Monday, April 01, 2013

The Best Albums of 1981


Completely fascinated by Slicing Up Eyeballs' readers poll of the 100 best albums of 1981. While I don't necessarily agree with it, it's weird to see the "masses" voting for things that seemed so personal to me, like Debbie Harry's "Koo Koo," Altered Images' "Happy Birthday," Romeo Void's "It's a Condition," Bow Wow Wow's "See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang, Yeah. City All Over! Go Ape Crazy," and the Tom Tom Club debut. Read HERE.

I'm thinking something more like:

"Beauty and the Beat' by Go-Go's
"Pretenders II" by Pretenders
"It's a Condition" by Romeo Void
'Slow Children" by Slow Children
"See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang, Yeah. City All Over! Go Ape Crazy" by Bow Wow Wow
"Speak and Spell" by Depeche Mode
"The Right to Be Italian" by Holly and the Italians
"Talk Talk Talk" by Psychedelic Furs
"Tom Tom Club" by Tom Tom Club
"Wild Gift" by X
"Torch" by Carly Simon
"Kim Wilde" by Kim Wilde
"Dare" by Human League
"Seven Year Ache" by Rosanne Cash
"Happy Birthday" by Altered Images
"Heaven Up Here" by Echo and the Bunnymen
"Architecture and Morality" by OMD
"Penthouse and Pavement" by Heaven 17
"Koo Koo" by Debbie Harry
"Tin Drum" by Japan
"Movement" by New Order
"East Side Story" by Squeeze
"Almost Blue" by Elvis Costello and the Attractions
"Precious Time" by Pat Benatar
"I Love Rock 'n' Roll" by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
"Duran Duran" by Duran Duran
"Walk Under Ladders" by Joan Armatrading
"Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret" by Soft Cell
"Trust" by Elvis Costello
"Mistaken Identity" by Kim Carnes


As for 1980, any poll that doesn't have the Pretenders' debut at No. 1 is dead to me. Read HERE.

4 comments:

robert clemenz said...

Human League was the best, imo. But Talking Head's "Naive Melody" is the best. song. ever.

Anonymous said...

Your list of the best in '81 is totally correct!

Blobby said...

Yikes. Scary how many of those I have - including Carly Simon's 'Torch'.

bcarter3 said...

Lots of great music there. I'd add:

Stands For Decibels by The dB's

Homosapien by Pete Shelley (!?)

Wilder by The Teardrop Explodes