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Post by Whitneyfan on Feb 6, 2023 19:22:45 GMT 1
I haven't listened to that Police album, but I think I was one of the few people in Haven Factor who loved 'Canary In A Coalmine'.
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TheThorne
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Post by TheThorne on Feb 6, 2023 19:39:14 GMT 1
I haven't listened to that Police album, but I think I was one of the few people in Haven Factor who loved 'Canary In A Coalmine'. Yeh that’s one way of the two I’m not so keen on
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Post by raliverpool on Feb 6, 2023 20:21:25 GMT 1
A great list TheThorne.
Interesting to see what your tastes are.
I'll comment on the albums I've heard/own:
97 Paul McCartney - McCartney II - In truth as a Beatles fan this is a patchy album. But a very bold album. "One Of These Days" is the best of the non singles. 2.5/5 Still it is better than his former bandmate's Double Fantasy album which was very bland despite having three great songs on it (the singles).
95 INXS - INXS - As debuts go it is a very patchy affair. "Just Keep Walkin'" is head and shoulders the best thing on the album. 1.5/5
83 The Rolling Stones - Emotional Rescue - Personally forget 1986 Dirty Work, I rate this as the Stones worst album. Not helped as I cringe listening to the title track, plus it is a massive drop off from their previous album, which I rate as their best post (1972 Exile ...) album. "She's So Cold"; "Dance (Pt 1)" and "All About You" are worth salvaging. 1.5/5
81 Buggles - The Age of Plastic - A really enjoyable album to listen to from start to finish despite Trevor Horn's clear limitations as a singer. Fav track "Elstree" 4.0/5
79 Stevie Wonder - Hotter Than July - The end of Stevie's imperial phase. A solid album, but it actually gets boring on a few of the non singles which drag the album down. Highlight "Ain't Gonna Stand For This" 3.0/5
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Post by smokeyb on Feb 6, 2023 20:27:22 GMT 1
So the top 3 are all ex Haven Fcator acts and apart from my number one, before I compiled this list I wouldn't have expected them to be in my top 3. Although I do think that says more about 1980 than anything else, it isn't the strongest album year, it's going to get way more competitive. 3 Roxy Music - Flesh & Blood
Now being honest I really didn't like Roxy Music or Bryan Ferry much when I was a kid, yeh I liked the odd song but the thought I would love a whole record, unbelievable. But one show changed this for 'Ashes To Ashes', I may have heard it on chart rundowns but I had never realised how brilliant 'Same Old Scene' was. Then last month I played this whole album, again songs I never remember loving or knowing just made me go 'Wow' , like 'Oh Yeah' and 'Over You'. This album if you counted the originials songs alone, it would have been a 5/5 album but starting it with 'In The Midnight Hour' why??? its an alright cover actually but 'Eight Miles High' later on the record just didnt work at all. Their seventh album went to #1 in the UK amd #35 in the US, will find out in a couple of weeks if I love 'Avalon' even more got a feeling I will!!
4.5/5 I have all Roxy's albums, so I know all the songs here, super.
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Post by raliverpool on Feb 6, 2023 20:48:53 GMT 1
77 Steely Dan - Gaucho - A lot of critics equate Steely Dan as the USA version of 10cc. Whilst I compare them to Roxy Music. Neither act (first time around) made worse than a 3.0/5 album. Both sophisticated art-rock acts finished on sparse sounding albums with minimal lyrics. However, Gaucho is not as strong as Roxy Music's final album possibly as it is a bit too yacht rock for my liking. Fav track: Babylon Sisters. 3.5/5 71 The Clash - Sandinista! - A sprawling experimental triple album. If the band had "cut the crap" they could have a made a great single LP. Fav track: "Hitsville UK". 2.0/5 70 Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Get Happy!! - Certainly a drop off fromhis previous three excellent album. It still packs a punch even if it lacks a focus. It still has quite a few high points. Fav track "Temptation". 3.5/5 63 Billy Joel - Glass Houses - Billy leaves his piano to rock out in a Springsteen meets Jagger way. What let's the album down is the 5 best songs are the first 5 tracks (Side 1) of the album. The Paul (Simon meets Mccartney) homage "Don't Ask Me Why" is my fav 3.5/5 61 Prince - Dirty Mind - A fusion of post-disco, new wave, funk and dance. This DIY punkish effort is arguably his most creative and boldest album, setting the standard for his artistic direction in the following decade. Fav track "When You Were Mine" 5.0/5
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Post by raliverpool on Feb 6, 2023 21:11:12 GMT 1
57 Kate Bush - Never for Ever - With hindsight this is her stepping stone album between the Kate of the first two albums and "The Mighty Bush" bemoth she would become on he following two albums. It has a lot of charm, a bit more sonic experimentation. The odd clunker "Egypt". But is a very solid, commendable effort prior to her great artistic leap forward with her follow up... my Fav non single track is the hypnotic "Delius" which arguably invented both Bjork & Enya. 4.0/5
54 Dexys Midnight Runners - Searching for the Young Soul Rebels - The very definition of a solid album from start to finish. Sure it is a bit one trick samey punk rock meets soul fusion sounding. But it works for me. Fav Track: "I'm Just Looking". 3.5/5
46 Bob Marley & The Wailers - Uprising - Compared to his Exodus & Kaya albums this was a continued drop of in quality following "Survival". With hindsight we know that was because of his health problems which would rob the world of more music from him a year later.. However, the final three songs on the album are superb. Fav track: "Redemption Song". 3.0/5
44 Split Enz - True Colours - I'm still annoyed this is the only one of their post 1978 albums on Spotify (when Neil Finn starting taking an increasing role in the singing/songwriting alongside his brother Tim). Neil's "I Got You" is of course a stone cold New Wave classic bop. But Tim grabs the other two podium tracks with the eerie "Poor Boy" & haunting "I Hope I Never". Whilst this is great album to listen to (in a Squeeze meets XTC way) it does possess some filler. 4.0/5
41 Dire Straits - Making Movies - Their roots rock third album was their best to date. The first half (Side 1) is imperious; and Side 2 only drops its standards a little with the final three tracks. Fav track: "Romeo & Juliet" 4.0/5 (Could this mean I'm their mentor in Haven Factor 11 ... or maybe ...)
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Post by raliverpool on Feb 6, 2023 21:34:32 GMT 1
36 Squeeze - Argybargy - An old friend of mine bought the two Squeeze album box sets "Six Of One" & "Half A Dozen of The Other" to cover their 12 A&M album including the "Difford & Tilbrook" solo album which is as much part of Squeeze's canon as Arcadia is to Duran Duran. So I CD-R'd all the albums. (We regularly bought and borrowed & copied each other's albums). This really is a solid New Wave melodic rock album with a few of the non single albums cuts being good enough for singles. However, I always felt they lacked that something "It/The X-Factor" which stopped them being huge in the way their label mates The Police were. Anyway best not give any fav tracks out as I don't want to help their HF11 mentor ... (unless I'm talking to myself...). 4.0/5
34 Queen - The Game - A band who never made a stinker of an album, nor they managed a classic 5 star effort. Like Madonna they had an uncanny knack of releasing the best tracks as the singles, and this album is no exception. "Sail Away Sweet Sister" is my fav non single. 3.5/5
33 AC/DC - Back in Black - The streaming behemoth of an album. If you love "Acca Dacca" then you'll love this. To me they were always a bit too Meat & Potato's hard rock for my tastes. But their are some great tracks & a brilliant Robert Mutt Lange production to match. 3.5/5
32 Genesis - Duke - This album further confirmed their more economic style of Prog Rock with more pop leaning efforts such as the two big singles "Turn It On Again & "Misunderstanding". But it still had a fair degree of melancholy experimentation. (My fav album by them is "A Trick Of The Tail") Fav album cut "Duchess" 3.5/5:
29 Joy Division - Closer - An album of two parts. The guitar driven numbers such as best example "Atrocity Exhibition", and the more experimental synth heavy numbers fav example "Decades". The later examples have aged better IMHO. 4.0/5
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Post by Earl Purple on Feb 6, 2023 22:07:33 GMT 1
Up to the last Haven Factor all my acts had a UK top 10 hit in 1980 except Bon Jovi.
Of the current list, Squeeze had a #17 single and a #32 album, Billy Ocean a #42 single and no hit albums and Dire Straits no hit singles and a #11 album that climbed later to #4 in 1981.
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Post by raliverpool on Feb 6, 2023 22:21:52 GMT 1
Last set of reviews for today.... 27 The Clash - London Calling - A double vinyl album which for me (& many others) is a prime example of all killer & no filler. LP1 Side 2 is spectacular good, and the standard never drops much throughout. Yet the final track "Train In Vain" is one of the best rock songs ever written as Garbage would agree. IMHO the 2nd best double album of all time (spoiler the best is from this decade). 5.0/5 (My fav album of 1980) 26 Japan - Gentlemen Take Polaroids - This avant pop album is slightly patchy but always musically interesting aided by David Sylvian's vocals & Mick Karn's extraordinary bass work. As well as the title track, the stand outs are the final two numbers on the album ("Nightporter" & "Taking Islands In Africa"). 4.0/5 25 Peter Gabriel - (Melt) Peter Gabriel 3 - Produced by Steve Lillywhite. This album arguably ushered in the 1980s with the gated drum reverb sound played by Phil Collins whilst messing about in the studio with engineer Hugh Padgham before any cymbals were put up, then put through a Fairlight synthesiser. I would say this is his best album, as Peter Gabriel's musical & lyrical contributions on this album are very strong and very varied. 5.0/5 Fav track: The Intruder (My 2nd Fav album of 1980):
21 Ultravox - Vienna - the first made by Ultravox with their best-known line-up, after Midge Ure had taken over as lead vocalist and guitarist following the departures of John Foxx and Robin Simon. Apart from the 4 singles, the stand out track is the brilliant 7 minute opening instrumental "Astradyne". 4.0/5
20 The Jam - Sound Affects - Paul Weller's Mod rock band's 5th studio album. Paul Weller rates this as his first band's best album. Personally, I slightly prefer their previous 1979 album Setting Sons. The songwriting is mostly strong, but I feel the musical experimentation is hindered by the Vic Coppersmith-Heaven production. 4.0/5
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TheThorne
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Post by TheThorne on Feb 6, 2023 22:43:49 GMT 1
Up to the last Haven Factor all my acts had a UK top 10 hit in 1980 except Bon Jovi. Of the current list, Squeeze had a #17 single and a #32 album, Billy Ocean a #42 single and no hit albums and Dire Straits no hit singles and a #11 album that climbed later to #4 in 1981. Apart from 1980 I wouldn’t even know this was a comment on my list…
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Post by Earl Purple on Feb 6, 2023 23:56:18 GMT 1
I listen to a handful of albums between years of my singles chart. When I reached the end of 1980 I therefore listened to a number of albums from that year.
One of them was Double Fantasy of course, which I don't see on your list, and is rather ruined by Yoko Ono's singing some of the songs on it. John Lennon's own songs are really good though. Maybe that's why it didn't make the list, but Paul McCartney only just scraped in so maybe you just are not into ex-Beatles members around this time.
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Post by Earl Purple on Feb 6, 2023 23:57:37 GMT 1
97 Paul McCartney - McCartney II - In truth as a Beatles fan this is a patchy album. But a very bold album. "One Of These Days" is the best of the non singles. 2.5/5 Still it is better than his former bandmate's Double Fantasy album which was very bland despite having three great songs on it (the singles). those 3 (especially Watching The Wheels) plus Beautiful Boy.
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TheThorne
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Post by TheThorne on Feb 7, 2023 0:03:16 GMT 1
I listen to a handful of albums between years of my singles chart. When I reached the end of 1980 I therefore listened to a number of albums from that year. One of them was Double Fantasy of course, which I don't see on your list, and is rather ruined by Yoko Ono's singing some of the songs on it. John Lennon's own songs are really good though. Maybe that's why it didn't make the list, but Paul McCartney only just scraped in so maybe you just are not into ex-Beatles members around this time. No not a fan of that John Lennon album at all , I thought about giving it a chance but it’s still worse for me than albums that just missed. Like cmon I hate ‘Imagine’ so what hope would these songs have, ‘Woman’ is terrible. Thought Paul’s album was going to be better
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TheThorne
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Post by TheThorne on Feb 7, 2023 8:15:48 GMT 1
Last set of reviews for today.... 27 The Clash - London Calling - A double vinyl album which for me (& many others) is a prime example of all killer & no filler. LP1 Side 2 is spectacular good, and the standard never drops much throughout. Yet the final track "Train In Vain" is one of the best rock songs ever written as Garbage would agree. IMHO the 2nd best double album of all time (spoiler the best is from this decade). 5.0/5 (My fav album of 1980) 26 Japan - Gentlemen Take Polaroids - This avant pop album is slightly patchy but always musically interesting aided by David Sylvian's vocals & Mick Karn's extraordinary bass work. As well as the title track, the stand outs are the final two numbers on the album ("Nightporter" & "Taking Islands In Africa"). 4.0/5 25 Peter Gabriel - (Melt) Peter Gabriel 3 - Produced by Steve Lillywhite. This album arguably ushered in the 1980s with the gated drum reverb sound played by Phil Collins whilst messing about in the studio with engineer Hugh Padgham before any cymbals were put up, then put through a Fairlight synthesiser. I would say this is his best album, as Peter Gabriel's musical & lyrical contributions on this album are very strong and very varied. 5.0/5 Fav track: The Intruder (My 2nd Fav album of 1980):
21 Ultravox - Vienna - the first made by Ultravox with their best-known line-up, after Midge Ure had taken over as lead vocalist and guitarist following the departures of John Foxx and Robin Simon. Apart from the 4 singles, the stand out track is the brilliant 7 minute opening instrumental "Astradyne". 4.0/5
20 The Jam - Sound Affects - Paul Weller's Mod rock band's 5th studio album. Paul Weller rates this as his first band's best album. Personally, I slightly prefer their previous 1979 album Setting Sons. The songwriting is mostly strong, but I feel the musical experimentation is hindered by the Vic Coppersmith-Heaven production. 4.0/5
Thanks for your comments wish I could talk about albums/music as well as you, your comments are way better than my posts hehe
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Good Old Days
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Post by Good Old Days on Feb 7, 2023 10:26:10 GMT 1
I always was mostly casual listenter of singles and random tracks instead full albums.
From 1981 year these albums deserved to be mentioned : Debuts from Altered Images, Aneka, Kim Wilde and Bucks Fizz, ABBA - The Visitors + Kirsty MacColl's debut (need to listen it).
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TheThorne
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Post by TheThorne on Feb 7, 2023 11:38:05 GMT 1
I always was mostly casual listenter of singles and random tracks instead full albums. From 1981 year these albums deserved to be mentioned : Debuts from Altered Images, Aneka, Kim Wilde and Bucks Fizz, ABBA - The Visitors + Kirsty MacColl's debut (need to listen it). Oh same here up until maybe 2002, I bought 90% singles and 10% albums , then when virgin records shut final straw in Perth really , I went downloads and albums only.
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Post by Whitneyfan on Feb 7, 2023 12:02:16 GMT 1
Obviously not your cup of tea, but Barbra Streisand's Guilty album would probably be my #1 in 1980.
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TheThorne
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Post by TheThorne on Feb 7, 2023 12:30:11 GMT 1
Obviously not your cup of tea, but Barbra Streisand's Guilty album would probably be my #1 in 1980. Yeh I don’t know if I can listen to that…oh wait is that the album with ‘Woman In Love’ that’s a tune! Ahh just looked at the track list the whole thing is basically a Bee Gees collab , maybe next time I’ll give it a go. If 1987 wasn’t so stacked might have seen some Bee Gees there but I doubt it will make the cut.
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Good Old Days
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Post by Good Old Days on Feb 7, 2023 13:06:19 GMT 1
Obviously not your cup of tea, but Barbra Streisand's Guilty album would probably be my #1 in 1980. "Promises" is ace, for me this song is in the same league with "Woman In Love".
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Post by Whitneyfan on Feb 7, 2023 13:24:02 GMT 1
Obviously not your cup of tea, but Barbra Streisand's Guilty album would probably be my #1 in 1980. Yeh I don’t know if I can listen to that…oh wait is that the album with ‘Woman In Love’ that’s a tune! Ahh just looked at the track list the whole thing is basically a Bee Gees collab , maybe next time I’ll give it a go. If 1987 wasn’t so stacked might have seen some Bee Gees there but I doubt it will make the cut. Yeah, it's all written by the Bee Gees. It's very easy listening, but great.
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