Favourite Albums of 1983?

1 The Fall - Perverted by language
2 Wipers - Over the edge
3 The Blue Nile - A Walk Across The Rooftops
4 The Clean ‎– Odditties
5 OMD - Dazzle ships
6 The Go-Betweens ‎– Before Hollywood
7 Violent Femmes - s/t
8 Cocteau Twins ‎– Head Over Heels
9 Zapp - Zapp III

bit of a quality over quantity year for me

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Lots of good stuff this year.

The Chameleons - Script of the Bridge
Dio - Holy Diver
Einsturzende Neubauten - Drawings of Patient O.T.
Queensryche
Sparks - In Outer Space
Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones
U2 - War
Yes - 90125

Echo and the Bunnymen - Porcupine
REM - Murmer
Violent Femmes - s/t
Replacements- Hootenanny
Aztec Camera - High Land Hard Rain
Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues
Metallica - Kill em All
Tom Waits - Swordfish trombones
UB40 - Labour of Love
Cyndi Lauper - She's so Unusual
Husker Du - Metal Circus
Minutemen - Buzz or Howl
ESG - Come Away
Wipers - Over the Edge
King Sunny Ade - Synchro System

David Bowie - Let's Dance
Duran Duran - Seven and the Ragged Tiger
Police - Syncronicity
Midnight Star - No Parking on the Dance Floor
Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams
Whodini
Madonna
Genesis
The Minutemen - What Makes a Man Start Fires
The Raincoats - Kitchen Tapes
Billy Joel - An Innocent Man
Weird Al Yankovic
Suicidal Tendencies
Sonic Youth - Confusion is Sex/Kill Yr Idols
Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind
Herbie Hancock - Future Shock
U2 - Under a Blood Red Sky
Billy Idol - Rebel Yell

And I'll just round it off with Violent Femmes and Murmur because who am I kidding?

Three giant albums, by artists I essentially really like, that I just can't crack beyond the singles.


I definitely should have included Madonna's self titled.

But they each had so many singles!


I have this issue with a lot of the era, lots of favorite songs but on albums that are otherwise pretty dull. I haven't been able to decide on a single Pat Benatar album despite the fact that she has maybe a half dozen of my favorites from the early 80s. Her LPs just are pretty weak outside of those singles.

I think We Belong is the only Benetar song that ever really registered with me.


EDIT: forgot about Love is a Battlefield

Heartbreaker, man. "You're the right kind of singer to release my inner fantasies."


Journey's another good example. I love "Separate Ways", but past that I just can't co-sign on Frontiers at all.

And for the record, lil' Jinn's jam from '83 had to be "Say Say Say". It was the last 45 I ever bought. Play that at 33 and tell me it doesn't groove. But meanwhile, outside of "So Bad", the rest of Pipes of Peace is just awful.

Did they? What I recall...


Bowie: Modern Love (a favorite), China Girl (almost as good as Pop's version), Let's Dance (meh, alright)


Seven and the Ragged Tiger: New Moon on Monday (first Duran Duran song I remember being a fan of, remembering having to keep mum in front of my Duran Duran hating friends), Reflex (never liked it), Union of the Snake (don't remember this enough that I could even hum along to it)



Synchonicity - Every Breath You Take (a rightful classic, if not over done by now), Synchonicity II (great police song), King of Pain (meh), Tea in the Sahara (barf, I can smell the approach of Blue Turtles)

And "Cat People" (Putting Out the Fire with Gasoline)", and that makes half the album right there.


"Is There Something I Should Know" was a non-album single, I see.

And "Wrapped Around Your Finger". (And I don't hate Blue Turtles.)


All of these songs are so well worn that's it's hard to be objective, and most of time, just thinking about them, or the pale earworm parodies that we retain in our memories, makes them seem more simple and cliched then they sometimes are. But I stand by each and every choice, and thank you for not mocking my inclusion of Billy Joel on similar grounds.

I might not know Hearbreaker, I would have to listen. I had very limited contact with pop culture prior to probably around 1989. Somehow Cyndi Lauper snuck in, but very little else. I may have mentioned this before, but I didn't even know who Michael Jackson was until like 1984. So it's possible some pretty well known tracks were completely missed by me.


But I just recalled I also forgot about Invincible. That's a good one too.

I've tried during the pandemic to get more into Joel, but he's a tough sell for me, for whatever reason. At least when I revisit other artists I'm either lukewarm on or outright hate (I've also been given Rush and Alice Cooper some time this year), I can very clearly articulate what annoys me about them. And at least when you're annoying, it sets you apart a bit (and as a result, I've softened a bit on my opinions of both)


But Joel, I kind of just forget he's on when I play any of his stuff. I guess he's just not annoying enough

oh man of course this. Saw on discogs "1982" then read the fine print damnit the test press came out on 22 Dec 1982 then the album proper in 1983. I have brought great shame upon the record collecting community. My neglectful oversight should remain a stain upon my reputation for ever and ever amongst the "Favourite Albums of 1983" internet thread community.

I finally listed to this from start to finish yesterday. It's pretty great overall, especially Mama and Just a Job to Do, but Illegal Alien? Woof. Not something that has aged well.

I have to suspend a lot of critical disbelief when it comes to 80s lyrics. "Every Breath You Take" is a good example. So many popular songs have some very dark and obsessive tones that seem to have either been taken for granted or went well over most people's heads. Another good example, because many people are still surprised when I point it out, is Human League's "Don't You Want Me", which sounds breezy enough, but is basically a Harvey Weinstein murder ballad. "Don't forget it's me who put you where you are now and I can put you back down too", "It's much too late to find when you think you've changed your mind, you'd better change it back or we will both be sorry."





And they've used this song to sell cookies to children


As for "Illegal Alien", I still think it's a catchy enough song that I can dismiss the lyrics. Simply put, I don't look to Phil Collins for lyrical integrity. No, the one that I have trouble with is "Misunderstanding" because it's basically stolen directly from Sly's "Hot Fun in the Summertime". That's the kind of thing that I can't abide.

Billy Joel falls into that category of artist that I really like his best dozen or two songs, but he doesn't have much of a deep bench, making most of albums rather shallow affairs. Innocent Man and The Stranger are the most consistent.