The 1981 Listening Post - Willie Nile - Golden Down

 Willie Nile - Golden Down

#123

April 1 1981

Willie Nile

Golden Down

Genre: Rock!

4.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Poor Boy

Grenade

Golden Down

Champs Elysees

I had never heard of Willie Nile until I started listening to music from back in the 80s again and then I found myself in a very cool Rock themed hotel in St. John’s, Newfoundland and, right there in the lobby, amidst the Springsteen and Jagger was a framed picture of Willie. It was next to the hotel. And I had JUST heard his first album, which I adored. 

So, I’ve been looking forward to the follow up, which is his last record until 1991.

It’s bigger. But it’s also muddier. It has more Petty in it than it does Bruce. Willie crackles with the heart of a band leader at Max’s Kansas City on a Friday night in 1981, the band is whip smart and they are game for anything he throws at them. 

Does “I Like the Way” sounds d a little too like Dylan? Yeah. But the thing is, by this time, Dylan didn’t sound like Dylan and the world needs Dylan and if there’s a close enough approximation without seeming like he’s ripping him off entirely, this is it. 

And I don’t really love Bob but I liked this. 

There are some real scorchers on this thing, like the title track and “Hide Your Love” and it really never lets up. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/golden-down/1313564637

The 1981 Listening Post - Tygers of Pan Tang - Spellbound

 Tygers of Pan Tang - Spellbound

#123

By Timothy Sprague

Tygers of Pan Tang

Spellbound

Genre: Metal

Allen’s Rating: 4 out of 5

Tim’s Rating: 1.5 out of 5

If Allen Lulu is going to randomly assign a heavy metal album album for you to review, you could do worse than Tygers of Pan Tang.  This is more of the Van Halen party music variety of metal, as opposed to the faux-Satanic spandex and big hair type. I really don’t like metal vocals and shreddy guitar playing but, in the spirit of this project, have done my best to give this album a chance. The sound definitely evokes the 1980s and the boys certainly have some chops.  It’s the kind of album that I assume hardcore metalheads feel is an under-appreciated classic.  The tempos are fast and the rhythm section chugs along nicely.  But those vocals… just not my scene, man.  The thing is, I appreciate how hard it must be to sing like that but I would not be caught dead with this album blasting out of my car windows.  It is the epitome of the conformist corporate-approved “rock sound” of the time.  The closest thing I can tolerate is Ian Gillan on Jesus Christ Superstar and some of the better Deep Purple tunes.  As a prog rock fan, I dabble in Dream Theater a bit, but even that gets tedious for me when the guy starts singing again after the cool instrumental parts.  One can picture many frizzy-haired young men in 1981 stuffing a sock in their tight acid-washed jeans and rocking out to Spellbound.  And probably thinking it will get them laid.  You get the idea.  

On the other hand, if I were going to drive 120 miles per hour down the freeway to oblivion, this album would not be out of place.  Some early Sabbath or AC/DC are more my speed in that scenario.  Tygers of Pan Tang were clearly good enough to get a recording contract, but simply pale in comparison to the masters of the genre.

https://open.spotify.com/album/735Usw12Mtol0gD6JpDkZg?si=Z_b4feeySymcG3HT0L-ZFA

The 1981 Listening Post - The Flying Lizards - Fourth Wall

 The Flying Lizards - Fourth Wall

#122
1981 Housekeeping

The Flying Lizards

Fourth Wall

Genre: Studio antics

1.5 out of 5

Requisite 80s cover: Curtis Mayfield’s “Move On Up”. I’m not sure if they were trying to deconstruct this or get on the radio with it. Either way, it’s not a success. 

I was having a discussion today about something I’ve been noticing in female vocalists lately. If you are on Tik Tok you will no doubt have heard “Renee” by Sales or “Coffee for Your Head” by POWFU. Both highlight the female Vox, even though the latter is an annoying dirge rap about death. And in both cases, the women sound like they are trying as hard as they can to sound like insipid 9 year olds. 

I find I have mixed emotions about this sound. Much as I loathe “baby talk” I think when the songs are good and the vocals match, cloying as they may be, they work. I’m thinking a lot of Lenka and Regina Spektor in this regard. And, back in the 80s, Thumbelina Guglielmo and, to an extent, Siouxie Sioux.

So, it happens that this album came up next and the very first track featured a sort of insipid sing song forced pre-pubescent female voice and I don’t know if that’s how Patti Paladin sings or if she was putting on an affect. I don’t care for it when Nell did it in Rocky Horror and I don’t care for it here.

Fortunately it doesn’t last long. 

Unfortunately, what follows wasn’t much more than studio noodling. Stoodling. “Hey! Let’s redo “Revolution No. 9. A Lot!”

Why did I go on and on about the vocals on a single track? Because believe me, all that I would have left is to issue a screed. 

No to this. This album was a chore. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/fourth-wall/714189423

The 1981 Listening Post - Fist (as MyoFist) - Fleet Street

 Fist (as MyoFist) - Fleet Street

#121

1981 Housekeeping

Fist (or MyoFist if you prefer the dumb name)

Fleet Street (Thunder in Rock in the US)

Genre: Canadian Rock

4.25 out of 5

Highlights:

Double or Nothing

Fleet Street/Open the Gates

You know how Van Halen II was just a continuation of what they did on the first record? Thunder in Rock is like that. They take their desire to be a big ass crunchy raw band to a more Southern Rock place and add Saxophones and it’s a rock fest. Like, they should be ON a rock fest. Like, I dunno, Monsters of Rock. With the likes of Motorohead and Krokus and Hatchett. 

Which they were. 

That also means they would never land on my radar at the time but, now that we are 40 years hence and I am listening to every goddamned thing the 80s shat out, I am here for Fist. 

Is it the Sax of “Thunder in Rock”? Or the obvious attempt to sound like Gene Simmons on “Leather ’n’ Lace” (with synths!!!)? Is it that “On the Radio” could be a Huey Lewis joint?

All of that. 

Mainly, for me, it’s that there’s a barber chair on the cover and I am a HUGE Sweeney Todd fan. I saw it on Broadway. I saw that weird revival that came through LA. I pretty much burned out the cassette I had of the show. So, I appreciate that a band would name their album “Fleet Street” and put a fucking barber chair on the cover. 

Not sure what people could make of it when the album was renamed the generically AC/DC-esque Thunder in Rock.

But the Holmes and Watson spoken word theater about “People Pies” is actually better than the subsequent song, but damn that B3 section!

The record isn’t as strong as that debut, though, but it’s close. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/fleet-street/1463458768

The 1981 Listening Post - Joe Walsh - There Goes the Neighborhood

 Joe Walsh - There Goes the Neighborhood

#120

March 10 1981

By Aaron Conte

Joe Walsh

There Goes the Neighborhood

Genre: classic AOR ("album oriented rock")

Allen’s Rating: 3 out of 5

Rating 3.5 out of 5 hotel rooms

Highlights:

Made Your Mind Up

A Life of Illusion

Rockets

I feel as if this review could just be, "Man I love Joe Walsh."

Right from the title of the album, he has always made me smile with the sense of humor he keeps about himself and his music. A well-respected man, his abilities have been praised by the likes of Pete Townshend, Jimmy Page, and Eric Clapton. Not bad for a kid from Wichita, Kansas. 

Personally I find him at times to be Donald Fagen impersonating Willie Nelson and I always enjoy it. His songwriting and style is so exciting yet at the same time soothing and reassuring, he's got the listener right where he wants them. Wry turns of phrase, smart and simple melodic lines that don't always go where you think they are leading.

This is his first record after The Eagles broke up. I was never a fan of that band, but as the years have taken my hair and given me some weight around my middle, I find that maybe they knew a thing or two about songs. I don't want to get too carried away in Eagles land so I'll just say Joe Walsh is my favorite part of that band. Partly because we know how seriously those guys took themselves and knowing what a drunken wise-ass Walsh was, he had to have shaken their tree when he came up with that guitar solo for "Hotel California"...laughing and stumbling all the way to the bank.

I won't go track by track for this album because it's very individual (as all music is but...) and because I want you all to put this record on and give it your 36 minutes. 

For that matter, after you're done with this record, go listen to some James Gang, Walsh's second band. His guitar sound tears your head off (in a good way).

I hope Joe Walsh lives a very very long time. He's already 72 so let's hope.

https://open.spotify.com/album/2hsMdQyMatj8wUABiwGgkN?si=LRb7K7l0S8K3sOE59DglXg

The 1981 Listening Post - Uli Jon Roth - Fire Wind

Uli Jon Roth -  Fire Wind

#119

1981 Housekeeping

Uli Jon Roth (As Electric Garbage…I mean, Electric Sun)

Fire Wind

Genre: Metal Garbage (Sorry, did it again)

1 out of 5

Lowlights:
Charlie and I

This is, by accounts, one of the worst metal albums I’ve ever heard. 

To all those Scorpions acolytes, I am sorry. Sorry that your guitarist, in a drunken haze it seems, committed any of this to acetate. 

I guess you could call what Roth is doing “singing” but I’m not sure I would. Because what it sounds like to me is what someone who has never heard singing before was told to do at gun point. WHY ARE YOU TRYING VOCAL RUNS, ULI!?!?!?

This is horrible. I’m not sure what “Prelude to Space Minor” is supposed to be in prelude to but…it takes up a couple minutes of space before Uli gets back to his Hendrixian desperation. 

I don’t know what “Chaplin and I” is about beyond the character in the title and Uli makes me want to never investigate it further. 

https://open.spotify.com/album/7n4ubwGM8VTr0khbfJEuwE?si=ftsMyOy6RZSGFVzAHIj_Pg

The 1981 Listening Post - Roky Erickson and the Aliens - The Evil One

Roky Erickson and the Aliens - The Evil One 

#118

1981 Housekeeping

Roky Erickson and the Aliens

The Evil One

Genre: Psychedelic Garage

4 out of 5

Highlights:

The Wind and More

Bloody Hammer

Figuring this out was a challenge. And all the credit goes to Sheffield for figuring it out.

Roky released the Aliens debut record the year before and every site has THAT album listed as The Evil One so the streamers are all…wrong. Only Discogs gets it right. So what you have to do, if you have Apple Music, is set up a playlist with the correct songs from this release to hear it properly.

That means that Five songs are different: 

Sputnik

The Wind and More

Bloody Hammer

Click Your Fingers

If You Have Ghosts

So, what we are gonna do is repost the review of the last album but I will also note that if you liked that, this is…more. 

I almost wish we had held the album off because, as you probably have realized 1/4 of the way in to 1981…1980 was SUCH a good year that it appears the music industry needed time to recover. We have heard so much absolute garbage and hackneyed stuff that it’s very possible that this record would have rated higher than a 3.5 But, since I am just listening to the five extra tracks I’ll just bump it up a half point. 

He’s still the spirit animal for John Darnielle. And if you love that, you will love this. 

“August 22 1980

Roky Erickson and the Aliens

Roky Erickson and the Aliens

Genre: Psychedelic Rock

3.5 out of 5

Highlights:

I Think of Demons

Listen to the second track, “I Think of Demons” and tell me that Roky isn’t the occult version of Lindsey Buckingham. 

Listen to “I Walk with a Zombie” and tell me that Roky isn’t John Fogerty’s spirit animal.

Listen to “A Cold Night for Alligators” and tell me that John Darnielle isn’t a Roky Erickson fan. 

Also, its impossible to listen to him and not hear Warren Zevon’s sideways take on the world. 

In other words, Roky was influenced by and influenced a bunch of people and sounds like all of them. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-evil-one/678605638

The 1981 Listening Post - James taylor - Dad Loves His Work

 James Taylor - Dad Loves His Work

#117

By MacArthur Antigua

James Taylor

Dad Loves His Work

Allen’s Rating: 3 out of 5

MacArthur’s Rating: 2 out of 5

Genre:  Singer-Songwriter; Slightly Yacht Folk

Highlights:

Stand and Fight

Summer's Here

Sugar Trade

Growing up top 40 pop/metal in the south suburban Chicago 'burbs, and then rebelling against that in my later teen years by going full Britpop (Smiths / New Order / The Cure / Erasure), meant that there massive swaths of music that I just missed.  When I stepped on campus at Northwestern University in 1992, it seemed like I was handed three CDs to catch up with my more cultured peers: Indigo Girls (self-titled debut), Legend: The Best of Bob Marley, and Greatest Hits (James Taylor compilation album).

That's pretty much my "pocket" with JT.  Sure, I may catch an occasional cover here and there, but I didn't have much reason to root around his back catalog.  That is until Allen asked me if I'd pick up "Dad Loves His Work", Taylor's 10th studio album released in 1981.  

The quick and dirty - it's probably not fair to Taylor to compare this album to his Greatest Hits compilation, but that's how I'm coming into it.  And it's eminently forgettable.  Taylor's got a butterscotch smooth voice, and the session musicians hit their marks.  The backup vocals are clean and crisp.   It's kinda like watching a team that's been eliminated from the playoffs finish up the last couple of weeks of the season.  Sure, there may be moments of individual brilliance here and there, but the whole enterprise lacks any urgency or importance.

Anyway, below are my reactions to each track:

Hard Times.  Clean production.  Doobie bounce piano.  Call and response w/back up singers.  Kinda inspirational, I guess.  It's kinda like blues without the blues.

Her Town Too (w/JD Souther).  Apparently this "Divorce-core" track hit #11 in the Billboard charts, and it checks all the boxes for that Adult Contemporary chart.

Hour That the Morning Comes.  Acoustic riff opens.  JT doing that bluesy talk-drawl.  There are no rough edges on this track.  Even the grungy guitar solo has a satin sheen.

I Will Follow.  Another swaying snoozer, with lilting backup vocals.  Some nice touches with accented guitars, but it's mainly a piano rambler.

Believe It or Not.  Quiet, yet hopeful ballad that celebrates the narrator being reunited with the love of his life.  Unfortunately this only highlights how pedestrian JT's lyrics are: "Today the world seems brighter. Light and bright and right somehow."  

Stand and Fight - "the woke song."  Starts with a bull-horn esque declaration, which affirms that nothing is gonna change until someone, uhh, stands and fight.  It continues with assertive guitars, and a phalanx of backup vocals.  What it has in earnestness, it lacks in any sort of memorable hook.  I could imagine some also-ran Democratic candidate using this as entrance music at a wintry New Hampshire fundraiser.  Odds are, this same candidate sports Birkenstocks and utility vests.

Only for Me.  It's a five minute track, and I'm still not really sure what it's about as I got bored halfway through the first verse.

Summer's Here.  Bossa nova beat, a cowbell here and there.  We get harmonica during the bridge interlude.  Nasally cheeky vocal delivery of lyrics that *checks notes* celebrate how great the season of summer is.  I didn't realize that summer's Q-rating was so low that it required this brand jingle, but here we are.  It's almost like a boring cousin of "Mexico."  I liked it mainly because it reminded me of that song, and it only lasts 2:43.

Sugar Trade.  Sweet Baby James waltz that actually uses the Transatlantic Slave Trade as source material.  And somehow, he centers the white fishermen in this particular narrative.  WTF, JT?!?  Thank God he stashed this song toward the back of the album or else I woulda bailed earlier.   

London Town.  Some nice JT harmonies, but dripped with melancholy.

That Lonesome Road.  To close out the LP, goes nearly full a capella.  Actually, of all the tracks, this one works the most.  Haunting and melancholic chorus.

https://open.spotify.com/album/2MDPMawWYx0T4FjdZWCU6f?si=W8eF7977QBumBnjcap4Bmg

The 1981 Listening Post - The Agents - Everybody's Gonna Be Happy

 The Agents - Everybody's Gonna Be Happy

#116

1981 Housekeeping

The Agents

Everybody’s Gonna Be Happy

Genre: New Wave Power Pop

3.25 out of 5

Highlights:

Everybody’s Gonna Be Happy

Scraggling in through the pub door, looking for a shot to play their little tunes comes The Agents. Their calling card? A sound straight out of 1979. Tight knit pop rockers with a smattering of tropes (New Wave Reggae on track Two? You bet!) 

Hey, what about some post-punk noise rock? You know, with tons of unnecessary feedback that was already explored to death in the 60s? “Oh, here’s “Killing the Pig” for you, sir.”

But, I like my Power Pop with a psychedelic bent! “Here’s “Julie” for you, ma’am. And, for those Paisley Jangle people? Here’s “People Like You”.

This album is all over the fucking place. 

I really appreciate the kazoos on the title track. It’s the best thing on here.

This isn’t bad enough to be glad no one heard of them but also not good enough to put them on a mixtape to convince a non believer. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/everybodys-gonna-be-happy/1315724616

The 1981 Listening Post - SPK - Information Overload Unit

 SPK - Information Overload Unit

#115

March 28 1981

SPK

Information Overload Unit

Genre: Early Industrial

1.5 out of 5

When I’m asked what my favorite movie is I tend to balk or come up with a standard answer that defects the conversation in some way. 

It’s easier to say, I dunno, The Godfather or Stripes or Magnolia or Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, than to engender the quizzical looks from people when I answer with the truth. Which is that my favorite movie of all time is David Lynch’s Eraserhead. 

I read about it first in a review of The Elephant Man in Time magazine and I was intrigued. 

I saw it with the girl across the hall in my NYU dorm at the midnight show at the 8th St. Playhouse.

I took my 13 year old brother to it.

I bought the 2000 DVD, which has zero chapter stops so you HAVE to watch the whole thing. I showed it to Beth and Jon Rosenberg while he was housesitting in the Hollywood Hills. 

I talk about it ceaselessly. 

I patterned my student films on that movie’s aesthetic to the point where my film teacher said, “We have one David Lynch, we don’t need another.”

I put the picture of the “baby” on my wall. 

I had the album and I listened to it. A lot. 

That’s what this album is. The 85% of that soundtrack which is just noise created by Alan Splet and Lynch is what seems to have inspired this record. 

That this album doesn’t have Peter Ivers singing “In Heaven” is to its ultimate failing since even Lynch proved with that that he had something of a sense of humor. Warped as it was. 

I normally would eschew this but it said it had “vocals” so…

If what you want is feedback with indecipherable Orwellian broadcast warnings, this is the album for you. I particularly enjoyed “Stammheim Torturkammer”. Wait, I meant to type “root canal”. Damn, autocorrect. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1DEHbZQT8k

The 1981 Listening Post - Spandau Ballet - Journeys to Glory

 Spandau Ballet - Journeys to Glory

#114

By Julia Talbot

Spandau Ballet

March 6 1981

Journeys to Glory

Genre: New Romantic, meh

Allen’s Rating: 2 out of 5

Julia’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Highlights:

To Cut a Long Story Short

Musclebound

The New Romantic musical style was a short lived and not particularly celebrated style of music that served to glue glam rock, punk with a hint of northern/blue eyed soul thrown in (and then thrown out) to EDM and other synth and computerized music - and more ostentatious forms of musical and visual expressionism in later years. The term was coined by the British record producer Richard James Burgess, who is credited as the person invented the SDSV drum synthesizer and a pioneer in working with synthesizers, computers and sampling. None of these things are particularly elemental to the first album he produced, Spandau Ballet’s Journeys to Glory. 

The album itself, while important to the continuum of both the band and the musical styles it represents, it not a particularly compelling listen. Spandau Ballet is best known in America for their number one hit: True and subsequent hits Gold and Through the Barricades. For most of us, that is kind of the beginning, middle and end of what we know about the band. Listening to this album did not compel me to dig a whole lot deeper – well I did anyway, but I didn’t find anything much to report out on. From a historical perspective Journeys to Glory is worth a listen- if only for context.  It is a great example of a certain kind of music and listening to it and the two Spandau Ballet albums that followed is a great pocket history on the musical styles that were rapidly churning through British (and ultimately American) music.

So what is it to actually listen to this album? I must admit to not being a big fan of the new romantic style – it’s too pop-y and quite frankly even the best of it I find to be uninspired and kind of shallow (maybe that is the point though). After several listens, I decided that the best songs on this album are Musclebound and To Cut a Long Story Short, both of which made it into the top ten on the UK charts. However, in general, I found the songs to be largely anonymous if not forgettable. The musicianship is completely solid, the singing strong and the production value is even but overall, it is an album to listen to when you aren’t paying attention. It will not get the party going, however I did do a lot of raking leaves to it and that worked out pretty well. 

https://open.spotify.com/album/1ytJ03C0RlfYdEDkFZ37aZ?si=-7CqCV3dRBWJ-hhn4DOILg

The 1981 Listening Post - Ellen Foley - Spirit of St. Louis

 Ellen Foley - Spirit of St. Louis

#113

March 1981

Ellen Foley

Spirit of St. Louis

Genre: Rock

2 out of 5

Requisite 80s cover:

Should we call “Mon Legionnaire” a cover, even though it’s a song made famous by Edit Piaf? I have never heard the Piaf version but I can’t imagine that this is better. 

On a side note, someone called “Mike the Teeth” (yes, he was exactly as that would describe him) bought me a private dance in a strip club once. I wasn’t much interested in having a stripper dance for me on a disgusting private twin bed. Instead she stood in front of me, in her shimmering bikini and sang “La Vie en Rose” for me. 

That, my friends, was one of the weirdest experiences of my life. 

And it’s better than this record. 

Ellen Foley. Background singer extraordinaire. We knew her (and Karla DeVito who ALSO had a solo record this year!!!) from Bat out of Hell a few years before.

And she popped up on the great discovery by Sorrows in 1980.

I had NO idea that she had a solo record. I had even less inkling that said record was produced by Mick Jones of The Clash. 

I had even LESS inkling that said record featured all four members of The Clash as musicians with Ellen as lead vocals. 

So, how is it?

What it exposes, to me, is the weaknesses, not of Foley, she’s fine. But, rather, of Strummer and Jones (and Simonon and Headon, to a lesser extent). Who thought these guys were songwriters outside of punk and reggae? They sure did. They convinced SOMEONE that they should not only helm this project but also, open it with a mediocre Paris sidewalk busker track. When that nonsense is over, they try to out do it with a Xylophone led “Torchlight” that could be a leftover from the Sandinista sessions because it sounded too much like someone was trying to be Heroes era Bowie and didn’t know how to do it right. 

What the actual fuck is “The Death of the Psychoanalyst of Salvador Dali”??? Is this supposed to be intriguing? Thought provoking? It’s not. It’s amateur bullshit and everyone involved should have known. 

I can only imagine that, with a better band and an orchestra, the Foley that we get on “Phases of Travel” could have put out a better spinner. 

What all this adds up to is a Clash record with Foley as lead singer and both artists hurt themselves. It doesn’t play to Foley’s strengths nor Strummer and Jones’. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/spirit-of-st-louis-expanded-edition/318751828

The 1981 Listening Post - Fischer Z - Red Skies Over Paradise

 Fischer-Z - Red Skies Over Paradise

#112

March 1981

Fischer-Z

Red Skies over Paradise

Genre: New Waverock

2.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Marliese

In England

Ultimately, it comes down to songs, right? Fischer-Z’s 1980 Going Deaf for a Living was almost revelatory. A sonic whirlwind of New Wave ideas and madness. My hopes for that in this record were dashed at the open but lifted with the near stadium ready “Marliese”. And then…the title track came on. This is The Police. This is faux white boy reggae with falsetto lead Vox and power pop chorus. I don’t want to be thinking about Sting when I’m listening to…anybody, really. So, that’s a disappointment. Even when they go for mid-tempo rock, they can’t help themselves. “Cruise Missiles” is just another take on The Police. 

It’s a shame. This is a Sine Wave record. Just when I hate it…a song comes on that makes me love it and then another comes on and I hate it again. When it doesn’t sound the police, they sound like they want to be Boomtown Rats (“Bathroom Scenario”) and I feel like it’s all so derivative and dull. 

Darn. I tried to love it. I really did. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/red-skies-over-paradise/696845750