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

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

haha oops 2nd one is POLL: Best Steely Dan album

iatee: The poll thread said something to me, which is that Gaucho fans were responding to its enervated, brink of hangover atmosphere. The pervading sense that you're about to go to bed with someone you don't like that much, and probably won't call again after this night. And yeah, I can understand that - there's more movement, even smudges of joy, elsewhere in the catalogue. So on the argument that Gaucho is not a song album, but the ambient album of dissipation, I can understand its placing. There aren't that many re-listenable albums capturing that self-digust.

46. R.E.M. - Reckoning [1984] (131 points, 14 votes)

http://lineout.thestranger.com/files/2008/10/REM_Reckoning_cover.jpg

Reckoning is the sentimental favorite and I'm going with it cuz I like the filler on it more than Murmur even if Reckoning is a little more trad. Kinda like Slanted & Enchanted vs. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain in a lot of ways (I also go with Crooked there).

Both are beautiful. Psych-folk-disco! I keep meaning to through on some early R.E.M. and always forget.

― miccio (miccio), 24. helmikuuta 2005 1:26

Unimpeachable album, though strangely the "hits" here, Rockville & So. Central, are probably my LEAST favorite of the singles of this area. Almost impossible for me to choose between the similarly gorgeous, vague, uplifting "Harborcoat," "7 Chinese Bros." and "Camera," but the one that's in my head most often of these is los Bros. so let's go with them.

― Guayaquil (eephus!), 21. joulukuuta 2008 7:27

If I had to get by with only one REM album, this would be the one for me. It is the first one I heard, I got it on tape after seeing REM play So. Central Rain on the old NBC Letterman Show. There are about five songs that I love equally and really I like them all.

Peter Bucks guitar on Pretty Persuasion and Harborcoat is really great. I have no idea what he is doing or how he exactly got it to sound that way, but it is a forceful jangle and not just rattling on an F chord like some of the sound alike groups from the same period.

― earlnash, 23. joulukuuta 2008 7:36

is this one overrated? People tend to gush about Murmur but this seems to get filed away as "son of Murmur". This one's less murky overall, more shimmering, with a slightly wider palette of song-types in my estimation: Dad, "Rockville" *is* country, "So. Central High" is gothier than anything off Murmur and leads towards Fables, and "Time After Time" and "Camera" are still pretty unique in their catalogue.

― Euler, 11. tammikuuta 2009 16:20

I just listened to that Feelies album for the first time, and could not really get into it. It's that twichy nervous post-punk edginess I could never get into. I did recognize the sound right away, as the "Smithereens" soundtrack is one of my all-time favorite film soundtracks.

yeah I'm on the same page w/r/t the feelies

love crazy rhythms. good earth is generic jangle pop tho.

raised eyebrows is a true jam if u cant get w/that enjoy a lyfe empty of meaning and beauty u feeb

45. Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band - Doc at the Radar Station [1980] (133 points, 11 votes)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3068/2641429455_fac6cc11c9.jpg?v=0

strong contender for my top 20 rock albums ever

every song makes me want to yell

― 69, 25. kesäkuuta 2009 1:19

the first beefheart i ever heard, because for whatever reasons it was the only beefheart album my dad had. sort of blew my mind. used to have a cassette of it i listened to a fair amount, but i haven't heard it in years. i remember "making love to a vampire with a monkey on my knee" fondly.

― us_odd_bunny_lady (tipsy mothra), 25. kesäkuuta 2009

Beef's use of mellotron on "Doc at Radar Station" some of the best ever; Van Vliet referred to the sound as "mentholated" and that about sums it up. Have been listening to the latest Waits and while a bit tiresome over the long haul, a worthy addition to the mentholated tradition.

― eddie hurt (ddduncan), 2. marraskuuta 2004

Love the title track of Crazy Rhythms (as do all people who are not dead I guess) but was always left a bit cold by the rest of it. Maybe in honour of this poll I should dig it out again.

i like most of these albums so far a bunch. i've owned or own the majority of them. i'd say if i disagreed with anything being on here it would probably be kiss me kiss me kiss me and nebraska. just cuz i like EVERY 80's cure album more than KM3 and the springsteen album is way overrated. and boring. and the songs aren't even that well written. got no problem with the other springsteen choices though. even if i would never listen to them.

44. The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace [1985] (136 points, 13 votes)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/71/193871167_364ae65fcc.jpg

If you are taking part in the This Nation's Saving Grace pull-out-a-thon, and you get to "Gut Of The Quantifier", I think you will know the song that made me really and honestly say "that's it, I am truly in love with this band"

― Bimble (bimble), 30. toukokuuta 2004

at the time i got this album, our neighbor was trying to get us evicted. our rental agency was on our side, and it was always my fantasy to blare "my new house" while grinning/staring maniacally at our neighbor while he walked his dog

ITS GOT WINDOW SILLS-AH

― jake in portland (cerybut), 30. toukokuuta 2004 2:31

every song here has at least 1 thing in it i love (eg "STICK IN THE MUD! STICK IN THE GUT!" or "what you need: a bit of iggy stooge" or brix quoting russ meyer or...)

so at random, i choose "paintwork"

― lol cool j (donna rouge), 11. joulukuuta 2008

my first fall album...ordered it on the strength of a "10" rating in the big orange book when I was I think 15...didn't know what to think about it...The Fall seemed peculiar bcz the big orange book listed like 30 albums and none of them were rated below a "7" yet they ddin't have any albums in the top 100 list in the back of the book either.

when I was in high school, I would've chosen "Barmy" by a country mile, but now I like "L.A." it's musik-kosmische for the college crowd...

― Hipster Loser-Loser (Drugs A. Money), 17. joulukuuta 2008 16:00

This is one of the first real surprises. Thought this would be top 20 fer sure.

everyone knows that the top 20 will be 6 cure albums, 4 smiths albums, 4 new order albums, 5 cocteau twins albums, and Poison's Open Up And Say...Ahh!

holy shit! did I just get quoted???

(funny thing is, there were 3 Fall albums on my ballot and none of them was TNSG)

yeh i would have thought so too, there was a load of fall on the list?

i've found crazy rhythms stubbornly resists my attempts to like it in any way, i was convinced i was going to blown away after reading about if for a good while, but it just sounds like a charmless amalgam of monochrome set and josef k with added irritating drumming.i should give it one more try i suppose, from what i've heard i prefer the good earth. somehow i managed to convince myself i had more important things to do than vote in this last weekend and now i'm completely gripped, i immediately looked for odyshape, before hollywood and ostrich churchyard and flounced off when i couldn't find them. i hope colossal youth, tom tom club do well, but i fear felt may not recover from my lack of tactical voting.

i reckon the stone roses will do surprisingly poorly

43. Sonic Youth - EVOL [1986] (143 points, 12 votes, 1 first place vote)

http://i33.tinypic.com/vzeujc.jpg

Am I the only person that thinks Daydream Nation is pretention, overblown, overbearing and about 20 minutes too long? It's one of my least favourite SY albums. My opinion (and filter that through my dronerock beautiful-noisenik arse) is:

Search: Bad Moon Rising, Evol (****), Sister (***** - if I had another star, it would get 6 stars, it is that classic!!!), Goo, and about 15 to 20 minutes of Dirty

Destroy: Daydream Nation, the rest of Dirty and everything else that followed up until about NYC Ghosts & Flowers, which basically scrapes by with a ***

I do actually *love* a great deal of Sonic Youth's eirie, spacey, alien, wonky, warped, blissful music. However, also DESTROY: the *entire* NYC Sonic Youth Cult Of Art and all the pretentious jazzwankers who hang out at the Cooler wishing they could be Lee Renaldo. You're not. Now shave off the chin-rag and go home.

Oh, GAWD, why didn't I think of Sonic Youth back in the "Love the band, hate the image" thread?

― masonic boom, 6. kesäkuuta 2001 3:00

Kloppen allemaal, die criteria. Mijn probleem is alleen dat ik de band geen goede liedjes vindt kunnen schrijven. Van de ultieme noise- orkaan op Sonic Death tot aan Bad Moon Rising heb ik geen klachten. Vanaf Evol begonnen de songwritertalenten zich te ontpoppen, en de platen me steeds minder te boeien. Maar Sonic Youth is een band in ontwikkeling, nog steeds: en da's heel erg oké.

Soms raak je elkaar kwijt, soms vindt je elkaar weer terug. Time will tell....

― Roger Teeling, 29. toukokuuta 2002 3:00

EVOL, people, the answer is EVOL. From the first split second that "Tom Violence" commences, you're on an unstoppable train to change.

Sister was rather f*cking excellent too though, mind you.

― FmGT, 23. kesäkuuta 2007 12:54

my answer would have been sister until about two years ago when i rediscovered EVOL. the perfect blend of noise and pretty. Star power baby!

― yussel, 23. kesäkuuta 2007 15:00

I have no idea what the music's like, but that's a nice cover.

Evol is my favorite Sonic Youth album. I listened to it on headphones a lot on family car trips and it gave the sage and scrub of the landscape all this dark, evocative power.

This Nation's Saving Grace is the one they tacked "Cruiser's Creek" too, right?

I love that we're getting quotes from De Subjectivisten.

EVOL is my second favorite Sonic Youth which meant it didn't make my ballot. Glad it did well though.

42. Hüsker Dü - New Day Rising [1985] (146 points, 14 votes)

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/42/c9/6653228348a09b0db25e2110.L.jpg

Yes, Goddammit, where is the love for NEW DAY RISING. Spectacular from end to end, even errr... the less than spectacular parts. Title track is bliss.

― BlastsOfStatic (BlastsofStatic), 8. huhtikuuta 2005

I think New Day Rising is my favorite too but I like them all so who knows. Newest Industry and Chartered Trips are my favorite songs though. I remember getting Metal Circus in high school and being totally freaked out by Diane. The production on the later records bothers me way more than on the early stuff. In fact I don't notice it at all up through New Day Rising.

― dan. (dan.), 8. huhtikuuta 2005

The Living End, then Zen & Rising, broke my brain &, in essence, birthed my full-on indie wuv when I first heard them 10+ years ago (w/ Sugar serving as the womb). Then I went through a phase where I disowned Husker. Then I felt a little nostalgic (& glommed onto Everything Falls Apart, because it sounded fresh to me). Then I TOTALLY disowned them. Now, I think I'm ambivalent & nostalgically curious, tho I don't think I'll ever hear what I heard way back when now, which is to be expected, but still disappointing. Not that I really need to hear them ever again - I can probably bring up any song from those 2 records at any time in my noggin. Except for the cat skinning one (which I really like). And "59 Times The Pain" can go trip on a bear trap.

― David R. (popshots75`), 8. huhtikuuta 2005 17:56

I'm totally wearing a big eye-piercing orange New Day Rising shirt today

― Zack Richardson (teenagequiet), 8. huhtikuuta 2005 18:46

This Nation's Saving Grace is the one they tacked "Cruiser's Creek" too, right?

― EZ Snappin, Friday, November 27, 2009 1:46 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

Yes, it was "Barmy" in the UK iirc. One of my two Fall LP votes. I also voted for EVOL.

ick, I really don't like NDR very much as a whole but that bodes well for Zen Arcade.

my 2nd top 5 pick...MP II wz #5, and EVOL wz #3

I hope Cosmic Thing (#4) makes it but I have my doubts...

41. The Cure - Pornography [1982] (148 points, 9 votes)

http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/oo12/RCSDVD_2008/pornography.jpg

All three (_Pornography_, _Disintegration_, _Bloodflowers_) are great. Since I spent most of yesterday listening to _Pornography_ on repeat, I have to give the nod to that one this week.

― Dan Perry, 7. toukokuuta 2002 3:00

This is tough, and strangely, it's the album I had on in the van while driving around all my xmas peeps last night.

For years, 100 Years was the no contest winner. More recently, I've been all about that one-two punch at the end of Cold and Pornography.

But now that lyric from the Figurehad "I will never be clean again" is echoing in my mind.

This is my favorite Cure record.

― Nate Carson, 26. joulukuuta 2008 0:08

This is one of the best records of the 80's all-time. It pretty much sparked me into being a music-lover. I don't see bleakness so much as unimaginable fantasy and arching wonder. It's a deeply, deeply psychedelic piece of music.

And I don't know what to vote for. Probably "The Figurehead" or "A Strange Day" but every track (except maybe "The Hanging Garden") has a fair shout.

― baby got bahn (country matters), 26. joulukuuta 2008 7:08

i'm going to have to think about this for a long, long time. is there an album that even sounds close to this one? truly one of the best albums ever made and looking forward to hearing it this week to make up my mind.

― Bee OK, 26. joulukuuta 2008 7:56

We're into the biggish hitters now and I'm having to admit that the things I voted for and hoped would turn up in the 60-100 range aren't going to happen now. Oh well...

yeah me too, looks like Nurse With Wound isn't gonna place...

100. Robyn Hitchcock - I Often Dream of Trains [1984] (75 points, 5 votes)
98. (tie) Scraping Foetus off the Wheel - Hole [1984] (76 points, 5 votes)
98. (tie) Spacemen 3 - The Perfect Prescription [1987] (76 points, 5 votes)
97. Big Black - Atomizer [1986] (77 points, 8 votes)
96. Associates - Sulk [1982] (79 points, 6 votes)
95. Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking [1988] (79 points, 7 votes)
94. Def Leppard - Pyromania [1983] (80 points, 6 votes, 1 first place vote)
93. Thomas Dolby - The Golden Age of Wireless [1982] (80 points, 7 votes, 1 first place vote)
92. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Dazzle Ships [1983] (80 points, 9 votes)
91. Run-D.M.C. - Raising Hell [1986] (80 points, 10 votes)
90. Meat Puppets - Meat Puppets II [1984] (81 points, 9 votes)
89. Prince and the Revolution - Parade [1986] (83 points, 10 votes)
88. Bruce Springsteen - Tunnel of Love [1987] (86 points, 7 votes)
87. Pet Shop Boys - Actually [1987] (86 points, 8 votes)
86. Pet Shop Boys - Please [1986] (87 points, 8 votes)
84. (tie) Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine [1989] (87 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote)
84. (tie) Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues [1983] (87 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote)
83. David Bowie - Scary Monsters [1980] (89 points, 6 votes, 1 first place vote)
82. Scraping Foetus off the Wheel - Nail [1985] (91 points, 5 votes, 1 first place vote)
81. The Beat (aka The English Beat) - I Just Can't Stop It [1980] (91 points, 13 votes)
80. Various - The Indestructible Beat of Soweto [1985] (93 points, 6 votes, 1 first place vote)
79. The The - Soul Mining [1983] (93 points, 7 votes, 1 first place vote)
78. The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy & the Lash [1985] (93 points, 16 votes)
77. Meat Puppets - Up on the Sun [1985] (94 points, 8 votes)
76. U2 - The Joshua Tree [1987] (95 points, 7 votes, 1 first place vote)
75. Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual [1983] (95 points, 9 votes)
74. Galaxie 500 - On Fire [1989] (96 points, 10 votes)
73. X - Wild Gift [1981] (97 points, 9 votes)
72. The Chills - Kaleidoscope World [1986] (98 points, 7 votes, 1 first place vote)
71. Roxy Music - Avalon [1982] (99 points, 10 votes)
70. Laurie Anderson - Big Science [1982] (99 points, 11 votes)
69. Scritti Politti - Cupid & Psyche 85 [1985] (100 points, 7 votes)
68. New Order - Power, Corruption & Lies [1983] (100 points, 16 votes)
67. Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes [1983] (101 points, 12 votes)
66. Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen [1985] (104 points, 10 votes, 1 first place vote)
65. Donald Fagen - The Nightfly [1982] (105 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote)
63. (tie) Tom Waits - Rain Dogs [1985] (106 points, 12 votes)
63. (tie) Cocteau Twins - Treasure [1984] (106 points, 12 votes)
62. Grace Jones - Nightclubbing [1981] (106 points, 12 votes, 1 first place vote)
61. Arthur Russell - World of Echo [1986] (108 points, 11 votes, 1 first place vote)
60. Eric B. & Rakim - Paid In Full [1987] (111 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote)
59. Mekons - Fear and Whiskey [1985] (111 points, 8 votes, 2 first place votes)
58. The Cure - Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me [1987] (112 points, 7 votes, 2 first place votes)
57. Arvo Pärt - Tabula Rasa [1984] (112 points, 9 votes, 1 first place vote)
56. R.E.M. - Lifes Rich Pageant [1986] (112 points, 12 votes)
55. Dinosaur Jr. - You're Living All Over Me [1987] (115 points, 13 votes)
54. Bruce Springsteen - Born in the U.S.A. [1984] (118 points, 14 votes)
53. Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska [1982] (120 points, 14 votes)
52. Brian Eno / David Byrne - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts [1981] (120 points, 17 votes)
51. Leonard Cohen - I'm Your Man [1988] (121 points, 11 votes)
50. The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms [1980] (123 points, 13 votes)
49. The Go-Betweens - 16 Lovers Lane [1988] (125 points, 9 votes, 1 first place vote)
48. XTC - Skylarking [1986] (127 points, 16 votes)
47. Steely Dan - Gaucho [1980] (128 points, 9 votes)
46. R.E.M. - Reckoning [1984] (131 points, 14 votes)
45. Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band - Doc at the Radar Station [1980] (133 points, 11 votes)
44. The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace [1985] (136 points, 13 votes)
43. Sonic Youth - EVOL [1986] (143 points, 12 votes, 1 first place vote)
42. Hüsker Dü - New Day Rising [1985] (146 points, 14 votes)
41. The Cure - Pornography [1982] (148 points, 9 votes)

Only one of my top ten has shown up JOY*! This means two of the remaining nine will surprise everyone with their GLORY! (seven being obv shoeins) when they inevitably place because of UNDENIABILITY! :-D

*) Nail.

I really thought Pornography would be close to the top ten. I had it at #2.

It was voted second to Disintegration in the Cure albums poll so I don't think we'll be seeing a rush of Cure records near the end of this.

wld sm much of this albums posted since last i stopped by. arvo part! first real left-field wtf surprise so far. put it in my top 5 hoping it'd at least straggle in somewhere at the bottom, but good on yr, mr part.

plus piles of my c.86 dorm rm boombox favorites: dino jr, evol, skylarking, husker du, bush gost, etc. now i just need some clove cigarettes and a hand-me-down pink floyd poster.

I woulda thought Crazy Rhythms woulda been top ten, same with Nation's Saving Grace. This list is getting weird. (Doc more popular than Skylarking?) In kind of a good way, I think.

Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart will be the record with one first-place vote and no other votes, right? It barely bumped Crazy Rhythms from my top spot; had I known it was Top Thirty great only in the province of my doodlebug imagination I might have been tempted to leave it off in favour of strategically bumping Crazy Rhythms up a few slots. Whatevs.

My big retro surprise of this year: finally being able to listen to Sonic Youth again. Haven't enjoyed a note since Dirty came out, but recently re-blasted by just how fucking good Sister is... when it's on, I know every note, every lyric, every switch-up. Had forgotten entirely; it's like going back in time and discovering your own face on an ancient statue. Will now have to pull out EVOL and find out the same thing.

ilm has steered me wrong regarding the cure. i bought 4 of their albums and none are very good.

ILM's Cure-love is one of its unfortunate quirks.

oh bah

strangely the "hits" here, Rockville & So. Central, are probably my LEAST favorite of the singles of this area.

I meant "era" obv.

Great list so far. I like that it's very difficult to imagine a single animating sensibility that could have produced it.

"Born in the USA" the only thing on here I'm familiar with and don't care for.

"Standing On The Beach" should easily be top 10, unless people didn't vote for it because it's a comp.

I really thought Pornography would be close to the top ten. I had it at #2.

i thought it would make the top 25. i had it at 10.

this is a very interesting list, i have much to learn thanks to ILM.

please please please let e2-e4 make this list

So far my #5, 7, 15, 17 and 23 have made it. Probably half of the rest won't make the list. The cool thing about this poll is that I still like almost everything on the list so far. I really felt like 84-87 was a nadir for good music, relatively. But there's always stuff I've forgotten about worth reconsidering.