably trembly- beautiful, "Jig Of Life" is like all the best musical moments that Sinead O'Connor ever had crammed in together, and "Hello, Earth"... Well, the less I say about "Hello, Earth" the better, because that's when I turn into a pathetically sad fanboy who babbles incoherently. Suffice it to say that I don't think any music can reduce me to a state of complete emotional uselessness as easily as the "all you sailors..." section.

― Tim, 16. tammikuuta 2002 3:00

"Hounds of Love" is my favourite song she's done by a huge, huge margin. That's not to say that the rest isn't great, just that this song does something amazing for me.

― hobart paving, 28. elokuuta 2007 0:08

greatest work of the 20th century

― cutty, 28. elokuuta 2007 4:16

Anyway I wasn't planning to go all mental about this album in particular, but today I heard a few random passages in my head from the Ninth Wave side of the album and it gave me pause. So tonight I am listening to the entire album all over again from start to finish because of that and this thread. I think the songs I heard snippets of in my head earlier today were "Watching You Without Me" and "Mother Stands For Comfort", yes those were the two. And normally this doesn't happen to me at all. I honestly don't give any thought to this album anymore, not in many years. But I cherish a thread like this to show me the way to experience it one more time, almost like it was new.

― Bimble, 8. syyskuuta 2007 8:18

I'm a Kate Bush newbie, but I've been totally obsessed with this album recently, so so great. Had I voted I'd probably go for "Cloudbusting" or "Running Up That Hill" because I am a newbie, but holy shit the coda of "Cloudbusting", the vocals, so majestic. The 12" mix of "Running Up That Hill" on the remastered album is fabulous too. I also love "Jig of Life" and "The Morning Fog". One off the way comment: Sinead's "Troy" makes more sense to me having heard this album; it has a bit more context, instead of being this "holy shit where did something this awesome come from?" song that it's been for me for 20 years.

― Euler, 6. maaliskuuta 2009 18:24

Hounds of Love lost to #3 by a single point, by the way.

Aww... was beginning to hope it would actually make #1. Too good to be true.

really happy that made the top 5, i didnt vote it up all that high because of strategic choices, but it is one of the most important albums ever to me

Hoping really hard now that Purple Rain was forgotten at voting time, but doubtful.

eurythmics being another one of those ;_; xpost

Gah, there goes my #1. It felt an inevitable choice - even though I still feel I've never quite got to grips with the second side, and I had to pretty much flip a coin between it and Graceland - just because of its immense ambition and in succeeding in that ambition. It touches higher peaks than anything else (hmm, maybe Frankie?) and has the best 1-2 on any album ever, too.

man that album is all about the second side, to me. first side's great too, obv., but "the ninth wave" is the real deal. my favorite rock "suite" or whatever you want to call it.

another album to get into! feeling less bad about the top 10 now tbh, altho how u savages didn't vote for oh forget it ;)

I should probably hear this. I only know Wuthering Heights and Running Up That Hill. She's pretty obscure in the USA.

yeah. this is the only one of the top 30 or so that I haven't heard in full.

People are really getting upset that their #1 record only finished #3, or #12, or whatever?

No, not really.