1982 in music.

Black Flag's Damaged won 1981. Let's see who wins 1982. Probably going to be the King of Pop/pedophile but there is some good competition out there.

Billboard chart-topping albums of 1982:
AC/DC - For Those About to Rock We Salute You (cont. from '81)
Foreigner - 4
J. Geils Band - Freeze Frame
Go-Gos - Beauty and the Beast
Vangelis - Chariots of Fire
Asia - Asia
Paul McCartney - Tug of War
Fleetwood Mac - Mirage
John Cougar - American Fool
Men At Work - Business as Usual

Billboard chart-topping singles of 1982:
Olivia Newton-John - Physical (cont. from '81)
Hall and Oates - I Can't Go for That
J. Geils Band - Centerfold
Joan Jett - I Love Rock n Roll
Vangelis - Chariots of Fire
Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder - Ebony and Ivory
The Human League - Don't You Want Me
Survivor - Eye of the Tiger
Steve Miller Band - Abracadabra
Chicago - Hard to Say I'm Sorry
John Mellencamp - Jack and Diane
Men at Work - Who Can It Be Now
Joe Cocker - Up Where We Belong
Lionel Richie - Truly
Toni Basil - Mickey
Hall and Oates - Maneater

What are your top three albums for 1982? We will keep a running tally and eventually have some sort of bracket. For me it would be:
1. Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
2. Descendents - Milo Goes to College
3. Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska

What are some of the forgotten gems from the year? What is overrated? What did you discover at a young age and what did you discover later?

YEARS IN MUSIC • forum.chorus.fm

 

remainder of the top 10:
4. Richard and Linda Thompson - Shoot Out the Lights
5. Bad Religion - How Could Hell Be Any Worse?
6. Dead Kennedys - Plastic Surgery Disasters
7. Bad Brains - Bad Brains
8. Psychedelic Furs - Forever Now
9. Fear - The Record
10. The Clash - Combat Rock

honorable mentions:
alan parsons project - eye in the sky
the cure - pornography
george thorogood - bad to the bone
the jam - the gift
judas priest - screaming for vengeance
merle haggard - going where the lonely go
the misfits - walk among us
motörhead - iron fist
robert plant - pictures at eleven
roxy music - avalon
scorpions - blackout
squeeze - sweets from a stranger

stuff to check out:
billy idol - billy idol
chaka khan - chaka khan
dexys midnight riders - too-rye-ay
donald ***en - the nightly
the gun club - miami
huey lewis and the news - picture this
j. geils band - freeze frame
john cale - music for a new society
kate bush - the dreaming
lionel richie - lionel richie
lou reed - the blue mask
luther van dross - forever, for always, for love
paul mccartney - tug of war
prince - 1999
rush - signals
sparks - angst in my pants
todd rundgren - the ever popular tortured artist effect
x - under the big black sun
xtc - english settlement

 

1. Kate Bush - The Dreaming
2. The Cure - Pornography
3. Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska

 

Great stuff this year. Bad Brains, Dead Kennedys, Shoot out the Lights, 1999, Thriller obviously

 

Would literally be shocked if that was the winner based on what I thought this website/community strives to accomplish accountability-wise.

 

1. Michael Jackson - Thriller
2. Paul McCartney - Tug Of War
3. The Cure - Pornography
4. Billy Joel - The Nylon Curtain
5. George Harrison - Gone Troppo
6. Fleetwood Mac - Mirage
7. Queen - Hot Space

first listens that I dug and could eventually make the list

Aerosmith - Rock In A Hard Place
Elvis Costello - Imperial Bedroom
The English Beat - Special Beat Service
Marvin Gaye - Midnight Love
Prince - 1999
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Long After Dark
Phil Collins - Hello, I Must Be Going
Don Henley - I Can't Stand Still
Van Halen - Diver Down

 

1982 mix, I think this is the year the start getting really fun and nostalgic for me. Some HUGE 80s singles like I Melt With You, Come On Eileen, Africa... a lot of big singles during these years without albums to really back them up

 

normally I would agree if it weren't for one of the handful of records that could credibly be called the biggest album ever

 

Before I take a look and organise my list, I listened to Iron Maiden's The Number of the Beast on my walk home.

I couldn't stand Iron Maiden growing up, and the last time I tried with them a decade or so ago, I also didn't enjoy it one bit. This unfortunately also didn't change my mind. I think it's the vocals really, just make me wince a bit, especially when paired with the po-faced seriousness of it all. Perhaps I'm missing if there's a bit of self-deprecating dry humour about it, but I don't pick up on any of that, and there's something quite off putting about the whole thing for me ha.

Occasionally, the music is decent, but it mostly makes me wish I was listening to other bands.

So yeah, not for me this time Iron Maiden, maybe will come back in another decade.

 

man i love bruce’s voice haha. easily the best of that era of metal imo.

 

1. Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
2. Luther Vandross - Forever, For Always, For Love
3. Kate Bush - The Dreaming

Nebraska was the Bruce album that everybody loved a decade or so ago, and you heard it everywhere in musicians popping up, and now it appears to have dropped off in it's contemporary influence a little bit, but I love it. A great sparse, and desolate collection of songs, rough and raw, but full of life.

Luther's Forever, For Always, For Love is basically the opposite, smooth, sultry and just so effortlessly easy. It's not quite Never Too Much, but very little is.

The Dreaming is where Kate Bush takes that jump into remarkable for me, an experimental and confident album that goes in directions that you don't expect (she even does a bit of screamo in Houdini...). A fascinating album, that really shows her growth.

Honourable mentions - aside from my top three, it's a punk heavy year;

The Cure - Pornography: Unlucky not to crack the top three, this is a tricky album that took me a while to warm up too, but shows the Cure at some of their most dense and bleak moments.

Descendents - Milo Goes to College: Simple and widely copied pop-punk that's full of these great little hook-filled moments of pop-punk perfection.

Dead Kennedys - Plastic Surgery Disasters: With the first side being familiar Dead Kennedys punk, it's the second side where things get that little bit slower and longer that's more interesting. "Riot" is one of DK's best tracks.

The Clash - Combat Rock: The Clash go pop, with big hits like Rock the Casbah, Should I Stay or Should I Go & Straight to Hell.

Bad Brains - Bad Brains: The iconic debut, blending DC Hardcore with a reggae influence, and would be a massive influence on Fugazi, amongst others.

Michael Jackson - Thriller: Not one I've been able to listen to recently, but it's influence is obviously undeniable.

Faith / Void - Split: A Split album, which you don't see much of anymore, featuring two DC hardcore bands, massively influential and one of the first American bands to start making hardcore punk and metal music together.

Tappi Tíkarrass - Bitið fast í vitið: Bjork's first punk band - the name translate's to "Cork the Bitch's Ass" in Icelandic, which basically sums up the music. Worth a listen for Bjork fans.

Mission of Burma - Vs: Mission of Burma's debut, and only studio album, a brilliant piece of indie rock meeting post-hardcore that would influence a lot more bands further down the line.

Various Artists - This is Boston, Not LA: A compilation album featuring a great collection of the Boston hardcore scene, showing off a vibrant little scene, including bands who seemingly did nothing else.

 

ugh. faith/void probably would have cracked my top 3 if I had a proper year listed for it. smh.

 

1. Prince- 1999
2. Iron Maiden- The Number of the Beast
3. Kate Bush- The Dreaming

 

1. Toto - IV
2. Michael Jackson - Thriller
3. Richard and Linda Thompson - Shoot Out the Lights

Excruciating cuts:
Billy Joel - The Nylon Curtain
Prince - 1999
Lou Reed - The Blue Mask

Others I love:
John Cougar - American Fool
Gordon Lightfoot - Shadows
Roxy Music - Avalon
Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
ABC - The Lexicon of Love
Marshall Crenshaw - Marshall Crenshaw
Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band - The Distance
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers - Long After Dark
Hall and Oates - H2O
The Gap Band - IV
Marvin Gaye - Midnight Love

Good ones:
Fleetwood Mac - Mirage
.38 Special - Special Forces
Elton John - Jump Up!
Pat Benatar - Get Nervous
Cheap Trick - One on One
Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
Huey Lewis and the News - Picture This
Billy Squier - Emotions in Motion
Lionel Richie - Lionel Richie
Phil Collins - Hello, I Must Be Going!
Duran Duran - Rio
Crosby, Still and Nash - Daylight Again
Sheena Easton - Madness, Money and Music
Warren Zevon - The Envoy
Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle - One from the Heart
Eddie Money - No Control
Elvis Costello and The Attractions - Imperial Bedroom
Rush - Signals
Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance
Dexys Midnight Runners - Too Rye Ay
Frida - Something's Going On
Luther Vandross - Forever, For Always, For Love
Men at Work - Business As Usual
Paul McCartney - Tug of War
Kool & the Gang - As One
Billy Idol - Billy Idol
Sheena Easton - You Could Have Been with Me
Kenny Loggins - High Adventure
Heart - Private Audition
Rick Springfield - Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet
Juice Newton - Quiet Lies
America - A View from the Ground
Billy Ocean - Inner Feelings
Steve Winwood - Talking Back to the Night
The Motels - All Four One
Carl Carlton - Bad CC
Andre Cymone - Living in the New Wave

Targets for listening:
Asia - Asia
Don Henley - I Can't Stand Still
Imagination - In the Heat of the Night
Janet Jackson - Janet Jackson
Michael McDonald - If That's What It Takes
Ronnie Milsap - Inside
Bonnie Raitt - Green Light
Scorpions - Blackout!
Simple Minds - New Gold Dream (81/82/83/84)
Pete Townshend - All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes
Associates - Sulk
Birthday Party - Junkyard
Kate Bush - The Dreaming
The Cure - Pornography
Donald ***en - The Nightfly
Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five - The Message
Haircut One Hundred - Pelican West
Madness - Rise and Fall
Orange Juice - Rip It
Venom - Black Metal
The Clash - Combat Rock
Dire Straits - Love Over Gold
Peter Gabriel - Security
King Sunny Ade and His African Beats - Juju Music
Flipper - Album/Flipper
Ornette Coleman - Of Human Feelings
Laurie Anderson - Big Science
Joe Jackson - Night and Day
Richard Hell and the Voidoids - Destiny Street
Rank and File - Sundown
The Dream Syndicate - Days of Wine and Roses
Kid Creole and the Coconuts - Wise Guy
Van Morrison - Beautiful Vision
George Clinton - Computer Games
Mission of Burma- Vs.
Aretha Franklin - Jump To It
Joni Mitchell - Wild Things Run Fast
Ted Hawkins - Watch Your Step
Laura Branigan - Branigan
Donna Summer - Donna Summer
Cris Williamson - Blue Rider
Eek-a-Mouse - Wa-Do-Dem
Gregory Isaacs - Night Nurse
Bad Brains - Bad Brains
The Descendants - Milo Goes to College
Berlin - Pleasure Victim

 

1. Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
2. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Long After Dark
3. Richard and Linda Thompson - Shoot Out the Lights

Nebraska was never my favorite Springsteen album. I always preferred his work with the band, and always preferred his records that had a little more hope to them. But I feel like I've come to appreciate this record more recently. Partially, I guess, because the world is in a dumpster and the nihilism of Nebraska feels more apt now than at any prior point in my life. Maybe it's that my (arguably) favorite album of the year is The Killers basically doing a remake of this album. Maybe it's that Aofie O'Donovan just did an actual remake of this album that really blew me away. Whatever the reason, I've fallen in love with Nebraska anew lately.

Long After Dark is, some days, my favorite Tom Petty album. It's not the feast of singles that Damn the Torpedoes and Full Moon Fever are, or the poignant emotional tour de force that Wildflowers is, but it's just such a blast of a record. Some of Petty's very best power pop songs (the opening quartet, especially "Change of Heart"), some of his most riotous rockers ("The Same Old You" is a blast), and some really great late-night songs ("You Got Lucky," "Straight into Darkness," "A Wasted Life") make for a super well-rounded listen. I know it wasn't one of Petty's favorites, but it might be the album of his I've come back to most as of late.

Been a little while since I went through Shoot out the Lights. I'll have to do that soon. But I'm just constantly fascinated by the idea of breakup albums where the people breaking up are making the music together. This album's got a lot of the same tension that makes Rumours such a classic. If you haven't heard it, definitely put it on your "to listen" list this week.

 

Listening to Yaz's Upstairs at Eric's now. Only You is a banger but I was unfamiliar with the other stuff. Pretty good so far

 

Also The Dreaming should get bumped to everyone's must listen! I might like it more than Hounds on any given day

 

Dire Straits’s Love Over Gold really knocked me on my ass. Never hear people mentioning it in their catalog but it’s the best of the 4 I’ve heard from them by a considerable margin. Alan Clark takes them to a whole new level and he does a hell of a Roy Bittan all over the record. The super epic “Telegraph Road” is particularly awesome.

Blackout by Scorpions didn’t particularly work for me. I LOVE “No One Like You” but not much else really stood out. Some good guitar playing. Lots of energy. But didn’t click. They’re a good candidate for eventually going with a Greatest Hits on

Richard Hell and the Voidoids’ Destiny Street is phenomenal. Robert Quine is a genius

 

Aside from the lists here, I've been using Slicing Up Eyeballs for any albums I haven't heard
Top 100 Albums of 1982: Slicing Up Eyeballs’ Best of the ’80s — Part 3 - slicing up eyeballs // 80s alternative music, college rock, indie

 

it’s on mine

 

Listened to the Cocteau Twins debut record from this year, Garlands. I'm a relatively new convert to them, only got into them a couple of years ago maybe, so was specifically waiting till this year to check out their debut.

While their stuff a few years later is really shimmering and beautiful, this definitely has that more downbeat post-punk sound to it, particularly in the drums and bass. However, Elizabeth Fraser's vocals are as beautiful as ever, with her voice and lack of discernible lyrics mean her voice is used more like an instrument, much like Bon Iver or Sigur Ros or something.

I think I preferred when the instrumentation is as heavenly as the vocals, but this is a pretty close to fully formed debut, very easy to see how they made the next steps they did from this starting point.

 

Listened to The Sky's Gone Out by Bauhaus - aware of their reputation, but had never heard their music.

I expected to be slow and mournful, but the opening track (A Brian Eno cover) sets a quick tempo, with almost pop punk rhythms and hooks, but after then it soon settles into a more familiar Post-Punk vibe, like many of their contemporaries around this time. The lead singer really reminds me of Bowie at times, with his timbre and delivery, and we even have a cover of Ziggy Stardust as a bonus track here, to reinforce that impression.

It also reminds me of how influential Joy Division were, for a few years after they arrived and disappeared, everybody started to sound like them and Martin Hannett's style of production.

The album was atmospheric, and a bit different to what I expected, with even the last two minutes of the last track taking an abrupt turn, and it turns into some sort of goth reggae / ska sounds, which I'll admit took me by surprise.

 

peter murphy from bauhaus did some great stuff with NIN

 

I’m very picky/hit-or-miss with music that gets tagged as noise or experimental or whatever, but Mission of Burma are pretty fuckin’ awesome.

 

oh yeah they are. the dc scene in the 80s is unparalleled