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

I started lurking here years ago in part because of past polls, which (seemed to) place a hazy focus on strands of music emerging out of the common hinterlands of (mostly european) pop and experiment in the 80s, but welcomed genius arriving from other corners. Thats more or less my trajectory, too. Those who see the best of modern music as a continual divergence of musics of the African diaspora, and there's a lot of merit to the idea, generally found other forums.

― Biodegradable (Derelict), Thursday, November 26, 2009 8:01 AM Bookmark

Fwiw, the other decade polls have seen a good deal more representation of black artists then this one.

Halftime stats, just for fun - albums by year:

1980 = 2
1981 = 3
1982 = 6
1983 = 7
1984 = 6
1985 = 8
1986 = 7
1987 = 7
1988 = 2
1989 = 2

I was going to attempt to work out nationalities etc, but I can't actually be arsed. Maybe at full-time.

When it's all done, 1984 should win that by a comfortable margin.

nice pseudo-bell curve going on there

I started lurking here years ago in part because of past polls, which (seemed to) place a hazy focus on strands of music emerging out of the common hinterlands of (mostly european) pop and experiment in the 80s, but welcomed genius arriving from other corners. Thats more or less my trajectory, too. Those who see the best of modern music as a continual divergence of musics of the African diaspora, and there's a lot of merit to the idea, generally found other forums.

― Biodegradable (Derelict), Thursday, November 26, 2009 8:01 AM Bookmark

Fwiw, the other decade polls have seen a good deal more representation of black artists then this one.

― BIG HOOS was the drummer for the rock band Gay Mom (The Reverend)

These sort of commments make me want to stab my own face.

the battle is over and geir won.

"white, black, puerto rican
everybody just a-freakin'
good times were rolling"

-PRINCE (1980)

Re: samples from [Bush Of Ghosts], lots of 'em. Can't be arsed to check exactly which, but one Stereo MCs single was based on a groove from it, Goldie sampled "Mountain of Needles" (I think) etc.

Indeed:

http://www.whosampled.com/sample/view/9054/Goldie-Sea%20of%20Tears_Brian%20Eno%20and%20David%20Byrne-Mountain%20of%20Needles/

and

http://www.whosampled.com/sample/view/14438/Stereo%20MC%27s-What%20Is%20Soul%3F_David%20Byrne%20and%20Brian%20Eno-Regiment/

50. The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms [1980] (123 points, 13 votes)

http://www.chicagoreader.com/images/blogimages/2009/09/28/1254174904-41wy3az6w-l._ss500_.jpg

Very few albums top this one for me. The gestalt, the era, the Stiff Records connection, the drums (the rhythms are crazy!!), the way the most basic sus2s and repeating patterns are made to sound tricky and impressive when layered and played fast, the way Feelies-"fast" is just agitated midtempo, the Richmanesque snotty/blase vox, the quiet build-ups, "Paint It, Black" and "Everybody's Got Something to Hide" (pedestrian choices but I don't mind, do you?), and though it'd be really easy to look back in 2003 and describe this as quintessential North/Central Jersey sarcastic bootgazer pubtwang, I can't think of a pre-1980 Jersey record that sounds anything like it.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), 13. tammikuuta 2003 19:29

Like many teenagers in the eighties, I craved a particular kind of music that I had not yet heard. Before I got to college my access to music was limited, but I'd heard the typical high school music of the Smiths, Cure and Violent Femmes, which had significant angst but was sometimes too fluffy. Anger is indeed an energy and punk fueled it. However, not all teenagers are necessarily political enough at that age to be filled with anarchic rage, or had been savagely dumped yet, let alone kissed. There's other pent up energies, of course. Like nervousness. Fear and frustration that you'll never "grow into" your awkward body, that you'll find anyone who wants to touch it, let alone slather their tongue over it. That you won't become "Somebody." Frantic friction, fear of embarrassment, tension and release but no satisfaction. Teenagers push their bodies in various ways beyond pain thresholds and exhaustion, yet the relief from the nervous energy is always temporary. Talking Heads occasionally touched on that on their first couple albums, as did XTC. There's a reason those bands appeared as dorks on their album art. They understood a different kind of tension, that the dominant few didn't. The Type-A's seemed to be able to drink and screw and bash heads to oblivion enough that they really didn't suffer from that type of pent-up nervousness.

The Feelies were just the band to fill that void. Their nerdy portraits in glasses and preppy pastel outfits emblazoned on a sky blue background, they looked like their audience. They were named after the high-tech virtual reality movies (and perhaps porn) that people were addicted to in Aldous Huxley's paranoid classic, Brave New World. The first song on their 1980 album was called, appropriately, "The Boy With The Perpetual Nervousness." The song started with silence, followed by faint percussion. Blocks, toms, and then bass gradually entered the picture, growing increasingly faster. Once the dry, brittle, furiously strummed dual guitars started (three times the speed as a Lou Reed), The Feelies were a rogue train veering off its wheels with no brakes. It sounded exactly how a I felt. Running with nowhere to go, crescendos without climax, wildly repetitive action without end. Their sound distilled a perfect aesthetic sensibility, and sounded like no one else.

There's certainly influences, the greatest being The Velvet Underground. The band formed in 1976 in Hoboken, New Jersey. Glenn Mercer and Dave Weckerman played in a band since 1973 called The Outkids. Bill Million joined in 1975 and with a couple other members they evolved into The Feelies. As the band moved up from playing at Phase Five in Elmwood Park to Max's Kansas City and CBGB's they opened for Patti Smith, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, and ravenously drank in every performance by Television. When Anton Fier came from Cleveland to contribute drums and percussion, he helped solidify their sound by cutting back on cymbals to give room to the twin guitars, filling out their unique percussive style with tom toms and other percussive instruments like tambourines and maracas. The band did not like to play live often, but when they did, the shows became the stuff of legend. They were also the ultimate cover band with the ability to strip down another artist's song down to its purest, Feelies-like essence. These included Iggy Pop's "Funtime," The Stooges' "Real Cool Time," MC5's "Looking At You," The Stones' "Paint It Black," Love's "Little Red Book," Brian Eno's "Third Uncle" and "King's Lead Hat," The Beatles' "Everybody's Got Something To Hide" and "She Said She Said," Neil Young's "Sedan Delivery," "Barstool Blues" and "Powderfinger," Wire's "Mannequin" and "Outdoor Miner," The Modern Lovers' "Roadrunner," Patti Smith's "Dancing Barefoot," Television's "See No Evil," and over a dozen Velvets covers.

Like Television, it took The Feelies a few years before they were able to secure a record deal and get into the studio. They stubbornly would not agree to allow any producer to influence their sound. Once signed to England's Stiff Records, it took them weeks to get the guitar sound they needed, which involved plugging the guitars direct into the recorder without amps. The resulting Crazy Rhythms had a much different sound than their live shows, the intense, angsty songs like "Loveless Love," "Moscow Nights" and "Raised Eyebrows" augmented by subtle studio experimentation. It was a drop-dead classic, surpassing everything in 1980 save for Talking Heads' Remain In Light.

- Fastnbulbous (http://www.fastnbulbous.com/feelies_crazy.htm)

It took weeks to do that?! There can't be an easier way to get a sound. I was surprised to find that McCartney did just the same for 'A Day In The Life' - I'd always imagined everything was calibrated just so

does that mean that "the good earth" did not make the top 100? i have always preferred its pastoral serenity to the quirky nervousness of "crazy rhythms".

49. The Go-Betweens - 16 Lovers Lane [1988] (125 points, 9 votes, 1 first place vote)

http://jukeboxparables.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/16-lovers-lane.jpg

Effortless, graceful, radiant, fragile, gorgeous. As much as I like much of their earlier work, this one just blows me away. "Love Goes On," "Clouds," "Was There Anything I Could Do?"... Is there anything wrong with this record?

― Clarke, 5. helmikuuta 2008 22:08

This is a magnificent record, though I admit it did sound a bit too slick when I first heard it. But I've actually grown to love that slickness. The whole record just shimmers. I have to say, however, "Was There Anything I Could Do?" is my least favorite -- I was always baffled by that one kicking off one of their "greatest hits" comps. But I could listen to everything else here on repeat forever ...

― tylerw, 5. helmikuuta 2008 22:53

in the right mood, this record is like the most beautiful,special thing ever recorded.

― Zeno, 24. huhtikuuta 2009 1:40

a whole load of albums that just missed out on my 30 are here, which is great! criminal that Before Hollywood wasn't nommed by anyone (including me).

9 votes seems surprisingly low. probably doesn't bode well for the rest of their stuff.

48. XTC - Skylarking (127 points, 16 votes)

http://www.musthear.com/music/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/skylarking.jpg

Really, XTC are so much better as a powerpop band than they were as a new wave/postpunk band. That's not to say that "Black Sea" or "Drums And Wires" are bad albums in any way, but everything they have done since "Skylarking" is downright fantastic.

― Geir Hongro, 8. huhtikuuta 2008 13:35

The thing that confuses me is the fact that Rundgren was somehow responsible for Skylarking's sequencing concept: the original order reads pretty plainly to me as a life cycle, and of course it doesn't seem likely that Patridge was like "here are a bunch of songs that just so happen to correlate to stages in a person's life" and then Rundgren said "OMG I have an idea, let's put them in order!" So it seems like some kind of cue that a lot of the writing (of lyrics, at least) was done in-studio, or during the process, which ... well, Partridge lyrics certainly aren't lazy, even when they don't entirely work, so that's fairly impressive to me.

― nabisco, 9. maaliskuuta 2007 23:22

I forget which Partridge interview, but I remember it being something like Andy & Dave handing over about 40-50 demos of songs to Rundgren, who came back a week later saying 'ok we will record _these_ songs in _this_ order -- thereby forming a concept album''. perhaps some lyric writing was adjusted after the fact once that concept was agreed upon, but either way that's a profoundly assertive thing for a producer to do and it's no wonder that some feathers were ruffled when starting the show like that

― Milton Parker, 9. maaliskuuta 2007 23:30

wow...i don't think i've heard this record in at least 15 years. but when i did listen to it, it was every single day (sometimes twice a day) for about six months straight. so i remember it well. i can't decide between "earn enough for us" (the song that initially drew me to the album, with the most perfect snare sound ever) or "the meeting place" (which for me best captures the overall essence of the record).

― Lawrence the Looter, 26. heinäkuuta 2007 4:58

48. XTC - Skylarking [1986](127 points, 16 votes)

the year was missing. :)

Yes, sorry.

a whole load of albums that just missed out on my 30 are here, which is great! criminal that Before Hollywood wasn't nommed by anyone (including me).

Before Hollywood was nominated, and it was on the list of albums you cold vote for.

I never understood why my first-year college roommate, who a staunch Lee Atwater Republican who listened to a diet of Beatles, Clapton, and delta blues (and nothing else), refused to acknowledge that XTC was the contemporary band working in the Beatles tradition. I hear the same dynamic (with less Yoko fluxus stuff) at work in every mid-period XTC album as in the studio-bound fab-four.

^ (best/most prominent/most successful) band working in the Beatle pop tradition.

Before Hollywood was nominated, and it was on the list of albums you cold vote for.

Gah! Don't know how I missed that.

eh what band wasn't working in the beatles tradition? I like XTC but their music is a lot less accessible and a lot more nerdy. 'you liked the beatles, surely you'll like XTC' doesn't compute for me.

I just noticed I voted for Liberty Belle & the Black Diamond Express but it wasn't on the short list. I think I just had seen their name on the list a few times and assumed that one would have been nominated. I'm really shocked the first album was on their above Liberty Belle and Spring Hill Fair which are my two favourites.

yeahhh I woulda voted liberty bell top 5 had it been nominated

that feelies album is the 1st rad thing on here

Liberty Belle was the Go-Betweens record that didn't get nominated.

Ha...you all beat me to the punch. I'll post it anyway.

skylarking's pretty good but there's a couple from earlier in the decade i'm looking forward to a little more!

that feelies album is the 1st rad thing on here

o_O

(Just realized the first Danzig album wasn't nomm'ed... would've been somewhere in my top 10, likely.) ;_;

47. Steely Dan - Gaucho [1980] (128 points, 9 votes)

http://e-minor-shuffle.com/steely-gaucho.jpg

From what I gather, this final album before the Dan called it quits in the 80s seems to get panned generally speaking. I don't really get why this is? I've read "too slick/elevator music". B-b-but it's Steely Dan for chris'sake! Isn't that the point? I say if you find Gaucho to be too slick, then you have to throw your copy of Avalon into the garbage as well.

I guess I don't hear it as sounding so radically worse in quality relative to their other albums. If anything, the album in their discography it sounds closest to, Aja, is the album that seems to get unconditionally praised to the hilt by fans and critics alike.

I like Gaucho myself, especially the very underrated title track (funny lyrics, beautiful chorus, a song of theirs that should be played more often). Also "Time out of Mind" is quite enjoyable.

― Joe (Joe), 11. kesäkuuta 2005 6:39

what's not to like really. "Babylon Sisters" is a song that never fails to come to mind when I'm driving west on....Sunset to...the sea. It reminds me of "Slow" by Kylie in this weird way, because it's asking the listener to "shake it" in the middle of this tense, held-in-check chorus. Awesome. The rest is equally ace.

― Gear! (can Jung shill it, Mu?) (Gear!), 11. kesäkuuta 2005 7:44

is it a matter of this album being where you start to meet donald fagan head on and realize that, distilled, he IS elevator music or FM or whatever. i think this, the slickness that bothers people, is also obviously this incredible talent/ability where his art reaches some sort of self-realization and also becomes a lot about pure style as opposed to I don't know what - meaning of any sort maybe. donald should really start doing IDM.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), 11. kesäkuuta 2005 9:38

But there is meaning there -- I like Gear's use of the word "sinister" to describe the record. Some of this inheres in the ultra-slickness itself. They critique their own use of the sound on "FM," advising "Give her some funked-up Muzak, she'll treat you nice." And then some more on 'Gaucho' itself; check those arid repetitions of "Yougottoshakeit" on "Babylon Sisters."

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), 11. kesäkuuta 2005 11:14

skylarking's pretty good but there's a couple from earlier in the decade i'm looking forward to a little more!

I would like to see Black Sea make it but I think English Settlement might be the only other one in the list.

I always think I like Oranges & Lemons more than I actually do, it's probably to do with how much I love the artwork and the presence of Chalkhills & Children which is possibly my favourite song of theirs.

This is turning out to be the weakest stretch of the results so far ...

ILM has plenty of luv for Gaucho iirc - I'd imagine it'd place higher if this weren't an 80s poll

This is turning out to be the weakest stretch of the results so far ...

crazy talk

xtc/go betweens/steely dan = weak??

xpost lol

Steely Dan fans = most disgusting savages, imo.

XTC & Steely Dan: Those albums, yes. Weak.
Feelies & Go-Betweens: Apart from a song here and there, I wouldn't even count myself as a fan.

Liberty Belle and Spring Hill Fair which are my two favourites

Those are my two favourites as well! Both fabulous records, just the perfect balance of the sounds that went before and what came after. Ended up not voting for the Go-Betweens at all.

i just do not get 'oranges and lemons' one bit...fortunately, 'nonsuch' was a meteoric improvement

Steely Dan fans = most disgusting savages, imo.

I used to think this way, but I am slowly beginning to see the light.

Noooooooooo. Another one fallen.

I'm sorry :(

Oranges & Lemons was my first XTC album but apart from Go 2 and Mummer everyone I bought after I liked a lot more. It's very dated and apart from Chalkhills and Cynical Days there's not much I can remember actually enjoying at all.

You're right about Nonsuch it's a pretty solid album. After reading the XTC book I will never be able to listen to War Dance without thinking of them describing the flute on it as sounding like a singing penis. Wrapped Up Grey is just stunning.

That said, Gaucho still strikes me a bit of yacht rock tokenism. I've learned to like it, but its hard to deny that some songs, some vamps, are glossy, empty filler. Who indentifies with this prickly, cynical, album, who loves it? I can respect it, but that doesn't make a top 30 or top 100 placement...

but its hard to deny that some songs, some vamps, are glossy, empty filler.

haha what. no it isn't!

The Nightfly > Gaucho

iatee, I've listened to the album 10 times in the past decade, but had no mental recall of "Glamour Profession" or "My Rival" just now. Its well and good to admire "Babylon Sisters", "Hey 19" or "3rd World Man", but we're talking the top 50 of the decade.

The Nightfly > Steely Dan

im loving the feelies thank you ilx

I don't doubt that it's not your fav steely dan album, I just think you shouldn't rule out the possibility that plenty of people do rate it up there w/ their best.

placed 2nd in this poll: Best Steely Dan/Donald Fagen/Walter Becker Album and basically tied w/ all of the albums in this one POLL: Best Steely Dan album