Another 80s year, another near perfect Psychedelic Furs album. The title track, which opens this, was my favorite through much of this listen, though one song after the next I needed to keep thinking about it because this album is really just that enjoyable. Danger and Yes I Do ultimately I think eclipsed that opening track for me, but throw a dart at the back cover and you’ll find a great song. Damn I wish I listened to this band much sooner.
There are a bunch of great albums in here in that post-punk vein. Few push the boundaries of sound quite like this one, while at the same time maintaining that sense of rhythm and hooks that keep you engaged with the album. It’s as if this album feels like it could go off the rails at any moment, but always stays on track. It’s certainly among my favorites of this sub-genre. One of those albums also I need like a month with to fully appreciate it. On first listen, Secrets, Trem Two, Mica, Weatherbox and Einstein’s Day are at the top, but I really just loved every moment of this.
1983...
Pink Floyd - The Final Cut
ZZ Top - Eliminator
Mark Knopfler - Local Hero
Madness - Madness
Billy Bragg - Life's a Riot with Spy VS Spy
Billy Joel - An Innocent Man
Herbie Hancock - Future Shock
Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones
The Triffids - Treeless Plain
The Go-Betweens - Before Hollywood
ESG - Come Away with ESG
Australian Crawl - Semantics (it's an EP though)
Men at Work - Cargo
Higgs wrote:1983...
Pink Floyd - The Final Cut
ZZ Top - Eliminator
Mark Knopfler - Local Hero
Madness - Madness
Billy Bragg - Life's a Riot with Spy VS Spy
Billy Joel - An Innocent Man
Herbie Hancock - Future Shock
Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones
The Triffids - Treeless Plain
The Go-Betweens - Before Hollywood
ESG - Come Away with ESG
Australian Crawl - Semantics (it's an EP though)
Men at Work - Cargo
All added, except I did Tom Waits’ album as part of 1982.
The Cure - Japanese Whispers 1
The Glove - Blue Sunshine
Brian Eno - Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks 2
Wipers - Over the Edge
AC/DC - Flick of the Switch
Severed Heads - Since the Accident
Echo and the Bunnymen - Porcupine
Suicidal Tendencies - S/T
Pulp - It
The Chameleons - Script of the Bridge
XTC - Mummer
1 - This is a collection of singles and b-sides from the era rather than a defined album, but still important when doing a chronological run through the band's catalogue.
2 - Sorry to keep getting recommended these Eno ambient albums! But hey, this one contains Pearl Jam's walk-on music from 1994 ['Ending (An Ascent)'], maybe that helps.
Birds in Hell wrote:The Cure - Japanese Whispers 1
The Glove - Blue Sunshine
Brian Eno - Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks 2
Wipers - Over the Edge
AC/DC - Flick of the Switch
Severed Heads - Since the Accident
Echo and the Bunnymen - Porcupine
Suicidal Tendencies - S/T
Pulp - It
The Chameleons - Script of the Bridge
XTC - Mummer
1 - This is a collection of singles and b-sides from the era rather than a defined album, but still important when doing a chronological run through the band's catalogue.
2 - Sorry to keep getting recommended these Eno ambient albums! But hey, this one contains Pearl Jam's walk-on music from 1994 ['Ending (An Ascent)'], maybe that helps.
To be fair, Eno was on my list cause I threw it all on, but wanted to see if it would be specifically recommended before committing.
This Cure album seems like the best of the bunch so far. Wildly depressing vibe aside, the first half of the album is just incredibly impressive on the composition front, just beautifully crafted songs and music interesting to boot, most especially The Hanging Garden, which is a mind-blowing track. Granted, by the time this was over I was ready to move on and kind of done with Robert Smith’s voice, but I was well captivated for a good majority of it. No doubt they were a great band.
The Essential Track: The Hanging Garden
Up Next: Adrian Belew - Lone Rhino
Last edited by liebzz on Mon December 01, 2025 11:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
This is wild. I am not sure what I expected, but this exceeded it by a large margin. Part rock, part jazz, part almost avant garde, this album is pure adventure from start to finish, replicating animal sounds on guitar, jumping genres from track to track - it’s impossible to predict what comes next. Big Electric Cat, The Man in the Moon, Naive Guitar, The Lone Rhinoceros, Swingline, and Adidas in Heat are immediately grabbing, and the rest of this sort of sinks its teeth by the time the song ends. Nice recommendation here!
This is wild. I am not sure what I expected, but this exceeded it by a large margin. Part rock, part jazz, part almost avant garde, this album is pure adventure from start to finish, replicating animal sounds on guitar, jumping genres from track to track - it’s impossible to predict what comes next. Big Electric Cat, The Man in the Moon, Naive Guitar, The Lone Rhinoceros, Swingline, and Adidas in Heat are immediately grabbing, and the rest of this sort of sinks its teeth by the time the song ends. Nice recommendation here!
This is wild. I am not sure what I expected, but this exceeded it by a large margin. Part rock, part jazz, part almost avant garde, this album is pure adventure from start to finish, replicating animal sounds on guitar, jumping genres from track to track - it’s impossible to predict what comes next. Big Electric Cat, The Man in the Moon, Naive Guitar, The Lone Rhinoceros, Swingline, and Adidas in Heat are immediately grabbing, and the rest of this sort of sinks its teeth by the time the song ends. Nice recommendation here!
The Essential Track: Swingline
Up Next: King Crimson - Beat
Glad you dug it!
It's a great record.
I am partway through King Crimson’s Beat, and you can really hear from Lone Rhino how Belew really injected his personality (aka took over) into King Crimson in this period.
This band became something of a shifting entity in sound. They return with the same lineup as Discipline, an album I thought was phenomenal, and released this, which on the heels of Adrian Belew’s solo album, seems to be cut from a similar cloth, with focus on some crazy sonic shifts and experiments. It’s incredible this band has so many great albums with each seemingly including large changes in sound from the album preceding it. Here, The Howler was my favorite, but there was more than enough to enjoy.
The Essential Track: The Howler
Up Next: Siouxsie and the Banshees - A Kiss in the Dreamhouse
Siouxsie and the Bamshees - A Kiss in the Dreamhouse
This seemed like a big curveball from the new wave/post punk worlds into an art rock and psychedelic space. Cascade, Green Fingers, and Obsession set that tone right away, and She’s a Carnival stuck out to me as a huge highlight of the first half of the album. In the second half, Melt and Slowdive were the most memorable for me, and this shift in approach really seemed to work, even if what was going before wasn’t really broken. Another really solid album here.
This one turned out to be another big surprise. The best way I could think to describe it is avant pop - a wild array of soundscapes and concepts all built around pop music. This is the kind of thing we’d call Lady Gaga a genius for decades later. Sat in Your Lap, Pull Out the Pin, The Dreaming, All the Love, Houdini, and Get Out of My House were the instantly most memorable for me on this, but this all together pushes pop music way past the boundaries you’d expect, even by today’s standards.
This second album by The Go-Go’s lightens the mood quite a bit with a retro-pop rock that’s addictive. The title track is well known and a staple of 80s music, but the album never lets up from there, delivering pop gem after gem. This Old Feeling, the cover of Cool Jerk, Beatnik Beach, Girl of 100 Lists…all of this is fun ear candy. It seems the album doesn’t even slow down until the album closing Worlds Away. Really good fun for album #800 in here.
Time for a list! Favorites from the first 800 albums in here this far:
100. Santana III
99. Black Sabbath - Vol. 4
98. Bob Marley and the Wailers - Catch a Fire
97. Iron Maiden
96. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
95. Muddy Waters - Hard Again
94. Tom Waits - Heartattack & Vine
93. Bob Marley and the Wailers - Exodus
92. Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
91. The Doors
90. Miles Davis - Birth of the Cool
89. Thelonius Monk - Brilliant Corners
88. Dr. John - Gris Gris
87. Cannonball Adderly - Somethin’ Else
86. Funkadelic - One Nation Under a Groove
85. Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um
84. Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder
83. Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home
82. Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones
81. Peter Garbriel - 3: Melt
80. Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Oz
79. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Skynyrd’s First: The Complete Muscle Shoals Album
78. Rolling Stones - Some Girls
77. Allman Brothers Band - Brothers and Sisters
76. The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
75. Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
74. Led Zeppelin II
73. Jimi Hendrix - Axis: Bold As Love
72. Led Zeppelin III
71. Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
70. Ornette Coleman - The Shape of Jazz to Come
69. Charles Mingus - Pithecanthropus Erectus
68. Miles Davis - A Tribute to Jack Johnson
67. Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
66. Dr. John - Dr. John’s Gumbo
65. Dr. John - In the Right Place
64. Miles Davis - In a Silent Way
63. Jerry Garcia - Garcia
62. Rolling Stones - Tattoo You
61. Psychedelic Furs - Talk Talk Talk
60. Television - Adventure
59. Thelonius Monk - The Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 1
58. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
57. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
56. Bruce Springsteen - The River
55. Pink Floyd - The Wall
54. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd
53. Derek and the Dominos - Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
52. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Second Helping
51. Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet
50. The Who - Who’s Next
49. The Kinks - Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround
48. Van Halen
47. Black Sabbath - Paranoid
46. Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
45. Allman Brothers Band
44. Allman Brothers Band - Idlewild South
43. Allman Brothers Band - Eat a Peach
42. Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Rust Never Sleeps
41. Credence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo’s Factory
40. Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed
39. The Kinks - Arthur or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire
38. Tom Waits - Closing Time
37. Neil Young - After the Goldrush
36. Marvin Gaye - What’s Going On
35. Mission of Burma - Vs.
34. Talking Heads - Remain in Light
33. Television - Marquee Moon
32. Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town
31. Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
30. Grateful Dead - American Beauty
29. Neil Young - Harvest
28. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Damn the Torpedoes
27. George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
26. Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited
25. The Beatles - Rubber Soul
24. Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde
23. Led Zeppelin IV
22. The Who - Quadrophenia
21. Tom Waits - Nighthawks at the Diner
20. Bruce Springsteen - The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Band
19. Thelonius Monk - The Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 2
18. Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain
17. John Coltrane - Blue Train
16. The Clash - London Calling
15. The Beatles - Abbey Road
14. Pink Floyd - Animals
13. Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
12. The Beatles - Revolver
11. The Beatles
10. Neil Young - On the Beach
9. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
8. Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
7. Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced?
6. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
5. Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street
4. Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
3. Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
2. Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
1. Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
This is another album that really surprised me in a good way. They seemed to largely be described in similar terms to a lot of post-punk/new wave bands, but these guys on this album brought a ton of interesting ideas into the picture. Runaways, Ball and Chain, and Senses Working Overtime are very distinct songs but all play around with rhythm and then Jason and the Argonauts takes it up a notch. No Thugs in Our House, All of the Sudden (It’s Too Late), Leisure, the weird It’s Nearly Africa, Fly On the Wall, and English Roundabout were first listen favorites but I really enjoyed all of this, and the separation you get from these instruments seems like a rare thing. Cool recommendation.
The Essential Track: Jason and the Argonauts (I had to think about this one)
Well, this was a change of pace. If you can imagine the Aussie answer to late 70s hard rock - Deep Purple and Aerosmith all balled up into a rock band that could still kill in a pub or an arena for that matter, you have Cold Chisel. And this had all the trimmings - big riffs, fast guitar solos, dramatic drumming. Forever Now builds from what I thought was going to be either token slow song into a massive song. Wild Colonial Boy is pure hard rock stuff. Numbers Fall, Taipan, Bow River and You Got Nothing I Want all highlights. This was a real fun album in a totally different way than say The Go-Go’s, but it’s still a throw caution and self-consciousness to the wind and just enjoy it for the sake of it.
