1001 Albums: 0471 - 0480 - A Clockwork Eighties

I know friends, I continue to be horribly late with these blogs. The project still continues though! Let's look at the next block of ten.


0471 The Jam – Sound Affects - This is the second album by The Jam on the list, and I didn’t like it. This must be why I was expecting not to like that first album.


0472 Tom Waits – Heartattack & Vine - I’m guessing this one is on here because Tom starts getting weird and sounding like “Tom Waits” instead of the old piano bar sounding Tom Waits. Weird blues is to found in this album, and it’s pretty great.


0473 UB40 – Signing Off - I only knew UB40 for that song “Red Red Wine” that was such a hit. After listening to this, I didn’t need to know anymore. White man reggae that just doesn’t work for me.


0474 The Teardrop Explodes – Kilimanjaro - The name of the band was way better then the music it made. Pretty forgettable British punk/new wave whatever.


0475 The Specials – More Specials - And more good music! This one is more polished and goofier then the first album. Still on par though, really good stuff. I like these checkerboard guys!


0476 Steve Winwood – Arc of a Diver - My hate for Steve Windwood continues as he leaves Traffic behind (pun!) and goes solo with this horrid synth-lite album. Hell can reserve a specil place for Mr. Windwood.


0477 The Pretenders – The Pretenders (1st Album) - A band known for one song, “Brass In My Pocket”, and that song is on here! I bet they go on to do other good songs, but we shall never know since just that one song matters. Which is a shame since the whole album was pretty great, even with “Brass” being the stand out. A really solid rock offering that managed to sound current without sounding too new wave or any of that type of stuff.


0478 Einstürzende Neubauten – Kollaps - More noisy Krautrock that did nothing for me. Sigh.


0479 Siouxsie & the Banshees – Juju - I was not in love with the first Siouxsie album. I did not love this one either, but I did like it a lot more. No horrid cover songs, it’s more polished production wise and more assured in how it wants to sound. Made for a great step up.


0480 Heaven 17 – Penthouse & Pavement - This started out sounding a bit DEVO and I got all sorts of excited. Song two was decidedly not like DEVO, and I kinda lost interest from that point on. It’s a shame really. The band got it’s name from my favourite Stanley Kubrick film, it should of been better then this!

Not the most inspired blog I've ever written. Then again, none of the music in this block really inspired me in any way. The best of the lot was the Tom Waits, and I'm sure I've listened to it before. Blargh! Hopefully the next blog will be more fun.