Matt's Books and Music

[This post is part of a large project in which I am going through the popular music released in each year. Please see the note at the bottom of the post re: omissions and limitations.]

Introduction

The ’80s have so far been building, not just in their essential ’80sness’ but towards something big. 1984 is renown for being one of the best years not only in the decade’s music but of popular music since WWII, and 1983 is the perfect doorway. With breakout albums from R.E.M. and Tears for Fears, transcendent efforts from Stevie Nicks and Eurythmics, and a tremendous solo debut from Lionel Richie, it’s a great year in music.

Top 10 Albums

1. Murmur (R.E.M.): This debut from R.E.M. is remarkable, not only for its depth (five songs made my playlist) but also for how fully formed the band and its sound already was. While some bands evolve their sound over time, R.E.M. was always just R.E.M., and this album shows they were R.E.M. right from the start.
2. The Wild Heart (Stevie Nicks): Led by “Stand Back,” this sophomore solo effort from Stevie Nicks showed that her brilliant 1981 debut Bella Donna was no fluke.
3. Sweet Dreams (Eurythmics): Eurythmics released two albums in 1983 and both were excellent, being my third and thirteenth-highest ranked albums of the year.
4. Bite (Altered Images): Altered Images’ earlier work was intentionally weird. Here they swerved quite a bit more towards pop and it really worked for them.
5. War (U2): This is the point in U2’s history where their music was popularly political (”Sunday Bloody Sunday”) and more controversially (even within the band) religious (”40”). Even if this tension comes across a bit in the album, both themes work for me.
6. Can’t Slow Down (Lionel Richie): A lot of the R&B music from the early ‘80s felt pretty uninspired, as if the genre was running on fumes after the Motown, soul, funk, and disco-driven heydays of the ‘60s and ‘70s. Lionel Richie was an exception to this rule, as he showed in this album, which felt a lot fresher than what his contemporaries were producing.
7. The Hurting (Tears for Fears): This album’s heavy themes make it a tough and morose hang. But its message is as timely today as it was when it was released, and it sounds great.
8. In Heat (The Romantics): The post-punk, early-rock nostalgic vibes of his album are so much fun.
9. Burning Bridges (Naked Eyes): Naked eyes barely lasted two years, but this album is a new wave classic.
10. Power, Corruption & Lies (New Order): Entering into my 1980s project, I’d thought of New Order as a fairly minor band in the overall scene. I had no idea they’d be among my favourite and most consistent bands of the decade. This album is a great example of this consistency: despite not having any massive singles, it still managed to place three songs in my end-of-year playlist and end up at number ten overall.

Other Albums of Note

• Synchronicity (The Police): This didn’t make my top ten, but is nonetheless one of the decade’s essential albums
• Break Out (The Pointer Sisters): It’s easy from forty plus years later to forget just how big and important The Pointer Sisters remained for most of the ’80s.
• Beauty Stab (ABC): This has the reputation as being one of the biggest album flops of the decade, losing much of the goodwill the band had gained from the previous year’s wonderful The Lexicon of Love. But while it definitely doesn’t reach the heights of that album, it’s not nearly as bad as its reputation suggests.

Top 10 Songs

1. “Sweet Dreams” (Eurythmics): The synth line with which this song opens is instantly recognizable and still feels so unique and cool forty-three years later. (Favourite lyric: “I travel the world and the seven seas / Everybody’s looking for something”)
2. “Always Something There to Remind Me” (Naked Eyes): Naked Eyes may be a one-hit wonder, but it’s a great one hit to have. From its use of chime sounds to its unique percussive track, the production is fascinating and turns what could have been a basic cover into something really special. (Favourite lyric:”I walk along the city streets you used to walk along with me”)
3. “Every Breath You Take” (The Police): Easily the best song ever written from the perspective of a stalker. (Favourite lyric: “Every single day and every word you say / Every game you play, every night you stay / I’ll be watching you”)
4. “Another Lost Look” (Altered Images): This is one of those songs that is exceptionally simple and yet I never want to skip ahead in it. (Favourite lyric: “You told a secret but not the truth”)
5. “Here Comes the Rain Again” (Eurythmics): Continuing with the year’s theme of interesting production choices, the combination of synth and strings here works wonderfully. (Favourite lyric: “Here comes the rain again / Falling on my head like a memory”)
6. “Overkill” (Men and Work): A surprising song about mental health and anxiety long before these themes were normalized. (Favourite lyric: I can’t get to sleep, I think about the implications / Of diving in too deep And possibly the complications”)
7. “Stand Back” (Stevie Nicks): One of the absolute classics of Stevie Nicks’s solo discography. (Favourite lyric: “No one knows how I feel / What I say unless you read between my lines”)
8. “Everyday I Write the Book” (Elvis Costello & The Attractions): This song has such a fun and smart conceit and he pulls it off perfectly. (Favourite lyric: “You said you’d stand by me in the middle of Chapter Three / But you were up to your old tricks in Chapters Four Five and Six.”)
9. “Talking in Your Sleep” (The Romantics): The Romantics excelled at making simple songs sound great, and this is the perfect example. (Favourite lyric: “I hear the secrets that y ou keep / When you’re talking in your sleep”)
10. “Love Is a Stranger” (Eurythmics): There’s a volatility at the heart of this song that resonates with experiences of young love. (Favourite lyric: “Love is a stranger in an open car / To tempt you in and drive you far away”)

Other Songs of Note

• “Age of Consent” (New Order): The winding synth over the driving rhythm guitar is awesome.
• “Time After Time” (Cyndi Lauper)
• “Total Eclipse of the Heart” (Bonnie Tyler): It says a lot about how good the music of 1981 was that this song, which I expected to be in the top tend, ended up thirty-third in my rankings.

Most Surprising Inclusion

• “Everybody Oughta Make a Change” (Eric Clapton): Whenever this comes on, I stop and listen. It’s just so different from everything else released that year.

Notable Song that Missed the Cut

• “Flashdance…What a Feeling” (Irene Cara): In a good music year, there’s also going to be good songs that just didn’t make the cut.

[Note: It’s of course impossible to listen to everything, so while I’ve tried to be as comprehensive as possible, omissions are inevitable. For consistency’s sake, I’ve gone with the year music was released, rather than when it became popular. Any ratings or rankings are my own and entirely subjective. This has nothing to do with objective quality but is simply reflective of my personal taste.]