Best Album on My Favourite Albums of......1985!!

can't beat Steve McQueen

Bad Moon Rising

Voting for The Head on the Door, although Low Life will probably - wrongly - get more votes.

Meat Puppets. Or Microdisney. Or Prefab Sprout or the Fall.

Probably Meat Puppets though.

Either Celtic Frost or Tom Waits. Probably the former.

others I really liked

Colourfield - Virgins and Philistines
Haruomi Hosono - Nokto de la Galaksia Fervojo, Coincidental Music, The Endless Talking
P-Model - Karkador
Klaus Dinger - Neondian

oh god i guess this is cupid and psyche, though i really wanna vote for to mega therion

can't beat Steve McQueen

― frogbs, Friday, May 17, 2019 6:22 PM (nine minutes ago)

I would've probably said Scritti Politti a few years ago though

chameleons

Husker vs Waits vs Mekons vs Pogues vs Sprout

Husker has a bit of an unfair edge cause they dropped two incredible albums in 85

Much as Steve McQueen has become a favourite in recent years I can't not vote for Hounds of Love.

fables

Great stuff here but it's Psychocandy by a mile for me

This Poll's Saving Grace

Top 5 would have Psychocandy, Tim, Low Life and Hounds of Love, but my vote goes to one that's likely to be under appreciated: Propaganda's A Secret Wish, an absolutely crucial album in the development of my musical tastes (and the only one of the five I owned at the time).

A favourite one not in the list is Colourbox.

chameleons

― :∵·∴·∵: (crüt), Friday, May 17, 2019 11:37 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah this is also my fav chameleons record

Chameleons thirded but I love well more than half of these albums.

This Nation's Saving Grace, of course! Although Head on the Door is superb all the way through.

I actively went looking for 1985 albums because my list for this year was so weak, and it was just really depressing. 1985 is very much the dead heart of the '80s.

Derdiyoklar Ilklisi - Oyun Havalari ve Halaylar
Don Pullen - The Sixth Sense
Dwarr - Starting Over
Exodus - Bonded by Blood
Fortune - s/t
Jose Afonso - Galinhas do Mato
Klaus Mittfoch - s/t
Mirka Krivankova & Jiri Stivin & Co - Reflections
Misha Mengelberg, Steve Lacy, George Lewis, Harjen Gorter, Han Bennink - Change of Season (Music of Herbie Nichols)
N.O.T.A. - s/t
Nemesy - s/t
Olev Muska ft. Ingrid Slamer - Old Estonian Waltzes
Paga Group - s/t
Philip Perkins - Drive Time
Rajie - Espresso
Rimarimba - Below the Horizon
Ursula K. LeGuin & Todd Barton - Music & Poetry of the Kesh
Whiplash - Power & Pain
Yoshi Wada - Off the Wall
Yoshihiro Kanno - Angel's Egg
Jun Togawa - Kyokutô Ian Shôka

That is just goddamn sad. That's barely twenty!

Voted "Hounds of Love".

Yoshi Wada - Off the Wall is amazing though

I've waited hours for this
I've made myself so sick
I wish I'd stayed asleep today
I never thought this day would end
I never thought tonight could ever be
This close to me

Counted 17 albums I love on here. Prolly would go Husker Du, but I would be lying if I didn't say I've probably listened to Love by the Cult maybe more than anything else on this list.

Nemesy fuck yeah “24 hours” is my jam

I haven't thought about The Cult since the 80s, I loved Bad Moon Rising, Gas Food Lodging

Husker Du's New Day Rising/Flip Your Wig - those albums were both so phenomenal

at the time it seemed like the sweet melodies backed up by the shocking noise interference in Psychocandy was really radical, I still really love it in retrospect

xp looking back at it I don't think 1985 was a weak year at all

There was plenty of great stuff released in 1985, although the UK chart listings of that year would have one wrongly thinking otherwise.

Got to go with the Husker Du twofer

Pretty good year, I think (xp)

Shout! out to Songs From the Big Chair

Fables and BMR are the ones I've listened to the most, Hounds of Love next. I voted for Fables. Such a classic run in the first three songs.

Voted for Prefab Sprout, though Scritti Politti ran them close.

1985 was a good year for singles, not so much for albums.

Cupid and Psyche ‘85, Low-Life, A Secret Wish, The Head On The Door, Alexander O’Neal and Don’t Stand Me Down are all favourites of mine, but none of them are quite as perfect as Steve McQueen.

my answer here is 'none of them', i mean probably kate bush if pressed but none of these are albums i really like (yet)

oh god wait it's Tom Waits of course, didn't see him. not always a fan but that record is undeniable

Undeniably shite, like anything with Tom Waits' "voice" on it.

but have you heard the song 'time'? he has a real voice when he wants!

He could sing back when he was trying to be Randy Newman.

Bone Machine might be my personal favourite but Rain Dogs is a stone cold classic ffs.

Imago, I reckon you'd like that Dif Juz album. Its beautiful.

I feel bad that I gave my vote for "Steve McQueen" at the expense of my fave Fall album

Propaganda

Psychocandy hell yeah

Going with Mekons (or Melons, as autocorrect desperately wants me to call them)

So many albums I love here. For me it boiled down to Kate Bush vs JAMC. Went with Kate, but Psychocandy is still amazing.

Love Huskers and Replacements of course, Head on the Door is all-time, the Prefab Sprout and Smiths and Fall albums are great, and Rum, Sodomy and the Lash. And Rain Dogs, Low Life, a lot of good records.

Voted Kate too. Was also considering Fables, but I listen to Hounds of Love more these days

if it was NDR vs Psychocandy I'd have a decsion, but if I get Flip Your Wig too...

Aye, Husker Du getting my vote which will surprise nobody.

This is the Pupps two years in a row. Love love love those albums

What's missing in this list is Tears for Fears' Songs from the Big Chair, which would have undoubtedly gotten my vote had it been on the list. As for the other albums listed, I was SUPER tempted to go for Bryan Ferry and am almost regretting not having gone for him (because I'll be very surprised if he gets any votes at all from nu-ILM), but my heart screamed for Cupid and Psyche '85 because I've been passionate about that album for well over 2/3rds of my life and it deserves some continuous love around here.

Don Pullen - The Sixth Sense

This is such a brilliant record. His Soul Note/Black Saint box is all killer/no filler.

Couldn't decide between Huskers, R.E.M., Replacements, and Run-D.M.C., so I went with The Indestructible Beat Of Soweto.

hounds of love is the best album of all time so that one

Toss up for me between Prefab Sprout, LC & the Commotions, The Waterboys, The Cult, and a-Ha - all still played regularly. Went with Prefab Sprout. Love that album so much.

Also 1985:
The Lucy Show - ...undone
The Armoury Show - Waiting for the Floods

And Salem 66 - A Ripping Spin, which I think I played more than anything here. But from this list, Meat Puppets.

Wow some great titles on there, but in a negative vein, Little Creatures really sticks out as an unanticipated stinker.

I might have voted for first Big Audio Dynamite record if it had made the list, but went with Psychocandy.

I've made my peace with Little Creatures, but at the time the comedown from Remain in Light to Speaking In Tongues to lyrics about "little peepee, little toes" was really depressing.

No kidding! Desmond has a barrow in the marketplace.

when i was younger my uncle gave me a tape of "the sixth sense" with an elmo hope record on the other side, but it wasn't labelled, it took me like twenty years before i found out which don pullen album exactly it was

worth the wait

maybe in another 20 years i'll properly get into elmo hope!

I remember driving around in 1985, the first year I had a driver's license, and the radio was dreadfully boring. Terrible year for the Top 40. I heard Simple Minds, Foreigner, and John Parr more often than anything on this list.

Husker Du is the best thing here.

Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam's first album would be a contender if it were listed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gh6YHRcVCI

^ Realism

It really seems like this was the year that the 80's jumped the shark.

To Mega Therion

Fall, Huskers, Mats, Sprouts, Meat Puppets, Fear and Whiskey remains my favorite Mekons. Too much to choose from once again. If Robespierre's Velvet Basement were on here it would (probably) get my vote.

This was a good year for radio if you lived near a station like KROQ in LA:

http://www.radiohitlist.com/KROQ/KROQ-1985.htm

It really seems like this was the year that the 80's jumped the shark.

― enochroot, Wednesday, May 22, 2019 12:22 PM (forty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hmm, yes and no. While I do think pop music went through a relatively crappy period from 1986 to 1988, there was still plenty of great music being recorded and released - just that, again, the charts of the time don't really reflect it. It picks up again from 1989, though, which was a great year for music.

xp Oingo Boingo were really cleaning up!

Yeah, they were local heroes in LA.

Ha, that playlist is not selling me.

A lot of those have become perennial 80s flashback favorites. Vintage tracks by Simple Minds, INXS, Tears for Fears, Pet Shop Boys, New Order and some classic one-hit
wonders like Tarzan Boy, World Destruction etc.

While I do think pop music went through a relatively crappy period from 1986 to 1988, there was still plenty of great music being recorded and released - just that, again, the charts of the time don't really reflect it.

To be fair, the charts never reflect all the great music in any time period and we mostly remember the best stuff. Once I discovered "college music" in 1984, I had zero interest in the charts though it was inescapable at the time (I never need to hear Whitney again). The 2nd half of the 80s is still full of fantastic, boundary-pushing stuff and I look forward to those polls.

Pogues just squeaking by Mekons.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

The runners-up:

Alexander O’Neal: a fine album front to back, but I’ll have Janet’s Control to vote for in the ‘86 poll (right?) (right??)

Psychocandy: the punk continuum’s last hurrah, for me personally at least. The last time I was thrilled by this kind of music and immersed myself in it. It was great while it lasted.

Also: Around the World in a Day and Cupid & Psyche ‘85. I know I also dug Bad Moon Rising back then, but I seem to have hardly any memory of it whatsoever.

(Note: The Indestructable Beat of Soweto has always been a real oversight for me as an aficionado of present-day Afropop. Listening to it today, I like it a lot even if it doesn’t blow me away.)

But yeah, this is so much Hounds of Love, even though I only knew (and loved) the singles at the time and wouldn’t fall for Kate l’Artiste until some time in the 90s.

Psychocandy is awful. I guess you had to be there.

Anyway, bit late on this, but albums from this year I would have also considered throwing a vote to:

Blancmange - Believe You Me
China Crisis - Flaunt the Imperfection
Marillion - Misplaced Childhood
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Crush
Phil Collins - No Jacket Required (Yes Seriously...)
Rush - Power Windows
Tears For Fears - Songs from the Big Chair
The Damned - Phantasmagoria

Tim in a relatively weak field.

I'd love to know when I first listened to Tim but it's been there ever since.

Slightly tarnished by 'Dose of Thunder' and 'Lay It Down Clown'. Should have cut them both for a decently recorded version of the outtake 'Nowhere Is My Home'.

i voted for the pogues

that album is like entering a whole world. most of my favorite albums feel like that.

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

Celtic Frost – To Mega Therion 3

what's up y'all

congratulations kate bush. my second pick.

The Smiths – Meat is Murder 1

loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool

It was never their best album tbf.

best t shirt

Sund4r's right, it never has been their best album, but I can't help but feel that it would have gotten far more votes if this poll had been held, I dunno, in 2007 or something.

well in 2012, it had the same placement:

Acclaimed Music Top 25 Albums from 1985 poll

13 593 The Smiths - Meat Is Murder 1

and it's Top 5:

2 114 Tom Waits - Rain Dogs 11
3 186 Kate Bush - Hounds of Love 10
1 84 The Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy 7
11 530 The Cure - The Head on the Door 6
8 480 The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace 6
6 426 Hüsker Dü - New Day Rising 5
25 1499 Mekons - Fear and Whiskey 5

I'm disappointed that "don't stand me down" got zero votes. Its such a great album

Celtic Frost – To Mega Therion 3

what's up y'all

― american bradass (BradNelson), Friday, May 24, 2019 12:03 AM (eight hours ago) Bookmark

waves! Also shout out to ILXor Nick B's username of yore, "Nightboat To Mega Therion", which I still think about fondly from time to time

if you were wondering how intentional the sound of New Day Rising was, Spot engineered Up On The Sun that year as well.

Can anyone account for the Prefab Sprout revival of the last few years?

Conversely, can anyone account for the Tom Waits stock plummet of the last few years?

Neither curve is justified.

Prefab Sprout stock has certainly risen in the last 15 years

why?

Its slowly dawned on people that they are awesome?

Their stock's always been pretty high?

Because the shops could never sell them?

I think you'll find they've pulled off the neat trick of being commercially and critically successful quite well over the years.

stuff on the sophistipop end of things is definitely popular with millennial nowadays, more so than say a decade ago ime

Well they disappeared for most of the 2000s, I suppose.

they've always been more popular/acclaimed in the UK, i feel like their rep has recently been catching up in the US

Yes, I'm talking from a UK perspective.

I remember Andromeda Heights coming out in '97 and the general feeling was "*shrug*", they couldn't have possibly been further removed from anything that was going on at the time.

The oracle has spoken.

Conversely, can anyone account for the Tom Waits stock plummet of the last few years?

― triggercut, Friday, May 24, 2019 10:17 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i blame tom scharpling

It wasn't as good as their earlier albums, which didn't help matters. Still sold reasonably well.

'Electric Guitars' made it onto a Total Guitar covermount CD or something.

Best Album on My Favourite Albums of......1986!!

Meat is Murder is my favourite Smiths albums but I voted for Sade instead here

stuff on the sophistipop end of things is definitely popular with millennial nowadays, more so than say a decade ago ime

they've always been more popular/acclaimed in the UK, i feel like their rep has recently been catching up in the US

Yeah, I wonder how much stuff like Destroyer's Kaputt has ignited an appreciation/rediscovery of a lot of the sophistipop classics of the 80s amongst the indie leaning crowd. The Great Sade Re-evaluation Of The Mid-To-Late 2010s is definitely part of this too.

ilm did this in about 2001 re sophistipop

ILM Prefab Sprout thread from back then was a bit "ooh remember this odd curious little pop act?" iirc

never forget this poll

What was the best New Pop album (80-85)?

wait that doesnt show the poll result try this What was the best New Pop album (80-85)?

scritti way more popular than prefab sprout then

Stuff like Scritti Politti and Prefab Sprout didn't feel relevant for a long time.

Not when all that Britpop shite was happening, true.

Not for pretty much all of the '90s and a great deal of the '00s, regardless of what was happening.

(and Britpop didn't exist)

Wow, I'm glad Scritti Politti picked up seven votes and Bryan Ferry walked away with one instead of being cruelly rejected like I was expecting the results to be.

'Relevance' LOL.

Id add the Suzanne Vega album and This is Big Audio Dynamite if I was compiling a list these days