Your Favorite Albums Of 1980

Spinning this one now:

The Teardrop Explodes - Kilimanjaro

 

1.Jimi Hendrix / Nine To The Universe...Jimi jam's with some real Jazz cats, a snapshot of what could have been

2.Roky & Aliens / The Evil One...RKE's nightmare's & 50s sci-fi fixations put to rock(ing) soundtrack

3.Clash / London Calling...the best double record since EOMS

4.Rossington Collins Band / Anytime Anyplace Anywhere...along with Blackfoot circa 79-81 the finest music of the post Ronnie era

5.Soft Boys / Underwater Moonlight...my preferred SB record

6.Blackfoot / Tomcattin...nobody could fill the void left by the plane crash on 10-20-77 but original Skynyrd member Rick Medlocke & his band did play rock from the South the way it was meant to sound.... loud, brutal & dangerous

Not as good as "Strikes" (1979) or as career defining as "Marauder" (1981) but a lot of fun indeed

7.J.Geils Band / Love Stinks...the 1970s premier frat band craft one of their best records & their cover of The Strangelove's / Night Time along with the title track was some of the bands finest music

8.Robin Trower/ Victims Of The Fury...after dabbling in funk & even close to ugh! disco RT got his s--t & his original trio back together & the results were more trimmed down guitar oriented past glories sound...

VOTF is also his best record between Long Misty Days (1976) & the indespinsible "Go My Way" (2000)

9.Rob Stoner / Patriotic Duty...excellent Rockabilly with a contemporary twist provided by Dylan Rolling Thunder Revue alumni bass player RS, a cool record indeed

10.Capt Beefheart / Doc At The Radar Station...after years in the wilderness of 70s drivel the good Captain returned to 60s past glories

11.BB King / There Must Be A Better World Some Where...after so many pop aimed market Blues albums "The Chairman Of The Board" came roaring back with his finest studio record of the modern age, boy did it sound good!

12.Echo & Bunnymen / Crocodiles...Syd era PF & the Byrds circa 66, pretty decent record

 

Michael Jackson - Thriller
Duran Duran - Rio
Azymuth - Outubro, Cascades.

The 80s were an outrageous time!!!!!!!!

 

I was 8 but the older boy who lived next door had it and always played it loud, I then saw O'Connor on TOTP and I nagged my parents and got my own vinyl copy (one of my first albums.) Years later I saw the film and revisited the album and it blew me away. I was also quite impressed with my young self for liking something like that.
It seems to have a small but hardcore following (check the UK Amazon reviews.) Judging by your musical taste, I think you'd probably like it. I also picked up the low-budget CD release on Spectrum about a decade ago (a fiver if remember), and it sounds might fine. 1980 musically is just not 1980 for me without this album!

 

How did I forget that?! Another 1980 classic. I've been playing it a lot recently.

I also forgot Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth.

Travelogue by The Human League too.

 

I'm becoming convinced 1980 is the best year of all for music. It's ruined by the absolute tragedy in December though.

 

I'm surprised there's so few mentions of More Specials. It's a strange album, certainly not what people expected. In places they are covering up for a lack of material very well, but it's aged very well and sounds ahead of it's time. The easy listening influences and some of the dub sounds were influential on 90s music, the trip hop scene springs to mind.

 

That one certainly came out of left field.. and you're right, it is ahead of it's time, very under-rated album.

 

Bruce Springsteen | The River
Rockpile | Seconds of Pleasure
AC/DC | Back In Black
Dire Straits | Making Movies
Talking Heads | Remain In Light
Judas Priest | British Steel
The Pretenders | s/t
Ian Gomm | What A Blow
Steve Winwood | Arc of a Diver
Emmylou Harris | Roses In the Snow
Jackson Browne | Hold Out
Bob Marley & The Wailers | Uprising
Rush | Permanent Waves
Merle Haggard | Back to the Barrooms
The Clash | Sandinista
Billy Joel | Glass Houses
Pete Townshend | Empty Glass
J. Geils | Love Stinks
The Gap Band | III
The Cars | Panorama
The Rolling Stones | Emotional Rescue
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band | Against the Wind
Elvis Costello | Get Happy!
R.E.O. Speedwagon | High Infidelity
The Jam | Sound Affects
Kool & The Gang | Celebration!
Angel City | Dark Room
Squeeze | Argybargy
Steely Dan | Gaucho
Rossington Collins Band | Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere
Hall & Oates | Voices
U2 | Boy
The Ramones | End of the Century

 

It's most definitely in my Top 10. There's no way in couldn't be despite not being a perfect album by any defintion. Oddly from the loose holy trinity of Specials/Madness/The Beat (let's leave out Selecter for the moment), I think they're the only ones that didn't have a hit in the US but are, for me at least, the strongest musically of the three. Might explain their low key appearance in these lists here.

 

I think Madness are the strongest musically out of the three, especially Mike Barson on piano, but The Specials split up so quickly they didn't get the chance to become as versatile musically as Madness. The Specials were fantastic musically of course, as were The Beat.

 

Here's one I love. Sadly tarred with the 'one hit wonder' brush outside of Canada. A fantastic album containing the nothing short of epic "Echo Beach".
Martha & the Muffins Metro Music

 

A really good band with an awful name.

 

Art Ensemble Of Chicago – Full Circle
Art Zoyd – Generation sans futur
Bauhaus – In The Flat Field
Black Uhuru – Sinsemilla
Cabaret Voltaire – Voice of America
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band – Doc at the Radar Station
David Bowie – Scary Monsters
Joy Division - Closer
Killing Joke – s/t
Linton Kwesi Johnson – Bass Culture
Siouxsie and the Banshees – Kaledioscope
Snakefinger – Greener Postures
Stiff Little Fingers – Nobody's Heroes
Talking Heads - Remain In Light
The Fall – Grotesque
The Pop Group – For How Much Longer…
The Residents – Commercial Album
Tom Waits – Heartache and Vine
Tuxedomoon – Half-Mute
UB40 – Signing Off
Yello – Solid Pleasure

 

Even if nothing more than Remain in Light, Peter Gabriel iii and Fourth World: Possible Musics Vol 1 had been released, 1980 would stand among the greatest vintages of all time.

 

And shortened to M&M a few years later which is unfortunate given the massive rise in popularity of a certain chocolate confectionary in that decade...

 

Actually M+M, which is the name they should have used initially.

 

Yes, and 1980 alone destroys the old "the 80's sucked" refrain.

 

U2 - Boy

 

Joy Division - Closer
Echo & The Bunnymen - Crocodiles
The Cure - Seventeen Seconds
The Cure - Boys Don’t Cry (compilation)

 

Kiss - Unmasked
Saga - Silent Knight
Kate Bush - Never For Ever
Bruce Springsteen - The River
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz
Rush - Permanent Waves
Queen - The Game

 

Circle Jerks - Group Sex
D.O.A. - Something Better Change
Stiff Little Fingers - Hanx!
Stiff Little Fingers - Nobody's Heroes
AC/DC - Back In Black
Ramones - End Of The Century
Willie Nile - S/T
The Jim Carroll Band - Catholic Boy
The Subhumans - Incorrect Thoughts
The Knack - But The Little Girls Understand
Link Wray - Live At The Paradiso
Joan Jett - S/T (reissued as Bad Reputation)

 

Not an overly fantastic year for music releases IMHO but there were some gems:

Allan Taylor - Roll on The Day
Bert Jansch - Thirteen Down
Bruce Cockburn - Humans
David Bowie - Scary Monsters (& Super Creeps)
Dire Straits - Making Movies
Durutti Column - The Return of
Eno & Budd - Plateaux of Mirror
Genesis - Duke
Joyce Moreno - Feminina
Klaatu - Endangered Species
Michael Chapman - Looking For Eleven
Michael Hedges - Taproot
Midnight Oil - Bird Noises
Mike Oldfield - QE2
Monty Python - Contractual Obligation Album
Neil Young - Hawks and Doves
Pete Townshend - Empty Glass
Santana - Swing of Delight
Steeleye Span - Sails of Silver
Steely Dan - Gaucho
T Bone Burnett - Truth Decay
Van Morrison - Common One

 

Ted Nugent - Scream Dream