The 1984 Listening Post - Bananarama

Bananarama - Bananarama

#100 (!!!)

April 21 1984

Bananarama

Bananarama

3.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Cruel Summer

Robert DeNiro’s Waiting

We’ve reached album 100 (and, just to inform you, that’s about a quarter of the way through the list…wow) and I am celebrating that milestone with a first full listen to Bananarama’s self-titled smash. 

Yeah, that’s right. I’ve never heard this album. Not all the way through. Why isn’t THIS available for streaming, music gatekeepers?

I always thought of Bananarama (Honestly, I think they get less notoriety in the US cuz typing that name is a pain in the ass…I keep adding “na’s”) as  a pop group, and they are, but the production is so lush and whimsical that it’s really the pop version of Dreamy-Pop, which takes any and all edges off and also creates distance between the listener and the music. I think it’s ultimately a detraction and grounds the material in the era it was created.  There’s no need for a 7+ minute swirly pop song that doesn’t really go anywhere or beg me to get on the dance floor in any meaningful way.

However, big extra points for the subject matter of date rape in “Robert DeNiro’s Waiting” all wrapped up in their sunny disposition. If only it didn’t try too hard to obscure what they want to say.

I wonder what these songs would have sounded like if the Bananarama  girls fronted the Bow Wow Wow band?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clQY40rx_90

The 1984 Listening Post - Chris Rea - Wired to the Moon

Chris Rea - Wired to the Moon

#99

April 1984

Chris Rea

Wired to the Moon

3 out of 5

Wow. I’m gobsmacked. I’ve literally never heard of this guy. And why should I? He had one minor hit in the US in the earllllly 80s. To be fair he was nominated for Best New Artist Grammy. And we all know what happens with that category. Also, back in that time I would have had very little interest in Adult Contemporary. 

But, in England, he’s put out 24 (!!!!) albums PLUS compilations PLUS live stuff. Like I said, wow. He’s like a guitar virtuoso Cliff Richard!

So, how is this?

Well, lemme put it this way. We already have one Clapton. Rea isn’t as magical as Clapton can be and his songs are 3X less interesting. But it’s all very competently performed. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/wired-to-the-moon/208913667

The 1984 Listening Post - The Celibate Rifles - The Celibate Rifles (5 Languages)

The Celibate Rifles - The Celibate Rifles (5 Languages)

#98

April 1984

The Celibate Rifles

The Celibate Rifles (5 Languages)

4 out of 5

Highlights:

Wild Desire

Darlinghurst Confidential

The Aussie invasion continues!

This Radio Birdman sounding group has always eluded me. What I mean is, every time I’ve had them cued up to listen to them (I’ve had a couple of their albums on a hard drive from long ago) I’ve gotten distracted and then forgot. 

Have you heard The Hellacopters? Or The Flaming Sideburns? Or Gluecifer? No? I bet they’ve heard The Celibate Rifles. 

Just when you think each song has made it’s point, a guitar takes it to another level. Or something simple as a pedal. Or the controlled chaos. Case in point, the spoken word/blue riffed/piano cacophony of “Darlinghurst Confidential”. Before you have time to hate it it’s wormed it way into your psyche and you realize that you actually kind of like it. Not love. They don’t want you to love them. They just want you to listen. And maybe buy them a drink. 

X & Celibate Rifles. That’s a concert that should have happened. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-celibate-rifles-5-languages/1057505185

The 1984 Listening Post - The Blue Aeroplanes - Bop Art

The Blue Aeroplanes - Bop Art

#97

April 1984

The Blue Airplanes

Bop Art

3.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Bagpipe Music

Opening your debut record with a seven minute paisley, psychedelic repetitive track is ballsy. If you were wondering what Beat music would sound like if it was recorded in 1984 by players who were too young to have read the first edition Kerouac, you’ve come to the right place. Fire up “Pinkies Hit the Union” and you’ll be transported to an anachronistic poetry bar. Trouble is, I can imagine this works just fine in that setting but on vinyl? It’s more of a document than a valuable collection. 

Of course, there’s “Owls”, a piece I imagine David Lynch might enjoy but not many others. 

If you stick with it long enough, all of sudden this beat poetry concert becomes a folk show with the acoustic “Chelsea Wallpaper”. I mean, it’s still a pub only a different act has taken the stage while the band takes a bathroom break. The band joins in at the end, however and then the weirdness is back, hard on my favorite track “”Bagpipe Music”. Post-rock-pop-art-bagpipes??? I’m in!

The “concert” ends with, what I can only explain as what must be their version of an audience participation coda. Looked at that way, it totally works. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/bop-art/264274147

The 1984 Listening Post - A Walk Across the Rooftops

The Blue Nile - A Walk Across the Rooftops

#92

April 30 1984

The Blue Nile

A Walk Across The Rooftops 

3.5 out of 5

I don’t know what to make of this record. Is it a Broadway soundtrack in search of a show? Is it Jazz? What the hell is it?

Some of it works and makes me long for more, like “From Rags to Riches”, some it makes me want to walk in the rain alone in New York at 3 in the morning (Easter Parade). 

Some of it sounds like blue eyed soul met David Bowie for a drink, the decided to go back in time and see West Side Story, got very high and attempted to write a musical together. 

I don’t know if I recommend it. I don’t know if I will ever listen to it again. It’s affective at times and off putting at others. 

How’s that for a no-opinion opinion? 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/a-walk-across-the-rooftops-deluxe-version/1218096414

The 1984 Listening Post - Roger Waters - The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking

Roger Waters - The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking

#91

April 30 1984

Pink Floydwaters

The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking

2.75 out of 5

Highlights:

4:50 AM (Go Fishing)

5:01 AM (The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking)

We all know that kids with hard earned allowance cannot fucking wait to get their hands on...

A rock meditation on midlife entropy. 

Seriously. 

I really don’t get what I’m listening to. Do the time titles...are they marking something?

What is happening here, is someone having twilight nightmares?

I’ve got to go read what the hell this is…

Ok. So the protagonist picked up a hitchhiker and he’s fantasizing about her. That’s only really clear if you read up on the record. The songs are so obfuscated and not all that engrossing. That Gilmour thought this was musically stronger than The Wall is perplexing. Because every song sounds exactly the same as the last. Same melodies, same anticipated climax. 

This investigation into midlife crisis requires multiple listens to truly understand but the music is so revoltingly boring and predictable that who would want to go through this exercise again when it reminds so much of a predecessor that the listener, given the choice, would reflexively reach for that epic instead?

Get therapy, Roger. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-pros-and-cons-of-hitch-hiking/180100455

The 1984 Listening Post - The Cure - The Top

The Cure - The Top

#90

April 30 1984

The Cure

The Top

1.75 out of 5

Holy hell is this one ugly record. I’d always been told that The Top was the bad Cure record but that history has not prepared me for this listening experience.

I mean, it was bound to happen. I’ve loved everything Robert Smith has done since 1978 with both the Cure and The Glove. So, he was bound to have a misstep. The plodding “Wailing Wall” feels phoned in and half-assed. On some songs, like “Dressing Up” Smith sounds like he is actually trying to throw up. Not stifle it, attempting to induce it. Blech.

Side Two starts off with the psychedugly “The Caterpillar”, which could’ve been great, had it not been for Smith’s vocal contribution. 

Considering how much I adored Blue Sunshine this is an enormous comedown and waste of everyone’s time.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-top/286646424

The 1984 Listening Post - Whitesnake - Slide It In

Whitesnake - Slide It In

#93

April 16 1984

Whitesnake

Slide it In

4 out of 5

Highlights:

Give Me More Time

Love Ain’t No Stranger

Slow an’ Easy

Guilty of Love

Yeas ago, while diving deep into Sabbath and Deep Purple I took a bunch of tangents to listen to bands that had come out of those granddads of Metal. When I learned that Coverdale was once a lead singer for Purple I decided that I had to listen to Whitesnake. I’m really glad I did. To be fair, I only covered 3 Whitesnake records at that time and this one was the weakest of the three. Back then that meant that I thought this record was an A-.

I wonder what 10 years will do to my thoughts on this record…

The promoter in me wants to go back in time and put together a Kiss/Whitesnake “Slide it In, Spit it Out then Lick it Up” tour.  Cuz, that’s what Coverdale sounds like on the title track (And, especially, “Spit it Out”). If Sammy Hagar Fronted Kiss it would sound just like this. 

The production is great and the performance is top notch but I can’t help feel like Coverdale, if he thought it would sell more records, would gladly turn himself into Michael Bolton. 

But, for big, radio friendly, blues based rock and roll, this is excellent. My opinion hasn’t changed. And Jon Lord's keyboards are in fine form here. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/slide-it-in/1271832041

The 1984 Listening Post - Venom - At War with Satan

Venom - At War with Satan

#92

April 16 1984

Venom

At War with Satan

2.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Women Leather and Hell

Aaaaarrghh

Oh, Venom. It what can only be seen as a 20 minute moment of Spinal Tapian hubris, the opening track, well, the only track on Side One is a bloated metal mess extolling Satan. It’s confused, epileptic and an almost complete waste of time. They must’ve sat back after laying all those thunderclaps and groans and wails and thought, “Yeah. This is the one. This is gonna put us on the map in a big way!”

Boy would they have been wrong.

There are like 9 songs in this opus and none of them ever get to their point before they are interrupted by another epic idea that goes nowhere. And AND!!! after 20 minutes…it fucking FADES OUT!!! You couldn’t figure out how to end this garbage fire??? Did you think you had more to say but ran out of room? 

This is awful.

Side Two is more focused and calls to mind the Venom I remember from Black Metal but it’s just not very good as a collection. I do immensely enjoy the lunatic asylum that is “Aaaaarrghh”.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/at-war-with-satan-bonus-track-edition/1142293054

The 1984 Listening Post - New Model Army - Vengeance

New Model Army - Vengeance

#91

April 4th 1984

New Model Army

Vengeance

4 out of 5

Highlights:

Christian Militia

Vengeance

Here’s another release that’s only available to stream on YouTube. 

I’m sure this is going to be one of those moments when I express disbelief that I’ve never heard of these guys and someone in the Listening Post army will have a deep wealth of historical knowledge of them and I will feel stupid. So, Friday.

The raw, driving post-punkness and political calls to arms/working class ethics culminates on Side One’s pulsing A Liberal Education. And Side Two picks up from that denouement 

Their sense of pop is not as keen as The Alarm’s whereas their rebellious instincts are BUT The Alarm disintegrated and NMA has been putting out albums as recently as 2016.

The title track could be an anthem for today. Just proving that some things, like corruption and oppression in favor of the rich, never change. 

I just wish the guitar solos were less cacophonous and made more sense. The bass is doing its own thing, which is great, since the drums are plowing the road, but that should leave Sullivan room to make some statements with his guitar instead of sounding confused. But, I’m picking nits. This is a pretty excellent debut. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOzY0k0g3c8