I was having a look at Pitchfork's Top Albums of the 80s list. It's not a half bad selection, but the glaring omission of anything Australasian got me thinking about doing the same here, except restricting it to albums from Australia and NZ. (I know it's a bit weird lumping in NZ, but how can I exclude Crowded House and the Flying Nun crowd?) I've got my ideas on what ought to go in a list, of course, but I'm not that keen to do it all by myself.
So I'm after suggestions from you lot as to what should go into the final count, though I might put a limit of twenty for each customer. Dredge out your memory banks and your rekkid collection, and if you like, fire up the hyperbole for a short and sharp fifty word burst.
I'm after a decent spread from everything from Cold Chisel to SPK, from Severed Heads to Lubricated Goat, from Split Enz to Max Q, from The Scientists to Pseudo Echo, from Big Pig to the Go-Betweens, so that we have a nice mix of the usual suspects and some brilliantly weird stuff from out of the rough. There's a hundred slots to fill, so go for your life.
NB: I will not, I repeat, NOT, be including Men At Work's Business As Usual in the list, anywhere. And don't even think about suggesting Whispering Jack, not even as a joke.
Get them in over the next month, I'll put a lid on the nominations at Christmas time, and try and have the special done up early in the new year. You can either to me with yr suggestions, or, better still, stick them in the comments below where everyone can read and respond.
The Church - Of Skins and Heart
It doesn't really carry any suggestion of the atmospheric direction The Church would take later on, but it's just a great little pop/rock album, with the classic track "Unguarded moment".
The Birthday Party - Prayers on Fire
Ripping, dark post-punk, with the amazing and twisted "Nick the Stripper", and "Zoo Music Girl".
why not...lets go for some more Nick Cave..
Nick Cave - The Firstborn is Dead
A representative and powerful album fron the Bad Seeds, with the first track, "Tupelo", displaying the dark storytelling talent of Cave.
The Mark of Cain - Battlesick
TMOC's first album, from 1989, shows the influences of Joy Division and Big Black. This album haunts you with its themes of war, and military atrocities. Standout tracks include the title song, "Battlesick" ("Welcome home a hero...battlesick loner"), and the vicious "Dead Man's Mail".
Midnight Oil - Diesel and Dust
Like so much Australian music from the 1980s, this album has a real open atmosphere. Extremely open. This takes you straight to the desert, to the Gunbarrel Highway, to the Dead Heart, to Warakurna mission.
I'm doing this on spec, so give me some slack...
I vote for:
Not Drowning, Waving - Claim and Cold and the Crackle.
I can't choose between these two. A little cheating though; the truly excellent version of Cold and the Crackle came out in 1991 when all their back-catalogue was re-released on CD. The 1987 LP is still fantastic though, and the CD release adds tracks from '80s EPs anyway. Claim, when re-released, just added a (great) remix of Palau, so it has more of a "claim" to be an '80s record.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Tender Prey
His strongest album, IMHO, but From Her To Eternity and Your Funeral My Trial are well up there...
Midnight Oil
Toss-up for me between 10...1 or Red Sails in the Sunset. Both great experimental albums with a lot of strong songs and great sounds.
Severed Heads - City Slab Horror
It's earlyish but not too early, and has the great "We Have Come To Bless This House".
The Triffids - Born Sandy Devotional
Yeah whatever to "Wide Open Road", it's got "Tender Is The Night (The Lond Fidelity" which is just gorgeous and heartbreaking.
Hunters and Collectors - The Jaws of Life
Graham will thank me for including this, and it is their best, even though the self-titled first album is brilliant too ("Skin Of Our Teeth" being indispensible).
The Hummingbirds - loveBUZZ
Yep it's from the '80s! 1989 indeed. I couldn't include my fave (one of) Aussie band the Clouds, as their first EP was 1990, but here's to the Hummingbirds. I think Va Va Voom is better, but it's 1991. Some good stuff here.
I'll bow to gjw's nominations for Birthday Party and the Church. I like both bands, but don't know them that well. Interestingly, despite my huge love of this stuff (and this applies to Graham too), I finished school in 1991 (just in time to go to the first Big Day Out), and accordingly am far more familiar and fanboyish with '90s Australian music. Although by the mid-'90s I was thoroughly pissed-off with Triple J pap and was starting to withdraw into the electronica and indie/post-rock scenes... Call me a late-'80s/early-'90s boy.
By the way, my favourite New Zealand song ever is "Not Given Lightly" by Chris Knox (also of the Tall Dwarfs). And it's from 1990! Damn damn damn.
I didn't include, but should have:
Crowded House - Crowded House
I don't care what anyone else says, it's their best album by far.
and:
Split Enz:
Too many by far. Whoever tells you you only need their greatest hits is A DAMNED FOOL. Conflicting Emotions has about half an album's worth of brilliance, and the rest is pretty good. "Message to My Girl" is a classic. Then, See Ya Round, their sadly neglected post-Tim last album is awesome too! "Breakin' My Back", "I Walk Away", "One Mouth Is Fed"... and the amazing instrumental "The Lost Cat".
I think, though, that Time and Tide gets my top vote, with "Dirty Creature" and "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" being the classic hits, and heaps of other quirky and brilliant numbers (Neil's "Take A Walk" in particular).
Peter, I want to raid your record collection. And I totally, wholeheartedly agree on the Split Enz comments.
For mine:
Split Enz, Time and Tide. See Peter's comments. Other stand-out tracks: 'Sandy Allen', 'Log Cabin Fever', and especially 'Haul Away'. What the hell, it's damn-near perfect. Probably my favourite album of the 1980s, Australasian or otherwise.
Crowded House, Crowded House. It's hit-tastic!
Midnight Oil, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Its importance cannot be overestimated. 'Power and the Passion' was the first single I ever bought, and the 'dub version' on the b-side was ace, too.
Tim Finn, Big Canoe. Forgotten, perhaps, but this is a mighty impressive album, although the CD version dilutes the impact of the LP slightly with its two bonus tracks. Tim Finn and Escapade are also still worth a listen.
Split Enz, See Ya 'Round. What a swan-song this is. Side one is Crowded House in utero, side two the sound of the Enz going out with a bang. Kia 'ha!
Hoodoo Gurus, Stoneage Romeos. Dave Faulkner kicks off a brilliant career in brilliant fashion. Unequalled by the band until 1991's Kinky.
Midnight Oil, Red Sails in the Sunset. In honour of this album I will never, ever spell 'Kosciusko' with a z or pronounce it 'Ka-zhoos-ko'. Bureaucratic revisionism be damned.
Divinyls, What a Life! The proper Australian album, not the butchered US version that sadly infests most CD-store shelves. You can find the full version on CD if you hunt hard enough.
Divinyls, Desperate. I thought that/love/was science fic-sha-on/until I/sa-haw you/to-da-ay/and now that/loooove/is my addic-shon/I've thrown all my books a-way. 'I Touch Myself' was such a boring US break-through when it coulda been, shoulda been this.
Less essential, but worth considering:
The Angels, Two Minute Warning and Howling.
V. Spy V. Spy, A.O. Mod. T.V. Vers. and Harry's Reasons?
Baaaarrrrnnnnesy, Bodyswerve.*
Cold Chisel, Twentieth Century.*
*Probably disqualified by twenty years of abuse at the hands of FM radio.
A handful of albums from the (good) early part of the decade...
Models, Cut Lunch - it's like every good thing about every good band of 1981, compressed into 20 minutes. (The first three full-length albums are good, but nowhere near this one.)
Laughing Clowns, History of Rock and Roll Part One - does this qualify as a legitimate album or a compilation? I'm not completely sure. It's never been easy for Aussie bands to be energetic and inventive simultaneously - except for these guys.
Hunters & Collectors, (the first album) - I've been trying to think up some generalisations after Graham commented on their early albums last week. I've got nothing useful to add, but it still sounds amazingly fresh and exciting.
Tactics, My Houdini - thiiink this was released in early '80. What strikes me about the Tactics is how sensitive and wistful they are, and how the jerky abrasive sound their music offsets this beautifully.
(Mi-Sex are also implausibly good, but were probably a bit stale by 1980. And Melissa's "Fresh" was released in 1992, aargh!)
All the stuff that other people have mentioned is more than worth a place in the list. There are good INXS and Scientists albums, too, even if I can't be bothered thinking of one in particular.
Great contributions! Rory, you would probably drown in my record collection - it's scary... I think well over 1500 CDs, and er... 600LPs/12"s? I should do a rough count again, it's been a while. Probably hugely underestimated.
I'm very lucky to have an uncle (my Dad's half-sister's husband if you must know) who's ten years older than me (I'm 29 in January) and had this wonderful collection of (vinyl) records which one day he just GAVE to me. Decided he was going to listen to only CDs from then on, and that was it! Old Birthday Party, Nick Cave, Triffids, Laughing Clowns (must listen!), Foetus(!), so much stuff. What awesome taste, what a lucky boy I was. I don't listen to that stuff nearly enough, but I have obtained a great sense of history therefrom.
If I may correct myself, the Triffids song is of course "Tender Is The Night (The Long Fidelity)". Damn typos! Check my blog for a better-annotated list, with links. Being posted soon.
That beats me, Peter. Nine hundred CDs, a few hundred LPs and tapes, couple of hundred singles, and five years longer to acquire them in. But then I wasn't lucky enough to have such a generous inheritance.
Oh yes, and how could I forget (and no sniggering at the back): Kate Ceberano, Brave. Beats any of Kylie's '80s pop hands down, *and* it's got classic covers of Stevie Wonder's 'Higher Ground' and the Reels' 'Quasimodo's Dream'.
Yep, Brave was inherited from Shaun too ;)That "Higher Ground" cover isn't bad, although I love the Red Hot Chilli Peppers' funk-metal version... And The cover of "Quasimodo's Dream"... well. I used to like it. But I inherited the Reels album with the original from Shaun too! And the original is FUCKING GREAT. Another nomination for top Aussie '80s stuff, eh.
Rory, I love your cartoons!
Thanks, Peter!
[Goes back and looks at cartoons for first time in ages. Thinks: Hmm, not bad. Thinks: Should draw more. Thinks: Should invent magical time-expansion device that doubles the hours in a typical day. Thinks: Would probably just waste them surfing the Web.]
the church - heyday : lush stories of gigs in the desert, the price of fame, and coming back from the dead. they really hit the mark of inventiveness with this one.
stephen cummings - lovetown : finally escaping the shadow of pop-production that made his first solo outing more accessible but less lasting, this is a premier piece of australian music history - songs of love, loneliness and screwed up relationships (or ones which'll soon be so). our very own master of storytetlling.
nick cave and the bad seeds - kicking against the pricks : the hallowed covers album. great work here, through some classics that he makes his own - _by the time i get to phoenix_, f'rinstance, or _black betty_. my favourite nick cave /album/, probably (though my favourite track of his is _tupelo_, without a doubt).
midnight oil - place without a postcard : raw, yearning, and maintaining the rage.
the go-betweens - spring hill fair, tallulah (i'll limit myself to two of their albums) : the dynamic duo, storytellers par excellence. forster's showman tendencies and artist-like tragedies, mixed up with mclennan's more direct but more brooding word-pictures.
split enz - time and tide : paranoia, tall people and the scrotum-tightening sea.
the triffids - in the pines : bugger the studio stuff, this was recorded in a tin shed and it's bloody excellent. evil graham lee even sings a song, too.
paul kelly - post : he really started coming into his own as a songwriter, here - relationship regrets in _look so fine, feel so low_, friendly advice in _little decisions_, or life stories in _adelaide_.
i should really have an ed kuepper or laughing clowns album in there somewhere. maybe _electrical storm_ ? the title track's one of his finest, certainly.
oh, one more :
severed heads - stretcher, clifford darling... : _stretcher_ was during the stage when tom e. was metamorphosing from another tape-loop guy into somebody who crafted some pretty decent electronic pop songs, exemplified here by, say, _big blue is back_, or the mesmerising _mambo fist miasma_. a good collection of the tape-loop noodling's the 2-CD _clifford darling, please don't live in the past_ which has some surprisingly telling pieces hidden amongst the noise (eg. _prototype pop_, or _umbrella_).
Not a bad start so far, though I haven't seen Do Re Mi, Weddings Parties Anything, or The Necks _Sex_ pop up just yet.
None of you have included any TISM, for which you all suck. :-)
OK, so they didn't hit their peak until the nineties, but their first singles, like "Defecate On My Face" and "Martin Scorsese Is Really Quite A Jovial Fellow" were both in the late eighties. Great Australian singles? Maybe not... but *defining* Australian singles?... most definitely!
im looking for the top ten greatest australian hits of the eighhties and i would love it if you helped me i have given my email address so if you can send me it i would be greatly be appreciated
Can I recommend the _Can't Stop It_ compilation on Chapter Music. 20 tracks from the late 70s / early 80s "little bands" scene; the Moodists, Essendon airport, Primitive Calculators, (Makers of) the Dead Travel Fast, etc etc. Lovingly compiled by people who care.
Heh. Actually acb reviewed that when it came back...
http://grudnuk.com/records/arch/001077.html