1001 Albums: 0501 - 510 - A Milestone Is Reached

You did read that right, another milestone has been reached on this project! And for me, it's more important then being over half done the list. It's at this point that we reach the era of modern music where I became "aware" of music around me. This pack features the first album that I spent my own allowance money on. It's late 1982, music videos are all the rage though us poor souls in Canada wont get MTV for years, and Much Music is a couple years away. We still got to see videos though, a half hour a day on Video Hits and Rock Around The Clock. I loved them. I STILL love them! Nothing beats a great video, even though they seem harder to view now then they did since the music channels don't air them.

I'm getting off topic. Music videos had an effect on me, and I started to enjoy music and seeking it out. So from this point on, I'm going to be seeing this list through even darker rose coloured glasses. I'm also interested to see if the music I loved still holds up- if it makes the list at all, and if the stuff I poo pooed I still loath or now like. It's going to be super interesting! For me.

You all will just have to deal with the shit recaps.



0501 Dexys Midnight Runners – Too Rye Ay - The previously mentioned Dexys make their appearance, and it includes mega-hit “Come On Eileen”. So there you go, your life is set with this record if you like that song. The rest of the album is kind of annoying and not that great.




0502 Simple Minds – New Gold Dream (81, 82, 83, 84) - Simple Minds were huge in the eighties and I was never a fan. This one doesn’t include their big hit “Don’t You Forget About Me". So you can skip it I think. It was not impressionable.



0503 Madness – The Rise & Fall - Everyone loves Madness. Specifically, everyone loves the song “Our House” by Madness. It’s on here so we’re all lucky! The whole album is pretty decent, but that song is certainly the high light.




0504 Donald Fagen – The Nightfly - This is the first solo album by one of the guys in Steely Dan, as well as being an early record fully recorded digitally. Neat eh? I fucking hated it. It’s so over produced and slick, not to mention meandering and slow, it drove me crazy listening to it. It completely lacks any sense of life or soul. Fuck this guy and his shitty album, I haven’t liked a single thing he’s done.




0505 Haircut One Hundred – Pelican West - This is an 80’s sounding album from the 80’s by an 80’s band with a cute 80’s band name. Ummm....




0506 Kate Bush – The Dreaming - My MP3s of this one is miss-tagged as “Kates Bush”. Bwaaa ha ha! It cracks me up! Anyways, this was pretty good. I don't know what to call it as far as genre, art pop? It’s the type of music that I’m surprised I like since Kate has amazing vocal range and seems to want to hit every note possible in every single song, sometimes in the same line. It shouldn’t work, but it does, so let’s not questions it further and just say it’s good.




0507 Orange Juice – Rip it Up - Nothing really rips on this despite being kind of punky. It’s another forgotten album that the authors of this thing seem to think should be mentioned since they are clever.




0508 Michael Jackson – Thriller - This is arguably the most popular, best selling album of all time. I know I bought it. This was the first album I spent my money on. Bought it at Woolcos for $8 on vinyl. Anyways, it is surprisingly good to a point. That point is that the songs “Thriller”, Beat It” and “Billie Jean” all show up back to back, and it’s pretty great. You get a Vincent Price poem, a Eddie Van Halen solo and a creepy song about a baby daddy. The rest of the album is weak compared to it. Particularly the painfully bad duet with Paul McCartney “The Girl Is Mine”. It’s a horrible gutless ballad with a hilariously bad spoken word part that features the 1000 year old Paul politely arguing with boy-fucker Michael about who gets a girl. Oh, 80’s, you were so innocent!




0509 The Birthday Party – Junkyard - This is a noisy rock album that really stuck with me. Reminded me of the Butthole Surfers and old Flaming Lips. Noisy, messy, but holds your ear-holes.




0510 Venom – Black Metal - This is hilarious in it’s desire to be scary and satanic. It also totally rocks. Death Metal, Speed Metal, thrash... you all start here. It’s surprisingly good with solid playing to keep you interested despite the funny lyrics.

Well it's pretty apparent that I'm not falling madly in love with all the music on the list from now on. Man, that Steely Dan guy, he should be hanged for crimes against humanity. What an asshole!

Agree or disagree? That's what the comments are for! Please share with your music loving friends! I need the love!