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

This poll is definitely giving me a kick up the ass to replace my broken amp - itunes just isn't doing Hounds of Love justice at all.

2. Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back [1988] (478 points, 39 votes, 2 first place votes)

http://thimk.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/public_enemy_-_it_takes_a_nation_of_millions_to_hold_us-back-front.jpg

So it's an old adage among a lot of music critics and pollsters that PE released one or maybe two of the greatest hip hop records ever and blah blah blah. Okay, so here is the question: why if this band was so great and their recordings so monumental did so few hip hop groups follow their lead? Excepting maybe some of the Def Jux stuff I can't think of too many hip hoppers whose sound bears even the slightest resemblance to PE. Excepting Dead Prez most hip hoppers have completely avoided the sort of in your face politicking which PE were famous for. The most enduring element of PE in hip hop is that of Flavor Flav's comic jester figure an element which while vital to the group, hardly seemed at the time like it would be their biggest contribution to music (although I guess they were progenitor of sorts of rap rock, ick).

I hesitate to use the word influence, but the question really has to be asked: other than their perenial place on critic's polls what was Public Enemy's lasting effect on hip hop?

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), 10. huhtikuuta 2003 1:01

I think anyone who's ever donned the "conscious rapper" mantle is buying into PE's mythos/"influence" as established by "Nation of Millions", and that includes an AWFUL lot of people. The effects have filtered and trickled down through all sorts of paths - whether it's the boho-righteousness of Black Star or the Roots (who *definitely* count PE as their major inspiration). I hear "Nation of Millions" in Outkast's "Bombs Over Baghdad"... I really don't think their influence is that hard to spot, it's just that rap has mutated so quickly, more recent trends (Dre, Puffy, Timbaland, Wu-Tang, Neptunes) have more blatant copyists.

― Shakey Mo Collier, 10. huhtikuuta 2003 1:35

I think Nation is stronger overall but I totally understand why people like Fear better--it's broader, more of a tour-de-force, takes more chances, risks more, more kaleidoscopic (near psychedelic almost at times). see also: Stankonia vs. Aquemini. there's also a matter w/Fear of it being easier to let seep into your everyday life in some ways--Nation pretty much demands all of your attention at all times in order for it to work totally, while Fear has parts you can sort of let slide by and then go back to or whatever, it's more of an everyday album, and I think its kaleidoscopicness helps in that regard, more moods help make it more user-friendly as opposed to white-heat concentration. this has more to do with the way those records work for me personally (and I imagine others by extension) than w/its "place in the culture" or whatever at the time of release. the quote I recall from the Pazz & Jop when Nation won in '88 was (quoted freely) "nobody bought the tape, or turned it on, it was just always on," and I think that's helped work against it in the long run: it's an album so culturally oversaturated during its peak that in some ways you never need hear it again (i.e. James's Sgt. Pepper point)

― M Matos (M Matos), 10. huhtikuuta 2003 19:50

NOM by a mile, maybe by two miles. The album is great from start to finish (my fav is prophets of rage), and the only filler are the transition tracks that are basically MEANT to be filler. You need a breather, after all.

The fact that everyone is picking a different favorite track from NOM is further evidence of its superiority. If you ask 20 people what their favorite track on SOC is, you will get a total of 3, MAYBE 4 answers. With NOM, I bet you get 8-9. I can listen to people argue for SOC (I mean, I agree, John, those SONGS you list were unbelievable), but the bottom line is that I NEVER get the urge to hear a single song from side 2.

Plus, NOM still has my favorite intro ever for a hip hop album.

Go get a late pass! Step!

― Scott CE (Scott CE), 20. toukokuuta 2004 5:43

this is an amazing album. nothing jumps out at me as being a standout song. i just love to play these tracks one after the other and over and over.

― Charlie Howard, 10. syyskuuta 2009 18:41

Let the wild speculation on what is #1 begin!

Numbers 2 and 1 backwards then.

Sorry, I mean YEEEEEEEEEEAH BOYEEEEEEE

Purple Rain was my #1. I think a consensus has definitely congealed that Prince was the greatest musical artist of the 80s.
No disrespect to MJ, who was on fire during the Thriller era (and who was definitely the best performer of our time), but even he didn't quite have the range and creative audacity that Prince did.

There it is.

zero Peter Gabriel. ;_; o ilm, why hast thou forsaken me?

1/20 hiphop albums = fuck ilm.

unless jungle brothers are #1

Well if you look at only the top 10 the ILM list is not so whitebread. You've got 4 by black artists, 2 by white artists, 1 by white artists bein' fonky, 1 by robots and 1 by an elf queen!

Slayer - Reign In Blood [1986] (666 points, 45 votes, 5 first place votes)
http://dr-blog.asiandrug.jp/archives/Slayer-ReignInBlood.jpg

Wow motherfuckers, I used to listen to this on my walkmen while beating up little shits in the creche.
It made me the guy I am today. But back in the kindergarten i was a hard little bastard until this came along and mellowed me out
and it showed me that pop was the way to go. Angel of Death is my 80s jam.

-Tuomas, 19. tammikuuta 2003 10:00

I was a goth until I heard this album. It totally changed my life.

Dan Perry, 18.elokuuta 2001 21:56

It's no Killing Joke. HONOR THE FIRE!

- AlexInNYC, 27.huhtikuuta 2003 23.51

I've never heard this
-lexpretend, 11. kesäkuuta 2009

-the last great pop metal album before britpop came along and made real music with guitars for real people and music should never ever change from that.
ps i listened to tupac once he's no paul mccartney.

-Geir Hongro, 7. heinäkuuta 2001

reminiscent of 90s poll (Wu at 2, MBV at 1)

loooool

can we just get to the part where we reveal #s 150-101?

and yes wtf at no peter gabriel indeed

1/20 hiphop albums = fuck ilm.

Dude I think it's about the demographic of people who vote even more than the demographic of ILM09. A lot of people who would have scored more Hip Hop albums just didn't vote I think.

yeah i dont actually care that much. its just typing things on the internet while waiting for jamie redknapp to die

^^^ New board description, obv.

Maybe I should simply stop here and never post the number one? Then it could be whatever any of you wants it to be: Slayer for Herman, N.W.A for A Hoy Hoy, Peter Gabriel for Johnny Fever, and so on...

GREAT IDEA

Tuomas you are killing me!

Postmodern, but liable to set you some kind of new record for a 51ing I'd guess Tuomas.

Or how about:

#1. Your Computer

xpost

(Not that I would, in fact I heartily encourage you to do this.)

Heads who have their own intensely active Rolling Threads (autogoon and metal esp.) maybe tend to stay within those and not come out for threads like this one...

lol tuomas, i dont even care for slayer.

re ismael:

90s hardness wasn't "real" hardness (whatever that might be). it was a bunch of different versions of the real, all rather contrived, collectively trumping the art of a decade that wasn't much concerned with realness in the first place. indie/alt authenticity isn't comparable to gangsta hardness, but they both replaced what came before with something more ostensibly credible - something you could take seriously.

same goes for the de palma vs. tarantino thing - maybe better phrased as tarantino vs. spielberg. tarantino's cartoonish version of "street grit" suddenly supplanted the superstylized melodrama that directors like spielberg (and de palma, imo) had perfected in the 80s - especially in the hands of qt's disciples & descendants.

#1. THE INTERNET

post the winner but wait like 10 years

aye , hiphop and metal dudes dont like to vote really
xposts

dont actually like straight outta compton that much, just surprised it never made it.

People will whine and kvetch that SOC is spotty. In which case I would refer them to most of the albums on this bleeding list.

straight outta compton was a completely game-changing record that got 25 points from me tbh

Let the wild speculation on what is #1 begin!

― Tuomas, Wednesday, December 2, 2009

since we're assuming it's not straight outta compton it's gotta be one of these:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31NBCDRD8CL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B000003JAX/sr=1-3/qid=1259787523/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=5174&s=music&qid=1259787523&sr=1-3

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ATRAS6F8L._SL500_AA240_.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31WuS65LjDL._SL500_AA180_.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/2175VZXQREL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000025STY.jpg

that missing image shd be

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/87/Lionandcobra.jpg

(and yes the US cover was better)

It's clearly this

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f6/Beaches_album.JPG

http://i79.servimg.com/u/f79/12/79/37/48/mc_mik10.jpg

btw I had Daydream Nation at 63 on my ballot and Doolittle at 94

So, everyone likes my idea, and no one wants to know what #1 would've been?

Yes.

Plz post it, plz!

you tease

http://image3.examiner.com/images/blog/EXID5745/images/album-talk-talk-talk.jpg

post it on xmas day

^^^ voted for this. way down on my ballot, but a vote's a vote. xp

Fuck y'all for Talk Talk Talk not placing tbh

Well okay then...

1. Talking Heads - Remain in Light [1980] (568 points, 37 votes, 4 first place votes)

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_fAT7UABRBOo/R8Au3T16jKI/AAAAAAAABIM/tJFZW06eE_g/Talking_Heads_-_Remain_In_Light-%5BFront%5D-%5Bwww.FreeCovers.net%5D.jpg

In my opinion, Fear of Music and Remain in Light are, by a mile, the best Talking Heads records. I kind of count "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" too, since it's half the same people and comes in between these records. It's a belter too. One of these records with a real air of mystery to it.

You can't go wrong with Remain in Light, unless you're looking for their more tuneful, song stuff, which is more evident on later records; I think they're largely poor.

Remain in Light sounds like a weird mix of James Brown, Dr.Feelgood and inevitably Brian Eno. It's a terrific record.

― Keith Watson (kmw), 5. kesäkuuta 2004 17:37

But that said, Remain in Light was my personal entry point, when my dad happened to bring it home because he liked "Once in a Lifetime." It's a spectacular record, and definitely their best studio album. I don't know that it's exactly "representative," because its vibe is really different than any other Talking Heads record (or any other record, period). But then, they went through so many different phases that it's hard to call any one album representative. I think everything through "Little Creatures" is worth having for one reason or another.

― spittle (spittle), 5. kesäkuuta 2004 23:39

One random thing about Remain in Light that kinda surprised me -- I read an interview with Adrian Belew a while ago where he said he basically recorded all his parts in a day. The basic tracks were already done, they invited him in, and he just went and sort of made things up as he listened. His guitar sounds have always seemed so integral to the record that it just seemed weird to me that it was basically a drive-by cameo.

― spittle (spittle), 7. kesäkuuta 2004 6:07

I think Byrne's schtick was more that he was a square (which he wasnt, except in the huey lewis sense) weirded out by a fucked-up world. That works as novelty up to a point until you realise the world he's describing isn't actually that fucked-up (what lets down Fear Of Music and ruins all the stuff from Speaking In Tongues on). But I think Remain In Light is an absolutely extraordinary album.

― Tom, 22. helmikuuta 2001 3:00

Bij mij staat Remain In Light op nummer 1 in elk lijstje met beste albums ooit gemaakt. Daarna een hele tijd niets, en daarna ongeveer honderds album op een gedeelde tweede plaats. Dé perfectie fusie van zo ongeveer alles wat muziek de moeite waard maakt: intelligente teksten, onweerstaanbare grooves, fantastisch gitaarspel, eigenzinnig geluid, inventief en effectief gebruik van electronica en wereldmuziek, uitgebalanceerde productie... etc. etc.

Ik heb nog nooit ook maar één zwak punt kunnen ontdekken aan die plaat.

― Dwars, 23. elokuuta 2004 13:49

Remain in Light - an alltime classic, one of the finest albums ever made. So many influences, a brilliant production, and those guitar sounds - epic and sublime - the way the sounds stretch out.

I am going to give it play tomorrow, as I have not listened to it in a while.

(America had to wait 8 years until Jane's Addiction - Nothing Shocking album - that could match the tripped out brilliance of Remain in Light)

― DJ Martian, 12. huhtikuuta 2001 3:00

In the end it wasn't even close.

Clearly it is this:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51b4xj-v4eL._SS500_.jpg

xp- oh damn, too late, joke spoiled.

i think ILM should remain in the dark about this for a while

Fuck y'all for Talk Talk Talk not placing tbh

Wasn't Spirit Of Eden at 14?