536. Out of Step

Out of Step
Minor Threat
1984

Tracks
1. Betray
2. It Follows
3. Think Again
4. Look Back and Laugh
5. Sob Story
6. No Reason
7. Little Friend
8. Out of Step
9. Cashing In

Note to self: do not listen to hardcore punk when you are battling a headache. This album is only 20 minutes, which is perhaps the only nice thing I can say about it. It offers the very worst of punk: unintelligible lyrics that are screeched at maximum volume.

Now, I know I am not being particularly objective here, considering my crankiness. But I can't think of a worst criticism of an album than it makes sick people feel worse. Next up: Van Halen!

RATING: 2/5

535. Treasure

Treasure
Cocteau Twins
1984

Tracks
1. Ivo
2. Lorelei
3. Beatrix
4. Persephone
5. Pandora For Cindy
6. Amelia
7. Aloysius
8. Cicely
9. Otterley
10. Donimo

If I was ever captured by fairies and taken into an enchanted forest, I imagine this is the music they would play for me. It was just plain weird. On this List, weird usually translates to Yoko Ono screeching or some sort of bongo/rock hybrid. Fortunately, this time weird translates to otherworldly and ethereal. 

I usually don't pay much attention to album cover art, but I was actually quite pleased with this, as it perfectly captures the strangeness and the mood of the music. Definitely not something you can really jam out to, but worth a listen in any case.

RATING: 4/5

534. Diamond Life

Diamond Life
Sade
1984

Tracks
1. Smooth Operator
2. Your Love Is King
3. Hang On To Your Love
4. When Am I Gonna Make A Living
5. Frankie's First Affair
6. Cherry Pie
7. Sally
8. I Will Be Your Friend
9. Why Can't We Live Together

Once again, we deal with the eternal conundrum of doing this List. I am sure at the time this album seemed really fresh, but today it just didn't seem very interesting. So should I judge it purely on its current enjoyability or should I try to retroactively imagine how I would have felt listening to this in 1984?

Let's try to imagine it, shall we? Hair teased, shoulder pads firmly in place...I can see enjoying this. Soul music has never exactly been my thing, but I can appreciate the smooth listening of Sade. And I suppose that the reason this album was a snore for me is because it has been endlessly copied.

So totally dated but we can't blame Sade for that.

RATING: 3/5

533. Run-D.M.C.

Run-D.M.C.
Run-D.M.C.
1984

Tracks
1. Hard Times
2. Rock Box 
3. Jam Master Jay
4. Hollis Crew (Krush Groove 2) 
5. Sucker MC's 
6. It's Like That 
7. Wake Up
8. Thirty Days 
9. Jay's Game

You only have to listen to the first ten seconds of this album to realize how influential it is in the development of hip hop. Now, you might not be able to tell this from reading my blog, but I actually don't know that much about rap rock or hip hop. Still, that didn't stop me from enjoying this album.

This is somewhat hard to communicate without sounding like the squarest of squares, but I find hip hop to consistently be packed with misogynistic and harmful messages (same with country music, but that's a different conversation). There are obvious exceptions, of course, this being one of them. I was struck with how positive this music was. Okay, I'll end this line of thought before I appointed PTA president.

Just give this album a listen; you won't be sorry.

RATING: 4/5

532. Welcome to the Pleasuredome

Welcome to the Pleasuredome
Frankie Goes to Hollywood
1984

Tracks
1. World is My Oyster
2. Welcome to the Pleasuredome
3. Relax
4. War
5. Two Tribes
6. (Tag)
7. Snatch of Fury
8. Born to Run
9. San Jose
10. Wish the Lads Were Here
11. Ballad of '32
12. Krisco Kisses
13. Black Night White Light
14. Only Star in Heaven
15. Power of Love
16. Bang...

I am currently in bed with a nasty case of tonsillitis that doesn't seem to respond to our earthly antibiotics. Oh well, it's giving me a chance to catch up on my blogs and albums! Here we have another amazing album and I do believe we are on a roll.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood performs quite a few covers on this album, including "San Jose," "War," and "Born to Run." Those were certainly my favorite tracks, though that's not to say that the original songs weren't good. I probably could have done without "Ballad of '32," which was pretty creepy, but I ended up loving "Power of Love."

There's something really fun about this band and if I didn't sound like Kathleen Turner right now, I probably would have sang along. 

RATING: 5/5

531. Colour By Numbers

Colour By Numbers
The Culture Club
1983

Tracks
1. Karma Chameleon 
2. It's A Miracle 
3. Black Money 
4. Changing Every Day 
5. That's The Way (I'm Only Trying To Help You) 
6. Church Of The Poison Mind 
7. Miss Me Blind 
8. Mister Man 
9. Stormkeeper 
10. Victims

This is the final album of 1983 and what a way to go. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a five star album on our...ears. Ahem. Is this thing on?

This album is absolutely brilliant, starting from the opening track. You will be hard pressed to get some of these melodies out of your head, particularly "Karma Chameleon" and "Church of the Poison Mind." It just doesn't get better than the Culture Club; I wish more people would talk about them. 

Anyway, say goodbye to 1983, which was truly the best (this and The Blue Nile) and the worst (Meat Puppets) of times. Happy holidays!

RATING: 5/5

530. Meat Puppets II

Meat Puppets II
Meat Puppets
1983

Tracks
1. Split Myself in Two
2. Magic Toy Missing
3. Lost
4. Plateau
5. Aurora Borealis
6. We're Here
7. Climbing
8. New Gods
9. Oh, Me
10. Lake of Fire
11. I'm a Mindless Idiot
12. Whistling Song

Usually I would start with my traditional apology for waiting so long between posts but this is a country punk album. Yes, you read that correctly. For that reason, I don't think an explanation is necessary as to why I would put off listening to this.

Actually, it wasn't quite as bad as I was expecting. It was all over the place but what it lacked in cohesion it made up for in pure enthusiasm. And hey, at least it was original.

Of course, any band named the "Meat Puppets" is never going to be a favorite of mine. Still worth a listen.

RATING: 3/5