The 1983 Listening Post - Accept - Balls to the Wall

Accept - Balls to the Wall

#209
December 5 1983
Accept
Balls to the Wall
3.75 out of 5

Highlights:
Balls to the Wall
Losing More Than You Ever Had
Love Child

Boy does this band want to be AC/DC or what? Not only the Bon Scott sounding singer but the title track sounds like they went to the Bon Scott school of songwriting and reinterpreted everything they heard.
This isn’t bad. It’s just redundant.
This reminds me of Scorpions. Or Krokus. Or Dokken. Could be any of them to me. I know it was a hit for them. I find it only mildly interesting.

The 1983 Listening Post - Rock Goddess - Hell Hath No Fury

Rock Goddess - Hell Hath No Fury

#184
October 1983
Rock Goddess
Hell Hath No Fury
3.75 out of 5

Highlights:
Hell Hath No Fury
God Be With You

Remember when bands would put out more than one album in one year? Those days seem to be over. They seem to have ended right around the mid-80s.
Well, Eurythmics did it in 1983 and so did a band I had never even heard of until this project: Rock Goddess.
This record should sound so much bigger. I don’t mean that it needs echo drums ala 80s rock. It just suffers from not enough Mutt/Gehman and too much garage. It should be a lot bigger. This is what Joan Jett is always trying to do but she relies on too many covers to really get there. Of course, there is the requisite cover but Gary Gilitter’s “I Didn't Know I Loved You (Till I Saw You Rock and Roll)” is no Arrows’ “I Love Rock and Roll” much as it wants to be.
This is The Runaways with heft. The Donnas with power. This is what Betty Blowtorch was trying to resurrect before she died. She was right. We need more of this.

The 1983 Listening Post - Rock Goddess - Rock Goddess

Rock Goddess - Rock Goddess

The best thing about a project like this is discovery. Sometimes it's a song. Or an album that slipped by. Or an entire fucking band.
Where is Rock Goddess in the great pantheon of 80's hair metal? I literally never heard of them until today.
This album is so delicious. At first it sounds like Joan Jett and Plasmatics got together and recorded a chainsaw of a metal record and then I realized that they are better than both of those bands combined (not too hard to beat out Wendy O, to be sure.)
They slay Girlschool. They rock. They slash. THIS is really what The Donnas were trying to get to but they never could. Because, seriously, how fucking great is bassist Tracey Lamb???
Really fucking great. That's how.

February 1983
Rock Goddess
Rock Goddess
Grade 4.5 Stars

Best Tracks:

Heartache
Back to You
Satisfied Then Crucified
Heavy Metal Rock and Roll

https://open.spotify.com/album/4u3A7pVAbnQ4C77pvv9GlD…

The 1983 Listening Post - U2 - War

U2 - War

I started The Listening Post with U2. A band that I love enough to have listened to every album but not enough that I revisit any of them.
I should change that. This album is really great.

2/28/1983
U2
War
4.5

Best Tracks:
Sunday Bloody Sunday
New Year's Day
The Refugee
Two Hearts Beat as One

https://open.spotify.com/album/6GaqU0TlYBKHUiSJ0AT9A2…

The 1983 Listening Post - Journey - Frontiers

Journey - Frontiers

I'll admit it, I like classic, anthem, stadium rock. It took me years to finally admit it. And this is right in that wheelhouse.
Oddly, the second half is more experimental, rockier and flat out better than the first.

2/1/1983
Journey
Frontiers
4.5 Stars

Best Tracks:
Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)
Faithfully
Edge of the Blade
Troubled Child
Back Talk

https://open.spotify.com/album/2EFUNYmwxe0AOGxBORrfaw…

The 1983 Listening Post - Malcolm McLaren - Duck Rock

Malcolm McLaren - Duck Rock

The reason I started this group. I so enjoyed the conversation with the likes of John Damn Seven, Tom Mott, John Szostak, Geo Rule, Nick Bognar and others that I wanted to keep talking about music but not toss it into the general wall and watch it fade into ephemera.

At the time I had forgotten that McLaren was responsible for introducing Burundi Beat to the Ants of Adam fame, thus creating a war between Adam and Bow Wow Wow to see who would get the music out first.

In retrospect it makes a lot of sense. The punk scene in England was rife with World influences. Check The Clash to hear that come out in force. The nexus of Afro-Hip Hop seems to have converged on this album. I don't know if Malcolm will ever truly get his due, since he was responsible for the punk Monkees, Sex Pistols but, he deserves a lot of credit. This is terrific.

1/31/1983
Malcolm McLaren
Duck Rock
4.5 Stars

Best Tracks:
Buffalo Gals
Double Dutch
Punk it Up
Jive My Baby
Duck for the Oyster

https://open.spotify.com/album/6S4f7yDtJlS0iQMEuCtIF0…

The 1983 Listening Post - Randy Newman - Trouble in Paradise

Randy Newman - Trouble in Paradise

I never really gave Randy the time of day. I don't know why. My first entree to him was "Short People" and I'm kind of short so...
But, I missed him, and then only knew him as a composer of Ragtime and The Natural.
By the time Toy Story rolled around I had lost the chance to really give him a listen.
The only real benefit to this is that I was able to experience these songs as an adult and truly appreciate them the way they should be. Cuz, they excellent.

1/17/1983
Randy Newman
Trouble in Paradise
4.5 Stars
Best Tracks:

I Love L.A.
The Blues
My Life is Good
Take Me Back
I'm Different

https://open.spotify.com/album/1sIwn51oY2bpMoN7vwWpht…

The 1983 Listening Post - The Tubes - Outside Inside

The Tubes - Outside Inside

March 4 1983
The Tubes
Outside Inside
4.7 out of 5

Highlights:
She’s a Beauty
No Not Again
Out of the Business
The Monkey Time
Tip of My Tongue

Okay. So I have a very soft spot for these guys. I loved Completion Backwards Principle so much that I couldn’t even bring myself to buy this when it came out for fear of disappointment. And then I was sort of annoyed that they broke big because proprietary fandom and that kind of shit.
Their 1970s output left me wanting and it’s saddening that, as they were mastering the pop music landscape they fell under the weight of their own worst impulses with Love Bomb and implied. But this is a high point. However, Allmusic is right when they say that, if Remote Control/Young & Rich/White Punks on Dope theatrical experience Tubes is what you are looking for, this will probably be a let down. On the other had, if what you want is a solid set of songs for your party, this won’t disappoint. And for the former there’s still “Wild Women of Wongo” stuff & the Prairie Prince spotlight “Drums” (and those will also work for your shindig)
This album is the inverse of that Zappa album. Some of it is determinedly adolescent (Never been too cunning, I’m no linguist) but where Frank has no one in charge to control his basest instincts, Foster is the adult in the room (along with some Toto guys) so it never fully devolves beyond a smirk.

A lot must be said for David Foster’s production which is clear, radio friendly, shiny and bright. He lets each member shine on the tracks and somehow proves Fee to be some kind of actual vocalist. Extra points for Martha Davis appearance on “The Monkey Time”.

The 1983 Listening Post - Cocteau Twins- Head Over Heels

Cocteau Twins- Head Over Heels

#180
October 31, 1983
Cocteau Twins
Head Over Heels
4.75 out of 5

Highlights:
When Mama Was a Moth
In Our Angelhood
Multifoiled

Ok. I hated Garlands. Like, a lot. So, let’s see what the follow up is all about.
This is the soundtrack to the goth Cirque Du Soleil. Cirque du Depression and Madness.
And, it’s infinitely better than Garlands.
I don’t think you really listen to this as much as you give in to it. It’s in the family of Swans but they suck and this is gorgeous.
Extraordinary.

The 1983 Listening Post - X - More Fun in the New World

X - More Fun in the New World

169
September 1983
X
More Fun in the New World
4.75 out of 5

Highlights:
We’re Having Much More Fun
True Love
Poor Girl
Make the Music Go Bang
Breathless
I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts
Devil Doll
True Love Pt. 2

It’s no secret that I love X. I bought Wild Gift in 1980 because it was listed as one of the best of the year and that name and cover just called out to me. I name checked that album in Throttle Back Sparky’s song “Joey Enough”. I have documented elsewhere seeing them at the House of Blues in 99 after volunteering to be in a stranger’s minion and coming home to discover that they were playing. My father loved Wild Gift, too and made me buy Under the Big Black Sun when it came out (he didn’t like it as much as WG). X is all over my life. I did a commercial with John Cervenka and was awestruck(he is Exene’s brother). I can pinpoint markers and memories with just about every X album of the era. Too much for this space.
The girl who lived in the dorm across the hall from me was also an X fan and she bought this the week it came out. I don’t recall her reaction. Mine was ecstasy.
This is the capper to the quadrilogy that was X’s Manzarek era, raw, stripped and vital.
It’s their most cohesive piece. While it’s not as immediate as Gift or even Los Angeles, it carries the assured maturity that can be found on Black Sun, an album shrouded in death as it was made in the shadow of Exene’s sister’s death. It’s almost unfair for me to try to analyze this album through unbiased eyes, I think it’s terrific.
Billy Zoom’s magic guitar work on “True Love” puts most of the glam metal rockers to shame.
For many it’s the one with “Breathless” on it. Sure. That’s here. But so is “Poor Girl”, perhaps the best example of the band at its most poetic and raw.
And, “I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts”, with its band name-checking, is what inspired my song in the first place. In their case it’s a lamentation on the division in our country, Reaganism, war, and how the best music, the music of the people, the roots, the punk rock, the political voices and statements, will never get played on the radio in the shadow of bouncy synth-dance crap. It might be their best track.

https://itunes.apple.com/…/more-fun-in-the-new-w…/1416169077