Best Trio of Albums 1977-1982

kinda tough call - although a bunch of these trios have at least one crap album in them, so I narrowed it down to the one with zero stinkers and that put it at either Numan, Talking Heads, the Ramones, Kraftwerk, EC, Bowie... er okay that didn't narrow it down at all.

Gary Numan FTW!

kraftwerk vs magazine vs wire for me. tough one!

talking heads, magazine, wire, or bowie. not sure

bowie, gabriel, kraftwerk, fela, or talking heads. best period of music ever

The Birthday Party would get it if the Bad Seed/Mutiny in Heaven collection was included instead of Hee Haw.

The Fall, Bowie, Kraftwerk, Fela, PIL, Saints, Talking Heads, Wire can all make a good case (the three Culture albums released between 77-79 might be better than the lot though.) jaxon OTM about the period.

Bowie, Clash and Kraftwerk.

The Bowie is missing Scary Monsters.

Out of those, Japan.

The Fall should get it, though Slates isn't an album <pedant>.

Wire.

Great poll idea...I was boring and went with Bowie, when my heart wanted to vote for The Fall

The Birthday Party would get it if the Bad Seed/Mutiny in Heaven collection was included instead of Hee Haw.

Intriguing point: Do they have to be consecutive? should we be allowed to substitute an ALTERNATE trio of albums by any of the above as long as they're within the same time frame? (Back when bands regularly produced at least one new LP every year!)

My own choice depends on whether or not we have that option...

Wire

maybe Kraftwerk

Of this list, Kraftwerk, but I really want to vote for Dirty Mind/Controversy/1999 or One Nation Under a Groove/Uncle Jam Wants You/The Electric Spanking of War Babies.

The alternate albums for Birthday Party, Bowie, Clash, Fall, Numan, Police, Ramones, Siouxsie, Ultravox and XTC all would be reasonable, and they don't have to be consecutive. I skipped albums for Blondie, The Cure, The Damned, XTC, and maybe others. Just mention what you'd include when you vote. I was tempted to put Dragnet for The Fall, but I know Slates is a big favorite here. Vote with your heart, your head or your naughty bits!

You know it was an awesome era when it's really hard to choose. I should have included Joy Division, even though Still was just an odds 'n' sods, instead of La Dusseldorf, whose first album was 1976. Oops. I'd have included Prince and Funkadelic if I had more space.

it's gotta be either wire or the clash, right?

the english BEAT!

Voted for Talking Heads though I've always been partial to 77 over More Buildings. Easily could have put Name Of This Band Is on the list of 3 in place of one of the studio LPs.

Japan, Magazine, Talking Heads, Numan (though replace Tubeway Army with Telekon)

it's gotta be either wire or the clash, right?

Yes. It would be The Clash hands down if we could swap Give Em Enough Rope with Sandinista. But we can't. Same goes for Costello, Trust for My Aim Is True. But as it's written, it's Wire.

The Fall.

For the record, Springsteen released Darkness On The Edge of Town, The River & Nebraska in this time period. Not bad.

Like, those are good Fela records and stuff, but they don't tower above the rest of Fela's catalog the way the peak-era Fall does over both earlier and later Mark E Smith recordings.

Trust over My Aim Is True? That's a new one. I do kind of like the production on Trust, but felt at least half the songs were sub par. I think The River is a total dud, but it is sandwiched by good ones. I just don't usually associate that era with The Boss. Ian's right about Fela -- those '77 albums are some of his best, but he has more many great ones between 1970 and 75.

I'm always curious to know how people who are not my age perceive that time period. I was only 7-13 during that time, but my first three albums were Pleasure Principle, Fear Of Music and Armed Forces. But most of it I didn't hear 'til I was older, as my tastes also veered into ELO, Styx, Queen, Rush, etc. It was like a secret world that I had brief glimpses of through reading Creem magazine at the time, and opened up more when I discovered Trouser Press and the record guide. 30 years later and I'm still discovering albums I hadn't heard before thanks to reissues like Martha & The Muffins, The Individuals, Pylon, etc. I'm absolutely slavering over the double disc deluxe reissue of A Different Kind Of Tension (I have the 2004 remasters of the first two Buzzcocks). Each album has imperfections, but everything fit together so beautifully, including their album art and even show posters.

I took my all time top 1000 list and tallied the ones with three albums, and scored it like a cross country race. It mostly looked about right, thought I think there's a few albums I would rethink:

01. Talking Heads, 133
02. Wire, 243
03. Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band, 250
04. David Bowie, 345
05. Birthday Party, 547
06. The Buzzcocks, 560
07. The Jam, 819
08. The Clash, 928
09. X, 928
10. Elvis Costello, 1036
11. The Fall, 1090
12. The Sound, 1135
13. Pere Ubu, 1162
14. Comsat Angels, 1169
15. Gang Of Four, 1170
16. The Damned, 1474
17. Magazine, 1564
18. Fela Kuti, 1664
19. La Dusseldorf, 1668
20. XTC, 2443
21. Gary Numan/Tubeway Army, 2529
22. The Stranglers, 2620

The Fall, though Kraftwerk are tempting. Wire too.

Kraftwerk fall off quite a bit with Computer World. Do people really like that album that much? I would have thought I'd have more soul and reggae, but both were kind of winding down. Plenty of great reggae in the late 70s, but few artists seemed to be holding multi-album peaks. I guess Dennis Brown (Wolves & Leopards, Visions, Words Of Wisdom) qualifies, maybe The Gladiators, Cedric Brooks, Ras Michael, Marley of course. A lot of reggae artists of that era had key albums in 1976. As far as disco, perhaps Chic, though I'd actually never heard an entire Chic album.

Human League - Reproduction, Travelogue, Dare must be #51 on the list.

CHROOOOOOME!

How could you leave out Throbbing Gristle, btw?

Guess I never really listen to them anymore, though I have Second Annual Report, D.o.A. Heathen Earth, 20 Jazz Funk Greats.

Computer World is my favorite Kraftwerk album!

(nb: I have not heard all of them)

do kind of like the production on Trust, but felt at least half the songs were sub par.

It falls apart on side 2. but side 1 is the best thing he ever did. I wouldn't even rank My Aim Is True in his top 5. The songs are great, but I'm not so crazy about his backing band on that one, clover. Which later mutated into The News, of Huey Lewis fame.

20 Jazz Funk Greats is one of the greatest albums of all time, IMO. Check Drew Daniels of Matmos' recent 33-1/3 series entry on it.

'The Second Annual Report' and 'D.O.A.: The Third and Final Report' are the other two I'd go for. They birthed the entire 'industrial' side of noise/music, and this sounds terrible until you remember how awesome first-gen industrial was (Coil/TG/Cabaret Voltaire, not Skinny Puppy and the like).

Also props to Chris and Cosey, if you like the track 'Hot on the Heels of Love'.

And Psychic TV, of course.

the fall vs. pil for me. leaning towards pil.

chrome might've bested them both if you'd put red exposure instead of blood on the moon. is that some bizarre typo?

woah, human league is a huge omission, i didn't even notice. they'd be top two or three from this list for me for sure...but i think it has to be wire.

Exactly which four Peter Gabriel albums would this be? He he released four albums named "Peter Gabriel" during this time interval.

Anyway, either combination would have to include his second, and weakest, album. Which is why I didn't vote for him.

KRAFTWERK w/talking heads, bowie & the clash nipping at their heels.

If you switch out Let There Be Rock for Back In Black AC/DC becomes much harder to ignore.

Still voted for Bowie in the end.

Had it been "Station To Station" through "Heroes", Bowie had become a very obvious contender to me. I feel that "Lodger" was slightly weaker.

But there are so many fantastic three album runs in this list that the competition gets very strong. Bowie, Costello, Cure, Gabriel, Japan, Jam, Magazine, Squeeze: All of them very fine three album runs.

And in the case of Ultravox, their next three albums until 1982 would have deserved inclusion.

This is the toughest call thread of the week!

Amid stiff competition, too.

Went with Buzzcocks, in the end.

Oh, and it's Buzzcocks, not The Buzzcocks...

Bowie, Kraftwerk or PIL.

Yeah, nearly went Pil.

This is way harder than I thought it'd be. AC/DC, Elvis, Stiff Little Fingers...or maybe X, Motorhead or possibly the Jam. Then again I could go with The fall but what the hell, The Ramones are my choice even though I find it hard to disagree with anyboby's vote here.

Bowie, Iggy, Wire or Talking Heads.

Is "New Values" any good? I think I'm leaning towards Wire.

Any three consecutive Stevie Wonder albums. Oops, where's that choice?

Ha. I'm listening to In Square Circle as we speak!

You goad.

No no. Also I like Wire's punky, we're-learning-this-as-we-go-along thing

Hmm.

There is a real spirit of exploration to Chairs Missing, I guess. Magazine are more...confident I guess, so they ramp up the drama. Comes across as manic and unhinged at points, but this I like. Both Wire and Magazine are unpredictable, in different ways. As I say, it's splitting hairs, and as I've only VERY recently gotten into Wire, they may well accelerate beyond. Magazine are hardly conventional IMO.

I LOVE Magazine to death, but I think I'd have to prefer Wire. 154 is such an interesting album...even in the arty songs that grate, somewhere, like 2 minutes in, there will suddenly be a totally beautiful and sublime moment. And the 15th and Map Ref. are both beautiful enough to offset the more archly arty leanings. Pink Flag is punk, but is really a minimalist art experiment at the same time, and Chairs Missing is a perfect combination of the two. And listen to the first song on Pink Flag again, it's not the like the entire record is made up out of tuneful little class of 77 ragers.

The Fall – Grotesque, Slates, Hex Education Hour

If you'd said Dragnet, Grotesque, Slates ...

― Ich Ber ein Binliner (Tom D.), Thursday, 23 October 2008 13:42 (2 hours ago) Permalink

ha, I thought I was the only fall fan who doesn't rate HEH very highly

but let's pretend we can switch them out so fastnbulbous' head don't explode

ha, I thought I was the only fall fan who doesn't rate HEH very highly

I thought I was the only one! Well, me and my brother.

I'm baffled by "pink flag is too punk" - makes it sound like a rudimentary peni album or something. sure it has "punk" moments but there are so many other types of moments on it. if "ex lion tamer" were on an rem album I don't think anybody'd call it a punk rock song. and if "fragile" had a bigger backline and a harmonica solo it wouldn't be out of place on exile on main street.

Agreed- "Mannequin" could easily be by Squeeze or The Cars. It's hardly that abrasive.

And I voted Wire!

It is still pretty damn punk!

Not "Mannequin", the album

i'm tempted to vote for the Associates or the Comsat Angels just because no one's mentioning them--although The Affectionate Punch and Fiction aren't up to the best of the other ones... ALSO, isn't anyone else missing DAF's Alles Ist Gut, Gold und Liebe, Fur Immer?

but let's pretend we can switch them out so fastnbulbous' head don't explode

I was just trying to keep it flexible for all the folks who can never be satisfied. Yall just like rules too much!

I thought the D.A.F. albums were hard to find but they've been available on CD since '98, Amazon has 'em for $12 each. I guess it's possible it's been a decade since I last checked. This poll is gonna be expensive.

Interesting points on both Magazine/Wire. I think Magazine has better lyrics, but the music is more homogeneous, in mostly good ways. Wire stand out more for me mainly because there's more songs that stick for me.

love magazine to death but wire edge it for me cos they're more singular, and the conceptual logic of those 3 albums is just irresistible

http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/2761/136460ze0.jpg

Apropos of nothing, I guess, except maybe the mildest self-righteous outrage over the Wipers' omission here, I'd like to make the argument that dollar for dollar, or even pound for pound, the three-cd set that Greg Sage will sell you for $17 that comprises Is This Real?, Youth of America, and Over the Edge is the best three-consecutive-album value you'll find anywhere, though I admit that the outtakes and miscellany bring nothing to the table. (The first three albums are so pure, without even an unnecessary note among them—as true for the 10-minute sweep of "Youth of America" as for the minute-and-a-half rabbit punch of "Telepathic Love"—that including half-baked attempts distracts more than teaches.)

http://www.zenorecords.com/shop/cd.htm

wire

Meant to provide this link to the best Wipers footage I've found. You do have a wait a minute (yeah, song reference) or two for them to launch into a great version of "Over the Edge." But the Northwest scenester talking heads have their moments—and, if nothing else, look like they could take the Manchester Musicians Collective in a rumble.

(Speaking of the Manchester Collective, LTM has just put out a comp cd of the Object Music label. Many great things, and some very intersting things, among them "Cake Shop Device" by the Manchester Mekon, the song that provide the riff/progression for "Love Will Tear Us Apart.")

XTC's best run was from 1986 to 1992.

Very untrue.

birthday party without even looking at the rest

Whoever mentioned Chic upthread was otm. The only band that comes anywhere near the Fall for overall output over the broad timescale IE Witch trials/Dragnet/Totales turns/Grotesque/Slates/Hex/Room to live/lots of good singles V Chic/Cest Chic/Risque'/Real people/Take it off/Tongue in Chic.

But that isn't the questioin.

But Chic should still have been in it. I mean they're better than Kosmat Angels and fucking Squeeze...for fuck's sake?

Questioin = question in soberworld.

I bought that Wipers set when it was reissued several years back, and it is indeed great value. I played them all again a few months back and though I love parts from all of them, I didn't think the albums were consistent enough to reach the heights of most of the ones listed already. Nevertheless, an under-appreciated American band from that era.

Dome 3 & 4 are great for fans of Wire who want to follow their experimental arc, along with the Colin Newman albums. Thanks for reminding me, I hadn't gotten the Dome 1 & 2 reissue yet.

I admire the craft of what I've heard of Chic, but I have huge doubts that I'll ever enjoy them as much as Comsat Angels or Squeeze.

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That's right Schmuck, does it make sense now? I'm the one who mentioned Chic upthread too. Wouldn't it be better if you were out drinking with friends rather than home alone?

beers cost like three times as much at a bar as they do at the corner store!

Well to each his own, but for me most of the Comsat Angels is powerfully listless, while the lion's share of Squeeze has them charming bantamweights. At least when compared to the articulate power the Wipers achieved in songs like "Tragedy," "Telepathic Love," "Wait a Minute," "Nothing to Prove," "Can this Be," "Over the Edge," and a dozen others.

There is kind of a UK, New Wave, and Post Punk slant to this list (and the responses), no? To the (not total, I admit) exclusion of the ballsier side of things.

There is kind of a UK, New Wave, and Post Punk slant to this list (and the responses), no?

Hell yea, without a doubt! What else is there? Seriously, as far as epochal albums, postpunk owned that era. By "ballsier," do you mean metal? Cuz I loves me some Angel Witch, Riot, Ozzy, Raven, Girlschool, Saxon, Quartz, Angel City, Tygers of Pan Tang, Heavy Load, Accept, Venom, etc. They just don't make my top 50. Or are you talking U.S. hardcore/postpunk? Besides the Wipers (who have more in common with Comsat Angels and The Sound than anything else on the list) and others already mentioned like Chrome, Pere Ubu and X, who had three classic albums out by 1982? Who's missing?

Iron Maiden and Judas Priest were both pretty killer during these years.

For sure. Priest are in there so you can vote for them.

Hah I didn't see them. Iron Maiden still holds. Don't know who else he mean't. King Sunny Ade? Gregory Isaacs? Dennis Brown? Prince Far I? Culture? Burning Spear?

"Cuz I loves me some..."

There's no need to go all sarcastic and affect the voice of some yahoo, as if there's some equation between rocking and idiocy. It's certainly possible to be ballsy and non metallic. Maybe you need more downtime with the Pagans. Nobody's championing Saxon; nobody said that the Wipers have nothing in common with the Sound and Comsat Angels. They certainly share a mood. I do at times find those two UK bands a little dull, but there's no denying their overall worth, or that they belong on the list above with their peers. And I was careful to say "slant" (meaning that the list, perhaps naturally, tends in that direction), not "bias" (which would have implied things were left off, perhaps unnaturally, owing to the compiler's prejudices). It does seem that post punk bands, perhaps especially UK ones, were a little more likely to release mulitple albums. But to leave out groups like the Wipers, the Minutemen, MX-80, The Ex, S.Y.P.H., Geisterfahrer, Cheap Trick, The Flesheaters, and Crass does suggest the list is a touch tilted in favor of less hard hitting outfits like the Associates and Japan. There is fifty-item limit to the list, of course, so choices were necessary, I'm just saying that the list (and one of the meanings of "list" is to tip to one side) is a little less punk than it could be. And the responses tend to value the less-rocking, too. On the other hand, you could have kicked out more punk bands and thrown in the Spherical Objects, The Pop Group, and the Durutti Column, to name a few. So maybe the list is just right.

To be completely left field here... I think a case can be made for Some Girls, Emotional Rescue, Tattoo You

Still, I voted for Blondie

Sorry 'bout leaving out Rush, but not about Wonder. He only had two albums in that period

Yeah, I think what happened there was I read the years wrong and somehow thought it was a full decade. Still, throw in Musiquarium and it's almost worth considering.

There's no need to go all sarcastic and affect the voice of some yahoo...

Sorry but there was no sarcasm. It's tricky when people are from around the globe but we don't know exactly where everyone's from. That "yahoo" voice is my own. I'm a metal-loving midwesterner, born and raised in Iowa, educated in Minnesota, live in Chicago. See my site to verify.

If I had more than 50 options, I would have gotten to Crass. Penis Envy is a classic. Love The Minutemen, they just didn't have three albums in that period. The Pagans didn't release any albums in that period. Flesh Eaters could qualify, I'd just never heard those entire early albums. I'll have to fix that. Can't say I've even heard S.Y.P.H., Geisterfahrer or Spherical Objects. Thanks for the tips.

hah. grew up in Maine, where we loves us some pretty boy metal, too. Though Maine never offset that with any post punk of note. Had to move to Boston for that. My fault for taking your comment as laying it on a bit thick, not enthusiastic. The Pagans definitely didn't have LPs, but you can slip the Minutemen in if you're willing to go with 45 rpm 12" mini-lps--dodgy, I know. S.Y.P.H. and Geisterfahrer were, as you might suspect, German post punk bands with aggressive guitars and an industrial lurch. S.Y.P.H. had connections to Can, Geisterfahrer to Mayo Thompson of Red Crayola. If you poke around online, you can find stuff by them both. Earlier is usually better, of course.

Also missing in action: Thomas Leer, SPK

ac/dc today.

Mix Up-The Voice of America-Red Mecca

I think I went with Numan, probably because I picked up a nice cheap copy of Replicas the other day and I've been listening to it a ton.

I've been listening to tons of Fela Kuti's Shuffering and Schmiling and Zombie lately. I probably would have went with him, but I haven't heard Sorrow Tears & Blood. No Agreement was recorded in the same time period, however, and is maybe my favorite thing he ever recorded.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

So I picked up a copy of Flesh Eaters' A Minute To Pray, A Second To Die and it sounds absolutely horrible. I remember why I could never get into them, Chris D's thin, strained warble is unbearable. Mine was supposed to be a new copy on Slash/Rhino, but it doesn't appear to be the recent remaster, unfortunately. The one song I used to play on my radio show 20 years ago is the classic "Cyrano De Berger's Back." The rest is hard to stomach, despite such enticing connections to The Blasters, X and Gun Club. Not one to give up, I also picked up a used copy of the 1983 A Hard Road To Follow, which is definitely a remaster on Atavistic. I'll report back when I give it a proper listen.

The poll may not be definitive due to the limit of options, but the thread as a whole will serve a great reference guide for me at least. It's always exciting to think there might be some classics I've missed, so many years after the fact. Thanks everyone.

and this thread is a great antidote to all the steely dan/balearic/whatever! thanks!

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

Interesting. So only 13 of the 50 didn't get any votes. At least another dozen got write-in votes. That says a lot for the overall quality during that time.

How many of them performed songs from that era in the last few years? I know for sure that Wire, The Fall, X, AC/DC, Buzzcocks, Police, English Beat, Undertones and Pere Ubu did. I'm guessing maybe Kraftwerk, The Cure, Numan, Judas Priest, Blondie, Motorhead, Siouxsie and Pretenders.

So anyone think there's a chance of Talking Heads and Magazine reunions?

Best Trio Album of 1977-1982

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc900/c905/c90505cnp61.jpg

From Wikipedia:

"It was confirmed in July 2008 that Howard Devoto and Magazine are to reform for five dates in February 2009. Their lineup will include Devoto, Formula, Adamson and Doyle.

On September 18, the bands official myspace confirmed a second performance at The Forum in London.

On October 1, the bands official myspace confirmed a further two performances, in Glasgow and Manchester. [13]

It's said that cake will be openly, and unashamedly, on sale at these gigs."

How many of them performed songs from that era in the last few years?

you should seek out the thread where my psychological wellbeing takes a knock following OMD's "architecture and morality" tour ;)

So I picked up a copy of Flesh Eaters' A Minute To Pray, A Second To Die and it sounds absolutely horrible

w/r/t ILM, Talking Heads are a more insidious version of Steely Dan

and I kinda wish I and a few more others had voted Wire now I've a) seen the poll results and b) heard 154

Altho a late-80's equivalent pitting Talk Talk's last 3 against The Smiths would probably blow me a fuse when Morrissey's bloodless bunch of preening amusical cunts steamroller their inevitable way to a crushing and entirely undeserved victory