Taking my cue from a Bowie song the whole premise of this is so simple i'm surprised I didn't think of it before.
Every week i'll post a year , all you have to do is come out with some albums from that year that you think are good with a few words saying why you like them. Doesn't matter if they are classic , forgotten gems or albums that are deeply personal to you , just list them.
Anyway given that rock music has been around for about 50 years I decided to start slap bang in the middle of this time period , 25 years ago ...1982.
The Birthday Party - Junkyard
Difficult as hell to get into but once you do you can really appreciate the chaos and energy that make up this record. Swamp based blues drowned out in an angry punk rage with Nick Cave's unmistakable vocals shieking , howling & droning over the noise behind it.There isn't a single band in the world who sound like anything like The Birthday Party and this album was them at their peak.
The Cure - Pornography
Robert Smith sounds like he's about to burst into tears at the best of times but this album is just so bleak & depressing you actually come out of it glad you don't have things as bad as he obviously does. It doesn't really have the energy of the albums that came before it but it does sound as though the band had matured , and the Cure's early 80s output has always been my favourite period in their history.
Black Flag - Damaged
This album actually feels like being punched in the face , the words brutal & uncompromising spring to mind. I have a feeling that the band knew that they could never top this which is probably why they became more muso & less immediate in subsequent albums. If I have one fault with it it's the production. I recently heard some of the demo's recorded for this album & they sounded even more brutal than the finished product.
The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour
Obviously!
What can i say about this album without using every superlative in the english dictionary? Well it's an hour long , it has 2 drummers , it's exactly an hour long and it's the very best of the early Fall albums before Brix Smith got her claws into M.E.S & turned the Fall into a pop band.No duff tracks despite it's length and is a wonderful introduction to the wild & wonderful world of The Fall.