Great albums from 1982...?

Laurie Anderson: Big Science**
The Cure: Pornography*
Ornette Coleman: Of Human Feelings**
R.S. Jackson & the Decoding Society: Mandance**
King Sunny Ade and His African Beats: Juju Music**
The Roches: Keep on Doing**

Was "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" '82? That's one of those albums that I've been on the verge of buying so many times...

SPK: Leichenschrei

http://www.comborecords.com/catalogue/B-205.jpg

Eddie Palmieri: Eddie Palmieri, featuring Cheo Feliciano.

I'd forgotten "On Land"... with "Apollo" my favourite of the Eno ambient releases. I've strangely never heard the Dexy's album (the ubiquity of that single can't have helped), and I don't suspect it'll measure up for me to "Don't Stand Me Down" which I love. Never particularly liked the Stranglers, though will concede "Golden Brown" has its appeal; I liked Marcello's descriptions around that record in his 1982 singles piece: made me rethink my impressions of it certainly.

And Nag! Nag! Nag!; yes, what a record that OJ one is... deserves to be rated with "Pelican West" and "High Land High Rain" in that very wonderful cycle of fresh, summery/autumnal 82-83 pop records. Do people know of any other albums that fit with these three... from the 1981-4 period? It is a strain that I feel like I want to hear more of.

and, if compilations count
Stevie Wonder - Original Musiquarium Vol. I

still it counts, cause I
bought it in January,
soon my whole school ROCKED)

Flipper, 'Generic'
The Replacements, 'Stink' (do EPs count? Someone listed the Bangles one, also great, upthread)

1. Simple Minds - New Gold Dream
2. Associates - Sulk
3. ABC - The Lexicon Of Love
4. Psychic TV - Force The Hand Of Chance
5. Derek Bailey - Aida
6. John Cale - Music For A New Society
7. Cecil Taylor - Garden
8. Siouxsie & the Banshees - A Kiss In The Dreamhouse
9. Laurie Anderson - Big Science
10. Haircut 100 - Pelican West
11. Shalamar - Friends
12. Dexy's Midnight Runners - Too-Rye-Ay
13. Van Morrison - Beautiful Vision
14. Placebo (not Brian Molko's lot; this was a Newcastle duo) - England's Glory
15. Mike Westbrook Orchestra - The Cortege
16. Imagination - In The Heat Of The Night
17. Roxy Music - Avalon
18. Bobby Womack - The Poet
19. Lester Bowie - The Great Pretender
20. King Sunny Ade - Juju Music
21. Ben Watt - North Marine Drive
22. Tom Verlaine - Words From The Front
23. Birthday Party - Junkyard
24. Madness - Rise And Fall
25. Depeche Mode - A Broken Frame
26. Rip Rig & Panic - I Am Cold
27. 23 Skidoo - Seven Songs
28. Gil Scott-Heron - Moving Targets
29. Killing Joke - Revelations
30. The Cure - Pornography
31. Cocteau Twins - Garlands
32. XTC - English Settlement
33. Kid Creole & the Coconuts - Tropical Gangsters
34. Defunkt - Thermonuclear Sweat
35. The Passage - Degenerates
36. Tracey Thorn - A Distant Shore
37. Glenn Branca - The Ascension
38. Bucks Fizz - Are You Ready
39. Scritti Politti - Songs To Remember
40. Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five - The Message ("for the singles only")
41. Dollar - The Dollar Album ("for the singles only")
42. Art Ensemble of Chicago - Urban Bushmen
43. The Gun Club - Miami
44. Tom Verlaine - Words From The Front
45. Michael Smith - Mi Cyan Believe It
46. The Jam - The Gift
47. Michael Jackson - Thriller
48. Donald Fagen - The Nightfly
49. Brian Eno - Ambient 4: On Land
50. The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour

Needless to say, 22 years later I would be inclined to alter some of these positions radically...

also from

fast 'n' bulbous
http://www.fastnbulbous.com/rock_f.htm#1982

1982
10

Mission Of Burma * VS. (Ace Of Hearts)
Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band * Ice Cream For Crow (Virgin)
The Birthday Party * Junkyard (Virgin)
10-

Dream Syndicate * Days of Wine and Roses (Big Time)
Trouble Funk * Drop The Bomb (Sequel)
X * Under The Big Black Sun (Elektra)
The Clean * Compilation (Homestead)
Elvis Costello & the Attractions * Imperial Bedroom (Columbia)
Rip Rig + Panic * I Am Cold (Virgin)
Liliput (Rough Trade/Kill Rock Stars)
Minutemen * What Makes A Man Start Fires? (SST)
Chrome * 3rd from the Sun (Siren)
James Blood Ulmer * Black Rock (Columbia)
Lora Logic * Pedigree Charm (Rough Trade)
King Sunny Ade * Juju Music (Mango)
Massacre * Killing Time (Celluloid)
9+

Kate Bush * The Dreaming (EMI)
Orange Juice * You Can't Hide Your Love Forever (Polydor)
Comsat Angels * Fiction (Polydor)
Fela Kuti * Original Suffer Head (Capitol)
Fun Boy Three (Chrysalis)
The Fall * Hex Education Hour/Hip Priests And Kamerads (Kamera/Situation Two)
Bruce Springsteen * Nebraska (Columbia)
Husker Du * Everything Falls Apart (Reflex)
Lydia Lunch * Honeymoon In Red (Atavistic)
Cabaret Voltaire * 2 X 45 (Mute)
Nina Hagen * Nunsexmonkrock (Columbia)
James White & the Blacks * Sax Maniac (Ze/Infinite Zero)
Discharge * Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing (Clay)
Dead Kennedys * Plastic Surgery Disasters (Alternative Tentacles)
The Jam * Extras (Polydor)
The Jam * Dig The New Breed (Polydor)
Savage Republic * Tragic Figures (IP/Fundamental)
Einsturzende Neubauten * Kollaps (Zick Zack)
Devo * Oh No! It's Devo (WB/Infinite Zero)
Siouxsie & The Banshees * A Kiss In The Dreamhouse (Polydor/Geffen)
Scritti Politti * Songs To Remember (Virgin)
The Cure * Pornography (Elektra)
Gang of Four * Songs of the Free (WB)
Au Pairs * Sense And Sensuality (Kamera)
New Age Steppers * Foundation Steppers (On-U Sound)
Big Black * Lungs EP (Homestead)
Descendents * Milo Goes To College (SST)
Chrome * No Humans Allowed (Siren)
Richard Hell & the Voidoids * Destiny Street (Red Star)
Laurie Anderson * Big Science (WB)
Mission of Burma * The Horrible Truth About Burma (live) (Ace of Hearts)
Brian Eno * On Land (EG)
Killing Joke * Revelations (EG)
The Vandals * Peace Thru Vandalism (Suite Beat)
Black Uhuru * Chill Out (Mango)
MDC * Millions of Dead Cops (Radical R.)
Crass * Christ - The Album (Crass)
Bauhaus * Press the Eject & Give Me The Tape (Beggars Banquet)
Orange Juice * Rip It Up (Polydor)
Wall Of Voodoo * Call Of The West (IRS)
Robert Wyatt * Nothing Can Stop Us (Gramavision)
The dB's * Repercussion (EMI)
John Cale * Music For A New Society (Rhino)
Psychedelic Furs * Forever Now (Columbia)
The Replacements * Stink EP (Twin/Tone)
T.S.O.L. * Thoughts Of Yesterday (Posh Boy)
T.S.O.L. * Beneath the Shadows (Restless)
Roxy Music * Avalon (Atlantic)
The English Beat * Special Beat Service (IRS)
The Clash * Combat Rock (Epic)
Associates * Sulk (V2)
Bad Religion * How Could Hell Be Any Worse? (Epitaph)
The Birthday Party * It's Still Living: Live (Virgin)
XTC * Waxworks: 1977-1982 (Geffen)
King Crimson * Beat (WB)
Iron Maiden * The Number Of The Beast (Capitol)
Joe Jackson * Night And Day (A&M)
Anvil * Metal On Metal (Attic)
9

The Sound * All Fall Down (Korova/Renascent)
The Gun Club * Miami (IRS)
23 Skidoo * Seven Songs (Fetish)
Simple Minds * New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) (Virgin)
The Exploited * Troops Of Tomorrow (Captain Oi!)
Subhumans * The Day The Country Died (Bluurg)
Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band * A Carrot Is As Close As A Rabbit Gets To A Diamond 1974-1982 (Virgin)
Rush * Signals (Polygram)
Witchfinder General * Death Penalty (Heavy Metal)
Soft Cell * The Art Of Falling Apart (Mercury)
Motörhead * Iron Fist (Castle)
Tank * Filth Hounds Of Hades (Action Music)
New Order * 1981-1982 EP (Factory)
The Damned * Strawberries (Virgin)
The Glove * Blue Sunshine (Rough Trade)
The Teardrop Explodes * Everybody Wants To Shag (Fontana)
Lora Logic * Pedigree Charm (Rough Trade)
R.E.M. * Chronic Town EP (IRS)
Japan * Oil On Canvas (Virgin)
Stiff Little Fingers * Now Then . . . (Chrysalis)
The Church * The Blurred Crusade (Arista)
Fear * The Record (Slash)
The Names * Swimming (Factory)
Lou Reed * The Blue Mask (RCA)
G.B.H. * City Baby Attacked By Rats (Clay)
Prince * 1999 (WB)
Kid Creole & the Coconuts * Wise Guy (Sire)
Lydia Lunch * 13.13 (Ruby)
Pere Ubu * Song Of The Bailing Man (Geffen)
Misfits * Walk Among Us (Plan 9)
Flipper * Generic Flipper (Subterranean/American)
Anti-Nowhere League * We Are...The League (WXYZ)
Modern English * After The Snow (Sire)
Robert Wyatt * The Animals Film (Rough Trade/Thirsty Ear)
Iggy Pop * Zombie Birdhouse (IRS)
Killing Joke * Birds Of A Feather EP (EG)
Killing Joke * Ha EP (EG)
Tom Waits * One From The Heart (Columbia)
Bauhaus * The Sky's Gone Out (Beggars Banquet)
Dream Syndicate * Dream Syndicate EP (Down There)
Gang of Four * Another Day/Another Dollar EP (WB)
Tuxedomoon * Divine (Operation Twilight)
9-

Venom * Black Metal (Neat/Combat)
Altered Images * Pinky Blue (Portrait)
The B-52's * Mesopotamia (WB)
Diamond Head * Borrowed Time (MCA)
XTC * English Settlement (Geffen)
Agent Orange * Bitchin' Summer EP (Posh Boy)
Circle Jerks * Wild In The Streets (Frontier)
Adam Ant * Friend Or Foe (Epic)
Ruts D.C. * Rhythm Collision Dub (ROIR)
George Clinton * Computer Games (Capitol)
Richard & Linda Thompson * Shoot Out The Lights (Hannibal)
8+

The Beastie Boys * Polly Wog Stew EP (Ratcage/Grand Royal)
Meat Puppets * Meat Puppets (SST)
Mercyful Fate * Melissa (Roadrunner)
Duran Duran * Rio (Harvest)
Talk Talk * The Party's Over (EMI)
Depeche Mode * A Broken Frame (Sire)
Torch * Fireraiser (Metal Blade)
U.K. Subs * The Singles: 1978-1982 (Progressive)

(nothing against DB, it's just I'd never heard of him at the time)

"Signals" would have been a bit lower down my list - not one of my favourite Rush LPs

Peter Gabriel - 4 [aka "Security"]
http://userpages.cheshire.net/~melkins/pg4.html

if i were doing this now i would also put in "Imperial Bedroom" somewhere. Can't think how or why I left it out of the original list.

Let me add this might triumverate of fun :

Section 25 - The Key Of Dreams
Crispy Ambulance - The Plateau Phase
The Wake - Harmony

ALL 5-star reviews in Sounds!

ACR's 'I'd Like to See You Again' was also late 1982 wasn't it? Where do you stand on that one, Jeff?

Was the Nightingales 2nd album 1982?

It was, and it was Dave McCullough's album of the year!

Virgin Prunes - If I Die, I Die
Front 242 - Geography

haha I've still got the Sounds 1982 round-up at home. One of the few music press cuttings from that era I didn't throw out

"Night Nurse" (Gregory)
"Big Ship" (Freddie McGregor)
"Downpression" (Michigan & Smiley)
"Presenting Tristan Palma"
"Hi Yo Silver Away" (Lone Ranger)
"Scientist Wins The World Cup"
"Scientist Encounters Pac Man"
"Skidip" (Eek-A-Mouse)

...and best of all "Dance Hall Style" by Horace Andy, which is one of my all-time favourite LPs, any genre, any anything, absolute genius from start to finish and the high point of both Horace's and Wackies's output. Yes.

I'm not certain that all of the above were 1982, of course, but I think they were.

1. ABC - The Look Of Love
2. Dollar - Give Me Back My Heart
3. Hot Chocolate - It Started With A Kiss
4. Associates - Party Fears Two
5. Afrika Bambaataa & the Soul Sonic Force - Planet Rock
6. Spandau Ballet - Instinction
7. Scritti Politti - Asylums In Jerusalem/Jacques Derrida
8. Rhoda Dakar & the Special AKA - The Boiler
9. Kate Bush - The Dreaming (there you go!)
10. Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five - The Message
11. Valentine Brothers - Money's Too Tight To Mention
12. Culture Club - Time (Clock Of The Heart)
13. Gregory Isaacs - Night Nurse
14. Soft Cell - Say Hello Wave Goodbye
15. Teardrop Explodes - Tiny Children
16. Roxy Music - More Than This
17. Killing Joke - Empire Song
18. ABC - Poison Arrow
19. Haircut 100 - Love Plus One
20. Heaven 17 - Let Me Go
21. Laurie Anderson - Big Science
22. Planet Patrol - Play At Your Own Risk
23. Peech Boys - Don't Make Me Wait
24. The Jam - Town Called Malice/Precious
25. Rip Rig & Panic - Storm The Reality Asylum
26. Aztec Camera - Pillar To Post
27. Gil Scott-Heron - B-Movie
28. Robert Wyatt - Shipbuilding
29. Dollar - Videotheque
30. Soft Cell - Torch
31. Shalamar - There It Is
32. Kid Creole & the Coconuts - I'm A Wonderful Thing Baby
33. Simple Minds - Glittering Prize
34. Abba - The Day Before You Came
35. Associates - Club Country
36. Scottish World Cup Squad - We Have A Dream
37. Bardo - One Step Further
38. The Beat - Save It For Later
39. Bucks Fizz - My Camera Never Lies
40. Malcolm McLaren & the World's Famous Supreme Team - Buffalo Gals (this would certainly have been higher if I hadn't just bought it the week before)
41. Visage - Night Train
42. Rockers Revenge - Walking On Sunshine
43. Weekend - Room With A View
44. Elton John - Blue Eyes
45. Hall & Oates - I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)
46. Josef K - The Missionary
47. Crass - How Does It Feel (To Be The Mother Of A Thousand Dead)
48. Psychedelic Furs - Love My Way
49. Mari Wilson & the Wilsations - Baby It's True
50. Imagination - Just An Illusion

has anyone listened to this album? how well was it reviewed by MM/ NME/ Sounds back in 1982?

also "I Won't Let You Down" by Ph.D., "Mama Used To Say" by Junior and "Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag" didn't get in 'cos they were strictly speaking reissues from '81.

It is true that I don't know much reggae from 1982; am sure I will do in time. Ta for the recommendations, Tim. Was listening to Massive Attack's "Blue Lines" for the first time last weekend, and the serenity of Andy's voice was one of (many) things which got me about it.

DJ Martian - that Peel list is actually rather good, maybe over-packed with a few artists' work, but it makes for a sad contrast with a 2003 festive 50.

Marcello - you don't have any idea when a label's going to release all of the Horn/Dollar stuff, do you? Ever since reading CoM, I've found it strange to think that "Give Me Back My Heart" and "Videotheque" aren't available on CD... as far as I know.
Great lists, by the way! Interesting to see exactly what you thought at the time, too; the wonderful "Pillar To Post" at 26: didn't it chart or something, because I don't seem to remember it being part of your 1982: A Year of Singles Charted?
And which albums would significantly move up if you made such a list now...?

http://www.league-online.com/love.jpg

yeah, "Living On The Ceiling" should have been in there. I recently got sent the new CD reissue of Pinky Blue (together with those of Happy Birthday and Bite) and I like it a lot more now than I did at the time (but when is someone going to reissue the Peel session "Hullo good evening wurr Altered Images" version of "Song Sung Blue"?).

Marcello - you don't have any idea when a label's going to release all of the Horn/Dollar stuff, do you? Ever since reading CoM, I've found it strange to think that "Give Me Back My Heart" and "Videotheque" aren't available on CD... as far as I know.

There are legal disputes going on about ownership of the Horn/Dollar tracks, although apparently both sides are keen for them to come out again. As with most of these things, it's all with the lawyers at present.

That having been said, I was looking around in the bargain basement of Black Dog Records in Berwick Street recently and they had this v. naff-looking 4CD set called SUPER HITS OF THE '80S!!! or similar with all four Horn/Dollar productions included. However good the mastering is or whether they're even the original versions I've no idea (Dollar are notorious for putting out naff re-recordings of their non-Horn work and calling them Greatest Hits or similar).

Great lists, by the way! Interesting to see exactly what you thought at the time, too; the wonderful "Pillar To Post" at 26: didn't it chart or something, because I don't seem to remember it being part of your 1982: A Year of Singles Charted?

Didn't chart; this was when the Aztecs were still on Rough Trade - in fact it was "Oblivious" getting saturation play on radio but only reaching #47 because of RT's non-existent promo/distribution service that caused Frame to jump ship to WEA ("This Charming Man," nominally an indie release, only made the Top 30 because of a distribution deal with London Records, following "Hand In Glove" shifting 80,000 and not even getting in the Top 75).

And which albums would significantly move up if you made such a list now...?

8 and 13 would move down significantly now, if not out of the list altogether (I can't have played either record for the best part of 20 years, though I never got rid of them). 37, 39 and 49 should all be far higher, and 50 definitely in the top ten, if not top five. And, as I said above, I would now also include The Dreaming and Imperial Bedroom. Oh yes, and Nebraska.

That Placebo album's a forgotten classic if ever there was one; someone needs to get it out on CD. I don't think they ever recorded anything else.

Zero Boys - Vicious Circle
Theatre of Hate - Westworld
David Thomas/Pedestrians - Sound of the Sand
Jody Harris/Robert Quine - Escape (NO AMG MENTION OF THIS ALBUM!?!?)
Die Kreuzen - Internal
Felt - Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty

Also, self-correction: Placebo's album was called England's Trance.

Meanwhile I did check my own '82 lists last night. In addition to the aforementioned Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful? by The Waitresses, the only other record on there not so far mentioned is the Tom Tom Club album. Which surprised as much as it's probably surprising you. So I dug it out and played it again. Obviously the first two singles stand out and nothing else comes close to matching these, but it's not bad. There are some embarrassing cod reggae rhythms here and there, but there's something odd about every track, which keeps you interested. And I swear the second half of "Under the Boardwalk" is proto house music - would totally fit into (say) a DJ Koze mix today.

My "pressing" is in fact one of those Island 1+1 cassette thingies. You know, where you got a prerecorded album on one side and you could tape whatever you wanted on the other.

Nostalgia, eh? What is it good for?

Angry Samoans - Back from Samoa
Bellamy Brothers - Greatest Hits
Boney M - Boonoonoonoos
Charlene - I've Never Been to Me
John Cougar - American Fool
The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour
Girlschool - Screaming Blue Murder
Michael Jackson - Thriller
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - The Message
Olivia Newton-John - Greatest Hits, Vol. 2
Nichts - Tango 2000
Ray Parker Jr. - The Other Woman
Ray Parker Jr. - The Very Best Of
Trouble Funk - Drop the Bomb
Two Man Sound - Capitol Tropical

Little bitch-ass dumbasses.

So that's why it hasn't been mentioned in a thread entitled Great ALBUMS of 1982.

Why do you care so much? Are you Jefferson Hack or somebody?

1. Nightingales - 'Pigs On Purpose'
2. 23 Skidoo - '7 Songs'
3. Crispy Ambulance - 'The Plateau Phase'
4. Clash - 'Combat Rock'
5. Blue Orchids - 'The Greatest Hit' (surprised this one's not been mentioned already)
6. Haircut 100 - 'Pelican West'
7. Section 25 - 'In The Key Of Dreams'
8. Adam Ant - 'Friend or Foe'
9. Dexys - 'Too-Rye Aye'
10. Scritti - 'Songs To Remember'
11. ABC - 'The Lexicon of Love'
12. Placebo - 'England's Trance'
13. Elvis Costello - 'Imperial Bedroom'
14. Hall and Oates - 'H2O' (can't remember the HTML to write this properly)
15. Associates - 'Sulk'
16. Lilliput - s/t
17. Dollar - 'The Dollar Album'
18. Go-Betweens - 'Send Me A Lullabye'
19. Joni Mitchell - 'Wild Thiongs Run Fast'
20. v/a - 'Pillows and Prayers'

Did anyone say this already? Half of it's so good.

I so rarely listen to the radio, but I was driving with classic rock on and they played Eddie Money's "Shakin'". Not even remotely a great song, but I hadn't heard it in probably over 30 years, and kind kicked off a 1982 playlist spree.

Looking at some of the 1982 lists, was surprised to see both Birthday Party and Gun Club in the NME list. I assumed they were under everyone's radar at the time except for maybe Trouser Press.

Looks like some of my favorites changed quite a bit in the last decade, reassessed many of these after they were reissued:

Dome – Will You Speak This Word (Dome/Grey Area)
The Bongos – Drums Along The Hudson (Cooking Vinyl)
Orchestra Baobob – Pirates Choice (Nonesuch/World Circuit)
Monoton – Monotonprodukt 07 (Desire)
The Monochrome Set – Eligible Bachelors (Virgin/Cherry Red)
Pentagram – Relentless (Peaceville/Snapper)
Pagan Altar – Judgement Of The Dead (Cruz Del Sur)
Sad Lovers and Giants – Epic Garden Music (Cherry Red/Midnight Music)
More – Blood & Thunder (Atlantic/Wounded Bird)
The Individuals – Aquamarine (Plexus/Bar/None)
The Buggles – Adventures In Modern Recording (ZTT/Salvo)
Martha and the Muffins – Danseparc (RCA/Muffin Music)
Billy Squier – Emotions In Motion (Capitol/American Beat)

Still can't get on board with Donald Fagen. The Fixx - The Shuttered Room I go back and forth with, as they're sometimes horrible, but every so often I still want to hear 'em!

Curiously unmentioned thus far this thread:

Philip Glass - Glassworks
Solid Space - Space Museum
Antena -Camino del sol
Thomas Dolby - The Golden Age of Wireless
Rational Youth - Cold War Night Life
Eyeless in Gaza - Drumming the Beating Heart
Charanjit Singh - Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat
Deux Filles - Silence & Wisdom
Michael Nyman - The Draughtsman's Contract OST

The Nits - Work

A few weeks ago, Richard Shaw’s #5albums Twitter poll focused on 1982, which inspired me to assemble a playlist. I’ve also been following Pete Pardo’s Sea Of Tranquility daily YouTube series of quickie snapshots of albums following themes like spooky albums in October, important hard rock & metal in November, 1971 prog in December, favorite 1972 albums in January, and Feb 1, 1982 albums. I’d already been listening to my 1982 playlist on repeat for the 5albums poll, so I gave this daily countdown a whirl. Here's what I have so far:

10. The Cure – Pornography
Robert Smith aimed to create the ultimate fuck-off statement of despair and horrible guitar tones, and succeeded.

11. Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band – Ice Cream For Crow
12. The Birthday Party – Junkyard
13. Rush – Signals
14. The Fall – Hex Enduction Hour
15. Siouxsie & The Banshees – A Kiss In The Dreamhouse
The last in a trilogy with guitarist John McGeoch sees Sioux & co. at their psychedelic peak, and most experimental.

16. Wayne Jarrett – Bubble Up (Showcase Vol. 1)
17. Judas Priest – Screaming For Vengeance
18. Bad Brains – Bad Brains
Speed of lightning, roar of thunder, Bad Brains were D.C. superheroes who transformed hardcore punk, shattering expectations and limitations.

19. Junior Delahaye – Showcase
20. Wall Of Voodoo – Call Of The West
21. Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Imperial Bedroom
22. Kate Bush – The Dreaming
The student becomes the master. Precocious Peter Gabriel acolyte arrives with her first full blown self-produced tour de force, bringing out the madness on her most challenging album.

23. Peter Gabriel – Peter Gabriel 4
24. Scorpions – Blackout
25. Au Pairs – Sense And Sensuality
26. The Comsat Angels – Fiction
27. Laurie Anderson – Big Science
28. Virgin Prunes – If I Die, I Die

UGH. Links fixed.

A few weeks ago, Richard Shaw’s #5albums Twitter poll focused on 1982, which inspired me to assemble a playlist. I’ve also been following Pete Pardo’s Sea Of Tranquility daily YouTube series of quickie snapshots of albums following themes like spooky albums in October, important hard rock & metal in November, 1971 prog in December, favorite 1972 albums in January, and Feb 1, 1982 albums. I’d already been listening to my 1982 playlist on repeat for the 5albums poll, so I gave this daily countdown a whirl. Here's what I have so far:

10. The Cure – Pornography
Robert Smith aimed to create the ultimate fuck-off statement of despair and horrible guitar tones, and succeeded.

11. Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band – Ice Cream For Crow
12. The Birthday Party – Junkyard
13. Rush – Signals
14. The Fall – Hex Enduction Hour
15. Siouxsie & The Banshees – A Kiss In The Dreamhouse
The last in a trilogy with guitarist John McGeoch sees Sioux & co. at their psychedelic peak, and most experimental.

16. Wayne Jarrett – Bubble Up (Showcase Vol. 1)
17. Judas Priest – Screaming For Vengeance
18. Bad Brains – Bad Brains
Speed of lightning, roar of thunder, Bad Brains were D.C. superheroes who transformed hardcore punk, shattering expectations and limitations.

19. Junior Delahaye – Showcase
20. Wall Of Voodoo – Call Of The West
21. Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Imperial Bedroom
22. Kate Bush – The Dreaming
The student becomes the master. Precocious Peter Gabriel acolyte arrives with her first full blown self-produced tour de force, bringing out the madness on her most challenging album.

23. Peter Gabriel – Peter Gabriel 4
24. Scorpions – Blackout
25. Au Pairs – Sense And Sensuality
26. The Comsat Angels – Fiction
27. Laurie Anderson – Big Science
28. Virgin Prunes – If I Die, I Die

Can’t believe ‘The Nightfly’ wasn’t mentioned once in that thread.

Looks like it was in Marcello Carlin's list in Isis magazine. It's around 129 in my list. Having heard the album as a tween, and dismissed it as bland adult contemporary, it's taken a while to warm up to it. Similarly with Joe Jackson's Night and Day, which did crack my top 100.

9. King Sunny Adé – Juju Music
The Yorùbán king of jùjú blows open the gates of the West and blazes a trail for future Afro pop stars.

8. The Dream Syndicate – The Days of Wine and Roses
The Paisley Underground figureheads fuse 60s garage psych, The Velvet Underground, Television and Crazy Horse into their career defining debut.

7. Mission Of Burma – Vs.
Guitar colossus: a Boston band blazes trails in post-punk, noise rock and post-hardcore.

6. The Gun Club – Miami
L.A.’s punk blues/garage noir pioneers release their most poetic, powerful batch of songs into the wild frontier.

Miami, so powerful and poetic, indeed. Mark Lanegan recorded a fantastic version of "Carry Home".
Funny seeing you reference Sixteen Horsepower, the first time I heard a song of theirs on the radio I remember thinking "What is this? An unreleased Gun Club song?"

Great albums from the greatest year in music that have not yet been mentioned on this thread:

Sparks - Angst in My Pants
Game Theory - Blaze of Glory
Billy Joel - The Nylon Curtain
The Happy Family - The Man on Your Street
Captain Sensible - Women and Captains First
Steve Reich - Tehillim
Bill Nelson - The Love That Whirls (Diary of a Thinking Heart)
Oingo Boingo - Nothing to Fear
Nina Simone - Fodder on My Wings
Cleaners from Venus - Midnight Cleaners
The Three O’Clock - Baroque Hoedown EP

Ya, Sixteen Horsepower did cover "Fire Spirit" on Hoarse, a song from the Death Party EP (1983). 40 years later I'm still hearing stuff from that year that's new to me, like hearing Glassworks in it's entirety for the first time, Solid Space, Rational Youth, Antena, Deux Filles. I'd heard fragments of Eyeless in Gaza but dove into the albums.

5. Horace Andy – Dance Hall Style/Exclusively
Reggae legend travels from Jamaica to Queens to record his greatest album with Bullwackie.

4. XTC - English Settlement
XTC transitions to a studio band with their most complex, intricate work on their fifth, a double album that could have been a triple.

I've really tried to get into that Happy Family album, but no, too tedious. I did enjoy Momus' comments when he participated on ILX, but I just can't get into his vocal style. I had all that Oingo Boingo stuff and keep forgetting about them. They really showed their XTC influence on Nothing to Fear, which I enjoy.

Oh yeah, Momus isn't really suited to that singing style at all (as I think he soon realized), but the band/arrangements sound great and I love the songs so much that the vocals generally don't bother me.

companion thread: Best Album on My Favourite Albums of......1982!!

That thread is probably the reason I checked out those Bill Nelson and Cleaners from Venus albums in the first place.

Klaus Nomi's Simple Man should be on any 1982 list.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2XbBP6RTxk

The Cure - Pornography
Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
Dead Kennedys - Plastic Surgery Disasters
Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance
Bad Brains - S/t (ROIR Tape)
Accept - Restless and Wild
Misfits - Walk Among Us
Mission of Burma - Vs.
Discharge - Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing
Laurie Anderson - Big Science
Scorpions - Blackout
Rush - Signals
Descendants - Milo Goes to College
Flipper - Album: Generic Flipper
Duran Duran - Rio
Crass - Christ: The Album
Venom - Black Metal
Tank - Filth Hounds of Hades
Witchfinder General - Death Penalty
Motörhead - Iron Fist
Fear - The Record
GBH - City Baby Attacked by Rats
Diamanda Galás - The Litanies of Satan
Plasmatics - Coup d'état
The Lords of the New Church - The Lords of the New Church
Chrome - 3rd From the Sun
The Exploited - Troops of Tomorrow
Twisted Sister - Under the Blade
Toxic Reasons - Independence
Anvil - Metal on Metal
V/A - Metal Massacre
Bad Religion - How Could Hell Be Any Worse?
Aldo Nova - Aldo Nova
Talas - Sink Your Teeth Into That
Mercyful Fate - Mercyful Fate (EP)
Metallica - No Life 'til Leather (Demo)
The Replacements - Stink (EP)
Hose - Hose (EP)

#3 Orange Juice – You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever
Out of the vapor trails of post-punk came the sound of young Scotland, literate indie jangle pop.

2. X - Under the Big Black Sun
The greatest American band of 1982 take a deep dive into mourning and heartbreak with their most personal, poetic, passionate music.

i like the way this list bounces a lot, fastbulbous.

also i completely forgot how at the time i mentally felt a xtc-oingo relation, too. i heard a danny elfman interview recently and i was like, "this guy is both conventional boring and deep-weird background, simultaneously, what a character."

By no means their best, but I had a special fondness for ‘Oh No, It’s Devo’ from ‘82.

If CAPTCHAs hadn't mentioned Blaze of Glory I would've.

Danny and Steve from Boingo were both obsessed with XTC Steve still plays in an XTC tribute project around LA with other major session heads

Love that, the much more famous Elfman paying tribute to XTC. Oingo Boingo will make an appearance in tomorrow's bubbling under piece.

1. Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
On their third album with a hotshot new singer, Maiden expands their audience through MTV and challenges Judas Priest as the quintessential heavy metal band.

1982 Countdown: Bubbling Under
Albums that just missed the top 28 include ones by Simple Minds, Philip Glass, Brian Eno, and Oingo Boingo.