1984 was a good year

It was definitely a good year, I left out quite a few other albums, may create a second one if you enjoy this poll. 

For the fun of it, choose, vote and leave a comment. 

Mr Garten is not going to be happy! 

The podcast started with The Blue Nile - a band I’ve heard of, but not sure I’d ever heard. I listened, and really liked this album, and based on this, I don’t think I have ever heard any The Blue Nile before. But I will be listening to more. I’m thinking the only time I’ve heard Paul Buchanan sing before was for the marvellous BBC Bowie at the Proms performance. I can’t believe I didn’t make more of an effort to listen to The Blue Nile then, as his performances there impressed me greatly.

There’s actually a lot here for me to discover, as I was still too young to be exposed to much beyond the mainstream material played on the radio. So I’m listening to the David Sylvian album for the first time, too. Unlike The Blue Nile, it sounds completely of it’s time, and so a little dated. But still very enjoyable. Thomas Dolby is the real surprise for me here, though. I’m really digging the sounds of this album, which again is totally new to me. It’s my favourite of the albums mentioned, so far.

Then we get to the familiar, and brilliantly so. I love both Laurie Anderson’s and Scott Walker’s albums from 1984. I don’t need to listen to these again now, to know how much I enjoy them. But if you’ve not listened to either, I can heartily recommend both.

And so we come to Bowie, and the question “just how sh*t is this?” Well, to be fair, and even as a great Bowie fan, pretty damn sh*t. To be fair to Bowie, he wasn’t feeling into it, and admitted fairly quickly that the album was released to capitalise on the success of his previous album, in order to help out Iggy Pop. To that end, it’s a great album, because Pop likely wouldn’t have had any musical career beyond this point without Tonight, so much did it bolster his finances. But the original Pop/Bowie songs on Lust For Life are so superior to these insipid covers, the Tonight versions are barely listenable. The best thing to have come from Tonight, is the theme to Red Dwarf.

Next up is the supposed “no risk disc”, Tabula Rasa. The grandmother test apparently means this will pass, while In C will be thrown in the bin. Well, before even listening, I’m wondering about that, as I rather like In C - and one of my favourite albums last year was a double disc offering of In C from David Harrow (available here, and well worth a listen - particularly the second disc).

Ok, I’ll give this to them - this may well be a no risk disc. I went in almost hoping to not like it, just to prove SW wrong. But damnit, I do actually like this!

I love a lot of the 4AD artists, though I came to the label via Throwing Muses rather than any of the three bands here. (Not that TM had an album out in 1984.)  Out of Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil, and Dead Can Dance, I can probably do without TMC - who have never really worked for me. Both the Twins and Dead Can Dance albums from 1984 are great, though. So, on the off chance my opinion might be changed, I decided to try and listen to TMC. They still don’t work for me.

Do I dare give Marillion a go? Nothing I’ve ever heard from the band I’ve particularly enjoyed in the past. But I don’t think I’ve ever listened to Fugazi, so I may as well now. And, I was really quite enjoying the first song - at least, until the vocals came in. Something about Fish’s vocals don’t sit right for me. Which is weird, as I really like Peter Gabriel’s vocals, and there are definite similarities between the two. Ok, I’m actually getting into this now, including the vocals. They are definitely better further through the song than they are at the beginning. And musically, it’s like some hybrid of ‘80s pop and ‘80s metal.  I have been assailed by Assassing. Punch and Judy isn’t quite so assassing, however, although it’s still far more inspiring than Jigsaw (ugh!).

People talk about Peter Hammill having many voices, but Fish has him beat, and not in a good way. I love Peter Hammill’s many voices, but Fish just grates at times. I can barely listen to Emerald Lies for the awful (to me) vocal squawkings and screeches. The drums are horribly dated, too, which is a shame, as musically this song is vaguely interesting, even if I don’t like the vocals.

I’m moving on to something I know (or at least assume) I’ll like more. I’ve never heard any Cardiacs material from before “A Little Man”, so this album is new to me, too. Fabulous, though, as expected. Mental as anything, and marvellous because of that. Split Enz meets Gong (both bands I love, and cannot believe weren’t influences for Cardiacs, so strongly is their music evoked). You can totally hear how this band in turn influenced such diverse bands as Blur and Faith No More.

Given I know and love all the singles from Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s debut, it’s kind of a surprise I’ve never listened to the album. The title track was always my favourite of the four singles, but I was alone among my friends with this preference. It’s the first time I’ve listened to it in years, as it’s always the other thee singles that get played. I’m immediately reminded of how much I love this song. Holly Johnson’s vocals are great on this. The cover versions are all a bit meh, though. I can see why this album was seen as bit of a disappointment.

The Art of Noise is a no from me. I like a lot of things Trevor Horn has been involved with, but this is not one of them. Swans, on the other hand are an interesting proposition. I’ve never listened to this album, but had heard of it from its reputation as being the ugliest, most brutal of all their albums. I assumed it would be too much for me, but it’s nowhere near as ugly or brutal as I imagined it would be - proof that imagination provides horrors more terrifying than anything that can be presented to you, and why books are usually scarier than films. I actually really like this! 😱

Dali’s Car is another band I’ve heard of, but never listened to. This is going straight onto my “to purchase list”. Wow! This is phenomenal! Definitely the most impressive of all the new (to me) albums I’ve listened to off the back of this podcast.

From Cristi’s list though, and I admit to procrastinating with all my above waffle, I still can’t decide. It’s between Iron Maiden, Queensryche and Depeche Mode, but I may have to roll a die to decide.

And the die says.....

Depeche Mode

Like I said, if this poll gets some votes and discussion, I will do a second poll. We'll see. 

you said none and yet I have Talk talk in my list. 

I know you are a very demanding listener but you're a tad bit dismissive here. 

My personal top 3 are:-