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

How many ballots did you get, Tuomas?

Sorry, this was my request screwing things up. I sometimes have problems with the youtubes but the Clash thread has been working fine so I assumed whatever the problem is had been cleared up. I know most about these things though - I just remember it spicing the end-of-2008 lists.

Sulk was my number three. Party Fears two is still my favourite song of all time but there's so many great moments on there.

I considered casting for Nothing's Shocking, but I got into Ritual first and it massively overshadows it for me.

I probably didn't vote for it, but I'm glad it's here. Nothing's Shocking blaring out of a boombox and me standing around while my friends skated a half-pipe = my 1988.

I have this on cassette somewhere.

Def Leppard - Pyromania (80 points, 6 votes, 1 first place vote)

http://www.rocknrollhell.com/defleppard/pyromania.jpg

The only Def Leppard album I still listen to consistently, this album sizzles with poetic darkness in a rock and roll pop sensibility. Call it a metal record if you must, but its carries a lot less heaviness and a lot more depth than meets the eye. Disregard "Photograph" because its the odd one out on this record. But look at some of the excellent tracks like "Too Late for Love", the ever-famous "Foolin", "Comin'Under Fire", "Billy's Got a Gun", and my personal favorite "Die Hard the Hunted" which has very interesting lyrics. The whole record also carries the quintessential element of a large chorus. So am I right, or am I just full of shit in my early 80s metal nostalgia?

― Luptune Pitman, 13. lokakuuta 2001 3:00

Luptune can I call you Chuck? My French friend was into Def Leppard, she did a gymnastics routine to "Pour Some Sugar On Me." She had a badge of Def Leppard on her army bag. She had Das Kapital in her house. And in late breaking news, today I saw some 18 year olds in a late model Ford Escort unfitted with a big bass speaker listening to Def Leppard quite loudly.

― maryann, 15. lokakuuta 2001 3:00

Hysteria was the betrayal album. Pyromania was hybrid. Pyromania was where the Leps managed to take the screaming Gibsons and football terrance chants and deftly fuse them with honest-to-goodness pop songs, forging a guilded ladder from the barbed-wire dungeon of the N.W.O.B.H.M. to :::gasp::: radio/video airplay. Hysteria was the Leps after they'd been uprooted, de-fanged, neutered and hollowed out, leaving only their sickly candy shell....their metal meat extracted and discarded. Pyromania had them scoring hits without sacrificing their bite. Hysteria had them jettisoning bite in search of further hits (which, unfortunatley, worked). Pyromania is Def Lppard's Night Time. Hysteria is their Brighter Than a Thousand Suns.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), 11. kesäkuuta 2005 10:38

Whoops, sorry, that should read:

94. Def Leppard - Pyromania (80 points, 6 votes, 1 first place vote)

Assuming this is #94?

okay.

I feel the lack of autogoon involvement is going to severely hurt this poll. Also who are the people in the first picture Tuomas? I don't get 80s sitcom references.

What's an autogoon?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092339/

In Finland this series was called "Crazy College".

Crazy College? lol

Better than the U.S. title.

I'm also curious about whether the #1 vote for Pyromania was sincere or tactical. I wonder which record, among those that got a #1 vote, had the lowest total score?

Pyromania could conceivably be someone's favorite 80s record. I buy it.

There's one album that got one #1 vote and no other votes. So the lowest score is 40.

yay tuomas! a god among finns.

am super proud of myself (not unusual no) cuz 3 of the bottom 4 placed high in my list - they are my heroes and i have now saved them from obscurity and perpetual darkness. hope the 2-way foetus didn't split the vote too bad, cuz i put all my money on nail probably just for throne of agony which is so worth it but hole has sickman and water torture so gah.

and i expected big plack to place higher for some reason. an aura of almost holy dread was attached to themselves in indie crit/college rock circles back in those days, even in the uk what with blast first an all, but maybe it's faded a bit? more than a bit? i guess they weren't ever out to make friends...

Disregard "Photograph" because its the odd one out on this record. But look at some of the excellent tracks like "Too Late for Love", the ever-famous "Foolin", "Comin'Under Fire", "Billy's Got a Gun", and my personal favorite "Die Hard the Hunted" which has very interesting lyrics. The whole record also carries the quintessential element of a large chorus. So am I right, or am I just full of shit in my early 80s metal nostalgia?

Totally true, except there's no reason to exclude Photograph, which was one of the album's best examples of that "quintessential . . . large chorus" the poster (correctly) mentioned. I also think Alex is right about Hysteria being a "betrayal" album. The melodies were strong, but the production sucked all the emotion and raw energy out of the disc. It's still a very good album, but a tremendous missed opportunity that Def Leppard would never get back.

I still wanna know how many ballots!

About 100, I think.

93. Thomas Dolby - The Golden Age of Wireless (80 points, 7 votes, 1 first place vote)

http://www.destroyrockandroll.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/the_golden_age_of_wireless.jpg

Funny, just last night my housemate played (my copy of) Akufen's "One of Our Submarines" remix... I'm surprised that this record -- including mixes from Ricardo Villalobos and Hardfloor (!) -- isn't discussed more often.

I will also rate as a classic The Flat Earth, though I may be alone in my assessments there... The production -- veering dangerously close to overproduction -- on this record never fails to make the hairs on my neck stand up, and despite the damn near cheesy "jazziness" of some of the tracks, there's something really compelling about them. I still play out "I Scare Myself" (mixed with Metro Area's "Piña") pretty frequently... it's a lovely tune to close out a night.

― philip sherburne (philip sherburne), 19. elokuuta 2003 14:31

Age of Wireless is like a more innocent John Foxx. I think it's a great shame Dolby didn't continue down the path of this record, as it's a fertile one. Unfinished business - no-one has dared make music like this since about 1983.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), 19. elokuuta 2003 23:44

Mad downloading in progress. The deep blue sea of "Submarines" haunts me to this very moment. I saw the "Aliens" tour and am glad that I picked up a stranger and got laid so that I can look back fondly at something. Back-flips and berets. Woof. But God, the depth of "...we'll be the pirate twins, again." I'm going to wake up my girlfriend for some pot smoking and a little costume party. I want to play her back like a violin.

― Speedy Gonzalas (Speedy Gonzalas), 22. elokuuta 2003 8:08

a thread for the video clips

For some reason I was a huge detractor of "She Blinded Me With Science" when I was in 6th grade. Given what else I liked (Dungeons and Dragons, the Tubes) I don't really see what I could have had against it. Anyway, I've come around. Didn't realize the big hit wasn't on the original release of this record.

Growing up a church kid, shielded from any kind of secular popular music until I was in middle school, I remember having a friend stay the night and listening to a tape he brought over full of things he'd recorded off the local AOR station. Since neither of us were experts, and his mental note-taking skills left something to be desired, when "She Blinded Me With Science" came on he told me it was by AC/DC.

Imagine my surprise not too long after when I finally did hear AC/DC.

92. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Dazzle Ships (80 points, 9 votes)

http://991.com/newGallery/OMD-Dazzle-Ships-427781.jpg

I don't understand how such a hodgepodge of an album stands up so well. It's definitely in my top 5 or 10 albums

is OTM, although I'd arguably say my top 1 albums. I have adored everything about this since I first heard it (which would have been summer of either 1989 or 1990, I'm guessing).

The Romance of the Telescope is my pick-without-even-having-to-think-about-it here; I really don't have the words for that song. But, really, there's not a second of the rest of it that doesn't move me in some way. Artistic failure? Maybe, but a glorious one. The sound of a band taking themselves way too fucking seriously has never been so sweet.

― a tiny, faltering megaphone (grimly fiendish), 19. maaliskuuta 2009 15:24

Have to agree with the praise for this record.

I find the whole timing aspect of this album quite freaky, it's well known that they were short of material which left them scrabbling about for songs, but it's so unapologetically uncommercial, even when they are exploring the more poppy end of things, the songwriting or sounds are all bent somehow.

I can't help but think that they were revisiting Kraftwerk's Radio Activity, even apart from the obvious time zones type stuff.

― MaresNest, 19. maaliskuuta 2009 15:37

I bought it last week and had been thinking of starting the very same thread. Absolutely loved it when it first came out (loved A&M and Junk Culture too) and still love it now. All the more fantastic for not having heard it for well over a decade. Genetic Engineering, This is Helena...energetic, naive, ahead of their time and great. Did anyone else nearly shit themselves the first time they heard the title track? You know, that bit where you're settling down with the radar blips and all of a sudden that massive industrial REEOORR!! jumps out at you like you're in a rowing boat and the Titanic's just appeared thirty yards away out of the fog?

― dan, 1. huhtikuuta 2002 3:00

contenderizer, i'm thinking that songs about fucking is going to place higher than atomizer, so not all is lost for big black. Also, im confident that nail is still to come (which is good because it is prob my favorite album of all time.)

pretty sure my high placed vote for nurse with wound isnt going to get them in tho ;_;

91. Run-D.M.C. - Raising Hell (80 points, 10 votes)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OYwl0HsJtPc/SrjSY5EC8MI/AAAAAAAAADc/__npQdaaMHo/s400/RUN+DMC+RAISING+HELL+Cover.jpg

All of Raising Hell ... the Exile on Main Street of pop rap. Rocks in the corny charming way.

― Chris O., 8. maaliskuuta 2006 6:40

I was listening to "Peter Piper" in the car the other day v loudly when a dude on a motorcycle rode by blasting it at the exact same moment in the song. It was sorta magical.

― ENBB, 28. huhtikuuta 2009 5:38

I voted for Reign In Blood, but now that I think about it I like Raising Hell a lot more.

― fritz, 5. syyskuuta 2007 19:57

(For some reason there doesn't seem to be too many good posts about that album on ILM.)

Isn't Dazzle Ships kind of an odds-and-ends collection?

I'm not sure if I have much time to do this tomorrow, so I think I'll post 90-86 tonight too.

(x-post)

Compilations were allowed in the poll.

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too low.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzuZtOvzoQ8 for gods sake

90. Meat Puppets - Meat Puppets II (81 points, 9 votes)

http://i37.tinypic.com/1490efl.jpg

Search/Classic: Whichever album(s) have "Plateau" and "Lake of Fire." Worth it just for those songs. I'd remember the album name(s) and whether or not they're on the same album or not (I want to say they are, but that may be because Nirvana covers them both on Unplugged), but I'm on cold medication and it's all I can do to type this much with minimal interruptions of "meat puppets -- heheh, that would be funny," and then mentally assigning different kinds of meat to the various muppets.

Like Miss Piggy would have to be made of baloney, obviously. And Kermit wouldn't be meat at all, but rather those "sandwich stacker" pickles which are already sliced, neatly arranged and knitting-needled together into a more-or-less froggic shape.

So "Plateau" and "Lake of Fire," then.

― Tep (ktepi), 19. marraskuuta 2002 14:15

II is the best. "Lost" "Climbing" excellent. I talked to Curt Kirkwood a while ago, when that Eyes Adrift came out and he said that as far as he knows, II was the first record anyone made on MDMA, which would later be known as Ecstasy, for reasons still lost to me.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), 24. maaliskuuta 2003 17:53

89. Prince and the Revolution - Parade (83 points, 10 votes)

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/41/51/3589228348a088afa29d0110.L.jpg

"Mountains" was so stunning to hear on the radio back then - just utter majesty in the chorus rising up so naturally from the verses

however e'eybody otm on how Prince is mental about snow in April, when is there not at least a dusting of snow in the upper Midwest in April - April is like the month when you go "Jesus fuckin' Christ if these cold gusts don't stop frosting my nuts at the bus stop I am going to fucking kill myself" though admittedly that'd make for a much less singable chorus

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), 18. huhtikuuta 2006 16:45

that's why it's SOMETIMES it snows in april, not IT RARELY snows in april, or WOW AM I BUMMED OUT ABOUT THE FACT THAT IT snows in april. dude's just like all 'hey that's life, deal with it by painting all yr shit purple and lighting a million candles and doing kim basinger'.

― Haikunym (Haikunym), 18. huhtikuuta 2006 16:58

Guys, this is maybe the greatest album ever recorded. "Sometimes It Snows In April" is the only piece of music that has ever made me cry (lots of personal baggage attached to that) and even though I'm a massive "Alphabet St" booster, it's hard to maintain my controversial stance that "AS" is secretly the best Prince single when looking at "Kiss" and especially "Mountains".

"New Position" rocks the balls off the walls, too. Really this entire album is flawless from top to bottom, including the flaws.

― Dan (Haters Beware) Perry (Dan Perry), 18. huhtikuuta 2006 23:34

I was surprised to see Parade place so low, I though folks of ILX had lots of love for it. Personally I've always felt kinda confused by Parade: half of it is brilliant, half of it is just a bunch of undeveloped ideas. Also, I don't really like the dry sound of it, except on "Kiss", where it of course makes the song.

"Sometimes it Snows on April" is Prince's best ballad though; probably the only one of his songs that I've cried to.

'Alphabet Street' is the best Prince single!

I'm dying to know what's the album that got one #1 vote and no other votes.

Prince is going to be the Radiohead of this poll but with like 10 more albums and people being comfortable with admitting voting for him. So not Radiohead at all then. Anyway, I predict vote splitting stops Prince making the top 10.

"New Position"
"I Wonder U"
"Girls & Boys"
"Life Can Be So Nice"
"Mountains"
"Do U Lie?"
"Kiss"
"Anotherloverholenyohead"

are all jams imho.

88. Bruce Springsteen - Tunnel of Love (86 points, 7 votes)

http://images.coveralia.com/audio/b/Bruce_Springsteen-Tunnel_Of_Love-Frontal.jpg

This Springsteen album is an undeniable classic. If for no other reason than he canned the B.S., self-mythologizing and the bombast of Born in the USA and actually made some first- rate pop tunes. It's sorta the Springsteen equivalent to David Bowie's Station to Station (another after-cutting-the- crap classic).

Tunnel of Love and E-Street Shuffle are the only 2 Springsteen albums I can listen to all the way through.

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, 30. toukokuuta 2001 3:00

Apart from "Nebraska" and "....Tom Joad", "Tunnel Of Love" is the closest Bruce Springsteen ever came to a true dud.

From "Tunnel Of Love" onwards, he has sounded a bit old and tired, seemingly not any more willing to rock like he did on "Born In The USA".

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), 9. maaliskuuta 2003

I have actually changed my mind somewhat about this album. I still prefer Bruce Springsteen when he rocks, but at least some of the songs on this album are quite good. There are 2-3 exaggaratedly bluesy ones that I don't like at all, but tracks like "One Step Up" and "Where You're Alone" are really beautiful.

― Geir Hongro, 12. helmikuuta 2009 0:36

I played this album on the night before my wedding, much to the consternation of my groomsmen.

― Euler, 12. helmikuuta 2009 0:44

Yea, ILX for putting this album on the list.

Good work Tuomas, thanks for this. I'm glad to see my high placing of the Foetus and Big Black albums helped them scrape into the top 100.

87. Pet Shop Boys - Actually (86 points, 8 votes)

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8Sc1JvrfFRA/SkcOeMJllpI/AAAAAAAACRU/U7CQwACt4pM/s400/pet+shop+boys-actuallyfront.JPG

Recently put on Please and Actually for nostalgia's sake (I DID grow up in the 80s) and was surprised by how well they held up! Why do New Order get so much indie love while the Pet Shop Boys - a far better band - are comparatively ignored?

― Manalishi, 20. toukokuuta 2007 8:07

Actually is fucking brilliant. Even the songs that shouldn't work ("Shopping", "Hit Music") do.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), 5. heinäkuuta 2005 16:22

Ik stond laatst bij een concert van Miki Mikron, en die liet de naam Pet Shop Boys ergens bij een introductie vallen. En toen dacht ik: Die moet ik eens een keer live gaan zien.

Disco, Actually en Perspective zijn hele mooie popplaten, en daarna maakten ze me nog vaak aan het lachen.

― Dwars (dwars), 30. toukokuuta 2006 16:05

They were very much thought of as a 'pop group' by people when I went to school. During the year or so when I tried not to like pop music and listen to proper stuff ('87 or thereabouts) the PSBs were very much on the no-go side of the divide. Then Actually came out and I had to admit it was ace and I pretty much gave up on the whole pop-is-bad concept. I think critics started liking them because they were 'intelligent pop' at around that point. Also of course even if the "poppists" disliked the music they all loved Smash Hits so maybe there was a nuff-respect-to-Neil thing going on.

― Tom (Groke), 9. lokakuuta 2002 17:48

So far, only my #7 for Atomizer has placed, but I have a lot of respect for Prince's Parade. "Girls and Boys" is every bit the equal of "Raspberry Beret". I remember the album, however, as an overconcentration of maudlin ballads, that made this (rather than his later double albums) the definitive break in the former Artist's commercial streak. That said, if Parade makes it, so will Confrontation, 1999, Purple Rain, and Sign o' the Times at a minimum. Artist of the Decade. And I didn't vote for a single one of them.

Perhaps I'm the only one that feels about Neil Tennant's voice the way many feel about Bob Dylan's. Whatever merit the backing, or poetry/commentary have, THAT FUCKING NASAL VOICE. Couldn't they have found someone with chords that didn't grate my skin? Sorry, no love for them.

Actuallyis the first of mine to chart. I'm a little dismayed to see it so low - it's worked its way into my brain as a fundamental key to the decade.

Sorry, Ismael, I forgot to post your blurb on Actually:

"This is brilliant - you lose sight of what an unlikely record this is."

I predict vote splitting stops Prince making the top 10.

i dunno. i didn't split my prince votes. tho i didn't place parade, for reasons of consistency mentioned above. but i still had 4 prince albums in my top 15, to try balance out the no-account prince-deficient ballots.

damn i forgot The Pretenders got shafted on this poll, makes me more pissed about Algerian un-nominating them from his poll

what? the pretenders got unnominated from the 1980s rock poll?

yes, a couple people nominated their albums and Algerian Goalpostmover nixed them

It's his poll, I guess.

oh yeah i know, i said the same thing myself in that thread, just griping that one of my fav albums of the 80s is in a weird middle ground where it's not adequately appreciated in either

I take it "London Calling" got nixed for the same reason?

London Calling got nixed because it was released in 1979 in the UK. I don't know how that works. Maybe it was time zones.

'in time for christmas 1979' yes. Guess they weren't expecting the "greatest album of the eighties, oh wait.." accolades.

The Prets were Jan 1980 though..

Nice poll, Tuomas.

Though I imagined De la Soul might have had more support.

(I only just realised such a poll had had a roll-out thread. I recall voting in the earlier equivalent that mysteriously wasn't tallied up, c.2005)

I'm still salty about Peter Gabriel III not making this poll. By all means, we must make room for both Hatful of Hollow AND Louder Than Bombs!

jf you could always rerun it