As I've mentioned, I'm not a prog fan at all.  Yes leaves me completely cold.  



I'm not a big U2 fan either, but I don't mind their music from this era.  I won't actively seek it out, but I generally won't turn it off or be offended if it comes on.  


If my life depended on it, I couldn't name a single song by Brian Eno.  I'd be a dead man in a heartbeat.  

Dwight Yoakum I always liked, especially in his more rockabilly mode. Randy Travis had a good voice, but I don't remember any specific songs right now. My memory is that I liked his voice more than his material, but it's been along time. Marty Stuart, I know only as a name, can't picture his sound. I was never more than a casual country listener, apart from a few specific artists, so my impressions could well be way off once again.

Favorite albums of 1984

#5 – Tom Russell – Heart on a Sleeve

Tom Russell's solo debut gives us two of his best songs in Gallo Del Cielo (which Ian Tyson had recorded the year before) and St. Olav's Gate. It just hints at the performer and the songwriter that Russell would become, but, it's a solid debut. Gallo Del Cielo, in particularly, shows the type of western based folk that make Russell one of my favorite songwriters. A good album, with one absolutely brilliant song (and a couple that are really good) set the stage for a career as an incredible songwriter who tells stories nobody else would ever consider telling.

Again, like the George Strait tracks you posted earlier, this is a bit of a revelation insofar as I wasn't really aware that there was such authentic down-home blues being recorded in the mid-80s. I tend to view '80s blues as being like Robert Cray or Eric Clapton, both of whose music from that era is soulless to the point of being almost obsolete as blues, in my view.

That track "Diggin' My Potatoes" is really gritty and rootsie Chicago-style blues though – great harp playing too! It sounds very much in the tradition of Little Walter. The track "Superharp" is a little more identifiably an 80s recording, but it's still pretty great. Nice stuff.




Oh Lordy, this really isn't my kind of thing at all, I'm afraid Slam. I absolutely detest The Scorpions' music, but, as I think I mentioned a few pages back to driver1980 , I was friends with a lot of "Metallers" or "Metalheads" when I was a teenager in the mid-to-late '80s, so I got to hear lots of this kind of stuff.

Looking up the cover of Love at First Sting online (and that's a terrible album title BTW!), yep...I definitely remember some of my mates having that album. I remember hearing that track "Rock You Like a Hurricane" back in the day too, and I think it was a reasonable sized hit here in the UK.

Actually, their album covers were often pretty raunchy for the times, and often very misogynistic too! Which, of course, was par for the course with this kind of "cock-rock" (see also Mötley Crüe, W.A.S.P., Ratt etc). What's that album they did with the business guy in the back of a limo pulling strands of bubblegum off a woman's exposed breast? That one sure sticks in my memory! And wasn't there another album by The Scorpions with a woman kneeling next to a dog in front of a man who was standing dominantly over them both? I mean, I can definitely laugh at the cartoonish misogyny of it all, but that would definitely not fly today!

Musically, like a lot of those heavy metal bands from that era, I bet they were all great musicians though. But yeah...this isn't my thing at all, I'm afraid.




Tom Russell is somebody I've only vaguely heard of. Those two tracks you posted are pretty nice though. I'm not sure I'd feel the need to investigate further, but they're pleasant enough to listen to.





Again, this does not sound like mid-80s country music. I love its simplicity...it has an "indie" aesthetic to it, so I can quite see how the No Kinda Dancer album would've contributed and fed into the Alt. Country movement of the '90s and 2000s. Yeah, really nice stuff this.

Split Enz' Conflicting Emotions... Split Enz created some of New Zealand's finest pop songs, but they were nearing the end here. There was very little about this album that was musically interesting. Some OK songs but barely enough material to stitch together an album.

Tim Finn's Escapade... Tim Finn was never as good on his own as he was working with Spit Enz and Crowded House. I hope he isn't reading this, but he simply isn't as good as his brother. 

Daniel Johnston's Yip/Jump Music... Yet another album from Daniel Johnston. The tunes here weren't as catchy as on other albums, but you have to admire how amazingly prolific this guy was. This is generally more of a positive album than his more tortured stuff. Topics covered include Casper the Friendly Ghost, The Beatles, King Kong, and Danny Rapp of Danny and the Juniors fame.

Tony Rice's Church Street Blues... this is meant to be progressive bluegrass. I don't know enough about bluegrass to tell you what makes this "progressive." I assume it borrows elements from other forms of music. It's a nice record, though.

Mari Wilson's Showpeople... this was interesting. Mari Wilson was a British pop and jazz singer who did a retro throwback thing with a 60s beehive. It seems like she's taking the piss at first, but it ends up being a genuine homage to the era. She does a mean cover of Cry Me a River.

James Booker's Classified... this was a fun album. You don't hear a lot of New Orlean Blues from 1983, but this was the real deal. The highlight is an incredible cover of King of the Road. 

The Henchmen's We've Come to Play! DIY New Zealand punk rock. Terrible sound quality, but fun to hear what a group of West Aucklanders were trying to do out of a garage in 1983. 

Liquid Liquid's Optimo... This dance punk EP is most notable for the song Cavern, which Melle Mel stole the bassline from for White Lines. That led to lawsuits and Sugar Hill Records filing for bankruptcy to avoid paying Liquid Liquid the money they were due. I believe they did get some money from the song when Duran Duran covered it years later. Anyway, the EP is really good. Well worth your time.

This Mortal Coil's This Mortal Coil... This EP foreshadows the band's debut LP from the following year, and features one of the creepier album covers of 1983, intentionally or otherwise. There's never really a mood, time or place that makes me turn on some dream pop, but I can understand people who love the ethereal nature of it. And it was definitely a new style that was emerging, so that's always interesting. So, by all means, check it out.

Anthony Davis' Hemispheres... this was an avant-garde jazz record, but not an overly challenging one. Of course, you have to be in the mood to listen to something like this since it's not exactly background music, but it wasn't as messed up as some avant-garde jazz can get. 

Naked Spots Dance's Falling... for the past week or so, I've been discovering forgotten New Zealand records that aren't that well known in NZ. Mostly, because they're DIY efforts, I assume. It's kind of neat to hear what folks were getting up to back home. This is pretty cool post-punk record with female vocals. Held its own, I thought.