The 1986 Listening Post - Whiplash - Power and Pain

Whiplash - Power and Pain

#19/1176

January 31 1986

Whiplash

Power and Pain

Genre: Thrash

4.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Last Man Alive

War Monger

Stirring Cauldron

Nailed to the Cross

Thrash doesn’t bring me…joy, per se. When it’s great, though, I can appreciate it. Most of them time it feels like noodling for the sake of. 30 minutes is the perfect amount of time for something like this cuz it wears itself out after right about that amount of time. But really that’s the genre. For some it all blends together into one sound. For me, that’s about every other song. Then I key back in and my brain melts and I find myself air guitaring in my underwear in the kitchen. 

But…

YMMV.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/power-and-pain/363513717

The 1986 Listening Post - Black Sabbath - Seventh Star

Black Sabbath - Seventh Star

#18/1175

January 28 1986

Black Sabbath (Feat. Tommy Iommi)

Seventh Star

Genre: Meh-tal

2.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Turn to Stone

heart Like a Wheel

This is not a Sabbath record. This is a contractural obligation album. Or something akin to that. The players can play but…jeez, it’s a skeleton of Sabbath. And it’s toothless and uninterested. 

That’s right. Not just uninteresting. The album seems uninterested in being interesting. The Blues soloing work on “Heart Like a Wheel” the being the exception.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/seventh-star/59401879

The 1986 Listening Post - Public Image Ltd. - Album

Public Image Ltd. - Album

#17/1174

January 27 1986

Public Image Ltd.

Album

Genre: Rock

4.5 out of 5

Highlights: 

FFF

Rise

Round

Home

After that last, terrible record, I was not looking forward to anything more from Lydon & company. But this isn’t really Lydon now, is it? I mean, it is because it says so and it’s a John Lydon joint but, let’s face it, the Jah Wobble collaboration on those first two records really determined the direction, no? 

In a way, Lydon is much like Adam Ant inasmuch as he is at the mercy of his producer and/or collaborators. First two records with Wobble? Fantastic. Wobble left and we get trash.

Now, Lydon is working with Bill Laswell and the first two tracks are (80s) radio friendly monsters. 

From there…It’s a pretty rhythmic thing this record, dancing close to industrial but never getting too far in. And, proving my point about producers, Liswell gets the most out of John’s warble. 

Talk about serendipity. I am listening to this album on the day that Ginger Baker, who performed on 4 of the 7 tracks, died. RIP Ginger. 

https://music.apple.com/us/artist/public-image-ltd/20942761

The 1986 Listening Post - K.U.K.L - Holidays in Europe

K.U.K.L - Holidays in Europe

#16/1173

January 24 1986

K.U.K.L.

Holidays in Europe

Genre: Icy cold Icelandic Post-Rock

4.25 out of 5

Highlights:

France (A Mutual Thrill)

Greece (Just By the Book)

So, Bjork and her crew went on a tour to support a pretty challenging record of post-rock and then made a record (their last) inspired by that.

Guess what? It’s even more challenging than the last one. 

When it’s on, it’s freaking bonkers. If cacophony is your jam, you’re gonna love this. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/holidays-in-europe-the-naughty-nought/371584240

The 1986 Listening Post - Heir Apparent - Graceful Inheritance

Heir Apparent - Graceful Inheritance

#15/1172

January 23 1986

Heir Apparent

Graceful Inheritance

Genre: 80s Metal

2.5 out of 5

Highlight:

Masters of Invasion

A.N.D…Drogo Lived On

I don’t know how many times I can write that I am constantly shocked by the number of bands that were foisted on record stores in the 80s. With Heir Apparent I am once again forced to admit that I have been disabused of the idea that ease of availability to recording materials (garage band, mp3, etc) did NOT, as I inaccurately posited 15 years ago, cause a glut of mediocre garbage into the sea of choices. Nope. There really was no era of tastemakers and gate keepers. 

The proof of this is albums like this one. The reason why musicians sign contracts that keep them from earning money and relegate them to indentured servitude is that for every ONE good Rave Ups album there are 20 Heir Apparent records. And the hit records (anyone who sells gobs of records)? Those proceeds are needed to offset the investment in this garbage. 

I stand corrected. 

Look, these guys try. Are they as good as Manilla Road? Nope. They’re not even close to Manowar. 

This 45 minute album is the longest 4 hours I’ve spent listening to music. 

“Masters of Invasion” tries. It really does. 

https://open.spotify.com/album/6kg0urCemeUyiCkXJBHGFM?si=3PbPMncVRbSikMtC3DBxtA

The 1986 Listening Post - Flaming Lips - Hear It Is

Flaming Lips - Hear It Is

#14/1171

January 21 1986

Flaming Lips

Hear It Is

Genre: Alternative

4.75 out of 5

Highlights:

With You

Trains Brains and Rain

Jesus Shootin’ Heroin

Just Like Before

She is Death

Summertime Blues

You wanna really make it in Rock? You should either be a genius songwriter, sexy as all fuck, kitchen sink playing or downright crazy. 

I can’t speak to Wayne Coyne’s sexiness but the rest is there. 

I say this as someone whose only experience that Yoshimi record. Yep, I never really got in to Soft Bulletin. 

But this? Total surprise. It’s well written and performed, definitely nuts and the styles are all over the place. And everything worked for me. 

Few songs resonate with my worldview as “Jesus Shooting Heroin”. Although, contrary to Wayne, religions always made sense to me... as a grift or a masses controlling program (or pogrom, depending...). I’ve never heard anyone put it as starkly as he does here, though. 

Halfway through, on “She is Death” I start to hear the strains of Flaming Lips that I’m familiar with it. 

More, please. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/hear-it-is/162532852

The 1986 Listening Post - Soul Asylum - Made To Be Broken

Soul Asylum - Made to Be Broken

#13/1170

January 18 1986

Soul Asylum

Made to Be Broken

Genre: Alternative

4.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Tied to the Tracks

Another World Another Day

Made to Be Broken

Whoa!

The first thing I’m struck by is how much this sounds influenced by REM’s Chronic Town (who, of course, were influenced by so many paisley groups like the Byrds, et al). In fact, much of it sounds like children of Buck and Mills but also Husker Du and so many others. If you hate the 90s, well, this is the harbinger of a lot of that. 

Yeah I know Mould produced this. You can hear that. But I like this so much more than a lot of his stuff. 

Not enough is talked about the fact that the 60s permeated the underbelly of the 80s and became the foundation for music of the 90s. That’s evident here as we all know Soul Asylum will break through with a massive single in that decade but they were here at the formative time. 

I loved this record. And I’m still shocked that Soul Asylum has been around since 84.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/made-to-be-broken/162613050

The 1986 Listening Post - Momus - Circus Maximus

Momus - Circus Maximus

#12/1169

January 15 1986

Momus

Circus Maximus

Genre: Indie

3.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Lucky Like St. Sebastian

Little Lord Obedience

The Rape of Lucretia

I saw the genre definition, “folk/Indie” and immediately thought, “Great! We can knock this one off the list!!!” And then I started to listen and, while I think an argument can be made to kick it off, at the same time, so much of what is coming is rooted here. I can hear a bit of Elephant 6 stuff and a lot of Twee and I would be reluctant to knock it off considering that. And you KNOW that we are going to listen to Belle and Sebastian AND Ani Difranco AND Mountain Goats if/when we get there. So, the catalog of what is “rock” continues to expand and contract.

That’s a lot of explanation as to why this is included. But is it any good?

It’s very…religious…? By that I mean it covers many aspects of the bible but, unlike the abstract ellipses of Mountain Goats’ The Life of the World to Come, this one wears it’s subjects on its sleeves and it’s sweetly hypnotic. I mean, I’m not going to hum the tracks as I drive home any time soon but I could see someone mounting these as a stage show of some kind. They are engrossing in their way and sometimes actually…yes…good. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/circus-maximus/997875651

The 1986 Listening Post - Peter Frampton - Premonition

Peter Frampton - Premonition

#11/1168

January 13 1986

Peter Frampton

Premonition

Genre: AOR Rock

2.25 out of 5

I have a premonition.

Peter Frampton will MOR his way further and further into rock’s irrelevance. 

I know, that’s mean. But, whatever made Comes Alive electric is far in the distance it’s a dot. 

At his hardest “Moving a Mountain”, Frampton sounds like weak Kiss. It sort of amazes me just how much Peter sounds like Paul Stanley. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/premonition/1031092269

The 1986 Listening Post - Von Stephenson - Suspicious Heart

Von Stephenson - Suspicious Heart

#10/1167

January 10 1986

Van Stephenson

Suspicious Heart

Genre: MOR

3.25 out of 5

As I sift through the morass of musical styles of the middle of the 80s one style pops up every so often and reminds me that it’s out there, begging for our MTV eyeballs and vinyl dollars. It’s that mid-tempo balladeering Bryan Adams sounding almost heartland but not quite heartfelt Middle of the Road sound that is meant to sound like it was recorded in a room smeared with gauze and soft lighting. 

That’s this. 

It’s so of the era that it’s impossible to think of it as anything other than stuck in the amber of the era. If I’ve never heard of Van Stephenson (and I hadn’t) it’s for good reason. His music seems to be made for the closing credits or the fall-in-love montage of an faux-military Tony Scott movie. Or any and every Brat Pack flick. When he’s not doing that he’s ripping off The Police “Dancing with Danger” or Rick Springfield “Fistful of Heat”.

Ugh.

It’s never insultingly terrible and it never makes me hungry for the next track. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/suspicious-heart/829700032