1981 NME Albums Poll (Closes 8. May)

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So, about time we are doing a classic New Romantics/New Wave year as well?

The NME lists give 50 albums to choose from, so the opportunity should be there (source: www.rocklist.net)

My vote for "Dare" btw. :)

Poll Results

Option	Votes
Computer world - Kraftwerk	9
Wild gift - X	7
Tin drum - Japan	3
Dare - Human league	3
Flowers of romance - PIL	2
Mutant disco - Various artists	2
Raise! - Earth wind and fire	2
Playing with a different sex - Au Pairs	2
East side story - Squeeze	2
Slates - The fall	2
Nightclubbing - Grace Jones	2
Positive touch - The undertones	1
Heaven up here - Echo and the bunnymen	1
Dolmen music - Meredith Monk	1
Trust - Elvis Costello	1
Intuition - Linx	1
Wha'ppen - The beat	1
Penthouse and Pavement - Heaven 17	1
Odyshape - The raincoats	1
It must be magic - Teena Marie	1
Fresh fruit in foreign places - Kid Creole and the coconuts	1
Gold und liebe - DAF	1
Dreamtime - Tom Verlaine	0
Greatest hits - Throbbing Gristle	0
New chapter - Aswad	0
Something special - Kool and the gang	0
Miracles - Change	0
In our lifetime - Marvin Gaye	0
The man with the horn - Miles Davis	0
Pleasant dreams - The Ramones	0
Psychedelic jungle - The cramps	0
Sleep no more - The Comsat angels	0
The many faces of roger - Roger	0
Alan vega - Alan Vega	0
Tattoo you - The Rolling Stones	0
Alles ist gut - DAF	0
Red mecca - Cabaret Voltaire	0
Black president - Fela Kuti	0
Rock 'n' groove - Bunny Wailer	0
Almost blue - Elvis Costello	0
Being with you - Smokey Robinson	0
See jungle! etc..... - Bow wow wow	0
The electric spanking ..... - Funkadelic	0
Gang war - Prince Charles & the City beat band	0
Sings the Wailers - Bunny Wailer	0
Get down attack - General Caine II	0
Blythe Spirit - Arther Blythe	0
7 - Madness	0
Defunkt - Defunkt	0
Red - Black Uhuru	0

― Geir Hongro, Friday, 4 May 2007 08:19 (eighteen years ago)

Which I regret. Didn't notice "Tin Drum" was in there. Oh well...

― Geir Hongro, Friday, 4 May 2007 08:23 (eighteen years ago)

A pretty good list surprisingly. I voted for Wild Gift. How new wave is that?

― JN$OT, Friday, 4 May 2007 08:28 (eighteen years ago)

More new wave than Rolling Stones, Teena Marie or Funkadelic I would guess. :)

― Geir Hongro, Friday, 4 May 2007 08:32 (eighteen years ago)

Really?

― JN$OT, Friday, 4 May 2007 08:35 (eighteen years ago)

Never heard that Prince Charles album btw. Wasn't he too busy marrying Diana to be able to release albums in 1981?

― Geir Hongro, Friday, 4 May 2007 08:36 (eighteen years ago)

GRACE JONES

― lex pretend, Friday, 4 May 2007 09:00 (eighteen years ago)

Tin Drum gets my vote, easy as pie.

― Trayce, Friday, 4 May 2007 09:02 (eighteen years ago)

At the time: Heaven 17.

For years and years, until it became overplayed and lost its lustre: Grace Jones.

Tempted by: Kraftwerk.

But I'm going with the Au Pairs.

― mike t-diva, Friday, 4 May 2007 11:30 (eighteen years ago)

I feel almost guilty to vote for Wild Gift for the second time in a week, but some of those songs were really big for me at the time, and as an album, it's had a very long life-span (again, for me). But that's not to say there aren't other tasty albums on that list.

― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 4 May 2007 11:33 (eighteen years ago)

That's some list. I voted for Dolmen Music from a shortlist of about 20.

Top ten records missing from the list:
Associates - Fourth Drawer Down
Comsat Angels - Sleep No More
Brian Eno & David Byrne - My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts
Killing Joke - What's This For?
Material - Memory Serves
New Order - Movement
Simple Minds - Sons And Fascination/Sister Feelings Call
Soft Cell - Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret
Teardrop Explodes - Wilder
Was (Not Was) - Was (Not Was)

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 4 May 2007 12:42 (eighteen years ago)

also:
Birthday Party - Prayers On Fire

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 4 May 2007 12:47 (eighteen years ago)

and OMD - Architecture And Morality (blimey, what a year!)

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 4 May 2007 12:48 (eighteen years ago)

Teena Marie, easy. But I do love that list a lot; it is way better than the Pazz&Jop list from that year. Especially amazing to see these on there (even though I have always referred to Mutant Disco by its American title, Seize The Beat, instead):

Mutant disco - Various artists
Blythe Spirit - Arther Blythe
Intuition - Linx
Miracles - Change

Prince Charles and the City Beat Band's presence is wacky as well, even if they weren't all that good.

NME must have way fewer voters than Pazz & Jop though. (And who is General Caine III?)

― xhuxk, Friday, 4 May 2007 12:48 (eighteen years ago)

81 was a great year. I'm sure I could add to the list of missing albums (especially if I were home and awake).

― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:03 (eighteen years ago)

Here are a (very random) few:

Joan Jett And The Blackhearts – I Love Rock n’ Roll (Boardwalk)
Foreigner – 4 (Atlantic)
Loverboy – Get Lucky (Columbia)
Journey – Escape (Columbia)
Def Leppard – High ‘N’ Dry (Mercury)
Killing Joke – What’s This For (EG)
Mission Of Burma – Signals Calls And Marches (Ace Of Hearts EP)
Circle Jerks – Group Sex (Frontier EP)
Rosanne Cash – Seven Year Ache (Columbia)
Cabaret Voltaire – Red Mecca (Mute)
Glenn Branca – The Ascension (99)
Meat Puppets – In A Car (SST EP)
John Gavanti – John Gavanti (Hyrax)

― xhuxk, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:04 (eighteen years ago)

oops, Killing Joke previously mentioned(and some people will also call Circle Jerks an LP not an EP, and Meat Puppets was only a 7-inch. Big whoop.)

― xhuxk, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:07 (eighteen years ago)

And a slightly less random few more:

Cepillin - Rock Infantil (Orfeon Mexico)
J Geils Band - Freeze Frame (EMI America)
Girlschool - Hit and Run (Bronze UK)
Rick James - Street Songs (Gordy)
Kix - Kix (Atlantic)
Quarterflash - Quarterflash (Geffen)
Romantics - National Breakout (Nemporer)
Rose Tattoo - Assault and Battery (Mirage)
(Various) - Greatest Rap Hits Vol 2 (Sugarhill)

― xhuxk, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:12 (eighteen years ago)

Get Down Attack by General Caine II was a very fine (if sub-P Funk) hardcore funk album, a staple of the cutout racks in London specialist soul and dance shops for many years; not sure if it ever made it onto CD. No idea what happened to him after that, though (or indeed to General Caine I, if such a person existed).

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:35 (eighteen years ago)

Given the funky leanings of the list, I'm actually really surprised, I gotta say, that Rick James isn't on there. (I believe he was top 10 Pazz & Jop)....Not to mention, uh, now that I think of it, Controversy by Prince! They'd seem natural fits on the list. Did they not come out in the UK til later? Or (I seriously doubt this, but what the heck) did NME critics boycot them for being I dunno sexist, or being liked by US critics, or something?

― xhuxk, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:39 (eighteen years ago)

Not particularly - Prince even had an NME cover back in the spring/early summer of '81. Most likely critics just forgot to put them in their individual lists (I think they did top 20s in those days, and it is extremely annoying that the NME never print individual critic EOY lists since these are obv far more interesting than the general list, in which the consensus choices by definition get priority).

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:44 (eighteen years ago)

And of course Sleep No More IS in the NME list *slaps self awake*...

But in the 36-50 section specifically there's a lot of Ian Penman input.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:45 (eighteen years ago)

Also conspicuous by their absence:
Black Flag - Damaged
Tav Falco's Panther Burns - Behind The Magnolia Curtain

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:48 (eighteen years ago)

Psychedelic Furs: Talk Talk Talk
King Crimson: Discipline
Mikey Dread: World War III

― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:50 (eighteen years ago)

(I have to admit I like the Mikey Dread primarily just for the last three tracks, but they are long.)

― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:51 (eighteen years ago)

Very tempted to try a 1981 singles poll, but I would have great difficulty narrowing the candidates down from about a thousand; it was that sort of a year.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:54 (eighteen years ago)

Could just go with the NME list? Some crackers there.

― braveclub, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:58 (eighteen years ago)

Hans Reichel: Bonobo Beach
Fred Frith: Speechless

― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:58 (eighteen years ago)

(I don't care if the Hans Reichel is a little obscure--that is a great album, and not particularly inaccessible.)

― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:59 (eighteen years ago)

Number 44 in the NME singles list is, however, inexplicable.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:59 (eighteen years ago)

Psychedelic Furs: Talk Talk Talk

Yeah, what gives?!? It's not on the list. The Yoo Kay was also not sold on A Flock of Seagulls either.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:59 (eighteen years ago)

One-hit wonders over here, mate.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 4 May 2007 14:24 (eighteen years ago)

so were the Clash essentially banned from NME by this point? I knew there was a thing against them...but wow, not even in the top 50 (unsurprisingly, Sandanista![i] topped P&J). Was it the same for [i]London Calling the previous year?

― sw00ds, Friday, 4 May 2007 14:30 (eighteen years ago)

Who was Roger, and his many faces?

― Mark G, Friday, 4 May 2007 14:32 (eighteen years ago)

London Calling came third in the 1979 poll.

Sandinista (1980) was slagged off by everyone here.

Roger Troutman, of Zapp fame. Good album, that, including best non-Motown cover version of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" (OK, slug it out with Creedence).

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 4 May 2007 14:48 (eighteen years ago)

Who was Roger, and his many faces?

xpost to roger thread!

This was a tough year to pick! There is no way that particular Funkadelic album belongs on there btw. Just the NME trying to show off that they finally figured out who they are maybe...

― Saxby D. Elder, Friday, 4 May 2007 14:54 (eighteen years ago)

incisive

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 4 May 2007 15:04 (eighteen years ago)

It's a toss-up between the Fall, X, and Meredith Monk for me. I think the Fall just edges it here.

― o. nate, Friday, 4 May 2007 15:42 (eighteen years ago)

"East Side Story"

― zeus, Friday, 4 May 2007 19:27 (eighteen years ago)

Penthouse and Pavement just edged out Computer World and Dolmen Music.

― dan selzer, Friday, 4 May 2007 19:40 (eighteen years ago)

Given the funky leanings of the list, I'm actually really surprised, I gotta say, that Rick James isn't on there. (I believe he was top 10 Pazz & Jop)....Not to mention, uh, now that I think of it, Controversy by Prince! They'd seem natural fits on the list. Did they not come out in the UK til later?

I guess, by 1981, Prince was seen as the one hit wonder who hat a hit with "I Wanna Be Your Lover" in 1979.

― Geir Hongro, Friday, 4 May 2007 20:17 (eighteen years ago)

My #1's not listed: Lindey Buckingham's Law and Order.

― The Deacon, Friday, 4 May 2007 20:55 (eighteen years ago)

xpost to xhuxk--

Freeze Frame was the first LP I ever bought with my own money! And I haven't heard it in something like 24 years. But there was this weird little song on side 2, "River Blindness", that still plays in my head at least once or twice a week. It was kind of a bent track, I recall. It and "Blue Jay Way" were probably my first encounters with music meant to sound freaky.

What is this frickin' J Geils song subsisting on to let it survive in my brain so long without any reinforcement?

― Jon Lewis, Friday, 4 May 2007 21:02 (eighteen years ago)

Heaven Up Here

― stephen, Friday, 4 May 2007 21:59 (eighteen years ago)

I'll probably be the lone Costello vote--Trust is my favorite album of his.

― Matos W.K., Friday, 4 May 2007 23:09 (eighteen years ago)

Odyshape, because it's amazing.

― funny farm, Friday, 4 May 2007 23:36 (eighteen years ago)

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