Best Album on My Favourite Albums of......1981!!

abba Kraftwerk or this heat

Nobody saying new order so far is encouraging

Didn't have to look at the list, just scrolled directly to Moving Pictures

Voted for Au Pairs because that's another one of those albums that blew my mind when I first heard it. So many other amazing LPs on this list. Stuff that was left off:

Art Objects - Bagpipe Music
Buggles - Adventures In Modern Recording
David Byrne - Catherine Wheel soundtrack
John Cale - Honi Soit
The Church - Of Skins And Heart
Cleaners From Venus - Blow Away Your Troubles
Devo - New Traditionalists
Diagram Brothers - Some Marvels Of Modern Science
Durutti Column - LC
Fad Gadget - Incontinent
Girls At Our Best! - Pleasure
John Foxx - The Garden
Gordons - The Gordons
Robyn Hitchcock - Black Snake Diamond Role
Human Sexual Response - In A Roman Mood
Josef K - The Only Fun In Town
Killing Joke - What's THIS For...!
The Lines - Therapy
Modern English - Mesh & Lace
Modern Eon - Fiction Tales
Bill Nelson - Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam (would've voted for this had it been an option)
The New Age Steppers - s/t
Opposition - Breaking The Silence
The Professionals - I Didn't See It Coming
Radio Birdman - Living Eyes
Roedelius - Wenn Der Südwind Weht
Scars - Author! Author!
Second Layer - World Of Rubber
Simple Minds - Sons And Fascination / Sister Feelings Call
The Sound - From The Lions Mouth
Stiff Little Fingers - Go For It
The Stranglers - The Gospel According To The Meninblack / La Folie
The Undertones - Positive Touch
Tom Verlaine - Dreamtime
TV21 - A Thin Red Line
Wah! - Nah=Poo - The Art Of Bluff
Wall Of Voodoo - Dark Continent
X - Wild Gift
YMO - BGM / Technodelic (only discovered these last year!)
V/A - The Fruit Of The Original Sin

If you asked my in 1981, I would've picked Bob & Doug McKenzie - Great White North

Soft Cell with the 12 inches bonus disc.

Or New Order

Excellent list Gerald.

Soft Cell might be my pick although it has competition from probably well over 100 others, might be my favourite year of music

the list needs more Luther Vandross

my top twenty:

Psychedelic Furs – Talk Talk Talk
Marvin Gaye – In Our Lifetime
The Human League – Dare!
The Go-Go’s – Beauty and the Beat
Prince – Controversy
Elvis Costello and the Attractions – Trust
Luther Vandross – Never Too Much
Merle Haggard – Big City
Soft Cell – Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret
Grace Jones – Nightclubbing
Funkadelic – The Electric Spanking of War Babies
Yoko Ono – Season of Glass
The English Beat – Wha’ppen?
X – Wild Gift
The Rolling Stones – Tattoo You
Rosanne Cash – Seven Year Ache
Earth, Wind & Fire – Raise!
Phil Collins – Face Value
The db’s – Stands For Decibels
The Clash – Sandinista!

1. X - Wild Gift
2. Shoes - Tongue Twister
3. R.E.M. - Chronic Town
4. Neil Young - Reactor
5. Ramones - Pleasant Dreams
6. Minor Threat - Minor Threat

Haven't listened to any of those start-to-finish in years, so that's a best guess from my media player.

Boy, are X popular on the other side of the Atlantic or what?

"Heartbeat" by Chris & Cosey is a favourite of mine from '81, not mentioned so far.

... listening to the title track right now, awesome.

That's on my list

I was going to say my #1 would be Mummy Your Not Watching Me by the Television Personalities but apparently that was released in January 1982.

some other faves unmentioned:

Adicts - Songs Of Praise
Exploited - Punk'S Not Dead
Fallout - Home Killed Meat
Flesh Eaters - A Minute To Pray, A Second To Die
Girlschool - Hit And Run
Husker Du - Land Speed Record
Marine Girls - Beach Party
S.I.B. - The Third World War
Subhumans (CA) - Incorrect Thoughts
Tom Tom Club - S/T
TSOL - Dance With Me

also some compilations e.g.

Keats Rides A Harley
Let Them Eat Jellybeans
Red Snerts - The Sound Of Gulcher
American Youth Report
Folk In Hell
Hell Comes To Your House #1
Some Bizzare Album
Where The Hell Is Leicester
Shots In The Dark
Ten From The Madhouse

lol I completely forgot about Penis Envy by Crass

A little bummed that Indoor Life didn't end up making the cut but you can't argue with a list that has both the Slits & Lizzy Mercier Descloux on it...

And on that note--even though I legit like the Japan and Raincoats albums more, I can't pass up prob my one and only opportunity to vote for Return of the Giant Slits in an ILX poll

Missed the Television Personalities up there, and probably thought that was a year or two earlier. That'd be high on my list, maybe even #1 ahead of X.

I kind of wonder if those Tom Verlaine solo albums have gotten their due. Dreamtime is kind of uneven, but I love stuff like 'There's a reason' and 'a future in noise' as much as any Television.

lol I completely forgot about Penis Envy by Crass

Great album

I've always wanted to give Dreamtime a listen xp!

Bush of Ghosts, Computer Love, Street Songs and The Visitors are all terrific albums.

But it has to be Fire of Love. The sheer energy of that record is something to behold.

My god, why is Raise! not on that list? Very possibly the best thing EW&F ever did.

Eno/Byrne was WAY ahead of its time

There are at least five albums on this list I would have very happily gone for, but once I spotted Tin Drum I knew I had to rock THAT vote. BTW, anyone who also voted for Japan, Gang of Four, The Comsat Angels, Human League, or Heaven 17 is an instant member of my squad.

As for Mutant Disco: there are several (4?) different volumes on Spotify (all on ZE as well), but none of these feature the complete original ’81 6-track line-up.

voted mambo nassau

went for discipline, cause this is a dangerous place

Great list! So many classics.

Voted for Dare just over Nightclubbing. Two of my all time top 20 albums right there.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

A few other notable RnR, metal, punk/indie records & tapes from '81.

Hanoi Rocks "Bankok Shocks Siagon Shakes Hanoi Rocks"
Iron Maiden "Killers"
Van Halen "Fair Warning"
Black Sabbath "Mob Rules"
Motorhead "No Sleep Til Hammersmith"
Saxon "Denim and Leather"
Ozzy "Diary of a Madman"
Mission of Burma "Signals, Calls & Marches"
the Replacements "Sorry Ma, Forgot to take out the Trash"
Billy Squier "Don't Say No"
Triumph "Allied Forces"
the Cramps "Psychedelic Jungle"
Tygers of Pan Tang "Spellbound"
Agent Orange "Living in Darkness"
The Adolescents "The Adolescents"
The Blasters "the Blasters"
Blue Oyster Cult "Fire of Unknown Origin"

Joe Walsh "There Goes the Neighborhood"

It's got Joe Walsh in a tank on the cover.

'Signals Calls and Marches' is an EP too...so maybe check that off, still has a couple of their biggest tunes.

great year for the YMO crowd - BGM (one of my favorite albums ever) and Technodelic, Left Handed Dream by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Tadaima by Akiko Yano, Neuromantic by Yukihiro Takahashi, and Logic by Logic System. Three of those I'd vote for if they were on here.

― frogbs, Saturday, April 20, 2019 3:34 AM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Crazy good year, and would vote for BGM, Technodelic and Neuromantic in a heartbeat!

As it stands it's a toss-up between Eno/Byrne and Pirates for me.

Eno/Byrne album has never impressed me too much tbh.

Up until recently I'd have gone with Computer World but I ended up voting for Faith (my favourite Cure album fwiw).

Went with DAF in the end. Sorry Grace Jones and assorted ZE acts, hope someone else will be taking good care of you.

Visitors or Dare are the best records here but I do love Wilder -mainly because it was one of the first LPs I ever bought. I would have been very tempted to vote for U2s October if it had been on the list, serious nostalgia pangs with that album ( even though yeah yeah it's probably objectively really annoying)

There's a lot of great stuff here and a few things I meant to relisten to because I remember being amazed at them at one point but haven't listened for ages (Mambo Nassau, Deceit, Youth of America) - but I ran out of time for that and voted for Kraftwerk

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

comsat angels or rickie lee jones

― lowercase (eric), Friday, April 19, 2019 10:17 AM (eight hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

eric!!! you're right!!!

― american bradass (BradNelson), Saturday, 20 April 2019 02:11 (six days ago) Permalink

^^^^^^^^^^ 2 of the best records ever made.

This was generally the best year ever though. I'd say that even if these two records didn't exist and I was having to decide between Fela Kuti and Kraftwerk and Grace Jones (actually, group these 5 records together and that's a pretty decent summation of my taste in music).

surprised about the good performance of movement which is actually my fave new order album.

I'm not. ILM is full of new order bores.

the last.fm ilxor groups charts were topped by new order every week for a decade.

New Order ar the ilm house band.

They are better than Rush after all.

cant argue with that, but dont tell the Americans I said it!

????

we agree with you.

That Top 3 isn't embarrassing at all!

you were wrong about what would win

I'm pleasantly surprised that it didn't.

btw I think I ended up voting for The Gun Club

Got the distinct impression people were trying very hard not to vote for the obvious choices.

perhaps but there's always a bunch of albums you would love to vote for but only have one choice

except for new order fans who will always vote new order to annoy turrican or someone else