More a fan of The Housemartins myself.
Wheres radiohead?
sorry I just went off the options that popped into my head.
Radiohead’s Pablo Honey was a great album, I should have them in there.
@deneb you’re right I should have had Blondie in there, but Depeche Mode started in the early 80’s and “Music for the Masses” was 1987. I saw them in 1991, Violator album tour.
Sorry, wasn’t trying to criticize. Just spouting my thoughts.
It’s always tricky when bands span decades. For me, REM, Nirvana, Pixies, Stone Roses, Pulp, Primal Scream… probably many more are all 90s bands despite all having 80s albums and often their best one.
At the other end, if someone counted The Clash, Blondie, Ramones, Bowie, Michael Jackson in either the best of the 70s or 80s, i’d be inclined to agree, though I’m sure people a bit older or younger would have them firmly in one decade.
no offence taken, all good. what’s shitty is it reset the poll when I added Radiohead.
what’s sad is they’re one of my favorite bands and i forgot about them. Still haven’t seen them live.
I’ll bedazzle you all with my 17 best albums of the 80s soon, just to further add to the disagreements.
1 Like
The Smiths 1984 No2 UK Albums chart. Gold
Meat is Murder 1985 No1 Gold
The Queen Is Dead 1986 No2 Platinum
Strangeways Here We Come 1987 No2 Gold
2 Likes
A list of Smiths albums. But none of them are great.
The first most definitely was , even seminal dare I say. The second too. The third is often regarded as their best , but not for me. I’ll give you the last one.
1 Like
I suspect our criteria for what makes something great is very different.
Or simply that we have different musical tastes.
I think Meat is Murder is their weakest. The eponymous is my favourite, followed by Strangeways. But I don’t think The Smiths recorded a bad song, aside from the covers.
On another note, I found out last night that Paul Hudson, aka “H.R.”, or “Human Rights”, the lead singer of Bad Brains was born in Liverpool.
2 Likes
Perhaps, except that I like the Smiths. And since most of their songs sound the same we can’t have too dissimilar taste in this respect.
I just think their best songs are spread out over too many albums for any one of their albums to be great.
Well I don’t think you need to have an album packed with ‘best songs’ to make it a great. Great albums for me are usually a snapshot in time , both of the artists’ development and their reflection of society at the time. Many people consider Exile on Main St. to be the Stones’ best work (I do btw) but would be hard pressed to name more than a couple of tracks off it.
Like I said before the first album for me was seminal. When that landed it was just so unlike anything that anyone else was doing. From the first to the last track it took you places that no-one had dared to before , while evoking perfectly the post-industrial rot and seediness of Manchester at the time.
The album always gets criticised for its poor production but for me that’s actually another reason its so good. It just added to the mood.
It also had three of their best songs on it. (You’ve Got Everything Now , Hand In Glove , What Difference Does It Make.)
I still find it weird that on most ‘best album’ lists , The Queen Is Dead , is ranked as their number one.
1 Like
So exactly like I said…our criteria for what makes an album great is very different.
Have been to two very different gigs this week. First was Billie Marten, indie folk music
Second was Ne Obliviscaris, prog Death
This week I will.be going to see the Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, cant wait.
1 Like
A mate of mine who decided he was going to start a band … aged 58. 
1 Like
You missed The Jam.
By far the best band of the 80’s.
Still going strong with Bruce Foxtons band.
Radiohead in the 80’s???