Acclaimed Music Forum

ka

Jul 22, 06 - 7:57 PM

Screenagers.pl 100 Best Album Of The 1980s

http://www.screenagers.pl/index.php?service=xtras&action=show&id=7

1. The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
2. Joy Division - Closer
3. The Cure - Disintegration
4. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
5. Talking Heads - Remain In Light
6. Pixies - Doolittle
7. R.E.M. - Murmur
8. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
9. XTC - Skylarking
10. The Jesus & Mary Chain - Psychocandy
11. Talk Talk - Spirit Of Eden
12. Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
13. The Jam - Sound Affects
14. Sonic Youth - Sister
15. Echo & The Bunnymen - Ocean Rain
16. Husker Du - Zen Arcade
17. Talk Talk - The Colour Of Spring
18. Elvis Costello - Imperial Bedroom
19. U2 - The Joshua Tree
20. Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes
21. Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones
22. Pixies - Surfer Rosa
23. Galaxie 500 - On Fire
24. Minutemen - Double Nickels On The Dime
25. Dinosaur Jr. - You're Living All Over Me
26. XTC - English Settlement
27. Kate Bush - Hounds Of Love
28. New Order - Technique
29. The Go-Betweens - 16 Lovers Lane
30. The Replacements - Let It Be
31. Wipers - Youth Of America
32. U2 - War
33. The Smiths - The Smiths
34. The Replacements - Tim
35. The Cure - The Head On The Door
36. The Teardrop Expolodes - Kilimanjaro
37. Cocteau Twins - Treasure
38. The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace
39. Sonic Youth - EVOL
40. Brygada Kryzys - Brygada Kryzys
41. New Order - Power, Corruption & Lies
42. Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables
43. Bauhaus - In The Flat Field
44. The Cure - Pornography
45. Brian Eno & David Byrne - My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts
46. Spacemen 3 - Playing With Fire
47. Siekiera - Nowa Aleksandria
48. Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking
49. Bruce Springsteen - The River
50. Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
51. Lech Janerka - Historia Podwodna
52. My Bloody Valentine - Isn't Anything
53. XTC - Black Sea
54. The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms
55. Big Black - Songs About Fucking
56. This Heat - Deceit
57. The Waterboys - This Is The Sea
58. R.E.M. - Document
59. Lou Reed - New York
60. Prince - Purple Rain
61. The Wedding Present - Bizarro
62. The Church - Starfish
63. Television Personalities - And Don't The Kids Just Love It
64. Elvis Costello - Get Happy!!
65. Talking Heads - Little Creatures
66. R.E.M. - Reckoning
67. This Mortal Coil - It'll End In Tears
68. The Police - Synchronicity
69. Kraftwerk - Komputerwelt
70. Big Black - Atomizer
71. Depeche Mode - Music For The Masses
72. David Bowie - Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)
73. Paul Simon - Graceland
74. Dexy's Midnight Runners - Searching For The Young Soul Rebels
75. King Crimson - Discipline
76. Republika - Nowe sytuacje
77. Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine
78. The Chameleons - What Does Anything Mean, Basically?
79. The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight
80. Roxy Music - Avalon
81. Gang Of Four - Solid Gold
82. Nirvana - Bleach
83. Klaus Mitffoch - Klaus Mitffoch
84. Soft Cell - Non Stop Erotic Cabaret
85. Aztec Camera - High Land, Hard Rain
86. Metallica - Master Of Puppets
87. Midnight Oil - Diesel & Dust
88. Public Image Ltd. - Second Edition
89. Glenn Branca - The Ascension
90. Kult - Spokojnie
91. Magazine - The Correct Use Of Soap
92. The Triffids - Born Sandy Devotional
93. Peter Gabriel - III
94. Duran Duran - Rio
95. Minor Threat - Out Of Step
96. Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction
97. Ultravox - Vienna
98. Michael Jackson - Thriller
99. Black Flag - Damaged
100. Nick Cave - Tender Prey

Jacek

Jul 22nd, 2006 - 10:48 PM

Re: Screenagers.pl 100 Best Album Of The 1980s

This is one of the best 80's lists I've seen. Kudos for giving the props to Polish albums and some criminally underappreciated artists like Talk Talk.

Note for indie zines:
Make more lists. Rolling Stone or NME throw at us another "best albums of all time" list every couple of years, we need to put up some resistance.

JR

Jul 22nd, 2006 - 10:56 PM

Any 80s List...

missing

Like a Prayer[/i] is thumbs down!

Kate Bush is the only solo female! And Sonic Youth the only other act included to include a female. (I may be missing a couple of acts that may include a female, but you see my point).

Yeah, it's a man's world, but c'mon- I mean, *at least* throw in 5-6 female albums.

Rocky Raccoon

Jul 23rd, 2006 - 4:06 AM

Re: Screenagers.pl 100 Best Album Of The 1980s

Eh, I'm not so sure about this list. It's got a lot of great albums on it, including some personal favorites, but it's not very diverse or representative of the decade. JR points out the lack of women, although have you ever thought of writing just one post that wasn't related to Madonna? On second thought, don't; we wouldn't want the world to end

. But there is also a disturbing lack of black artists on the list. Prince and Michael Jackson (and he almost doesn't count) are extremely low, and where's rap? Only white boys the Beastie Boys are on the list that I could see. No Public Enemy, Run DMC, NWA, De La Soul, etc ... The demographic of this list reminds me of a Republican Party convention.

Jacek

Jul 23rd, 2006 - 8:46 AM

Re: Screenagers.pl 100 Best Album Of The 1980s

This is a Polish list, Rocky Raccoon. So the lack of rap is perhaps understandable. Rap is a very lyrics oriented genre of music, and if English isn't your primary language, even if you can speak it well, chances are you won't enjoy it quite as much, plus in Poland you can hardly relate to what they're rapping about. As for women other than Madonna I can't think of any that would belong on such a list.

Jeff

Jul 23rd, 2006 - 9:16 AM

Re: Screenagers.pl 100 Best Album Of The 1980s

For the sake of comparison, here are all the female artists that rank in the top 100 for the decade on acclaimed music. [this includes bands with female members, I might have missed a few, this was from the top of my head.]

5. Talking Heads- Remain in Light
12. Pixies- Doolittle
15. Sonic Youth- Daydream Nation
17. Pixies- Surfer Rosa
25. Pretenders- Pretenders
31. Human League- Dare!
40. The Pogues- Rum, Sodomy and the Lash
41. Kate Bush- Hounds of Love
42. Richard and Linda Thompson- Shoot Out the Lights
43. New Order- Technique
54. Madonna- Like a Prayer
56. Tracy Chapman- Tracy Chapman
61. X- Los Angeles
68. New Order- Low Life
84. X- Wild Gift
92. Tina Turner- Tiny Dancer

There are 16 total, of course of those 16 only 5 had a female member who was the driving force behind the artist/band [25, 41, 54, 56, 92]. So perhaps the 80's really wasn't the best decade for women?

Still, I would have like to have seen more rap. I'm sure the language barrier counts for quite a bit, but how does that explain the absence of artists like De La Soul, who were often times melodic and experimental with their music? I mean, they had the Beastie Boys, who are probably the closest artist to De La Soul stylistically.

Overall though, I like the list.

ka

Jul 23rd, 2006 - 4:56 PM

Re: Screenagers.pl 100 Best Album Of The 1980s

I fully understand your point about hip-hop records, a few of them would do the list good, but the first thing is what Jacek said and the second thing is that screenagers is a very guitar-indie-oriented source, so it comes as no surprise that it concentrates on post-punk acts rather than Madonna or De La Soul.

Henrik

Jul 23rd, 2006 - 6:58 PM

Re: Screenagers.pl 100 Best Album Of The 1980s

Although it would could be healthy for Screenagers' writers to broaden their taste a bit, I don't think they should pretend to be anything else than a guitar-indie oriented webzine if that's what they like.

And if we talk about a wider taste we should talk about Astor Piazzolla and King Sunny Adé as much as we talk about Public Enemy and De La Soul.

Thanks ka!

JR

Jul 24th, 2006 - 1:32 AM

Hehe...

I have made posts that didn't include Madonna, but since she is about as big as they come in terms of influence and being celebrated, why not talk about her a lot?

Jacek, you may not be a big fan of Madge, but surely you recnognixe that Like a Prayer is one of the 80s acclaimed efforts.

Jess

Jul 24th, 2006 - 4:33 AM

Re: Screenagers.pl 100 Best Album Of The 1980s

asking jr to not talk about madonna would be like asking him to stop peeing.

anyway, this is like most critics lists; male and white.

Jacek

Jul 24th, 2006 - 6:37 AM

Re: Screenagers.pl 100 Best Album Of The 1980s

Well, I actually like "Like a Prayer" a lot, was in my top100 in last year's poll I think. If you read carefully you will notice I wrote "Women other than Madonna". Also I meant women who are not already on the list.

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ka Jul 22, 06 - 7:57 PM	Screenagers.pl 100 Best Album Of The 1980s http://www.screenagers.pl/index.php?service=xtras&action=show&id=7 1. The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead 2. Joy Division - Closer 3. The Cure - Disintegration 4. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation 5. Talking Heads - Remain In Light 6. Pixies - Doolittle 7. R.E.M. - Murmur 8. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses 9. XTC - Skylarking 10. The Jesus & Mary Chain - Psychocandy 11. Talk Talk - Spirit Of Eden 12. Tom Waits - Rain Dogs 13. The Jam - Sound Affects 14. Sonic Youth - Sister 15. Echo & The Bunnymen - Ocean Rain 16. Husker Du - Zen Arcade 17. Talk Talk - The Colour Of Spring 18. Elvis Costello - Imperial Bedroom 19. U2 - The Joshua Tree 20. Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes 21. Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones 22. Pixies - Surfer Rosa 23. Galaxie 500 - On Fire 24. Minutemen - Double Nickels On The Dime 25. Dinosaur Jr. - You're Living All Over Me 26. XTC - English Settlement 27. Kate Bush - Hounds Of Love 28. New Order - Technique 29. The Go-Betweens - 16 Lovers Lane 30. The Replacements - Let It Be 31. Wipers - Youth Of America 32. U2 - War 33. The Smiths - The Smiths 34. The Replacements - Tim 35. The Cure - The Head On The Door 36. The Teardrop Expolodes - Kilimanjaro 37. Cocteau Twins - Treasure 38. The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace 39. Sonic Youth - EVOL 40. Brygada Kryzys - Brygada Kryzys 41. New Order - Power, Corruption & Lies 42. Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables 43. Bauhaus - In The Flat Field 44. The Cure - Pornography 45. Brian Eno & David Byrne - My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts 46. Spacemen 3 - Playing With Fire 47. Siekiera - Nowa Aleksandria 48. Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking 49. Bruce Springsteen - The River 50. Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique 51. Lech Janerka - Historia Podwodna 52. My Bloody Valentine - Isn't Anything 53. XTC - Black Sea 54. The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms 55. Big Black - Songs About Fucking 56. This Heat - Deceit 57. The Waterboys - This Is The Sea 58. R.E.M. - Document 59. Lou Reed - New York 60. Prince - Purple Rain 61. The Wedding Present - Bizarro 62. The Church - Starfish 63. Television Personalities - And Don't The Kids Just Love It 64. Elvis Costello - Get Happy!! 65. Talking Heads - Little Creatures 66. R.E.M. - Reckoning 67. This Mortal Coil - It'll End In Tears 68. The Police - Synchronicity 69. Kraftwerk - Komputerwelt 70. Big Black - Atomizer 71. Depeche Mode - Music For The Masses 72. David Bowie - Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) 73. Paul Simon - Graceland 74. Dexy's Midnight Runners - Searching For The Young Soul Rebels 75. King Crimson - Discipline 76. Republika - Nowe sytuacje 77. Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine 78. The Chameleons - What Does Anything Mean, Basically? 79. The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight 80. Roxy Music - Avalon 81. Gang Of Four - Solid Gold 82. Nirvana - Bleach 83. Klaus Mitffoch - Klaus Mitffoch 84. Soft Cell - Non Stop Erotic Cabaret 85. Aztec Camera - High Land, Hard Rain 86. Metallica - Master Of Puppets 87. Midnight Oil - Diesel & Dust 88. Public Image Ltd. - Second Edition 89. Glenn Branca - The Ascension 90. Kult - Spokojnie 91. Magazine - The Correct Use Of Soap 92. The Triffids - Born Sandy Devotional 93. Peter Gabriel - III 94. Duran Duran - Rio 95. Minor Threat - Out Of Step 96. Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction 97. Ultravox - Vienna 98. Michael Jackson - Thriller 99. Black Flag - Damaged 100. Nick Cave - Tender Prey
Jacek Jul 22nd, 2006 - 10:48 PM	Re: Screenagers.pl 100 Best Album Of The 1980s This is one of the best 80's lists I've seen. Kudos for giving the props to Polish albums and some criminally underappreciated artists like Talk Talk. Note for indie zines: Make more lists. Rolling Stone or NME throw at us another "best albums of all time" list every couple of years, we need to put up some resistance.
JR Jul 22nd, 2006 - 10:56 PM	Any 80s List... missing Like a Prayer[/i] is thumbs down! Kate Bush is the only solo female! And Sonic Youth the only other act included to include a female. (I may be missing a couple of acts that may include a female, but you see my point). Yeah, it's a man's world, but c'mon- I mean, at least throw in 5-6 female albums.
Rocky Raccoon Jul 23rd, 2006 - 4:06 AM	Re: Screenagers.pl 100 Best Album Of The 1980s Eh, I'm not so sure about this list. It's got a lot of great albums on it, including some personal favorites, but it's not very diverse or representative of the decade. JR points out the lack of women, although have you ever thought of writing just one post that wasn't related to Madonna? On second thought, don't; we wouldn't want the world to end . But there is also a disturbing lack of black artists on the list. Prince and Michael Jackson (and he almost doesn't count) are extremely low, and where's rap? Only white boys the Beastie Boys are on the list that I could see. No Public Enemy, Run DMC, NWA, De La Soul, etc ... The demographic of this list reminds me of a Republican Party convention.
Jacek Jul 23rd, 2006 - 8:46 AM	Re: Screenagers.pl 100 Best Album Of The 1980s This is a Polish list, Rocky Raccoon. So the lack of rap is perhaps understandable. Rap is a very lyrics oriented genre of music, and if English isn't your primary language, even if you can speak it well, chances are you won't enjoy it quite as much, plus in Poland you can hardly relate to what they're rapping about. As for women other than Madonna I can't think of any that would belong on such a list.
Jeff Jul 23rd, 2006 - 9:16 AM	Re: Screenagers.pl 100 Best Album Of The 1980s For the sake of comparison, here are all the female artists that rank in the top 100 for the decade on acclaimed music. [this includes bands with female members, I might have missed a few, this was from the top of my head.] 5. Talking Heads- Remain in Light 12. Pixies- Doolittle 15. Sonic Youth- Daydream Nation 17. Pixies- Surfer Rosa 25. Pretenders- Pretenders 31. Human League- Dare! 40. The Pogues- Rum, Sodomy and the Lash 41. Kate Bush- Hounds of Love 42. Richard and Linda Thompson- Shoot Out the Lights 43. New Order- Technique 54. Madonna- Like a Prayer 56. Tracy Chapman- Tracy Chapman 61. X- Los Angeles 68. New Order- Low Life 84. X- Wild Gift 92. Tina Turner- Tiny Dancer There are 16 total, of course of those 16 only 5 had a female member who was the driving force behind the artist/band [25, 41, 54, 56, 92]. So perhaps the 80's really wasn't the best decade for women? Still, I would have like to have seen more rap. I'm sure the language barrier counts for quite a bit, but how does that explain the absence of artists like De La Soul, who were often times melodic and experimental with their music? I mean, they had the Beastie Boys, who are probably the closest artist to De La Soul stylistically. Overall though, I like the list.
ka Jul 23rd, 2006 - 4:56 PM	Re: Screenagers.pl 100 Best Album Of The 1980s I fully understand your point about hip-hop records, a few of them would do the list good, but the first thing is what Jacek said and the second thing is that screenagers is a very guitar-indie-oriented source, so it comes as no surprise that it concentrates on post-punk acts rather than Madonna or De La Soul.
Henrik Jul 23rd, 2006 - 6:58 PM	Re: Screenagers.pl 100 Best Album Of The 1980s Although it would could be healthy for Screenagers' writers to broaden their taste a bit, I don't think they should pretend to be anything else than a guitar-indie oriented webzine if that's what they like. And if we talk about a wider taste we should talk about Astor Piazzolla and King Sunny Adé as much as we talk about Public Enemy and De La Soul. Thanks ka!
JR Jul 24th, 2006 - 1:32 AM	Hehe... I have made posts that didn't include Madonna, but since she is about as big as they come in terms of influence and being celebrated, why not talk about her a lot? Jacek, you may not be a big fan of Madge, but surely you recnognixe that Like a Prayer is one of the 80s acclaimed efforts.
Jess Jul 24th, 2006 - 4:33 AM	Re: Screenagers.pl 100 Best Album Of The 1980s asking jr to not talk about madonna would be like asking him to stop peeing. anyway, this is like most critics lists; male and white.
Jacek Jul 24th, 2006 - 6:37 AM	Re: Screenagers.pl 100 Best Album Of The 1980s Well, I actually like "Like a Prayer" a lot, was in my top100 in last year's poll I think. If you read carefully you will notice I wrote "Women other than Madonna". Also I meant women who are not already on the list.