November
Sad Lovers & Giants-Feeding The Flame
This is a pretty great post punk record. Lots of cool, jangly, shimmering guitar lines and really strong bass riffs. It should be spoken about in the same breath as records like Ocean Rain. I think I’m going to check out some of their other records.
Charly Garcia-Clics Modernos
I always feel that when I am listening to foreign music, that I’m missing out a bit by not speaking the language. This is a record that comes from Argentina just after a period of military dictatorship, so I guess a lot of this is about that. The bass tone on this record is incredible, the songs are killer too. He pulls from not only 80’s new wave sound, but also elements of bossa nova, jazz, and funk. I’m really looking forward to listening to more of Charly’s music and learning about the context in which the music he made came from.
Douji Morita- Wolf Boy
This record sounds like a walk through a dream forest with neon flowers sprouting from the trees. There is so much longing in her voice and the simplistic strings sound like a floating dream. All my praise for this is sounding very flowery and majestic, I just don’t know how else to describe it. A wonderful little find.
Pointer Sisters-Break Out!
I was surprised at how familiar I was with a lot of these songs. They play “Automatic” on the radio a lot at work and I’ve always thought it was a bop(Also,I didn’t think it was by them. Does one of them just have a really deep voice or did they pitch the vocals down?). The non hit tracks don’t really move me either way, they are either way too soft (“Easy Persuasion”, “I Need You”) or just sound like they are trying too hard(“Neutron Dance”, “Baby Come and Get It”).
Irene Cara-What A Feelin’
Made to capitalize on the success of the title track, this is basically a paint by numbers 80’s dance record. It’s nice as a time capsule(It’s also impressive that Cara had a hand in writing all the songs), but ultimately pretty forgettable. You could do worse for 80’s dance music.
December
Slayer-Show No Mercy
I’m only really familiar with “Reign In Blood” by them(And even that I’ve only heard a few times.). This feels like a “We have Metallica at home” meme honestly. It’s really dumb and really fun, but “Kill Em All” does it better. It also manages to overstay its 35 minute run time towards the end there.
Bad Religion-Into The Unknown
Oddly enough the first album I’ve ever heard by them and its their notorious prog record. This is pretty unspectacular and leaves me to wonder what they were even thinking when they released this. I’m curious if their punk records are this lackluster. Should I try one of their other records? Punk fans help me out here.
Accept-Balls To The Wall
Now that’s an unfortunate album cover. However, This record kicks ass! The lead singer has a really gruff voice and the riffs are actually pretty good. They sound like a cross between Priest and AC/DC. Even the ballad is decent.
Misfits-Earth AD/Wolf’s Blood
The Misfits experiment with a new genre! Danzig’s voice does all the heavy lifting here, as the songs are not quite as good as the ones on Walk Among Us or Static Age. I think that they ultimately weren’t suited for Hardcore as well as they were the other stuff. Still, a decent record.
The Fall-Perverted By Language
By all means The Fall is a band I should like. So many of my favorite bands are influenced by them and they have a really tight rhythm section. The problem I have is Mark E Smith’s voice. Most of the time it just sounds like he is outright ranting rather than singing. Also, it all so repetitive(Four of these songs are longer than six minutes!). I will ultimately try to get into this band again, but they haven’t warmed on me this time.
And that’s it! Overall 1983 was a mixed bag for me. I listened to about 174 records(I chose to forego writing about all of them.) from this year, and wound up enjoying about a third of them. Here’s my top ten
1.R.E.M-Murmur
2.Tears For Fears-The Hurting
3.Rain Parade-Emergency Third Rail Power Trip
4.Tom Waits-Swordfishtrombones
5.Cocteau Twins-Head Over Heels
6.Douji Morita-Wolf Boy
7.Violent Femmes-S/T
8.Talking Heads-Speaking In Tongues
9.Piper-Summer Breeze
10.Charly Garcia-Clics Modernos
Thanks for reading this. I’m probably going to take a few weeks break and then it’s time to start up on the movies of ‘83. See you soon!
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