Best Album on My Favourite Albums of......1983!!

YMO's Naughty Boys is my favorite from the year, but absent that I gotta go for the Jonzun Crew

Dazzle Ships. The first year of these '80s polls that was easy for a change!

Although, it'll probably be Murmur and Power, Corruption and Lies as #1 and #2, because this is ILM.

this poll is between dazzle ships and script of the bridge and perverted by language but i need to hear them all again before deciding

Favourite missing album is probably The Hurting by Tears for Fears.

Hell yes. I still hadn't heard any of this music in 1983 but by the next year I was all into TFF and Depeche Mode.

Missing albums I would have considered throwing a vote to:

ABC - Beauty Stab
Alice Cooper - DaDa
Bauhaus - Burning from the Inside
Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
Eurythmics - Touch
Gary Numan - Warriors
Heaven 17 - The Luxury Gap
Ministry - With Sympathy
Tears for Fears - The Hurting
The Cure - Japanese Whispers
The Stranglers - Feline
Yazoo - You and Me Both

Lamentably missing ate Rudimentary Peni - Death Church and YES - 90125 which I would so vote for

*are

Xpost I love "Japanese whispers" but its a compilation more than an album so I decided not to include it.

"Beauty Stab" has got a cult following of late and was an admirably bloody-minded move that confounded their audience but it always sounded stodgy to me. The opening track is great though

I believe ABC were never too keen on it either

It's my favourite ABC album these days - I listen to it far more than The Lexicon of Love even. I like it that they tried something different on it, and again on ...Zillionaire!.

my 1983 fave is meat puppets ii but from this list it is "soul mining". "uncertain smile" is about the most perfect song in the world.

sorry to say - and don't listen to me - but i am really getting pissed off with all these lists of supposed to be missing albums in the poll. instead it would be more interesting oto discuss about the greatness of the albums on the list. i never get tired of the keyboard on "uncertain smile".

Yes people banging on about why I didn't include <insert obscure album here> is a royal pain in the hole.

but he just did it!

sorry to say - and don't listen to me - but i am really getting pissed off with all these lists of supposed to be missing albums in the poll.

Oh no, that's unfortunate.

instead it would be more interesting oto discuss about the greatness of the albums on the list.

Go on, then... I'm listening!

I haven't seen anyone mention anything obscure in this thread yet, although I'd welcome it while we're already here discussing the year in question.

Some great records here but this was an easy vote for Murmur, that'd be a contender for my favourite album of the whole decade.

(xposts) Meat Puppets II is '84 isn't it?

Meat Puppets ii is '84

Rolling Stone were really into Murmur at the time of its release, and I wonder how much of that had to do with the fact that they reminded Wenner and co. of The Byrds. There's some neat production touches on Murmur and I like the album plenty, but R.E.M.'s anti-synth stance and emphasis on "timelessness" was seen as a good thing and it seems very rockist now. Thankfully, even Stipe realised this himself later down the line.

(I should add that I'm a massive R.E.M. fan, but they never were a forward-thinking band)

Everything Falls Apart was a huge leap beyond what preceded it, but Metal Circus was a huge leap beyond EFA. Amazingly, both were released in the same year, and I woulda voted for Metal Circus, but despite only being 25 seconds shorter than EFA, it’s an EP.

Has to be N'Order this time. Though Jonzun Crew and, in a similar vein, the Go-Betweens are there and there about.

hmmm, i don't know, something about '83 not much grabbing me, the stuff i notice right away is the stuff that nobody was actually listening to in '83, like lewis and william onyeabor. no sight of my favorite '83 record, "a big 10-8 place" by negativland

well, here are some more records nobody was listening to in '83!

abbildungen variete - s/t
adrian belew - twang bar king
african head charge - drastic season
alcides neves - destrambelhar ou nao
alice cooper - dada
angel rada - upadesa
augustus pablo - earth's rightful ruler

(haha we haven't even gotten to the alphabetically first one on the poll yet...)

bacamarte - depois do fim
chasar - s/t
clara mondshine - memorymetropolis
cosmos - musitopia
david hykes - hearing solar winds
diethelm & famulari - s/t
dif juz - who says so?
djeli moussa diawara - yasimika
dvouleta fama - studio 1983
franco messina - medio occidente
gwen guthrie - padlock (special mixes by larry levan
harry forbes a.o. - video-tech 1
hiroyuki namba - nikousen no ue no synthesizer hiki
howard shore - videodrome
kiyohiko senba and his haniwa all stars - haniwa
lalgudi jayamaran & ustad amjad ali khan - south meets north: violin & sarad jugalbandi
lifetones - for a reason
lio - suite sixtine
miharu koshi - tutu
negativland - a big 10-8 place
pink floyd - the final cut
rare silk - new weave
rodrigo gonzalez - hurbanistorias
seaside lovers - memories in beach house
solar - faith for my mind
strange advance - worlds away
sun ra - a fireside chat with lucifer
telectu - belzebu
upper astral - journey to the edge of the universe
you - time code
zelda - carnaval
cioccolata - tra special - cioccolata
100 flowers - s/t

anyway i voted for "holy diver"

sorry to say - and don't listen to me - but i am really getting pissed off with all these lists of supposed to be missing albums in the poll. instead it would be more interesting oto discuss about the greatness of the albums on the list. i never get tired of the keyboard on "uncertain smile".

― je est un autre, l'enfer c'est les autres (alex in mainhattan)

sorry to say i'm going to continue pissing you off :) if somebody has something interesting to say about "kill 'em all" please don't let me stop you, but i don't. my lists are meant to be complementary, and my belief is that there's always room for more good music!

>kiyohiko senba and his haniwa all stars - haniwa

*****

I'm just delighted that there's someone else on here that rates DaDa!

Was seriously tempted to vote for Perverted by Language but ultimately went with the soundtrack to my favorite movie of all time. Wouldn't be surprised if I end up being the only voter for that album.

murmur

1983 ain’t no 1982...

I do have a pet album or two missing here but I'm way too stoked to about the inclusion of Lost in Space and Good Name to have any real grievance against this polk

A less impressive selection this time around--not a dig at Michael's list; just an acknowledgement that 1983 wasn't as strong as 1980-2--but She's So Unusual remains a template for how a debut pop record should be done.

script of the bridge

Meat Puppets ii is '84

sorry to say i'm going to continue pissing you off :) if somebody has something interesting to say about "kill 'em all" please don't let me stop you, but i don't.

to be honest i don' t know most of the albums here very well, so i will try to check some of them out. i think i'll start with the aztec camera.

As usual for this era, lots of stuff that I like, nothing that I really love. I'll have to mull it over.

Hm, Def Leppard vs Philip Glass vs REM vs Sonic Youth. Btw, did REM have an 'anti-synth' stance, aside from just not using synths? Honestly curious if they said something like that.

Went for Confusion Is Sex in the end, of course.

I dont think REM had an avowed anti-synth stance

Listening Script of the Bridge and a) goddamn Up the Down Escalator is good and ii) how did Interpol get away with it?

early on Michael Stipe had a synthy side project, Tanzplagen (Wikipedia informs me he played Farfisa organ, but that may have been the closest he could get to a synth in 1980-81)

Hard to argue with Murmur or Speaking in Tongues, but I'm voting Synchro System.

Replacements Hootenanny missing from list.

This may be my favourite year for music in the 80s. From the list I'm going with Before Hollywood, the Go-Betweens most hungry, astringent and poetic album. I never get tired of it.

The most important album of 1983 for me (and befitting my nom de ILX) was Stavros Xarhakos' remarkable original soundtrack for Kosta Ferris's film Rebetiko. He managed to craft deeply soulful music which existed simultaneously in 1933 and 1983, reinvigorating a genre that was trapped in amber by revivalists. When I heard it, and contemporaneous albums by Nikos Papazouglou, Haris Alexiou, Aki Panou and others, I knew it was the music I wanted to play. It changed my life and led me on a fantastic and continuing musical journey.

Sonic Youth – Confusion is Sex
Suicidal Tendencies – s/t
Swans – Filth
Talking Heads – Speaking in Tongues
U2 – War
Violent Femmes – s/t

are my top 6.

Oh hey, i see my favorite Wipers album on the list

The most important album of 1983 for me (and befitting my nom de ILX) was Stavros Xarhakos' remarkable original soundtrack for Kosta Ferris's film Rebetiko.

I remember 1983 well, it would be a final pick from Punch The Clock, Cafe Bleu and Power, Corruption and Lies.

PCL it is.

Much easier than '82, Rain Parade, no hesitation.

By sheer coincidence was listening to the P Funk Allstars album from ‘83 this afternoon...probably not the best album of the year but sounded pretty pretty good...

I tell you what: I'm checking put that 100 Flowers album mentioned upthread rn and it sounds like a total front-to-back classic punk album. Lots of different ideas bumping up against each other

first answer was the correct one.

Murmur crushes everything else on here like a grape and yall know it. A disco-rock classic! Dance! Dance, you fuckers!

Torn between High Land Hard Rain and Hearts and Bones

I might be the only vote for the Bad Brains album but I think it really is my favorite here

Cocteau Twins a close second, both records were personally huge for me back then

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBW4IwX.img

ha ha, you were right!

Murmur really is a great album

Wow the Violent Femmes debut got zero points. There's a band that's fallen out of fashion. Along with REM, they would've been the critics fave new US band of '83

Best Album on My Favourite Albums of......1984!!

They meant pretty much jack shit in the UK, though.

(xpost)

"Blister In The Sun" was a 90s indie disco staple

Somehow I feel like we've had this conversation before?

It managed to get snuck into a couple of ads in the '90s, but that was many years later.

"Blister In The Sun" was a 90s indie disco staple

― . (Michael B)

The first time I heard Blister In The Sun was when The Wannadies covered it in the mid 90s. It was definitely played a lot in indie clubs when I started going to them the late 90s.

The first I heard of 'em was also in the late '90s, through a combination of 'Blister in the Sun' being on some advert and the fact that they kept being cited by American music nerds. I mean, I've said this before, but they were definitely an American phenomenon.

I don't particularly want to open this can of worms again but they seem to have been markedly more popular in the US. As for meaning 'jack shit' in the UK, well, that's fair enough if the Go-Betweens, for example, or any number of well-regarded 'indie' bands who never quite broke through to the mainstream are also described as meaning 'jack shit'. I think it's a bit harsh, personally.

... well-regarded indie bands in the 80s, that is.

i heard blister in the sun in a pub in glasgow last time i was home in september.

I suppose one of the genuinely good things about the internet is that it's allowed the music of the likes of The Go-Betweens to reach ears that it otherwise wouldn't have done. I mean, we can comfortably say now that they should have been on the same level career-wise as The Smiths in the UK in the '80s, but it would be inaccurate to say that they actually were at the time. The first Violent Femmes album is regularly touted on the internet as a classic, and I guess in a way its visibility has only increased over time outside of American music geek circles (appearances in 1,000 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die etc., a regular staple on "best albums of the '80s" lists, Gordon Gano allowing 'Blister in the Sun' to advertise all kinds of stuff), while not quite getting critical blowjobs on the same level as the Go-Betweens.

Perverted by Language
Mark Stewart + the Maffia - Learning to Cope with Cowardice
Confusion is Sex
Good Name
100 Flowers s/t haha
The Raincoats - Moving
Circle X - Prehistory
Emergency Third Rail Power Trip
Lost in Space
Yellowman - Guzungguzungguguzungguzeng
Nona Hendryx - Nona
She's So Unusual
Three O'Clock - Sixteen Tambourines
Come Away with ESG
Neil Young - Trans
B-52s - Whammy

I don't know the 0 votes get ordered, but the right album ended up at the bottom of the list.

You have to give them kudos for making their guitars sound like bagpipes!

OK they're in no way cool, but I have a lot of affection for their slightly ludicrous but very effective rousing bloodboiler anthems

I should go on a Big Country binge. They were Glenn McDonald's alltime favorite band back in the 90s when he was writing The War Against Silence (which I used to read as a teenager)

There's nothing wrong at all with The Crossing. Of course, I thought Adamson was better with The Skids, but I'm proud to say that Big Country album is a favourite of mine. 'Inwards' in particular really gets me going... love the guitar interplay on that, and the whole album. It's a shame that Steeltown and the follow-ups weren't as good.

I used to read Glenn McDonalds blog too. It was odd reading praise heaped on stuff like Big Country and Marllion at the time.

"Steeltown" is his favourite album of all time iirc. Tbh none of their albums after "The crossing" did much for me either.

they had some great singles but albumswise the 1st one is all you need plus the best of comp

^ Yeah, absolutely. Even if the albums after The Crossing weren't as good, they still had the occasional decent single. 'Look Away', for example.

Hello to the three other people who voted for Philip Glass! Maybe we can all gather one day on someone's couch and watch Koyaanisqatsi together.

I knew I should have voted for Big Country. I actually like the first three albums pretty well, but definitely The Crossing is the best. Steeltown has some good songs but the Lillywhite production half-buries it. There's a point where reverb just becomes murk.The Seer has Look Away and a nice Kate Bush duet. And now Big Country always makes me think of Bimble (R.I.P.), the Big Country threads were where I bonded with him. He would be righteously appalled by the zero votes.

steeltown kinda falls off after the first two songs, but man those first two songs are awesome.

I agree about the production on Steeltown. It's weird, because Lillywhite did such a great job on The Crossing.

Could be the band wanted a change in sound?

Yeah, it could well have been - and plausible - that the band wanted to make a different kind of record. I just don't think Steeltown sounds all that great - unusual for Lillywhite in that era.

1. R.E.M.: Murmur
2. OMD: Dazzle Ships
3. The Three O’Clock: Sixteen Tambourines
4. The Fun Boy Three: Waiting
5. The The: Soul Mining
6. XTC: Mummer
7. White Door: Windows
8. Republika: Nowe sytuacje
9. Tears for Fears: The Hurting
10. Captain Sensible: The Power of Love
11. Dolly Mixture: The Demonstration Tapes
12. Serious Drinking: The Revolution Starts at Closing Time
13. The Gist: Embrace the Herd
14. A Flock of Seagulls: Listen
15. Nits: Omsk
16. Eddie & Sunshine: Perfect Strangers
17. Soft Cell: The Art of Falling Apart
18. New Order: Power, Corruption and Lies
19. Eurythmics: Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
20. Heaven 17: The Luxury Gap
21. Madonna: Madonna
22. Aviador Dro: Sintesis
23. The Church: Seance
24. Glamour: Guarda tus lágrimas
25. Nacht und Nebel: Beats of Love
26. Andreas Dorau: Die Doraus und die Marinas geben offenherzige Antworten auf brennende Fragen
27. ESG: Come Away With the ESG
28. Bauhaus: Burning From the Inside
29. Cocteau Twins: Head Over Heels
30. Violent Femmes: Violent Femmes