Urban75 Album of the Year 1984
- Thread starter Knotted
- Start date
belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
DaveCinzano
WATCH OUT, GEORGE, HE'S GOT A SCREWDRIVER!
Surely any self-respecting U75 poll of albums of 1984 should include the Sunspots-featuring ‘Fried’!
belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
I was coming to that....
DaveCinzano
WATCH OUT, GEORGE, HE'S GOT A SCREWDRIVER!
This Mortal Coil - ‘It'll End In Tears’
Not that this is on anybody's radar, but some really great (post) rock in opposition albums this year.
Chris Cutler, the drummer out of the Art Bears formed a sort continuity Art Bears project with German musicians Heiner Goebbels, Alfred Harth and Christoph Anders. Relatively short punchy songs with heavy improvisation, formed spontaneously on the spot. Saxophonist Harth is a fantastic musician and it's all very strange but it works. Structured songs but barely structured. The second and I think best album is out in 1984 Beauty and the Beast.
The first track on the second side Under New Management is incredibly powerful IMO as is the cover of Chic/Robert Wyatt's (the song is Chic's but they're covering Wyatt's cover) At Last I am Free closing the album.
And then there is Cutler's post Cassiber band News From Babel's first album Work Resumed on the Tower. This time with all the songs being written by ex Henry Cow Oboist/Bassoonist Lyndsay Cooper. With harpist Zeena Parkins and vocalist Dagmar Krause completing the line up, this is rock music without guitars.
The first side is similar territory to the Art Bears and to be honest it's a bit inferior. But the second side they find their own voice and it's so good I'm crying about it. Three songs. The first with these amazing textures that no other band could produce, the second is this piece with such Brechtian irony and the third is this barnstorming call for socialism with Phil Minton joining on vocals. And I'm going to stick each one of them here.
And then there's Goebbels and Harth's Frankfurt - Peking. Which is this noise/rock/synth/free jazz thing, but subtle and textured.
And then there is Alfred Harth's solo album This Earth! With Paul Bley, Trilok Gurtu, Barre Phillips and Maggie Nicols.
Much safer territory than any of the other previous mentions. Jazz/cabaret song cycle.
Chris Cutler, the drummer out of the Art Bears formed a sort continuity Art Bears project with German musicians Heiner Goebbels, Alfred Harth and Christoph Anders. Relatively short punchy songs with heavy improvisation, formed spontaneously on the spot. Saxophonist Harth is a fantastic musician and it's all very strange but it works. Structured songs but barely structured. The second and I think best album is out in 1984 Beauty and the Beast.
The first track on the second side Under New Management is incredibly powerful IMO as is the cover of Chic/Robert Wyatt's (the song is Chic's but they're covering Wyatt's cover) At Last I am Free closing the album.
And then there is Cutler's post Cassiber band News From Babel's first album Work Resumed on the Tower. This time with all the songs being written by ex Henry Cow Oboist/Bassoonist Lyndsay Cooper. With harpist Zeena Parkins and vocalist Dagmar Krause completing the line up, this is rock music without guitars.
The first side is similar territory to the Art Bears and to be honest it's a bit inferior. But the second side they find their own voice and it's so good I'm crying about it. Three songs. The first with these amazing textures that no other band could produce, the second is this piece with such Brechtian irony and the third is this barnstorming call for socialism with Phil Minton joining on vocals. And I'm going to stick each one of them here.
And then there's Goebbels and Harth's Frankfurt - Peking. Which is this noise/rock/synth/free jazz thing, but subtle and textured.
And then there is Alfred Harth's solo album This Earth! With Paul Bley, Trilok Gurtu, Barre Phillips and Maggie Nicols.
Much safer territory than any of the other previous mentions. Jazz/cabaret song cycle.
DaveCinzano
WATCH OUT, GEORGE, HE'S GOT A SCREWDRIVER!
Cocteau Twins - ‘Treasure’
DaveCinzano
WATCH OUT, GEORGE, HE'S GOT A SCREWDRIVER!
Prefab Sprout - ‘Swoon’
DaveCinzano
WATCH OUT, GEORGE, HE'S GOT A SCREWDRIVER!
Shriekback - ‘Jam Science’
DaveCinzano
WATCH OUT, GEORGE, HE'S GOT A SCREWDRIVER!
Talk Talk - ‘It’s My Life’
DaveCinzano
WATCH OUT, GEORGE, HE'S GOT A SCREWDRIVER!
Wang Chung - ‘Points On The Curve’
Silas Loom
Man with glasses
The39thStep
Urban critical thinker
From the Hip- Section 25 . A sublime album from a band who were pretty much just thought of as being a band on the same label as Joy Division/New Order. Mix of ambient, electro dance and post punk.
Spandex
A crazy bulbous punchbag of sound
Y'know what I unashamedly love? Bananarama's self titled second album. Cruel Summer, Rough Justice, Robert de Nero's Waiting. Behind the shiny pop songs there's some dark lyrics - sectarian violence, domestic violence, Robert de Nero's waiting is about a teenage rape victim looking for escape. An excellent pop album.
hitmouse
music obfuscation technology
Does anyone have any strong opinions on when GISM released Detestation? Wikipedia says July 12 1984, Discogs reckons 1983. I don't think it got a mention in the 1983 thread, so I reckon I'm going with wikipedia and calling it an 84 album.
Spandex
A crazy bulbous punchbag of sound
S.P.K. – Machine Age Voodoo
This album divided fans of the band. Completely dropping the terrifying industrial extremism of their early records it's an excellent synthpop album that sounds sort of like Propaganda. Admirers of the fuzzed mass of distorted sound on old tracks like Macht Schrecken absolutely hate it, can't believe it's the same act, feel betrayed. I'd take this over the alienating noise they started out with any day.
This album divided fans of the band. Completely dropping the terrifying industrial extremism of their early records it's an excellent synthpop album that sounds sort of like Propaganda. Admirers of the fuzzed mass of distorted sound on old tracks like Macht Schrecken absolutely hate it, can't believe it's the same act, feel betrayed. I'd take this over the alienating noise they started out with any day.
The39thStep
Urban critical thinker
and the next album Zamia Lehmanni has some achingly beautiful pieces on it
They have to be the most varied band in history.
The39thStep
Urban critical thinker
Durutti Column - Without Mercy.
“Tony had just come in for a conversation one day and said, ‘Look, you keep making these albums that you want to make and I’m quite happy with you doing that but just give me this one album and do it my way.’ He wanted it to have a narrative determined by a Keats poem, ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ (‘The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy’), which he said was the poet’s version of a pop song: boy meets girl, falls in love with girl, loses girl, blah blah blah. It was a very, very Tony way of looking at it. He had aspirations that I should be taken seriously.” – Vini Reilly
It was later coupled with an EP Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say.
“Tony had just come in for a conversation one day and said, ‘Look, you keep making these albums that you want to make and I’m quite happy with you doing that but just give me this one album and do it my way.’ He wanted it to have a narrative determined by a Keats poem, ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ (‘The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy’), which he said was the poet’s version of a pop song: boy meets girl, falls in love with girl, loses girl, blah blah blah. It was a very, very Tony way of looking at it. He had aspirations that I should be taken seriously.” – Vini Reilly
It was later coupled with an EP Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say.
Dr. Furface
One small step for me
Nick's first with the Bad Seeds and still one of his best
Throbbing Angel
this is no longer a place of honour
Footloose soundtrack?
NOW that's what I call music 1,2 or 3?
Srsly tho...
The Smiths by The Smiths
Bon Jovi by Bon Jovi
It's my life - Talk Talk
The Icicle Works - The Icicle Works
Two steps from the move - Hanoi Rocks
No Remorse -Motörhead
And loads more...
I might actually vote in this one!
NOW that's what I call music 1,2 or 3?
Srsly tho...
The Smiths by The Smiths
Bon Jovi by Bon Jovi
It's my life - Talk Talk
The Icicle Works - The Icicle Works
Two steps from the move - Hanoi Rocks
No Remorse -Motörhead
And loads more...
I might actually vote in this one!
