Essential Studio Albums

[epilogue]

Nighthawks over Heartattack & Vine is dubious. Nighthawks over Swordfishtrombones is lunacy!

Kind of Blue in the 70s is banworthy

To be fair, other Miles Davis albums kind of put that album there.

On Nighthawks, it’s hard to explain other than it caught me and I was blown away. And it’s one I explained can’t be broken down to any individual track but the characters that occupied that space.

All fair. I'm just glad Tom Waits captured you. Doesn't matter which one.

[liebzz]

Nighthawks over Heartattack & Vine is dubious. Nighthawks over Swordfishtrombones is lunacy!

Kind of Blue in the 70s is banworthy

To be fair, other Miles Davis albums kind of put that album there.

On Nighthawks, it’s hard to explain other than it caught me and I was blown away. And it’s one I explained can’t be broken down to any individual track but the characters that occupied that space.

All fair. I'm just glad Tom Waits captured you. Doesn't matter which one.

Well, it’s really not a which one, right. I mean I think there are 4 Waits albums in the top 100 out of 850 that a variety of lists, my existing personal favorites and your (collective) suggestions between 1925 and 1983 at this point. I would say that probably at least 300 of these albums are worthy of being favorites at any given point. So for four of his albums to be on that list is basically saying a good chunk of his music belongs amongst my favorites that I’ve heard.

[liebzz]

The Go-Betweens - Before Hollywood

This solid album is really a reminder that good rock music is so vast that it seems what I’ve covered is really the tip of the iceberg. This is a band and album I not only hadn’t heard before, but also hadn’t heard of before. I am quite confident there are way more of these than there are what I have heard in my lifetime. That digression aside, this album has a bunch of good songs on it, from the title track to Ask, Cattle and Cane, By Chance, and That Way - at least those counted as my favorites here on first listen. Everything seemed actually consistently very good throughout.

The Essential Track: Cattle and Cane

Up Next: ESG - Come Away With ESG

[liebzz]

ESG - Come Away With ESG

I can pretty confidently say that this is among the most impressive albums concerning the utilization of drums and bass guitars we’ve covered thus far. Stripped down to those elements, this is a charged funk album with addictive grooves that captures so much with the utilization of so little. Come Away, Tiny Sticks, and The Beat jumped out at me upon immediate reflection on first listen, but this is something different and fun and engaging. Great recommendation, again.

The Essential Track: Tiny Sticks

Up Next: Australian Crawl - Semantics

[liebzz]

Australian Crawl - Semantics

This is a quick EP from this rock band, and this ended up being much more interesting than I expected. Reckless (Don’t Be So…) is one of those slow build songs that would be perfect to start a longer album, but enjoyable nonetheless. The Night, and White Limbo are both more propulsive rock songs that deliver on the promise of the slow building starter, and Looking for Cool ends this with a nice little twist with a bit more of an early/mid 80s synth like track. I do wish there were more to this, but what you get here is a no filler jolt.

The Essential Track: The Night

Up Next: Men at Work - Cargo

[liebzz]

As per usual, as we make the slow march to the end of the list of 1983 albums, we look forward to a new year. So here’s what I got for 1984 so far. Let me know what I am missing:

The Smiths
The Replacements - Let It Be
Simple Minds - Sparkle in the Rain
Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime
Joan Jett and the Blackhawks - Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth
Kool & the Gang - Emergency
Run-DMC
Prince - Purple Rain
Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA
U2 - The Unforgettable Fire
R.E.M. - Reckoning
Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Honeydrippers - Vol. 1
The Psychedelic Furs - Mirror Moves
Husker Du - Zen Arcade
Ratt - Out of the Cellar
Twisted Sister - Stay Hungry
Metallica - Ride the Lightning
Motörhead - No Remorse
Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Van Halen - 1984
Chicago 17

[liebzz]

Men At Work - Cargo

The singles off Men At Work’s first album are legitimate highs - the sort of work that makes you think you ought to follow what this band does. On this second album, Men At Work gain in consistency - everything here is solid - but don’t seem to capture the highs and energy of their debut. There is a real exceptional moment here, in I Like To, where the band really lets loose and captures a moment where it seems maybe a little more of that would have pushed this album to the next level.

The Essential Track: I Like To

Up Next: Severed Heads - Since the Accident

[wease]

The Time- Ice Cream Castle
Sheila E- The Glamorous Life
Madonna- Like A Virgin
Tina Turner- Private Dancer
Julian Lennon- Valotte
Stevie Ray Vaughn- Couldn’t Stand the Weather
Sammy Hagar- VOA
Joe Jackson- Body and Soul
Sade- Diamond Life
Don Henley- Building the Perfect Beast

[liebzz]

The Time- Ice Cream Castle
Sheila E- The Glamorous Life
Madonna- Like A Virgin
Tina Turner- Private Dancer
Julian Lennon- Valotte
Stevie Ray Vaughn- Couldn’t Stand the Weather
Sammy Hagar- VOA
Joe Jackson- Body and Soul
Sade- Diamond Life
Don Henley- Building the Perfect Beast

Added

[Higgs]

The Time- Ice Cream Castle
Sheila E- The Glamorous Life
Madonna- Like A Virgin
Tina Turner- Private Dancer
Julian Lennon- Valotte
Stevie Ray Vaughn- Couldn’t Stand the Weather
Sammy Hagar- VOA
Joe Jackson- Body and Soul
Sade- Diamond Life
Don Henley- Building the Perfect Beast

One of my desert island albums.

I'll add:

Hoodoo Gurus - Stoneage Romeos
The Cars - Heartbeat City
INXS - The Swing
Violent Femmes - Hallowed Ground
Midnight Oil - Red Sails in the Sunset (another desert island album for me)
Bronski Beat - The Age of Consent
Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Welcome to the Pleasuredome
Billy Bragg - Brewing Up with Billy Bragg

[Higgs]

Men At Work - Cargo

The singles off Men At Work’s first album are legitimate highs - the sort of work that makes you think you ought to follow what this band does. On this second album, Men At Work gain in consistency - everything here is solid - but don’t seem to capture the highs and energy of their debut. There is a real exceptional moment here, in I Like To, where the band really lets loose and captures a moment where it seems maybe a little more of that would have pushed this album to the next level.

The Essential Track: I Like To

Up Next: Severed Heads - Since the Accident

*Overkill is the one here.

[liebzz]

The Time- Ice Cream Castle
Sheila E- The Glamorous Life
Madonna- Like A Virgin
Tina Turner- Private Dancer
Julian Lennon- Valotte
Stevie Ray Vaughn- Couldn’t Stand the Weather
Sammy Hagar- VOA
Joe Jackson- Body and Soul
Sade- Diamond Life
Don Henley- Building the Perfect Beast

One of my desert island albums.

I'll add:

Hoodoo Gurus - Stoneage Romeos
The Cars - Heartbeat City
INXS - The Swing
Violent Femmes - Hallowed Ground
Midnight Oil - Red Sails in the Sunset (another desert island album for me)
Bronski Beat - The Age of Consent
Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Welcome to the Pleasuredome
Billy Bragg - Brewing Up with Billy Bragg

Added

[liebzz]

Men At Work - Cargo

The singles off Men At Work’s first album are legitimate highs - the sort of work that makes you think you ought to follow what this band does. On this second album, Men At Work gain in consistency - everything here is solid - but don’t seem to capture the highs and energy of their debut. There is a real exceptional moment here, in I Like To, where the band really lets loose and captures a moment where it seems maybe a little more of that would have pushed this album to the next level.

The Essential Track: I Like To

Up Next: Severed Heads - Since the Accident

*Overkill is the one here.

Agreed until I got to I Like To’s end jam, which is nothing like the rest of the album and is pretty glorious. Admittedly, I am taking about 45 seconds and using that as justification, but before that 45 seconds I fully intended to go with Overkill.

[liebzz]

Severed Heads - Since the Accident

There’s an industrial sound to this electronic album that foreshadows Nine Inch Nails - the combination of loud guitar squalls and industrial electronic loops seems pretty obvious. I actually enjoyed this for the first half of the album, but the second half felt like it descended into chaos, particularly starting with the minutes long lock in an LP groove, as if the thing were scratched and you couldn’t get up to fix the needle so you just let it go until hopefully it fixes itself. But it rarely does. From there it seemed to get more and more messy and noisy, not always in a bad way, but certainly not in a way that’s bringing me back.

The Essential Track: Gashing the Old Mae West

Up Next: XTC - Mummer

[LoathedVermin72]

A few more for 1984:

Scratch Acid - Scratch Acid
Rush - Grace Under Pressure
Black Flag - My War
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - From Her to Eternity

[Birds in Hell]

And a few more:

The Cure - The Top
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Hyaena
King Crimson - Three of a Perfect Pair
The Smiths - Hatful of Hollow
XTC - The Big Express
Meat Puppets - Meat Puppets II

[liebzz]

XTC - Mummer

This one’s got big shoes to fill since English Settlement was a pretty magical album for them. This one is quite solid, even if it doesn’t quite match up. Beating of Hearts was a great start. Great Fire, Ladybird, and Funk Pop A Roll all highlights for being easy to digest nuggets, and Deliver Us From the Elements and Human Alchemy both great examples of this band expanding their sounds in all these layers. So not English Settlement but pretty damn good in its own right.

The Essential Track: Deliver Us From the Elements

Up Next: The Chameleons - Script of the Bridge

[liebzz]

And a few more:

The Cure - The Top
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Hyaena
King Crimson - Three of a Perfect Pair
The Smiths - Hatful of Hollow
XTC - The Big Express
Meat Puppets - Meat Puppets II

I have to of course ask if Brian Eno was omitted due to my exhaustion or due to his album not being seminal enough to include?

[liebzz]

The Chameleons - Script of the Bridge

Admittedly, there was a little bit of exasperation at the start of this album for me - how many Joy Divisions and The Cures do we really need!? After settling in for a few songs, I warmed up to them. Here Today is a good song, and Second Skin actually builds quite nicely. Up the Down Escalator and A Person Isn’t Safe Anywherr These Days I also remember enjoying, though nothing quite as much as Paper Tigers, which took this one for me.

The Essential Track: Paper Tigers

Up Next: The Cure - Japanese Whispers

[liebzz]

The Cure - Japanese Whispers

Admittedly, I was worried starting this that maybe I’d bitten off too many morose albums in a row that I could chew, but this collection is much brighter sounding than recent Cure albums. Just One Kiss, The Walk, La Ment, and The Lovecats all impressed me on this. This band is certainly not a one trick pony, as the long intros and such are abandoned in favor of something 100% them, but not going down the same path as usual, probably due to the compilation nature of this release.

The Essential Track: The Walk

Up Next: The Glove - Blue Sunshine