10. Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Iron Maiden is a unique band. Nothing else quite sounds the same. I used to love their music growing up. Nowadays Bruce Dickinson's siren-like singing is a bit annoying, but I can still appreciate the complicated guitar riffs and solos, Steve Harris' bass playing and progressive melodies. Powerslave is in my opinion Iron Maiden's best album. Aces High and 2 Minutes to Midnight were huge hits and Powerslave and Rime of the Ancient Mariner are my personal favourites. The latter is 13 and half minutes of pure genius. The band has also understood how to sell merchandise. The Eddie monster in every album cover sells t-shirts, mugs and bags for adolescent fans all around the world. Even though Iron Maiden is not revolving on my turntable anymore, I must say that they made something right. Listen to the album on Spotify.
As you can see, this year's list starts with massive heavy metal bands. Like Powerslave, Ride the Lightning belongs deeply in my past as a young adolescent in Finland. I was never into rougher heavy music in which people are shouting more than singing. Metallica was for me the heaviest band there was. Ride the Lightning is one of their best albums. There are great dark melodies and thunder-like buzzing guitars. Fade to Black was my favourite song from the album and I still think it's melodic ballad-like sounds are great. Now, though, I must say that I think The Call of Ktulu is my favourite. Metallica just works best instrumental. No offence James Hetfield. Metallica's bass player Cliff Burton played bass through guitar pedals and gave a distinctive sound for the early Metallica albums until he died in a car crash in Sweden. Listen to the album on Spotify.
Ray Lynch is one of the new finds for me. He plays space music with mainly synthesisers. There are elements of classical music, but the sounds are futuristic resembling a bit those of Jean Michel Jarre. Ray Lynch and his wife sold over 50,000 copies of the album from their home before giving the album to music distributors. Now the album has sold over 1.4 million copies. That's an enormous amount for an album as home made and as weird as this one. This album is great for relaxing. The music could be categorised as ambient even though the melodies are bit more complex than usually on ambient albums. I don't know if this album is still available on vinyl somewhere, but if I can find it, I must buy it. Listen to the music on Spotify.
This is the first Leonard Cohen album to use synthesisers to bring those weird space age sounds of the 80's. Fortunately the sounds are kept simple and the sound is actually quite good compared to later albums. There's still a lot of authentic piano and guitar as well. The songs on this album are amazingly melancholic and dark. The opening song Dance Me to the End of Love is my favourite. This album also has the original version of Hallelujah, which has since then been covered by various artists. The original version is not as good as the best covered versions, such as Jeff Buckley's, but it's good to hear where that song came from. Cohen's deep baritone is a great interpreter of emotions even though he's not one of the best singers by his technique. Listen to the album on Spotify.
Bruce Springsteen divides opinions in my circle of friends. Some love his music and some don't understand what the fuss is all about. I think I'm somewhere in between. I think a few of his albums are great and others have some good songs on them, but he has never been one of my absolute favourite artists. born in the U.S.A is in my opinion his last really good album. The sounds are already really 80's, but there are really good songs there. The best is probably Dancing In the Dark, which is literally one of the best pop rock hits ever made. Ronald Reagan famously used Born in the U.S.A. in his campaigns and failed to understand the irony in the song. The album cover with the jeans ass is one of the most recognisable album covers. Listen to the album on Spotify.
Ocean Rain is probably Echo and the Bunnymen's best album. The sounds are very 80's, but it doesn't matter too much, since the songs are great. The album kicks off with Silver, which is written in true hit style. The following Nocturnal Me shows a darker side of the band. This song sounds like the forefather of bands like Interpol and Editors. Killing Moon takes the place of the best song of the whole band. If they would've succeeded in making more songs like this, the Bunnymen would be on the top of my 80's lists, but unfortunately they largely made much more boring music. This album is their best attempt in making a coherently great album. It's a pretty good attempt as well. The album cover is one of the most beautiful album covers I've seen. Listen to the album on Spotify.
This album is actually not an album, but just an EP. I must include it though, since it's one of the best pieces of recorded music from this time. I got to know Miracle Legion through the lead singer Mark Mulcahy's solo career. The Backyard is upbeat guitar pop that actually sounds even better than R.E.M. at the time. This just makes me wonder, why this band did not make more albums in the 80's and why more bands in the 80's wasn't making music like this. This band has influenced so many later bands and if you, like me, are a fan of melodic power pop and guitar indie of the 90's and 2000's, you simply must listen to this. The sounds are amazingly good considering that we're talking about an EP in the first half of the 80's. Listen to the EP on Spotify.
Go-Go's was completely unknown to me just few weeks ago. Now they're actually one of my favourite 80's band. They were one of the first all-female bands who wrote all their songs themselves to make it big. Their music is a mix of upbeat post-punk and pop-rock. Actually the sound is so modern, that they could just as well be a hipster-band of 2000's. Watching the music videos though shakes off that image, since the style is amazingly 80's. if you're a fan of Blondie, be sure to listen to Go-Go's. I'm amazed why I haven't heard of this band before. There's not much music that would be as skilfully made and as good in sounds. My blog's one aim is to make music like this known to audiences, who are not familiar with them. Listen to the album on Youtube.
The Smiths first album is a strong debut album. It's not as interesting as their last two albums, but it's clear from the first sounds, that this is something very special. Melancholic melodies and lyrics with clear guitar and piano riffs and accurate bass lines can carry a lot of emotion. In some of the song's Morrissey's falsetto singing is not yet fully developed and sometimes sounds a bit weird. My favourite songs from the album are Still Ill, Hand In Glove and Pretty Girls Make Graves. The same year The Smiths released a collection of singles and b-sides, called Hatful of Hollow. That album is even better in my opinion than this album, but since it's not strictly speaking an album, I chose to portray this album here. Listen to the album on Spotify.
The Replacements are one of the coolest bands of the 80's. Their appearance is similar to that of The Strokes almost twenty years later. Let It Be is the band's best album. It's full of great songs combining post-punk, rock n' roll and even first wave punk. The band decided the album title in a car, where they chose that the next song to play on the radio is going to be their next album's title. The Beatles' Let It Be started playing and the rest is history. Paul Westerberg's voice is full of alcohol and cigarettes. This is rock n' roll in its purest. The sounds and the attitude could not be more authentic and badass. Album has a couple of slower songs as well showing the full range and potential of this excellent band. This is definitely one of the best albums of the 80's. Listen to the album on Spotify.
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