Essential Studio Albums

[liebzz]

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth

Joan Jett is nothing if not incredibly consistent. Another album in the books, another albums of half originals and covers, knowing almost down deep that they are really good at covers, possibly better than the originals. Hell she even covered herself here with Cherry Bomb. New Orleans is also a fantastic cover here. The winner is an original I think in Push and Stomp, though I also liked Someday.

The Essential Track: Push and Stomp

Up Next: Siouxsie and the Banshees - Hyaena

[liebzz]

Siouxsie and the Banshees - Hyaena

This one is a really phenomenal album. Working with Robert Smith of The Cure (he’s all over the place in this early/mid 80s), there’s a sort of atmospheric vibe throughout and the songs are just so good. Dazzle is a perfect opener, and Take Me Back, Bring Me the Head of the Preacher Man, and Running Town are all fantastic tracks that keep this album moving. The winner is the closer here, Blow the House Down, which is an epic blast with quite a few little experiments floating around it. The bonus is Dear Prudence a nice cover.

The Essential Track: Blow the House Down

Up Next: Billy Bragg - Brewing Up with Billy Bragg

[washing machine]

Black Flag - My War

I won’t lie - I will always find Henry Rollins abrasive in a way that’s not pleasant. It’s just how I hear him, and it’s always been that way. I actually did think this album was a step up however, maybe due to them slowing down a bit so it’s not all spitfire. I still wouldn’t count it among my favorite albums by any stretch, but I was impressed to see they are more than just a hardcore punk band.

The Essential Track: My War

Different album, but I love how Damaged 1 hints at what's to come on My War.

[coptheriotact]

I was also suprised when I first heard “the top” not what I was expecting..


Also glad you liked sparkle in the rain

[liebzz]

I was also suprised when I first heard “the top” not what I was expecting..


Also glad you liked sparkle in the rain

Definitely two of my favorites from that page of this thread.

[liebzz]

Billy Bragg - Brewing Up With Billy Bragg

At first blush, this sort of seems like more of the same, though he does add overdubs and some other instrumentation in here to make it a little less sparse, though the vibe remains. I actually liked this set of songs more. They hit the right chord for me, particularly The Myth of Trust, From a Vauxhall Velox, The Saturday Boy, Island of No Return, Like Soldiers Do, and Strange Things Happen, though this is a no skip short album.

The Essential Track: Strange Things Happen

Up Next: Hoodoo Gurus - Stoneahe Romeos

[liebzz]

Hoodoo Gurus - Stoneage Romeos

There was a band in the mid-90s that at least I thought coined the term and the sound psychobilly. (That band was the Reverend Horton Heat). This seems like the seeds of that. High energy, somewhat goofy, and with strains of modern rock and rock-a-billy. It’s also refreshing to hear a less heavy material. (Let’s All) Turn On, Arthur, Dig It Up, Zanzibar; Leilani, Tojo, and I Was a Kamikaze Pilot all stuck out on the first listen of a fun and easy listen.

The Essential Track: Tojo

Up Next: Joe Jackson - Body and Soul

[Higgs]

I was heavy into Billy Bragg in the later 80s, he made me less self conscious about my terrible singing voice. That one has some of my favourite songs of his.

Stoneage Romeos is a bop. Dig It Up is my jam. Certainly not complicated music.

[liebzz]

Joe Jackson - Body and Soul

I’m getting closer and closer to realizing that all this guy does is make excellent records one after the next. This one is no exception, fusing a disparate number of influences into one very nice pop album. The Verdict, Not Here Not Now, You Can’t Get What You Want (Til You Know What You Want), Loisaida, and Happy Ending were the ones that caught me immediately, but I can’t say there are any weak spots here.

The Essential Track: You Can’t Get What You Want (Til You Know What You Want)

Up Next: Bronski Beat - The Age of Consent

[wease]

Awesome. I had a feeling you’d dig him.

[liebzz]

Bronski Beat - The Age of Consent

My own growth is pretty great in this thread. Before it, I probably wouldn’t have lasted 15 minutes listening to this album, but based on the variety of exposures we’ve had here, I found myself largely enjoying this album. Why?, Love and Money (that sax cuts through like a knife), Smalltown Boy, and Heatwave were my highlights here. Synth-pop isn’t my personal taste, but apparently I am capable of enjoying it in the right moment.

The Essential Track: Love and Money

Up Next: Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Welcome to the Pleasuredome

[liebzz]

Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Welcome to the Pleasuredome

If you wanted to heap a generalized praise of 80s music as the encapsulation of the anything goes mantra where no real line is drawn in the sand in drawing from the past to push music into the future, you might very well be citing to this album. Alternatively, if you wanted to bash 80s music for over the top excess and reliance on studio trickery to bolster acts into relevance, you might also cite this album. It’s a massively bloated, produced to the point where the band doesn’t really matter, double album. It takes liberties with covers of War, Born to Run, San Jose (The Way), and Fury - some of it tough to listen to while others exciting twists. It essentially opens with a 13 and a half minute single that feels its length, but then follows with Relax (Come Fighting) - one of the most 80s songs in existence and really a gem of a song that contains many more interesting twists than it initially lets on. It can somehow be your 80s aural canvass with strokes of genius and your 80s excess hellscape at the same time. A wild adventure.

The Essential Track: Relax (Come Fighting)

Up Next: Kool & the Gang - Emergency

[Higgs]

Bronski Beat - The Age of Consent

My own growth is pretty great in this thread. Before it, I probably wouldn’t have lasted 15 minutes listening to this album, but based on the variety of exposures we’ve had here, I found myself largely enjoying this album. Why?, Love and Money (that sax cuts through like a knife), Smalltown Boy, and Heatwave were my highlights here. Synth-pop isn’t my personal taste, but apparently I am capable of enjoying it in the right moment.

The Essential Track: Love and Money

Up Next: Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Welcome to the Pleasuredome

Really glad you enjoyed this one. It gets a run at my place every now and then when I have this particular itch to scratch. Jimmy Somerville could really hit those notes. I also remember as a young-un using "Bronski Beat" as an all purpose, juvenile, homophobic slur. I was 13 and could be a bit of a dick it seems.

[liebzz]

Kool & the Gang - Emergency

If we accomplished anything here, it was mapping this group from funk/jazz/rock/soul masterminds to bland pop group chasing easy to digest hits. I am reaching to put this above New Edition in the sense that at least New Edition seemed to break some boundaries as a boy band. This is just really bland pop music in the lowest common denominator sense, like background music for a cruise ship restaurant - designed to offend no one and whose biggest excitement is the closing Casio keyboard solo. Cherish is exactly the kind of adult contemporary drivel that even gives soft rock a bad name. I hate to be so rough on a band or album, but given what they came from, it’s sadly pretty appalling to my ears.

The Essential Track: Misled

Up Next: The Time - Ice Cream Castle

[liebzz]

The Time - Ice Cream Castle

Prince’s backing band comes off as silly and irreverent here, but also full of funk and dance hooks to keep you into this. My Drawers, Jungle Love, and The Bird are the clear winners here, as these songs largely develop over time into some pretty epic jams. My Drawers is probably the only short song on here, but it packs a good punch. Yes, this sounds remarkably like Prince, though he did indeed produce the album so that makes perfect sense.

The Essential Track: Jungle Love

Up Next: Prince - Purple Rain

[wease]

The Time - Ice Cream Castle

Prince’s backing band comes off as silly and irreverent here, but also full of funk and dance hooks to keep you into this. My Drawers, Jungle Love, and The Bird are the clear winners here, as these songs largely develop over time into some pretty epic jams. My Drawers is probably the only short song on here, but it packs a good punch. Yes, this sounds remarkably like Prince, though he did indeed produce the album so that makes perfect sense.

The Essential Track: Jungle Love

Up Next: Prince - Purple Rain

Not Prince’s backing band. A totally separate act under his umbrella. He wrote all the songs and he played all the music except for The Bird, which was live. But it is Morris Day on vocals and he totally brings a voice that while not Prince’s adds the pop the tunes need.

And while Jungle Love is indeed classic, you gotta go with The Bird.

[Deadnote]

Purple Rain by Prince
Let it all begin by Shawn smith
Audioslave by audioslave
Wilco being there
Polly Jean Harvey to bring you my love
Warpaint

[liebzz]

Purple Rain by Prince
Let it all begin by Shawn smith
Audioslave by audioslave
Wilco being there
Polly Jean Harvey to bring you my love
Warpaint

I will likely one day get to all of those. Purple Rain hopefully today.

[liebzz]

Prince and the Revolution - Purple Rain

Some albums end up stopping you in your tracks. They demand attention and change everything you think you know as great. It’s not just crazy that Prince pulled this off in near universal fashion on Purple Rain, an album that’s basically flawless, but that he pulled this off as a follow up to 1999, which is one of the great pop albums, period. The closest thing to a note I’ve got for Prince on this one is that this is not what it sounds like when doves cry: they squawk, bro. Basically, this album is brilliance with few comparisons to match in this era. No one perfected the sound of the 1980s in such a fashion, blending pop, rock, soul, and funk in such a consistently high quality. I could pick any number of tracks here as a favorite, but I don’t think you can deny the epic finale to this one.

The Essential Track: Purple Rain

Up Next: Sheila E - The Glamorous Life

[wease]

So glad you’re doing all the Prince stuff together. Gives you a sense of just how prevalent he was in the pop landscape in this period.