Pitchfork - The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Sprocket Henry, Sep 10, 2018.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. englishbob

    englishbob has left the SH Forums...19/05/2023

    Location:
    Kent, England
    Mistaken identity I think.

    Muse's new song - Something Human
     
  2. O Don Piano

    O Don Piano Senior Member

    I have maybe 13-14 of the albums on the list. Apparently the 80s pretty much passed me by according to Pitchfork. I remember not really liking the 80s much at the time, although they should have been “my” decade as I was 16 in October 1980. ‘80 thru about ‘84 were pretty good though. I totally lost interest in popular music in ‘87, and started actively listening and buying again in ‘92.
     
  3. Exit Flagger

    Exit Flagger Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    Oops, sorry. You dislike the 90s, not the 80s. I remembered incorrectly.

    What would be your top 5 for the 80s?
     
    englishbob likes this.
  4. gregorya

    gregorya I approve of this message

    There must be something wrong with this list... I own more than 20 of these and that never happens... ;)
     
    carlwm and eric777 like this.
  5. englishbob

    englishbob has left the SH Forums...19/05/2023

    Location:
    Kent, England
    There is a little bit of that yes, although I lived through the 80's and I'm sure I'd of come across all of the decent ones by now, either at the time or over the last 28 years since the 80's finished. Fate would of pushed them the way of my ears by now, so there isn't anything that takes my fancy. Certainly not Slick Rick anyhow.
     
  6. Stone Turntable

    Stone Turntable Independent Head

    Location:
    New Mexico USA
    Interesting index of the reputational stock market from a three-decade distance, depicting the layout of critical estimation overwhelmingly from the point of view of people who didn't live through it, I'll wager.

    At this ritzy party they've got Jazz tending bar, getting lousy tips and a lot of hipster side-eye, and Country is serving hors d'oeuvres and getting totally ignored.
     
    Frangelico, JoeF., ispace and 2 others like this.
  7. englishbob

    englishbob has left the SH Forums...19/05/2023

    Location:
    Kent, England
    Its a personal time, a time of growing up. It would be a difficult one to be critical versus emotional attachment, but I'd say in no particular order...off the top of my head...

    Prince "Sign O the Times"
    The Human League "Dare"
    Japan "Gentlemen Take Polaroids"
    Beastie Boys "Paul's Boutique"
    Talk Talk "Spirit of Eden"

    There are loads though, stuff that didn't make the list, like

    The The "Infected"
    Fishbone "Truth and Soul"
    Adam and the Ants "Kings of the Wild Frontier"
    The Associates "Sulk"
    Yello "Stella"
    etc etc.
     
    Exit Flagger likes this.
  8. Flipper only at #193? That's it, this list is worthless.
     
    926am likes this.
  9. Exit Flagger

    Exit Flagger Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    Great list. I like all those albums.

    The Associates are one of the biggest surprises missing from the Pitchfork list to me.
     
    englishbob likes this.
  10. thegoldenyear

    thegoldenyear Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    The critical world's still not assimilated new wave-era synth-based pop (the modern chart world sure has, mind you). It remains the red-headed stepchild of all Trouser Press-worthy genres. After Rio, a token Pet Shop Boys and a virtue-signalling Bronski, there isn't a heck of a lot from that sprawling camp. I agree, P4K missed that boat.

    I also agree on The Blue Nile, on both counts.

    Otherwise, it's a decent shopping list for younger or inexperienced minds and I appreciate its sprawl. Looking over their v.1 2002 list, this is appreciably better, even if I've got mild whiplash from the Sade reappraisal.
     
    CupOfDreams, mfp and Rigsby like this.
  11. CBS CLASH 3

    CBS CLASH 3 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
    I can't tell how serious people are about being upset that "Name Your Favorite Classic Rock Back" was left off of this list. Every publication, print or online, has a certain bias and you have to accept it. While Pitchfork never outright ignored classic rock, they tended to focus on the left of center artists, insofar as Bowie, Iggy, Lou, et al. can be considered as such. The past few years have seen Pitchfork getting away from the indie rock that initially got me excited about the site in favor of a much stronger hip hip focus. I don't like it that much, but, also, I am 46 and not necessarily supposed to like it.

    Someone above mentioned that this is a very "woke" list compared to what Pitchfork has offered up in the past. I think that's true, on purpose, and fine. It's admirable that they are so obviously trying hard to have minorities and women represented. Look at that top 10! I also think it's cool that they seemed to have included artists due to cultural/musical significance such as EPMD and Boogie Down Productions rather than continued fandom. To me it's like including "Pink Flag," "Suicide," "Unknown Pleasures," et al. in modern "Best of the 70s" lists that NEVER would have been that list 35 years ago.

    All that said, for Pitchfork, with its debt to indie/college rock, to claim that TWO (not one but TWO) Sade albums are better/more significant that "Murmur" is pretty funny.
     
  12. Spaceboy

    Spaceboy Senior Member

    Location:
    Near Edinburgh, UK
    I've never conciously listened to Sade. Will check her out...
     
  13. Stone Turntable

    Stone Turntable Independent Head

    Location:
    New Mexico USA
    I've got almost exactly 1/3 of these albums, and I feel extremely unmotivated to acquire the 2/3 I don't own. A mixture of stuff I've heard but don't rate and a fair quotient of minor-league avant-marginal non-greatness.

    But after doing my count just now I flew into a rage when I realized the Go-Betweens are utterly missing in action, which is even worse than the faint praise meted out to R.E.M. and the palpable Yankee disdain for country.
     
    ryanward84 likes this.
  14. Ken_McAlinden

    Ken_McAlinden MichiGort Staff

    Location:
    Livonia, MI
    I own 76 of them, but don't necessarily agree that even all of *those* belong on the list. A lot of the listed Hip Hop albums have some amazing singles, but are not front to back classics. That comment applies more to the lower listed titles and only to a couple that were in the upper tier. (I'm looking at you, "The Great Adventures of Slick Rick" :laugh: ).
     
  15. Geez, I have almost exactly 1/3 of these - more than I expected.
     
  16. Can't overlook Depeche Mode and Music For the Masses at 77. And: Duran Duran, synthpop?
     
    Zoot Marimba likes this.
  17. Terrapin Station

    Terrapin Station Master Guns

    Location:
    NYC Man/Joy-Z City
    I don't think that's admirable. What they should try hard to do, in my opinion, is plug the music that they think is best, and it shouldn't make one bit of difference what anyone's "race" or gender is. We should functionally ignore that aspect and not care (or even notice, in my opinion, because it's irrelevant to anything about it as music) if we wind up liking a larger percentage of music from one demographic or another. If it's approached like an EEO quota, then it's not going to be about music per se.
     
  18. Terrapin Station

    Terrapin Station Master Guns

    Location:
    NYC Man/Joy-Z City
    Speaking of Daniel Lanois, his Acadie would definitely be on my own list of the 200 best 80s albums.
     
  19. Rob Hughes

    Rob Hughes Forum Resident

    Not the list I would have composed, but an interesting list to consider.
    Unless you think lists are there to validate your already-existing assumptions about rock music, I don't see much to get unhappy about -- it's really, as someone upthread remarked, an occasion to consider music you never considered before.

    I guess what strikes me, though, is the way the present casts its light back on the past. That is, if we live in a cultural moment in which bright creative white kids in North America are disproportionately putting their creative energies into gaming and youtubing, and North American music is correspondingly and disproportionately dominated by African-American artists, then... from the perspective of this moment in music history, the past maybe looks something like what Pitchfork is offering to us in this list. From the perspective of the dominant voices in music today -- Kanye, Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, etc -- what does the 1980s look like? Like that! And that's an interesting perspective to take, even if it's not the perspective that easily occurs to me as someone who came of age in the 1980s and whose tastes in those days were fairly conventionally stretched between MTV, College Radio, mainstream North American FM radio, and a bit of Village Voice -- and so disinclined in those days to think that hip-hop might be "for people like me".

    And for those unhappy with the list, maybe there's some comfort there: if and when Pitchfork does this again in 10 years, the musical landscape may have changed yet again and they'll compose a list looking very different from this one. Maybe John Cougar Mellancamp will finally get his due! :)
     
  20. thegoldenyear

    thegoldenyear Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    I'll give you Rio if you give me "there isn't a heck of a lot from that sprawling camp" as a still-accurate reaction to the shortfall of classic synthpop on the list, even allowing for Masses (and Computer World for that matter).
     
  21. YMC4

    YMC4 EVthing or Nothing

    Location:
    The Valley, CA.
    4 Prince albums in top 40 incl. No. 1.

    if Bowie was THE artist of the 70's then 80's title belt really belong to Prince.
    what an amazing run by both Artists....makes me sad all of sudden...R.I.P.
     
    RudolphS, mschrist, Freek999 and 2 others like this.
  22. I would have really liked to have seen David & David's Welcome To The Boomtown included too -- though I suppose they're a bit of a one-album-wonder (I realize).

    Still, one of the 10 or 20 best albums of that entire decade, if you ask me.
     
  23. ryanward84

    ryanward84 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Herriman, UT
    No Go Betweens is a travesty! Though, maybe it's hard to pick as not one stands out as a masterpiece over the others. But I think Before Hollywood, Black Diamond..., or 16 Lovers Lane should have made it.
     
  24. Goggen

    Goggen Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oslo
    No: Marillion, Rush, The The, Police, Def Leppard, the Jam, Dead Kennedys, Lou Reed, Neil Young, The Alarm, Japan :confused::confused::confused:
     
    Terrapin Station likes this.
  25. 926am

    926am Senior Member

    Location:
    rochester, ny
    I have 90 from the list and it's not even my favorite music decade. King crimson discipline could have been included , also the Police. Nice to see some Dischord label stuff.
     
    Zoot Marimba likes this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine