The 1980 Listening Post - Matthew Fisher - Matthew Fisher

 Matthew Fisher - Matthew Fisher

1980 Housekeeping

Matthew Fisher

Matthew Fisher

Genre: Soft Rock

3.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Looking for Shelter

Just How Blind

I don’t know anything about Procul Harem. 

This is the keyboardist. 

He went on to leave the music business and become a computer programmer. 

He co-wrote “A Whiter Shade of Pale”.

Fisher is a terrible singer, if you can call what he does “singing”.

This is soft rock at it’s most mundane.

Occasionally you hear some song craft, but not for the most part. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/matthew-fisher-strange-days/1335711671

The 1980 Lizstening Post - Aerial - Maneuvers

 Aerial - Maneuvers

1980 Housekeeping

Aerial

Maneuvers

Genre: Rock

3.25 out of 5

Highlights:

Moments Like This

Backslider

Up In the Air

Another band from the Great White North. Another band that sounds like…well…other bands. Like Toronto. Or Loverboy. If those bands were a little more early 70s glam. 

Another front loaded pop rock record that falls apart the further into you get. It’s all pretty mediocre pop rock wannabe Devo/Foreigner stuff until the last song, which I kind of liked. “Burn This Town” is good but I’m not gonna highlight it cuz I had to get through a lot of crap to get there.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/maneuvers/623535785

The 1980 Listening Post - Taxxi - Day for Night

 Taxxi - Day for Night

1980 Housekeeping

Taxxi

Day for Night

Genre: Hard Rock

3.25 out of 5

Highlights:

You’re So Pretty

Allllllmost there, guys. 

This is the sound of Bon Jovi. This is the hair metal that will pay dividends like a broken slot machine in a few years. Taxxi was there but not quite. 

I really wanted to like it but…it’s just meh. 

“You’re So Pretty” is a spot on Rick Springfield tune. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/day-for-night/1560049187

The 1980 Listening Post - Danny Kortchmar - Innuendo

 Danny Kortchmar - Innuendo

1980 Housekeeping

Danny Kortchmar

Innuendo

Genre: Rock

2.75 out of 5

Boy, here is a name that I’ve read so many times over the decades but I really just thought he was a songwriter & producer.

Did you know that he recorded his own stuff? This and another about a decade before.

This begs the question: Dude, your wrote so many good tunes with and for others. You couldn’t save a couple for yourself?

“Hair of the Dog” is probably the best song here and it sounds like it was written by Warren Zevon.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/innuendo/272499160

The 1980 Listening Post - Buccaneer - Buccaneer

 Buccaneer - Buccaneer

1980 Housekeeping

Buccaneer

Buccaneer

Genre: Progressive Concept Album

3.25 out of 5

Highlights:

Ride the Tide

Lowlights:

Fantasies (How did they not call this “Fantaseas”????)

Man, does that sound like Jeff Bridges at the beginning, eh?

A concept album about pirates and the like. A LOT of effort went into this. But not a lot of competent songwriting.

For some horrible and hateful reason there is a version of this which is more than an hour long. But I am listening to the Discogs version. Which is, mercifully, shorter. 

That said, there are tracks that I enjoy in a very very VERY early Queen way. Like “Desolation”, which sounds like a cast-off from Sheer Heart Attack. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/buccaneer/268655491

The 1980 Listening Post - Teaze - Body Shots

Teaze - Body Shots 

1980 Housekeeping LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Teaze

Body Shots

Genre: Hard Rock

4.5 out of 5 (ymmv)

Highlights:

That Kind of Girl

What Happened

Too Bad

Calling All Nurses

Boys Night out

Don’t Talk

The percussive assault right off the bat perked my ears up. Who is this? Oh…Canadian Rock. 

The lead singer sounds a lot like Paul Stanley and I sort of dig that Uber-male preening sound. (See: Dick Valentine and Electric Six or Station)

I can’t tell if this band is too late for the KISS party or too early for the hair metal of the 80s. They ride that blade. And they ride it well. “Too Bad” is a fine attempt at Cheap Trick style rock but they add Saxophones!

“Calling All Nurses” is bonkers, thematically and a rollicking roller in practice. Who the Hell are these guys?

If that kind of bombast-meets-rock & glam is your jam you could do a lot worse than Teaze, a band I had not heard of until 30 minutes ago.

I loved this the same way I loved the first Kick-Axe album.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/body-shots/294091555

The 1980 Listening Post - Ellen Shipley - Breaking Through the Ice Age

Ellen Shipley - Breaking Through the Ice Age

1980 Housekeeping

Ellen Shipley

Breaking Through the Ice Age

Genre: Benatarock

4 out of 5

Highlights:

Fotogenic

Talk Don’t Shout

Shipley wrote or co-wrote most of the stuff on this album and you know? It freaking rocks. I don’t know her name or who she was but this album has more bangers than I expect. In the shadow of the breakthrough of Pat Benatar someone must have thought they had another on their hands and the the public was ready for and champing at the bit for more lacerating female driven rawk. 

They were wrong, obviously. 

If we went back into the spreadsheet to see just how many albums were led by women in the 80s we might actually be surprised. It’s not just Pat and The Go-Go’s and The Bangles. We’ve heard a lot. 

Shipley shifted to songwriting for others. “Heaven is a Place on Earth”? That’s hers. In fact, she wrote a lot of songs for Belinda Carlisle. And a host of other female singers. Kim Wilde. Jennifer Rush. Dionne Warwick. Lea Salonga. Faith Hill. David Hasselhoff. Midge Ure. (See what I did there?) She did a lot of work with Rick Nowels, who has gone on to write and produce the likes of Lana Del Rey and Dua Lipa and Sia. 

If this was her calling card, it’s a helluva a CV.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/breaking-through-the-ice-age-w-bonus-cuts/1357103671

The 1980 Listening Post - Levon Helm - American Son

 Levon Helm - American Son

1980 Housekeeping

Levon Helm

American Son

Genre: Americana

3.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Sweet Peach Georgia Wine

Confession time: I didn’t like The Last Waltz. I saw it in the theater in Maine. The Criterion. An old, Art Deco era cathedral for movies. I think it was a midnight show. Maybe it wasn’t. I fell asleep. Not a couple times. I had so much trouble getting through it.

No, I’m not a huge fan of The Band. But that makes sense, right? I don’t care for Dylan, either. 

Here’s what I DO like about them: Levon Helm was terrific in The Right Stuff. I heard he was great in Coal Miner’s Daughter, but I missed that one, too. I know, I know. (I also never saw Norma Rae. Bona Fides disappearing) I didn’t see Carny, although Helm wasn’t in it. But Robbie Robertson was. 

This is a bunch of songs written by others that Helm put together and does a credible job of bringing to life. 

This record came together because Helm was asked to cover “Blue Moon of Kentucky” for the aforementioned Loretta Lynn movie. So, they recorded more songs. 

They’re good. It makes a neat little companion to Nanci Griffith’s Other Voices, Other Rooms. An album of classic “folk-Country” tunes I mention because I like it a lot. 

It’s more charming than this. Although this is a sweet little record to put on at your next barbecue. 

The 1980 Listening Post - Bernie Taupin - He Who Rides the Tiger

Bernie Taupin - He Who Rides the Tiger 

1980 Housekeeping

Bernie Taupin

He Who Rides the Tiger

Genre: Unctuous So Cal Rock

2.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Approaching Armageddon

Did anyone see that Elton John movie? The one that was directed by the guy who took over for Bryan Singer on Bohemian Rhapsody?

It’s not a good movie. Well, it’s not a great movie. It had a lot of really good moments. I would say that it’s like an accessible Ken Russell attempt at a biopic. 

I mean, it’s not AS demented as Ken but it has that surrealism and it IS a biopic. Of sorts. Like Lisztomania was. But not as weird as that one. 

Well, I thought it was ok at times. But for me what I really enjoyed the most was the depiction of Bernie Taupin. Because we know that name but we don’t really know the name. He let Elton take all the glory but you don’t sing the music. I mean you do, when you sing the lyrics. That were written by Bernie. 

While Elton was falling apart and trying to figure his life out, Bernie got a bunch of musicians together and put this album out, where he sings his songs and, he ain’t that bad. He’s definitely better than Jim Steinman was on Bad for Good. But Dennis Tufano ain’t Elton John. He’s not bad but he ain’t a genius. 

As for the songs…I would be interested in a book of short stories by Taupin. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/he-who-rides-the-tiger/1248789704

The 1980 Listening Post - Luba - Chain Reaction

 Luba - Chain Reaction

1980 Housekeeping

Luba

Chain Reaction

Genre: New Wave & Pop from Canada

4.25 out of 5

Highlights:

Chain Reaction

Runaway

Black and White

Before Evanescence, before Florence + the Machine, there was Luba. 

In line with, say, Cristina, Luba knows where the rock is in her Benataring. 

She can sing. She has the tunes. Why don’t we know who she is?

Tell me that these songs don’t work for this era. 

Side One is on 80s bop after another. 

How’s Side Two?

Well, it starts off with the synth-rocker “Heaven in Your Eyes” (at least it does on my stream) and that’s another Pat Benatar type track that could have had a video, even though it would have been the third single. The strings actually add to the track instead of cheesing it up. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/chain-reaction/301545157