Tag Archives: 1980

921. Western Pomise

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By 1980, so-called New Wave was working through at least its ninth mutation. In the case of Ultravox, this meant parting ways with original front man John Foxx, hooking up with new guy Midge Ure and going distinctly (some would say pompously) Modern with monster album (at least in Europe) Vienna. “There really isn’t a bad track. Some dubious lyrics maybe, but the feel of the thing, its sharp, pristine elegance, more than makes up. One of those albums that absolutely nails its time.” (Philip Random)

953. I don’t remember

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“Peter Gabriel’s third album was a world changer for me, a 1980 call-to-arms from a guy who’d done more than his share to help define the 1970s. Which in retrospect was an all too rare phenomenon – a 1970s player who didn’t mostly just embarrass themselves in the next decade. What did Gabriel have that so many didn’t (including his own fellow band members, regardless of record sales)? If I had to narrow it down to one thing, I’d say curiosity. He had no interest in sticking with what he already had going. He wanted more. Not in terms of money, fame, whatever – but understanding. Or in the case of I Don’t Remember, enlisting the likes of Robert Fripp to unleash the right kind of heavy and relevant confusion.” (Philip Random)

petergabriel-remember

983. street parade

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Second of two in a row from side five of Sandinista! (the Clash’s longest album, if not its best). “To say it was a hard sell to many of their early fans is the definition of understatement. It Was Hated (and still is by some) for being all the things that was truly great about it, which is to say, driven by the ultimately punk attitude of saying f*** it, London Calling’s made us bigger than we ever dreamed of being, let’s see how far we can push things by just diving into the music, all music, anything that interests us, the whole mad street parade. In my particular case, the arrival on the local Terminal City scene of some genuinely strong and clean LSD probably assisted in my seeing things in this regard.” (Philip Random)

984. Kingston advice

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First of two in a row from side five of Sandinista, the Clash’s largest album if not its best. London Calling gets all the glory, of course, but there is a serious argument to be made that Sandinista is every bit its equal if only for all the tangents it explores – dubs, re-dubs, versions, visions. As if these four guys (and their various studio compadres) somehow managed to digest the whole weird, wild, primed-to-explode world of 1980 and jam it into six long playing sides of vinyl – not world music so much as what the world actually sounded like. Must be a clash – there’s no alternative.

clash-1981Bonds

1011. I wanna destroy you

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“The Soft Boys are one of those outfits I managed to miss at the time, but rather stumbled across maybe fifteen years late via a cassette I found lying around of their 1980 album Underwater Moonlight. I Wanna Destroy You was the track that immediately grabbed me – not quite punk but full of bile regardless. Dedicated as always to everyone who ever f***ed me over, big or small, deliberately or otherwise.” (Philip Random)

SoftBoys-cassette

1034. tell me when my light turns green

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Dexys Midnight Runners are generally thought of as a band that had one big deal single (featuring a lot of fiddle) in 1982, then pretty much faded away. But that wasn’t even from their best album. 1980’s Searching for the Young Soul Rebels takes that honour, with Tell Me When My Light Turns Green a big, brassy, soul-drenched rave-up that manages to sound like nothing else that was going on at the time, and yet still be pretty darned cool in a hot, sweaty, party-all-night-and-then-some sort of way (the dexys part of the bands name referring to Dexedrine, one of the go-to club drugs of the time).

(photo: Fin Costello)