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Post by Tweet on Sept 14, 2022 16:00:14 GMT -6
16. The Jesus & Mary Chain- Psychocandy (765, 11) Very few albums exude cool as thoroughly as Psychocandy. It's harsh but delicate, nonchalant but achingly beautiful. A truly sonically pioneering album... that's also full of 50s rocknroll inspired melodies. Somewhere in the world there's a 19 year old finding out about this at the recommendation of someone older at their college radio station. At least, that's how it worked for me. And I need to believe that that cycle will perpetuate on and on for another 40 years, as it has since 1985. Originally I had down the cell phone itself was invented, but that actually happened in 1973. However, the first phone came out in 1985, and with it the first wireless network, 1G. Imagine trying to look at porn on a Motorola DynaTAC:  A Shitty Thing Donald Trump Did in the 1980s- Tanked the USFLI've always kinda known about this story but the actual details of it are funnier than the entire content of Dane Cook's career. The Summer football league that Trumpy pushed to compete directly with the NFL to force a merger, moving their schedule to the fall in 1985. They lost, big time. An anti-trust lawsuit was filed. The fuckin federal court system came out and NFL declared an illegal monopoly. HOWEVER, due to big business man around here, the court basically said you guys are dumbasses for doing this and you are not owed any money. The league folded in 1986 and we got a bunch of Steve Young to Jerry Rice highlights as a result. Thanks Donnie! Boarder who’d like this albumDij22.
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Post by Tweet on Sept 14, 2022 16:05:31 GMT -6
15. Bruce Springsteen- Nebraska (773, 10)Top 5 verses / choruses from Nebraska (the best singer-songwriter record of the 80s) that cut straight to your soul. Bruce really freaked it on this one, didn't he.  "They declared me unfit to live / Said into that great void my soul be hurled They wanted to know why I did what I did / Sir, I guess there's just a meanness in this world" "I catch him when he's strayin' like any brother should / Man turns his back on his family, he ain't no good" "Maybe you got a kid, maybe you got a pretty wife / The only thing that I got's been bothering me my whole life" "I walked up the steps and stood on the porch A woman I didn't recognize came and spoke to me through a chained door I told her my story and who I'd come for She said "I'm sorry son but no one by that name lives here anymore" "Struck me kinda funny, funny, yeah, to me / How at the end of every hard-earned day people find some reason to believe" Definition: greenmail is money paid to an entity to stop or prevent aggressive behavior. In mergers and acquisitions, it is an anti-takeover measure in which the target company pays a premium, known as greenmail, to purchase its own shares back at inflated prices from a corporate raider. Boarder who’d like this albumDij22, though in all seriousness, the last 14 are all albums I think everyone has heard at least once, whether they like them or not. So we'll cut this part of this, uh, bit, out now.
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Post by Tweet on Sept 14, 2022 16:09:24 GMT -6
14. Bruce Springsteen- Born in the USA (780, 10) This one was also in my parents' collections, affirmably on my Mom’s side. “He’s got a nice ass,” I remember her saying once or twice. I must’ve traded this when I needed cash- there was definitely a point where I was over Bruce, as all his songs from the big albums were starting to blend together into the 97.1 FM Cock-Rock-a-Sphere. Big mistake. We’re discussing the wrong shithead in the president’s section here, but listening to the lyrics of “Born in the USA” you really have to believe only a doofus with Alzheimers would want this as a campaign song. This album also sold the most and earned him the most money, which I assume has been spent given how ridiculous those concert tickets were a couple months ago. Fuck man. A Thing From the 80s: CheersAn ex was into this show so naturally I hate it now. Here’s people saying Norm in Cheers. A Shitty Thing Donald Trump Did in the 1980s: Eastern Airlines Shuttle Took a highly profitable if environment unfriendly fly run that was operating for 33 years and bankrupted it within 3.
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Post by Tweet on Sept 14, 2022 16:12:25 GMT -6
13. The Stone Roses- s/t (820, 10) Tried to get into this album like 10 years ago when I just found out about Oasis, then again when I was devouring P4k decade in review lists. Both times I registered it as a record I liked - but ultimately blurred together - and didn't really love. "She Bangs The Drums" being the only track that stuck with me over the years. Just gave the LP its first listen in prolly 7-8 years and maaaan do I fuck with this now. It's like the perfect culmination of the jangle pop movement that bridges the gap beautifully into the beginning of the shoegaze era (i.e. layers on layers of sound, feedback experiments, a general heaviness in tone). There's something interesting and hooky on nearly every song here. And the combo of This Is The One > I Am The Resurrection to close the album is perfect. Gonna hopefully be spinning this a lot this week.  A Shitty Thing Donald Trump Did in the 1980s: The Donald J Trump Foundation was founded
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Post by Tweet on Sept 14, 2022 16:15:55 GMT -6
12. U2- The Joshua Tree (825, 11) I don’t put this album a lot. Not because it isn’t good, but because something odd happens to me when I hear it. I blame the guitar intro on track one. You know the one. One time in college I got high and wound up in the backseat of a chevy something or another. Cheap piece of shit car. Played Cassettes. Anyway the driver, one of my fraternity brothers, popped this one in. We’re going on an adventure. Someone sober is driving the car, I was told 3 or 4 times. We wound up on the lake. It wasn’t much of a lake, but it had a pier and some marshland and sometimes couples would be out there to fool around. I remember the air being crisp and the light just after the sun going down. Tracks going in and out as we came back to the car for drinks or whatever. I don’t think I even realized it was a U2 album (did I mention I was high). It felt like this was soundtracking something magical. Something that fills you with a simple whisper of feeling “something is going to happen tonight” that will change your world for, and this is the key part, the better, forever. Nothing happened that night that I remember fondly, especially in hindsight. But that feeling always wiggles back around into my heart whenever I’m ready to listen to U2’s best album. No I won’t ask Paul to stop if the time comes. A Thing From the 80s: The CD is IntroducedAs late as 2007 I was still spinning CDs on the school bus in a portable CD player. They officially hit the market in October 1982 and went obsolete sometime around 2004 or 2005. There is an absolutely batshit resale market for them in other, non American parts of the world. A Shitty Thing Donald Trump Did in the 1980s: 4 Billion from 70 banks by the end of the decade, loaned and not repaidThis guy makes Reagan look like a financial wizard.
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Post by Tweet on Sept 14, 2022 16:21:00 GMT -6
11. Pixies- Surfer Rosa (837, 11) You don’t know how much of a blessing it is to not have my first memories of “Where is My Mind?” being of the end of Fight Club (non-Chinese version). Francis has done a lot over the years to bring back and then take away again some good will, but ain’t no doubt about it these are some of the most iconic indie rock songs of all time. It’s a real shame I don’t have this for my wax machine. A Thing From the 80s: M*A*S*H EndsIt’s kinda sick that one of the first real timeless sitcoms of the color tv era was about war. Like the whole country must've seen what was going on in Vietnam in the 70s and was like, "Oh, we want more of that, but funnier!" MASH ended February 28, 1983 after 11 seasons and 283 episodes. My only real connection to this show is a guy who redid the floor in my childhood house claimed to be a personal friend of the actress who played “Hot Lips” Hoolihan. Even at the time, it seemed odd enough that I’d never question it. The series is free on my new TV and I wanna put an episode on just to see if my partner will ask if I’m actually 65. A Shitty Thing Donald Trump Did in the 1980s: This fuckin thingMe too, Georgie. But definitely not for the reasons you did. Not anymore.
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Post by Tweet on Sept 14, 2022 16:22:03 GMT -6
Gonna get some water and smoke something before I put the top 10 up.
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Post by Tweet on Sept 14, 2022 16:33:18 GMT -6
10. Beastie Boys- Paul’s Boutique (858, 11) Probably my second favorite hip hop record of the 80s? Idk it'll be close between this, Nation of Millions... and Three Feet High and Rising. I'm having a hard time thinking about any album that's as fun to listen to as Paul's Boutique tho. Major credits, of course, to the Dust Brothers whose work here basically invented plunderphonics. But the Beasties are all over the place - non-stop energy, call-and-responses, absurd storytelling (Egg Man!!!), and bizarro insults (ahem.. "I was making records when you were still sucking your mother's dick"). It's just so fuckin' good. Also, speaking of samples - "The Sounds of Science" has to have the best Beatles flip I've ever heard. Thank god this record came out just before sampling got regulated to shit. Oh yeah, this is also probably my wife's favorite album of all time - so it scores extra points there too.  Will one of you computer dorks tell me what 256kb gets me in this day and age? That was the max on that for comparison. A Shitty Thing Ronald Reagan Did in the 1980s- Budget DeficitsThis reads a lot better on mobile phone, fyi. Anyway, this guy was bad at money and lots of other things. The next couple ones are all gonna be shitty dudes associated with him who did variously shitty things in many different industries throughout this shitstorm of a decade. You can google them, or not. Stop making shitty white dudes famous, I say.
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Post by Tweet on Sept 14, 2022 16:35:52 GMT -6
9. Prince- Sign O the Times (899, 11) Anyways, I think my reviews are getting a little overlong (tho in my defense, I have very little to do at work). So, in lieu of another wall of text, here's a quick top 5 for Prince's most fascinating and sonically diverse 80s album. 1. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man (his best guitar solo?) 2. Starfish and Coffee 3. Play in the Sunshine 4. Hot Thing 5. U Got The Look If you think your posts are getting a little long, my guy, I got something to show you. A Thing From the 80s: Guy whose concerts keep getting canceled fails to assassinate Ronald Reaganwww.youtube.com/channel/UCck3J5KR3INUP1K-hrBe8iA/videosLet me know if any of these songs are good. A Shitty Thing Ronald Reagan Did in the 1980s: Oliver North
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Post by Tweet on Sept 14, 2022 16:39:06 GMT -6
8. The Clash- London Calling (914, 11) We all knew that this was going to wind up somewhere around here in this list, because it is the first album of the 80s. And honestly, there’s still not a whole lot out there that sounds and grooves and shapes and explores. You know what they said about The Clash. They’re the only band that matters. A Thing From the 80s: The Fall of the Berlin WallSeems as good a time as any to point out that Kraftwerk never got their due. A Shitty Thing Ronald Reagan Did in the 1980s: James Watt
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Post by Tweet on Sept 14, 2022 16:42:07 GMT -6
7. The Replacements- Let It Be (935, 12) My other favorite band of the 80s. My biggest concert regret of my life is not seeing their 'reunion' in 2015, as I was only just starting to listen to them. Now their records have been a constant companion through the last 7+ years of my life. Loads of disaffected 20-year olds were bashing out punk/hardcore-adjacent songs in the early 80s, but none of them - and I mean that - had a melodic sensibility even close to Paul Westerberg's. These guys confidently strode the space between writing beautiful, heartfelt - perfectly crafted songs... and always being one step away from falling apart at the seams. I think that's what makes them so compelling. These guys sound like a mess at times. I mean, c'mon, "Gary's Got A Boner"? But then they'll pull the most affecting, achingly gorgeous songs out of the ether like they're fuckin' Lennon/McCartney. It's impossible to listen to "I Will Dare" and not feel something. Ditto for "Androgynous" and the desperate howl of "Answering Machine." This was genuinely heart-on-your-sleeves music from four dudes who could barely walk in a straight line (seriously, read Bob Mehr's excellent Trouble Boys if you haven't already). It's not my fave Replacements record (stay tuned for Tim!) - but it stands toe to toe with every great rock record of the decade.  A Shitty Thing Ronald Reagan Did in the 1980s: Edwin Meese
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Post by goodson on Sept 14, 2022 16:45:07 GMT -6
fight club classic flick
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Post by Tweet on Sept 14, 2022 16:46:13 GMT -6
6. Talking Heads- Remain in Light (938, 12) Saw Archie Shepp w/ Jason Moran today in Tompkins Square Park and listened to this afterwards while walking around the LES. My memory is hazy, but this was sorta the record that began to divide the Talking Heads - with Eno/Byrne working very closely together, developing new rhythmic and tape looping techniques and sort of shafting the rest of the band out of the creative process. And - hey - Dave and Brian had a point. This record is a stunner and a genuine career peak. It straddled the boundary of being weird as hell (Look at these hands!) and having a massive hit ( accompanied by my favorite music video of all time). The thing is all polyrhythm all the time. Eerie guitar beeps, neurotic verses, and hooks that patiently unravel over the unrelenting rhythm. I do think it slows down on the B-side - particularly the last three tracks. But that's also a reflection of how insanely on-point the first five are. Now - all things considered - the band deserves their roses on this one too. In particular, there is no Talking Heads sound without Tina Weymouth, and this is her best album. Belew is killer here too. And, for a record so spliced together in the studio, it packed a knockout punch live: This is an actual goddamn thing that I never knew about until researching this project. America’s Hat was tied to the british until April 17, 1982 when the literal fuckin Queen that died last week said so. I understand America is a fucked up place, but that is absolutely psychotic to me. And what the hell were the Quebec people voting for when they wanted to keep this shit up? They’re French for fuck’s sake! A Shitty Thing Ronald Reagan Did in the 1980s: Elliott Abrams
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Post by Tweet on Sept 14, 2022 16:48:59 GMT -6
5. The Cure- Disintegration (956, 12) I’m convinced that this was the board’s top album in 2016 or so. Still had a good run! I remember times on the board where The Cure was the dream Lolla headliner. And then the dream Riot Fest headliner. They kind of still are, I suppose. A Thing From the 80s: The Loma Prieta EarthquakeOne of my bosses was at this game. Also, the magnitude was 6.9. Nice. A Shitty Thing Ronald Reagan Did in the 1980s: John Poindexter
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Post by Tweet on Sept 14, 2022 16:52:40 GMT -6
4. Prince- 1999 (970, 13) Fuck. There's gonna be so much Prince in my top 30. This one has got to be another lock, idk. For starters, 1999 is the best Prince song. Full stop. Honestly, it may be the best song of the 80s, but "Teenage Riot" and "Bastards of Young" are incredibly stiff competition. I want to also highlight the other non-massive songs on this album. Like Dirty Mind, it's anchored by relentless funk tracks, but they feel worlds apart - despite being released two years later. The bright melody-driving synths have been traded in for darker, club-inspired tones. Basslines don't pop so much as they propel. Check out "Let's Pretend We're Married" for a tell-tale example of this. You can here some Moroder on here, you can hear some Kraftwerk on here (Automatic). But Prince is doing it all better than them, and he's incorporating all these ideas into his own thing. That brightness, weirdness, and - obviously - horniness of Dirty Mind is still there. This is a Prince album, after all. But now the songs are sttrreettcchhiinngg out. 4 of the 11 tracks here surpass the 7 minute mark, with three of those running north of 8. Some times this really works for me. Right now, for instance, I'm really feeling it. But sometimes I do get tired by the end of its 70 minutes. For that reason, it's probably my third favorite Prince record, but - damn - it's feeling like a real toss-up rn. This was a fun-ass relisten.
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Post by Tweet on Sept 14, 2022 17:02:33 GMT -6
3. Guns N Roses- Appetite for Destruction (999, 11) Someone got me a copy of a greatest hits album by these guys when I was in 6th grade. I don’t remember who. I kept coming back to all the tunes on here, which I finally gave a shot for the first time somewhere in my freshman year of college. The music surely hit me as hard as the smack on Skid Row. Slash is in a Geico commercial now they’re gonna play over the football so get used to hearing the “Sweet Child o Mine” riff a lot. And if you have a problem with that, fuck you. By the way, the only albums to sell more in the United States than this one? Rumors, Led Zeppelin 4, Back in Black, Hotel California, Thriller, and Their Greatest Hits 1971-75.Bosma’s signature is never not funny. A Thing From the 80s: First Gestational Surrogate Pregnancy happensFor the fellow dumb men- that means there’s no biological connection between mother and child. Allows things to happen legally that makes this an option and pathway. The Supreme Court first tried to take away a woman's right to choose in 1989. A Shitty Thing Ronald Reagan Did in the 1980s: The CIA guys in Iran Contra. All of 'Em!
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Post by Tweet on Sept 14, 2022 17:06:30 GMT -6
2. Pixies- Doolittle (1238, 15) The #1 album on 1015's list! He could probably do a better job talking Pixies than me, then, but I also really like this record. I love love love how fearlessly they put together a record full of massive (well, indie-massive) hits and weird-ass songs. I may not love each individual offering, but it makes such a compelling tapestry that it easily wins me over. Like, how many records can say they laid the foundation for fuckin' Nirvana (Gouge Away!)and early-era Modest Mouse (Silver!)? Not many, I'd reckon. I'm not the first to say it, but the MVP here is the menacing, thick bass playing of one Kim Deal. They make the perfect throughline for a sonically varied album - and a welcome anchor for Black Francis' unpredictable yelps. Very, very cool album. Oh yeah, and Debaser is on the shortlist for Best 80s rock tracks. Tim Berners-Lee came up with the idea on March 12, 1989, and then did the damn thing in Mid-November. The world literally has never been the same since. Hi, friends. A Shitty Thing Ronald Reagan Did in the 1980s: Claimed he was a US Army Photographer who shot death camps in ww2 but never actually saw combat
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Post by Tweet on Sept 14, 2022 17:08:17 GMT -6
1. Prince & The Revolution- Purple Rain (1294, 14)  Pretending that Purple Rain isn't the best Prince album is just lying to yourself. It's like saying that IV isn't the best Led Zep album. Sure, you've heard it a million times. Sure, other ones may sound fresher by comparison - may be more in your current wheelhouse. I've been there. I've thought that (about LZ II and 1999, respectively). But reset your brain. Lock yourself into the mindset of hearing it for the first time. It's undeniable. Other albums may have songs you and I like more, but no Prince album was as finely crafted, as perfectly executed as his most famous. These songs popped like his biggest hits, and could stretch out like his other funk odysseys (check out the 10-minute live take on "Baby, I'm A Star" from Syracuse 1985). And good lord, the hits were Hits. There's something very rare and satisfying in seeing an artist culminate their artistic vision and actually have the public react in kind. But that level of ubiquity can sometimes make me take Greatness for granted. Like, we've all heard "Black Dog" a million times. But daaaamn did that shit steamroll you when you first heard it. I feel the same way about "Let's Go Crazy." Every single second of that song is breath-taking... but it can lose its luster over time if you're not careful. Reset your brain. Imagine dropping the needle on this back in the day. Or pressing play on a cassette. Idk - I'll defer to other's expertise here. Let this shit take you away - it's a masterpiece. This list and project is now over. Thank you for reading. |
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Post by Tweet on Sept 14, 2022 17:26:28 GMT -6
1. A sincere, heart filled thank you to monasterymonochrome for the words throughout the summer. This project simply does not happen without your contributions, regardless of what that asshole in the first post said. When I can drink again I'll come to New York and buy you a beers. 2. The public record reflects this: it is entirely and completely doso 's fault that Doolittle is not #1. I'm not even joking about this. List by list it was pretty much these 2 neck and neck. Even with where he puts Purple Rain on his list, if he puts Doolittle on there anywhere in his list's top ~50 it's a new number 1. It's not on there at all. 3. At the top of the thread I mentioned I almost tossed 2 lists. I won't name who (again, public record) but in the spirit of some good old-fashinoned "who gives a shit" attitude I left them in there. I can produce a quick read only list of what this looks like with those 2 taken off if people want to see it. 4. Y'all really don't wanna know how much I've been thinking of Ronald Reagan over the last several months and I think I'd start sounding even more like a drunken lunatic if I got into it. But the rough sketch of this whole thing was ready to go a long time in advance. I have no idea if its informative or funny or both or whatever, but I have always found it impossible to look at music without giving it some cultural-historical context, no matter how asinine it looks in hindsight. I don't know if that makes sense and I don't know if I care if it does or not. 5. It probably would've all come out on Monday if I didn't get COVID. I'm still positive and it sucks mondo ass. 6. This thread sincerely reads so much better on mobile browsing. It's insane. |
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Post by clouddead on Sept 14, 2022 17:30:08 GMT -6
Thanks for putting this together Tweet. Despite my lack of participation (Doolittle #1, Purple Rain #2, a large majority hip hop), it’s appreciated. Very fun to read along. |
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Post by nanatod on Sept 14, 2022 17:39:57 GMT -6
A Thing From the 80s: The Challenger ExplosionYou can find the actual news broadcasts when this happened live on the air on a quick google search. I'm not posting that shit here. One of those incomprehensible “why” moments that happens every so often. Jewish-American law student me and the Arab-American science grad student with whom I shared a three bedroom 1500 square foot apartment with its own washer and dryer, never ran into each other on campus, due to our schedules, but on this day we both made our way to the basement of the "Women's Building," which on the top floor housed non-sleeping rooms for each of the four sororities on campus, because the only TV set on the whole educational buildings part of campus was in the basement of the building. All the gals and guys watching the news of this on the TV were hysterical and crying, while he unemotionally said "the engineers and scientists at NASA need to go back to the drawing board, immediately," and I unemotionally agreed without hesitation. |
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Post by nanatod on Sept 14, 2022 17:47:13 GMT -6
24. REM- Reckoning (635, 8) I saw the tour for this album at a university west of the mississippi river, while former lolla board member "Atomic" saw the tour for this album at a location east of the mississippi river, but we didn't meet until the lollaboard came into existence two decades later. |
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Post by nanatod on Sept 14, 2022 17:56:21 GMT -6
13. The Stone Roses- s/t (820, 10)
the first ever stone roses concert in the united states was as part of q101's jamboree 1995, held in what was then called the new world music theater, in tinley park. the headliner was duran duran. |
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Post by nanatod on Sept 14, 2022 18:01:47 GMT -6
forgot where I read this, but he once had a blind date with Janis Joplin, and they went to a barbecue. |
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Post by monasterymonochrome on Sept 14, 2022 18:39:07 GMT -6
Damn this project rocked. Thanks so much for putting together the whole thing and for writing up what was probably the most entertaining write-up I can remember in these board projects. Such a fun time getting an excuse to discover some great new (to me) music and gush about some old favorites.
Prince forever and ever, amen.
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Post by monasterymonochrome on Sept 14, 2022 18:40:31 GMT -6
20. INXS- Kick (734, 11) Another album where I immensely dug the front half but slowly lost attention during the backhalf. Usually what I do when that happens is give it another listen, starting on the B-side, so maybe that'll be on my docket for tomorrow. But man that front half absolutely bangs. Never knew that another track "Mediate" segues in straight from "Need You Tonight." And New Sensation and Devil Inside both were great. One of the better synthpop full albums I've heard! Tho, tbh for me that's not the highest of bars. Got a lot of synthpop on the queue next so we'll see how it stacks up with its contemporaries. This one also sounds good when you're grocery shopping at TJs Monastary simultaniously didn't like this album and also put it on his list. Make up your mind, man!!! That's called good ol' fashioned character development! INXS definitely won me over by the end of August. |
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Post by goodson on Sept 14, 2022 21:04:57 GMT -6
think i got like 3 albums onto the list
perfect
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Post by goodson on Sept 14, 2022 21:05:55 GMT -6
you're tellin me not a single prefab sprout on here huh
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Post by doso on Sept 14, 2022 22:15:25 GMT -6
2. The public record reflects this: it is entirely and completely doso 's fault that Doolittle is not #1. I'm not even joking about this. List by list it was pretty much these 2 neck and neck. Even with where he puts Purple Rain on his list, if he puts Doolittle on there anywhere in his list's top ~50 it's a new number 1. It's not on there at all. Fuck. YEAH. I am delighted. I never remotely considered any Pixies record for my list. Prince is king. I greatly appreciate the inclusion of Reagan stuff and I think a lot of the best music of the '80s was a backlash against the shitty politics of the era. I would've included Reagan's introduction of the Strategic Defense Initiative which felt horrifying to an early-teenage doso. Thanks so much for putting this together. Hope you're testing negative soon. |
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Post by teekoh on Sept 14, 2022 23:11:39 GMT -6
Now that this is done I vow to listen to a bunch of prefab sprout and talk about how high they should’ve placed on my list.
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