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

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.

I was actually kind of relieved.

"Raising Hell" just barely got edged out of my final ballot, glad to see it in the results.

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

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_ZC8AWOly7vE/Ruy1GTR3-wI/AAAAAAAAH34/yRmyrXwGXmY/please.jpg

Also, the Pet Shop Boys' first two album titles were conceived as elaborate jokes, as in a customer walks into a record store and asks for "The Pet Shop Boys, Please...." A year later the clerk sees the same customer and asks "You here for the new ... um ...Depeche Mode wasn't it?" The customer says, "No, The Pet Shop Boys, Actually..."

― mottdeterre, 19. marraskuuta 2009 0:37

Up to "Very" their albums got better and better, after which there was a drop in quality

I don't know - it seemed like "Please" had the best songs, followed by "Actually", followed by "Introspective" - I still have those three on cassette. After that I stopped listening to them much.

― o. nate (onate), 14. kesäkuuta 2005 20:58

Voted for Please cuz I heard it most recently, on the strength of "Two Divided By Zero," "Why Don't We Live Together?" and, oh yeah, the singles.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, 6. marraskuuta 2007 14:52

I forgot to put Actually in my list, I think Very and Behaviour are better albums but this is almost perfect. One of those albums where just about every song could have been a single. Rent has to be one of the most perfect songs to ever make the top ten.

i didn't even realise that they put out albums, i always thought they only had singles...

something tells me just-ice won't make the list :(

And that is it for tonight, most likely I'll continue the countdown tomorrow evening. I leave you to comment on #86-#100.

all that psb stuff didn't age well btw, even the singles sound rather dated now. thanks for the great start tuomas, see you tomorrow on the same programme.

this reminds me i never typed up the full placings for the tv poll. will def. do so by the end of the week. good work tuomas.

One of those albums where just about every song could have been a single.

My 3rd-placed record is absolutely like this, and will almost certainly be top 10

If my #1 pick isn't top-5, maybe top-3, I'm going to go on a drunken mod deletion rampage, and encourage other mods to do the same.

Now That's What I Call Music 8?

Now I'm worrying that my #1 is the one that scored no other votes.

mine was cardiacs and so possibly scraped 60 points

but my numbers 2-4 are gonna be high high high

I think my #1 would have got at least another vote. Hopefully it will make the list but I really don't know what is coming. That said, my lol prediction for the top 20:

Daydream Nation
Sign O'
Purple Rain
Doolittle
Surfer Rosa
The Queen Is Dead
Double Nickles
Appetite fo' destruction
Straight outta compton

oh wait, i have no idea what will place or win. some new order maybe?

if raising hell placed so low i cannot see any rap records other than nwa or maybe de la placing high.

It Takes A Nation Of Millions will probably place high, no?

I'm most interested to see what my #2 does - I'd had it down as dadrock for years, but rediscovered it recently as part of a context where it seemed to be attracting goodwill from all men.

I like Technique well enough, but I'll be very disappointed if the top ten is all New Order.

never discount the ilm techno massive

oh yeah, forgot pe.

and their pipecockpuppets

'It Takes a Nation Of Millions' and '3Ft High' both better be in the top 50.

I actually have never heard Tunnel Of Love. I remember seeing it as a BMG selection of the month at the time and thinking, yuck, having been so burned out on Born. I've been looking for it at the library and used.

I kind of think "It Takes a Nation..." is likely to be in the top 10?

of course it will, i just forgot it for a second. i hope eric b and rakim make the top 50 as well, but i'm not expecting like ultramagnetic or anything crazy like that.

I love how us English speakers get learn the days of the week in Finnish from the posts that Tuomas is quoting. Bonus!

Actually I guess those are months of the year?

I had my hopes up about Slick Rick placing, but yeah after Run DMC this low probably not. Feeling the same way about Up On The Sun coming ahead of II too.

of course it will, i just forgot it for a second. i hope eric b and rakim make the top 50 as well, but i'm not expecting like ultramagnetic or anything crazy like that.

EPMD's Strictly Business ought to go Top 50 in a perfect world, it's the best hip-hop album of the decade!

Wow, this was really fast, Tuomas. I opened this expecting it to be a prank thread of some sort.

i gave high marks to 3 the bottom 4 finishers but nothing else i rated has shown up yet. weird. didn't even save a spot for run-dmc or meat pups 2 (shame & horror). love both dearly, but there was so much competition from other sentimental faves y'see and uh...

anyway, here's some blurbs i was too rushed to jot down on my ballot sub:

ROBYN HITCHCOCK - I OFTEN DREAM OF TRAINS
my introduction to robyn came couple years later, with the element of light, fegmania and the live gotta let this hen out. saw him w/ his egyptians on that tour, was converted instantly and for life. i suppose he defines the "cult artist": cerebral, technically adept but self-effacing, clever to the point where it might become grating. but there's something dark and emotionally immediate underneath the surface folly that's always spoken to me. i often dream of trains, a longtime fan favorite, is the ideal gateway drug for the hitchcock-curious, a lovely acoustic showcase for his wit, pop smarts and bone-deep melacholy (avoid expanded versions that stick bonus tracks, like the execrable "mellow together", in the middle, wrecking the album's flow - even the 1st cd edition from 86 is fucked in this regard.)

SPACEMEN 3 - THE PERFECT PRESCRIPTION
at the height of my weed intake (a period lasting a decade or so) i often called this my favorite album of all time. and while i'd be hard pressed to say that about anything these days, the perfect prescription still comes awful damn close. takes the crushing headlong hypno-psych of their 1st lp (a sound that loop would, as everyone says, make a career of) and entirely subtracts the "crushing". what's left is this beautiful pool of sound, clear ringing guitars over miasmic organ tones, narrated by whispering voices on the edges of narcotic slumber. a warm welcoming drone that feels instantly familiar and timeless, appropriate to both sunburned daydreams and candlelit nods. hell, it's as fine a inversion/perversion of rock's formal conventions as anything can or suicide managed, and while i'm glad it placed, i'm kinda bummed it placed so low.

BIG BLACK - ATOMIZER
this has to be the best and weirdest and most influential american post-punk/hc record ever ever ever. ministry and godflesh and young gods and a hundred wax trax floorcrushers owe EVERYTHING to the tools first struck on chicago's finest forges, whether or not they'll admit it. and nobody worked the sarcastic faux-working class tough guy psycho shtick as well as albini circa atomizer, not even killdozer. memorable songs, incredible guitar tones and textures, razor-sharp lyrics and a totally unique sound. i don't pull it out much these days due to massive overplaying once upon a time (hello pixies) but this was about as good a reason to endure life in the mid 80s as was legally available.

IMO Hysteria > Pyromania

Is there any chance it will show up here?

I'm a bit sad that my fav 80's album (Actually) has already charted.

I think Hysteria is pretty much unlistenable so I hope it doesn't beat Pyromania. High 'N' Dry is the real classic.

anyone tells me there were 93 records better than Pyromania release in the 80s is frontin' big time

^^truth

My favorite 80's album, and my #1 vote, has already charted, too (in 93rd place). I'm just pleased that Thomas Dolby made it into the top 100. He's on #94, too, as a session keyboardist.

i guess this means Introspective is gonna be the highest placed PSB album? neat.