Post your 80's masterpieces

808? 909? i'm sure someone more obsessive about this sort of thing than I can enlighten me.

if you removed the vox and added a 303, this would be a vibert track.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzI-ZbcK_sw

Howard the Duck

I've never looked at the comic, but I saw this film very young and the sexuality/effects/costumes all had a big impact on me at the time.

So this was a masterpiece when I was 5 or 6. I don't even remember if any of the imagery that pops in my head now was even in the film, looks pretty awful.

I was too young to really appreciate music in the 80s.

oh yeah

cant believe i forgot about this. one of my favorites of the 80s probably.

  On 2/13/2010 at 4:44 AM, Z_B_Z said:

cant believe i forgot about this. one of my favorites of the 80s probably.

 

a loooooow volume foooorcefieeeeld *mark knopfler guitar*

it was the genesis of the unutterable weirdness of tilt and the drift

and it has billy ocean on backing vox on a coupla tracks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZCx5HRwDkY

awesome album

wasnt brian eno the original producer on it? i thought i remember reading some basic tracks were recorded but walker wasnt satisfied so they parted ways.

  On 2/13/2010 at 4:58 AM, Z_B_Z said:

wasnt brian eno the original producer on it? i thought i remember reading some basic tracks were recorded but walker wasnt satisfied so they parted ways.

yeah. apparently some david sylvian/scott walker stuff transpired around the same time (again with eno) but everything was binned *drool*

eno and sylvian (and jarvis cocker too) have said scott is a really down-to-earth, normal bloke (he likes cycling mountain bikes around central london) but incredibly single-minded; and therefore impossible to collaborate with. when you listen to the drift, or watch the excellent documentary, that makes perfect sense.

This changed my world in '81:

God bless Richard Barbieri:

Before they became slick and poppy:

The later stuff was great, but Tim Friese-Green's keys on this can't be beat:

PPG Wave to die for:

IMO best dance song of the 80's

Featuring one of the greatest synth-pop tracks of all time:

(Cheating - this was released in 98), but it is beyond even Talk Talk in minimalist brilliance:

AAAHH! Eurythmics. Fuck yeah, can't believe I didn't mention their earlier stuff before.

Probably because what they became was so terrible I couldn't bare to contemplate it (see also Talkingheads later output)

Ok. Shame on you all for not mentioning this:

Though I will understand if you've never heard of this one, which is no less amazing:

Japan were one the coolest bands ever. As regards Eurhythmics, the 1984 album was fucking great, I might have to look that up again.

  On 2/13/2010 at 12:27 AM, Caretstik said:

'Oh Father' from 'Like A Prayer' is such a beautiful song.

+1

  On 2/12/2010 at 9:42 PM, beerwolf said:

  On 2/12/2010 at 9:09 AM, the anonymous forumite said:

Please post what you consider essential records from the 80s. I know, it's not easy, the consensus on the 80s is that it's not a good decade for music. Let's prove this wrong, and plese keep it professional. I'll start.

 

 

 

What a bullshit post. So you think the 80's are no good for music? And then you think you will 'keep it professional' with something by Madonna. Hahahahah. Do me a favour.

 

Don't believe everything you read kids.

True Blue has some of the best 80s pop songwriting. And please read my posts carefully before flaming.

  On 2/13/2010 at 12:42 AM, sidewinder said:

  On 2/12/2010 at 11:59 PM, Awepittance said:

  On 2/12/2010 at 7:38 PM, sidewinder said:

  On 2/12/2010 at 7:31 PM, the anonymous forumite said:

It seems also that most 80s music seems to age badly compared to 70s or 90s music.

True and I think it's due to production styles. Everything sounds rather thin whereas the 70s had a warmer sound.

there are ridiculously inaccurate over generalizations , maybe this is true if the only 80s music you've heard is top 40.

sure there were production trends in the 80s, but plenty of good bands & artists strayed from this flock and did their own sound

Of course it's a generalization, as all things are when talking about a whole decade of music. But two things: I think it's pretty obvious from my other post and from my even being on this forum that I've heard plenty more than top 40 out of the 80s (not that I think you were singling me out in such a way); and remember that you being a producer/musician and me not, we hear things differently...I have no idea about production techniques and what goes into making a recording, I just hear it. On the surface much of the music did have a thin/cold kind of production style, but you paying much closer attention to these things than I (and most other people) would hear a much broader range of sounds/techniques. Or something.

 

Anyway, just saying, yes it's a generalization because we're talking about a whole decade and how it is typically perceived, whether right or wrong.

^ This. Have you followed the thread, Awepittance ? You must have seen that we posted a huge variety of good records that don't sound all the same. But even if there are different production techniques, most of them have aged badly and that is a fair generalization to me.

I forgot these:

World class ex-Zappa alumni keep it deceptively simple with ex-playboy bunny frontwoman.

He made it OK to be a geek again:

Disc 2 of this double album is IMO the greatest instrumental music ever written.

I've been listening to it almost every day since 1986 and it still sounds fresh.

Turning Japanese: best 80's track about masturbation:

Features Mexican Radio, what more needs to be said?

Semi-obscure band from Atlanta, this is their 2nd release featuring She Sheila:

In defense of Australia (after taking a beating here lately):

Desparate - way rougher and rawer than later Divinyls stuff:

Iva Davies' masterpiece:

Features Beds Are Burning. One of the few 80's bands to have a political figure as their lead singer.

R.I.P. Michael Hutchence:

They understood humor in music, and Colin Hay is one of a kind:

  On 2/12/2010 at 10:10 AM, Worlds Most Johnsson said:

The only album i have from the 80's in itunes is the Liquid Sky soundtrack.

I consider it worht recommending.

 

Good film

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sFK0-lcjGU

I wouldn't go as far as to call this a masterpiece, but it's always stayed with me over the years.

I remember thinking how cool and 'alternative' I was liking this back in the day at school, noone else had a fucking clue that The Very Things even existed. The word 'alternative' now seems a very 80s way of describing music, back then it was that stuff that didn't crop up in the charts or in the racks at Woollies.

  On 2/13/2010 at 12:10 AM, Obel said:

  On 2/12/2010 at 11:55 PM, sidewinder said:

  On 2/12/2010 at 8:09 PM, mafted said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPm-1YMSyOM

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f668Ar9BM50&feature=related

 

one of the most epic songs..

 

Tear Garden is Ka-Spel and a couple others from the Legendary Pink Dots with Skinny Puppy

Good call, not sure how I omitted Tired Eyes Slowly Burning. Definitely their best album, too.

 

 

Last man to fly steals it for me.

 

You on Litany per chance?

that I was.. until Corey turned it in to a kindergarten class. Scott was the man. I posted on that board for over 10 years as AdamT. dah wellll.

U2 - Boy

  On 2/13/2010 at 1:31 PM, Wall Bird said:

Ok. Shame on you all for not mentioning this:

 

 

Though I will understand if you've never heard of this one, which is no less amazing:

 

yes i feel crappy for not having been the one bringing up Tom Waits. It's just not him you think of when thinking 80's music, it all sounds like recordings from some wonky weeks of nights at a tranny bar in east berlin in the 50s : P beautiful stuff, Rain Dogs is only challenges by the great Bone Machine IMO but thats 1992 i think.