1985 music poll: Announcement and voting thread
Being charitable to the year of the charity record
I’ve selected 1985 for this summer’s retro-poll because I don’t know who’s going to be top on my ballot, let alone amongst you lot. Please list:
Up to 20 of your favorite albums from 1985; EPs can count too. I suggest dating by first commercial release date, regardless of country. Assign them a total of 10 points per album listed (e.g. 200 points for 20 albums, 100 points for 10 albums), with a maximum of 30 and minimum of 5 point for an individual album.
Up to 20 singles from 1985. The intention is Proper Singles, i.e. there’s a physical release or a video from that year. More leeway will be allowed for songs from regions outside the Anglosphere that may have different conventions for “singles”. Use a year-of-impact argument if you must. Double-sided singles count as one entry. Put an asterisk by one single for an extra half-point (if you don’t asterisk anything, the half-point will go to the first single you name.)
One vote per person. You may not exactly copy someone else’s list.
Ways to vote:
Public ballots: COMMENT on this post right here.
Private ballots: EMAIL your ballot to bradluen@yahoo.co.nz with “1985 poll” in the subject line.
Deadline: Tuesday 22nd July.
(Albums only)
Franco & Rochereau: Omona Wapi 18
Pogues: Rum, Sodomy and the Lash 14
Mekons: Fear and Whiskey 12
Aretha Franklin: Who's Zoomin Who 10
Husker Du: Flip Your Wig 10
Husker Du: New Day Rising 9
Meat Puppets: Up On the Sun 8
The Fall: This Nation's Saving Grace 7
Replacements: Tim 6
Kate BushHounds of Love 6
Top 1985 Albums
1) Replacements – Tim (25)
2) Tom Waits – Rain Dogs (25)
3) Le Grand Maitre Franco & son T.P.O.K. Jazz – Mario (CHOC 004)/Mario (CHOC 005, aka “Mario part 2”) (both were LPs, and yes I recognize I’m cheating here) (25)
4) Mekons – Fear and Whiskey (20)
5) Pogues – Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash (15)
6) R.E.M. – Fables of the Reconstruction (10)
7) Husker Du – New Day Rising (10)
8) Meat Puppets – Up on the Sun (10)
9) Waterboys – This is the Sea (5)
10) John Cougar Mellencamp – Scarecrow (5)
11) Kate Bush – Hounds of Love (5)
12) v/a – The Indestructible Beat of Soweto (5)
13) Lone Justice – Lone Justice (5)
14) Big Audio Dynamite – This is Big Audio Dynamite (5)
15) Talking Heads – Little Creatures (5)
16) Fela Kuti and Egypt 80 – Army Arrangement (the Nigerian LP release) (5)
17) Luther Vandross – The Night I fell in Love (5)
18) Green on Red – Food Gas Lodging (5)
19) Alpha Blondy - Apartheid is Nazism (5)
20) Dicks – These People (5)
A couple of observations...
-I was 5 in 1985 and I clearly benefitted from coming of age in a time when African music only became more and more accessible in the US. That said, can we admit that Omona Wapi is not one of Franco's better LPs of the mid-80s? I mean, there's not a single song of the four that I'd place in the top rank of his 80s recordings, and certainly not across the discography. Mario, however, is an all-timer, and the b-side cuts on both LPs are at least replacement-level TPOK Jazz. It's legacy owes entirely to being available at the right time in the right circles, and to the simple fact that some Franco is still better than none Franco.
-I had not heard that Vandross record all the way through before this, and it might climb further in my estimation. It's really good.
-1985 is a weaker year than I remembered. After my top 3, we're into really good records by second tier bands or non-best albums by great bands (and yes, I think Rain Dogs is the best post-Brennan Waits LP, although I could be talked into Mule Variations sometimes). 1984 is also (with the exception of Mario) notably stronger on the Congolese side. Youlou Mabiala and Empire Bakuba had better records in '84 than '85. That Mbilia Bell/Tabu Ley record "Kenya" was close to the top 20 for me, though, as was one of the Tshala Muana records from that year.
-I really don't like the Lasswell Army Arrangement, which I'm not sure I'd ever heard (my Fela interest happened just shortly before the first MCA reissues). Even in his version, it's not a top 10 record in his discography, or even close (which also seems to have been the consensus at the time), but still pretty good.