This Is Art, Kids!

Picking up where we left off, this next pack of albums has a lot of favorites, but also a lot of stuff I’m pretty indifferent about.

February

U2-War

Spending a lot of my young adult life around punk scenes, I’ve always seen so much scorn for this band. On one hand I get it(How dare they force an album onto my phone!), but I think a lot of those folks are seriously neglecting their early work. There are so many great soaring anthems on here(“Sunday Bloody Sunday”, “Two Hearts Beat As One”,”New Year’s Day”) and the band has an energy and a sense of craft that few in the 80’s could match.

Spandau Ballet-True

It’s like they rerecorded ABC’s Lexicon Of Love and sucked out all of the sensuality and energy. True is a good song, but the rest of this is truly bland.

Marine Girls-Lazy Ways

A very twee little acoustic record. It sure is pleasant, but the melodies don’t really go anywhere. Perfect for lounging, not useful for much else.

March

Earth, Wind, & Fire- Powerlight

I love a lot of this band’s singles, but listening to a whole record of disco funk get tiring pretty quickly. The opening track is pretty damn great and all of the playing is very skilled, but this feels more like a collection of songs than a cohesive record.

Thin Lizzy-Thunder and Lightning

The very last Thin Lizzy record finds them pivoting to a harder sound to match the heavy metal scene of the 80’s. I’ve heard this one before when I was listening to their discography, I only really like one of the songs here(Cold Sweat.). This is well regarded by some, but to me the magic was gone after Johnny The Fox.

Tears For Fears-The Hurting

It takes a heck of a lot of courage to make the bulk of your debut about something so raw. Orzabal channels his childhood trauma through music on this thoughtful masterpiece. Lyrically and musically this is a very memorable debut, everything has a sense of urgency to it, a real plea for help from a mad world. The second best record of 83, no doubt.

ZZ Top-Eliminator

The hits on here are good enough(I’m pretty partial to “Got Me Under Pressure”), but they pose an interesting question. Do I like the hits here because I’ve heard them a bunch or because I actually think they are good? Because I really think the rest of this record is nothing special. It’s too clean to be blues rock, but too dirty to be pop(Something about the line “She’s got hair down to her fanny” just gives me the icks.)

Peter Schilling-Error In The System

The only good thing on here is Major Tom(Part One) and I’ve never been too fond of that song. Everything else shows its age. Sometimes you know why someone is a one hit wonder.

Zappa- The Man From Utopia

What’s worse than a pretentious record? A pretentious record with lame ass novelty lyrics(“The bigger the cushion, the better the pushin’” Really, Frank? You needed to put this lyric on record?). Plus, the production is horrible and Zappa sings half of the songs in this lame ass lounge voice. I really don’t understand why people listen to Zappa when Captain Beefheart does everything he does, but better. I just don’t get it. Oh and to make matters worse, Steve Vai is on this too. Fucking torture.

Sparks-In Outer Space

Sparks in the the 80’s! As per usual some of the tracks have very charming lyrics(“Popular”,”Dance Godammit”.), but the arrangements are very bland and of their time. This is where they start to go bad, and they stay bad for almost twenty years.

April

Aztec Camera- High Land Hard Rain

Roddy Frame’s voice reminds me of the winding down of a summer’s day. There’s a lot to love here, with its jangly almost flamenco style guitar work, High Land, Hard Rain is often touted as a jangle pop masterpiece, but I wont go that far. While I love the first seven tracks(“Oblivion” is a classic, and “Walk Out To Winter” should be a Christmas staple, dammit!), it wears its welcome out on the last three tracks with their rather unremarkable arrangements(Especially “Back On Board”. It sounds so generic.). Still, a fine debut and worth checking out.

R.E.M- Murmur

I remember the first time I heard this. I had bought the deluxe remaster of it, having only heard Automatic For The People, I had no idea of what I was in for. Peter Buck’s jangly guitar lines, Stipe’s indecipherable lyrics, Mills’ harmonies. I listened to this and I knew I had found one of my favorite bands. I couldn’t get enough. It must have been incredible to hear this in the 80’s without all the cultural baggage we attach to the band. The best record of 1983 and it’s not even close.

Violent Femmes-S/T

I remember putting this on the car stereo during a tour with friends and singing every word. I don’t listen to it often, but when I do memories of my youth on tour come rushing back. It’s so earnest that sometimes it’s downright dumb, but in an endearing youthful way. The (Acoustic!)bass work is so distinct here as well. Probably in my top 10 for the year.

David Bowie-Let’s Dance

The first three songs on this are pop classics(And even then “Let’s Dance” is so overplayed that I really gain no pleasure from it anymore.). It falls off pretty hard after that though. The other songs aren’t abysmal, but they aren’t terribly noteworthy either. I dig the cover with Bowie in boxing gloves (“Let’s Dance, motherfucker!”).

The Replacements-Hootenanny

Their second album, in which they replace the snotty angsty punk from their first record with wonderful sloppy ramshackle rock and roll! They just sound like they are having so much fun on this record(Check out the playful salesman ranting of “Lovelines” or how they plagiarize The Beatles twice in less than two minutes on “Mr.Whirly”). You can color me impressed, indeed!

Minor Threat-Out Of Step

It’s an EP, but I can’t talk about ‘83 without talking about Minor Threat. This is easily their best collection of songs. Not quite as frantic as their earlier releases, but they replace that manic energy with tighter and longer compositions(Two of these tracks crack the 3 minute mark!)!