The 1985 Listening Post - 'Til Tuesday - Voices Carry

'Til Tuesday - Voices Carry

#123

April 15 1985

’Til Tuesday

Voices Carry

3 out of 5

Highlights:

Love in a Vacuum

Has there ever been a more New Wave named band than ’Til Tuesday? I think not. And, I admit, I’ve never heard anything more than that first single. I’ll rectify that now. 

And it is very New Wave. But with the angular edges softened. They’re still there, but it’s not harsh or jagged, the way the Cars often seem to be. In fact, I’m reminded of how Neil Finn took those edges off Split Enz and came up with Crowded House, which this reminds me of, for some reason.

However, at it’s best it’s fine New Wave (“Voices Carry”) or subdued Go-Go’s (“Maybe Monday”) or a fairly on-target Bangles impression (“Sleep”) and at it’s worse it’s bad Madonna (“Winning the War”) or pale attempts at Kate Bush doing a Cyndi Lauper song (“You Know the Rest”).

It’s really just a meh record at best. And the only reason anyone remembers “Voices Carry” is because of that video. Otherwise…meh. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/voices-carry-expanded-edition/1282208222

The 1985 Listening Post - Liege Lord - Freedom's Rise

Liege Lord - Freedom's Rise

#77

March 12 1985

Liege Lord

Freedom’s Rise

Genre: Metal

3.75 out of 5

I have a confession to make. While I was listening to this I was using it to set up our Alexa Echo Dots. See, when my bike was stolen it was brought up to me by my neighbor that they were nonplussed that I, of all people, didn’t have some sort of monitoring system. Considering that we have WiFi lights by Hue, Echo dots everywhere, a wifi scale, a bluetooth blood sugar sensor that I wear, an Apple Watch, etc…how could I have let this slip by?

He was correct. So, I went out and purchased a bunch of Ring accessories to have installed around the exterior. Upgraded front doorbell with higher resolution, floodlight camera in the backyard to upgrade the old and rusted floodlights that are out there, a spotlight camera to monitor the garage door and, of course, a wifi enabled garage door opener. (Don’t @ me with stories of how thieves can hack it, I have a garage door opener that could easily be hacked already, this would at least notify me if the door was opened). 

So, what’s the point? Well, with each of these devices we received a new Echo Dot. And I was trying to turn them into a Whole hose system, which is not as easy as it should be for streaming something on Sonos. Sadly, I can’t figure out how to stream from the MacBook to all the devices at once, which is what I was endeavoring to do with this album, since it’s only available on YouTube. 

So, I have a system that can simulate my Sonos with inferior sound but can’t do this one function which I guess is fine, I can still stream it to ONE speaker. 

Anyway.

Liege Lord.

Metal with purpose. 

It’s not bad. I wish I could have it fill the house but, even though I can’t, it still works. It’s very metal. Very very Priest. This whole album feels like an audition to be the opening band on a Judas Priest tour. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkQxZaga9Uo

The 1985 Listening Post - Gowan - Strange Animal

Gowan - Strange Animal

#23

January 1985

Gowan

Strange Animal 

3.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Guerilla Solider

(You’re a) Strange Animal

If Russell Mael of Sparks fronted Supertramp it would sound like this record. 

I was thinking to myself how much like Styx this could sound and then I read up and learned that Lawrence Gowan replaces Dennis DeYoung as Styx’s lead singer. 

So that not a surprise. And apparently they play “A Criminal Mind” in concert to this day. It’s okay. There’s better here. 

This is listenable prog-pop but it doesn’t do much to push the envelope. 

A little of Gowan goes a long way. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/strange-animal/431866166

The 1985 Listening Post - David Hasselhoff - Night Rocker

David Hasselhoff - Night Rocker

#20

January 1985

David Hasselhoff

Night Rocker

1.25 out of 5

Genre: Pop Rock

David Hasselhoff is not a “Rocker”. He doesn’t Rock during the day. He doesn’t Rock at Night. 

If you put Rick Springfield and David Cassidy and Englebert Humperdink and Robert Goulet and the E Street Band in a Vitamix, puree at the highest speed, pour it through a mesh sieve, throw the pulp away, and put the strained liquid in a highball glass, then add a LOT of ice to further dilute it, that might come close to The Hoff. 

Putting him on the cover with an Aria Pro II ZZ (which I bet he can’t play) on the hood of a Pontiac Firebird is such a bullshit marketing ploy cuz there is nothing rocking on this album. He has no soul, as his choice of the Ray Dahrouge garbage-lyric "Any Kind of Love at All" will show. Go ahead. Listen to it. It’s horrible. 

For the curious, there is a pre-Alanis producing Glen Ballard penned song, “No Way to Be In Love”, which could be a middling Power Popper in anyone else’s hands but is forced and terrible here and “All the Right Moves” which sounds like a shitty take on a Martin Briley song. 

Because…

That’s what it is. You can almost hear Briley singing this and making it not suck. The Briley demo is in the comments. And it shows just how awful The Hoff is. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/night-rocker/76232308

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/all-the-right-moves-demo-version/303291099?i=303291305