Best Album on My Favourite Albums of......1983!!

A less impressive selection this time around--not a dig at Michael's list; just an acknowledgement that 1983 wasn't as strong as 1980-2--but She's So Unusual remains a template for how a debut pop record should be done.

script of the bridge

Meat Puppets ii is '84

sorry to say i'm going to continue pissing you off :) if somebody has something interesting to say about "kill 'em all" please don't let me stop you, but i don't.

to be honest i don' t know most of the albums here very well, so i will try to check some of them out. i think i'll start with the aztec camera.

As usual for this era, lots of stuff that I like, nothing that I really love. I'll have to mull it over.

Hm, Def Leppard vs Philip Glass vs REM vs Sonic Youth. Btw, did REM have an 'anti-synth' stance, aside from just not using synths? Honestly curious if they said something like that.

Went for Confusion Is Sex in the end, of course.

I dont think REM had an avowed anti-synth stance

Listening Script of the Bridge and a) goddamn Up the Down Escalator is good and ii) how did Interpol get away with it?

early on Michael Stipe had a synthy side project, Tanzplagen (Wikipedia informs me he played Farfisa organ, but that may have been the closest he could get to a synth in 1980-81)

Hard to argue with Murmur or Speaking in Tongues, but I'm voting Synchro System.

Replacements Hootenanny missing from list.

This may be my favourite year for music in the 80s. From the list I'm going with Before Hollywood, the Go-Betweens most hungry, astringent and poetic album. I never get tired of it.

The most important album of 1983 for me (and befitting my nom de ILX) was Stavros Xarhakos' remarkable original soundtrack for Kosta Ferris's film Rebetiko. He managed to craft deeply soulful music which existed simultaneously in 1933 and 1983, reinvigorating a genre that was trapped in amber by revivalists. When I heard it, and contemporaneous albums by Nikos Papazouglou, Haris Alexiou, Aki Panou and others, I knew it was the music I wanted to play. It changed my life and led me on a fantastic and continuing musical journey.

Sonic Youth – Confusion is Sex
Suicidal Tendencies – s/t
Swans – Filth
Talking Heads – Speaking in Tongues
U2 – War
Violent Femmes – s/t

are my top 6.

Oh hey, i see my favorite Wipers album on the list

The most important album of 1983 for me (and befitting my nom de ILX) was Stavros Xarhakos' remarkable original soundtrack for Kosta Ferris's film Rebetiko.

I remember 1983 well, it would be a final pick from Punch The Clock, Cafe Bleu and Power, Corruption and Lies.

PCL it is.

Much easier than '82, Rain Parade, no hesitation.

By sheer coincidence was listening to the P Funk Allstars album from ‘83 this afternoon...probably not the best album of the year but sounded pretty pretty good...

I tell you what: I'm checking put that 100 Flowers album mentioned upthread rn and it sounds like a total front-to-back classic punk album. Lots of different ideas bumping up against each other

first answer was the correct one.

(i voted high land)

i tried aztec camera again, i like his voice but the music just does zero for me.

Maybe you are more Hollywood than Westwood

I voted Aztec Camera, too.

could vote for any of these, this is absurdly hard:

Aztec Camera – High Land Hard Rain
Echo and The Bunnymen – Porcupine
ESG – Come Away with ESG
King Sunny Ade and His African Beats – Synchro System
Madonna – s/t
Philip Glass - Koyaanisqatsi
R.E.M. – Murmur
The Go-Betweens – Before Hollywood
The The – Soul Mining
Tom Waits – Swordfishtrombones
Violent Femmes – s/t
William Onyeabor – Good Name
ZZ Top – Eliminator

Murmur, Before Hollywood, and Koyaanisqatsi jump out, but Aztec Camera and Madonna are nipping at their heels

ZZ Top, Def Leppard, The Police, Dio, Motley Crue & U2 were my tapes of these back in the day.

maresnest so otm

Tough one. Would have gone for Tears for Fears - The Hurting, were it listed. The Police, U2, Def Leppard were the hard-to-evict residents on my tape deck that year. Picked The The due to falling hard for the "Uncertain Smile" 12".

voted for Power, Corruption and Lies, it is my favorite New Order album and one of my favorite albums ever

Decided to pick Philip Glass to pick to pick decided to pick Philip to pick Philip Glass

Madonna vs Cyndi, just as it was in 1983

Out of Step was such an incredible record

also remember loving the 100 Flowers album and The Rain Parade

Metal Circus meant so much to me, those guitars

Diane

Got to be Eliminator.

A lot of rock ordinaire on that list, it must be said.

Murmur is my real favourite but it will get loads of love fron everyone else so voted for Billy Bragg

Went with Talking Heads
over U2 and Violent Femmes

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Sonic Youth album is all-time amazing as well.

Murmur crushes everything else on here like a grape and yall know it. A disco-rock classic! Dance! Dance, you fuckers!

Torn between High Land Hard Rain and Hearts and Bones

I might be the only vote for the Bad Brains album but I think it really is my favorite here

Cocteau Twins a close second, both records were personally huge for me back then

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBW4IwX.img

ha ha, you were right!

Murmur really is a great album

Wow the Violent Femmes debut got zero points. There's a band that's fallen out of fashion. Along with REM, they would've been the critics fave new US band of '83

Best Album on My Favourite Albums of......1984!!

They meant pretty much jack shit in the UK, though.

(xpost)

I agree about the production on Steeltown. It's weird, because Lillywhite did such a great job on The Crossing.

Could be the band wanted a change in sound?

Yeah, it could well have been - and plausible - that the band wanted to make a different kind of record. I just don't think Steeltown sounds all that great - unusual for Lillywhite in that era.

1. R.E.M.: Murmur
2. OMD: Dazzle Ships
3. The Three O’Clock: Sixteen Tambourines
4. The Fun Boy Three: Waiting
5. The The: Soul Mining
6. XTC: Mummer
7. White Door: Windows
8. Republika: Nowe sytuacje
9. Tears for Fears: The Hurting
10. Captain Sensible: The Power of Love
11. Dolly Mixture: The Demonstration Tapes
12. Serious Drinking: The Revolution Starts at Closing Time
13. The Gist: Embrace the Herd
14. A Flock of Seagulls: Listen
15. Nits: Omsk
16. Eddie & Sunshine: Perfect Strangers
17. Soft Cell: The Art of Falling Apart
18. New Order: Power, Corruption and Lies
19. Eurythmics: Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
20. Heaven 17: The Luxury Gap
21. Madonna: Madonna
22. Aviador Dro: Sintesis
23. The Church: Seance
24. Glamour: Guarda tus lágrimas
25. Nacht und Nebel: Beats of Love
26. Andreas Dorau: Die Doraus und die Marinas geben offenherzige Antworten auf brennende Fragen
27. ESG: Come Away With the ESG
28. Bauhaus: Burning From the Inside
29. Cocteau Twins: Head Over Heels
30. Violent Femmes: Violent Femmes