My 1981 Listening Log (Part 2)

Welcome! This is Part 2 to a post that went up last month, so I’d recommend checking that one out for context if you haven’t already. It’s not too hard to explain, though: over the past couple of months, I’d listen to one new-to-me album from the year 1981 (first one every day, later reduced to every other day), write a couple sentences about my thoughts on it, and post it in the Rosy Overdrive Discord channel. I covered sixty albums in total; the first thirty appeared in the first blog post, and here below are the second thirty.

Keep in mind, these records are all ones that I’d never listened to in full before. There are plenty of great albums from 1981 (Solid Gold, Stands for Decibels, Re*ac*tor, Black Snake Diamond Role, Youth of America, Odyshape, and at least a dozen more) I already know and love and thus do not appear here.

Bandcamp embeds are provided when available, but most of these albums aren’t on there, so I’ve created a playlist (Spotify, Tidal) of a song from each one of these records (Parts 1 and 2 are combined into the same playlist) you can use to listen along if you’re so inclined. So, without any more ramblings from me, let us dive deeply into music from over four decades ago.

April 24th: The Durutti Column – LC (Factory)

The Durutti Column were an OG Factory Records band and one of the few post-punk “Names” I know very little about. I checked out LC to fill in this gap, and what I got was definitely not what I expected. It’s loosely post-punk, sure—I see the traces of it—but these tracks are very airy dream pop and ambient-inspired indie rock songs. It actually feels ahead of its time in how it combines all of this together in an accessible way—there are a lot of bands who are trying to sound like this (albeit with more layers/more shoegaze influence generally).

April 25th: Squeeze – East Side Story (A&M)

Squeeze! It took me a while to get to them but I’ve come to appreciate them lately. I think they’re sort of in the purgatory of being too big to be a hip “underground” band for alt-kids to be into but not big enough that they made it to the next generation in a more mainstream capacity. Plenty of great power pop songs here (“In Quintessence”, “Piccadilly”, “Heaven”), although like most of the best bands of that genre they’re not “just” that. This album is almost fifty minute for some reason, and probably shouldn’t be—the second half’s clearly weaker but there’s also not an obvious “cut” song.

April 26th: Marine Girls – Beach Party (Whaam!)

There’s a new Everything But the Girl album, but today I’m going way back to the first album from Tracey Thorn’s FIRST band. Things are pretty different with Marine Girls’ minimalist indie pop sound, and Beach Party is especially stark. Compared to their other album, Lazy Ways (which I’ve heard), it’s even more rudimentary/simple/whatever, with the barest of instrumentation accompanying the vocals. Sixteen songs that roughly point the way to where UK indie pop would go in the next few years, plenty of immediate tunes (“In Love”, “Honey”, “Flying Over Russia”) but as a whole this one takes a bit. It’s growing on me a little already.

April 27th: The Psychedelic Furs – Talk Talk Talk (Columbia)

Hey, any of y’all heard this “Pretty in Pink” song? Pretty good, eh? Okay, okay—this one reminds me of the Echo & the Bunnymen album in that it’s another “big”-sounding post-punk album, but this one sounds a little better to me initially because it feels a little less one-note and more…fun. Truthfully there’s a lot going on in these songs so I’m not sure if I’m totally absorbing them yet (I think the excessiveness of the instrumentation makes them an “80s band” as much as anything else). Best use of saxophone and best song title goes to the best track, “Into You Like a Train”.

April 28th: Phew – Phew (Pass)

Headed to Japan again. Phew is a musician who’s worked with members of Yellow Magic Orchestra, Einsturzende Neubauten, and CAN, the latter of which contributed to her first, self-titled, album. Compared to those acts, Phew seems simpler-sounding if no less straightforward—a lot of these songs are just a minimal post-punk groove or eerie experimental rock instrumental with Phew’s vocals over them. There’s something about these weird rickety little songs that keep me drawn to them, though. It feels like there’s a lot going on under the surface.

April 29th: Empire – Expensive Sound (Dinosaur)

This one got pulled from somewhat obscurity by Munster Records last year in a reissue. Apparently Empire were related to Generation X somehow although it doesn’t sound that much like them. This is actually a really catchy, pop-friendly album, but in an organic and decidedly not mainstream 80s way—songs jump from dark post-punk (title track) to straight power pop (“Hot Seat”). Feels like the works of punks but only sometimes like a “punk album”. Could’ve come out this year and sounded fresh.

April 30th: Tom Tom Club – Tom Tom Club (Island/Sire)

I’ve now heard the Tom Tom Club album. It’s alright—it gets off to a slow start. No matter how much I try to put myself in 1981 mindset I just cannot take “Wordy Rappinghead” seriously, and while “Genius of Love” is solid I don’t LOVE it like other do. Jams start with “L’Elephant” and Tom Tom Club are good at ‘em, though it gets a bit tedious after a while. Could’ve used a few more fun, simpler songs like “On, On, On…” to break them up. The cassette-only cover of “Under the Boardwalk” is pretty fun also.

May 1st: Brian Eno & David Byrne – My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (Sire/E.G.)

Part two of our impromptu swing through Talking Heads side projects continues today. And also another one, like Tom Tom Club, where I really gotta put my 1981 glasses on. This is one where the short summaries aren’t great—I’m sure there’s some long-form writing about the, uh, wide array of sampling going on here and how it reads in 2023. To me now it mostly just sounds like solid instrumental funk rock with random interjections placed over it now and then. Probably more interesting than the Tom Tom Club album, probably less likely to return to it.

May 2nd: Ludus – The Seduction (New Hormones)

Manchester post-punk group—never even heard of them before starting this, but they’re connected in some way to a lot of bigger groups from the scene. On the weirder, off-the-wall side of things. Ludus like to stretch and twist their songs, occasionally veering them into ditches. Three of the eight are over 8 minutes long. No surprise this wasn’t bigger at the time, kind of surprised it’s not more well-known now. It’s hard to get into a rhythm on this one but I’ll be coming back to it.

May 3rd: Wall of Voodoo – Dark Continent (I.R.S.)

AKA the one that doesn’t have “Mexican Radio” on it. Wall of Voodoo sound how I think of them here—a very weird band that one could dismiss as gimmicky on the surface, but I think that does them a disservice. Stan Ridgeway is definitely one of the more interesting frontpeople of the 1980s, and the music is pretty simple synth-rock (that actually does rock). I’d say that a lot of modern “synthpunk” bands don’t sound far off from this, with the caveat that if there’s somebody in a new band doing a similar thing to Ridgeway, I haven’t heard it. “Red Light” isn’t on streaming which is unfortunate because it’s one of the highlights.

May 5th: Daniel Johnston – Songs of Pain (Self-released/Stress)

This one took a while because it’s an hour long (plus I’ve been very busy). Anyway, this sure is a Daniel Johnston album. It’s his first, recorded in his parents’ basement in West Virginia, and it’s nowhere near my favorite of his that I’ve heard. It’s interesting to hear Johnston grapple with how his upbringing was clashing with his current feelings in the lyrics, but some of the subject matter gets tedious after 60 minutes. Still, there’s brilliant stuff here; he’s already a good songwriter and he was already keying in on something here that he’d really hit on in the next few years.

May 8th: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – Architecture & Morality (Dindisc)

Today I’m getting into a big name in synthpop that I’ve been pretty ignorant about before now. Probably due to the name, I’ve associated OMD with, like, coldwave and goth-pop kinda music, but that doesn’t really describe Architecture & Morality. There are darker moments, sure, but this is bright and pretty new wave-y synthpop for the most part. Sounds like a less druggy version of where New Order would end up in a few years, not to mention feeling like the blueprint for a lot of huge 80s music to soon follow. Pleasant surprise.

May 9th: Crass – Penis Envy (Crass)

It…might be too early in the morning for me to take all of this in. Had not listened to a full Crass album before but knew “Bata Motel”—and that’s not an outlier here. This is landmark screed-punk, it’ll take me several listens to absorb all Eve Libertine is saying here but I get the gist (and I’m intrigued yes). A little exhausting, a lot to take in all at once, but the band helps—ramping up the drama with something like the seven-minute “What the Fuck” or the deconstructed “Health Surface” gives the album some key dynamics (not that their default mode of rat-a-tat punk is a bad one).

May 11th: A Certain Ratio – To Each… (Factory)

I’ve heard the ACR album before this one and the one after it, and it does kind of sound like a midway point between the muddy post-punk of The Graveyard and the Ballroom (okay, not particularly memorable) and the sharp dance punk of Sextet (very good). The longer jams are appreciated (although yes the twelve minute “Winter Hill” maybe didn’t need to be that long), and the funk bass combined with the dour post-punk vocals is interesting (although this may end up falling into the “more interesting than good” camp for me). 

May 13th: Romeo Void – It’s a Condition (415)

This is a good album. I’m surprised I don’t hear more about Romeo Void these days (I guess they’re technically a one-hit wonder); this album at least holds up. It’s on the post-punk – college rock – new wave axis somewhere—“Myself to Myself” sounds like what so much guitar music would sound like for the next decade. Oh, and there’s a lot of saxophone here too. It’s quite poppy (maybe a bit too much for the record collectors) but in a very non-dated way. Maybe would’ve gotten more respect if they were British instead of from San Francisco.

May 15th: Grauzone – Grauzone (EMI/Welt/Off Course)

Grauzone are a Swiss post-punk group most famous for their non-album “Eisbär” single (which also came out in ‘81). This was their only full-length album. It’s an interesting one—it’s split between guitar and synths, and it’s a little weird but the songs are hooky despite their dark European post-punk dressing. For this kind of music it feels surprisingly alive. I don’t know if this one record and that single is enough for me to elevate them into the cult short-lived band top-tier, but it’s pretty solid.

May 17th: Muddy Waters – King Bee (Blue Sky)

99.9 percent chance that this is going to be the only blues album that I do during this. King Bee was the final Muddy Waters album, recorded while he was in failing health and augmented with some older outtakes to make up for that. I’m probably not a big enough fan to tell the difference, but Waters still sounds good to me, even if these songs aren’t clearly game-changing like his earlier recordings—not essential but a perfectly fine note to go out on. I like the message of “Champagne & Reefer”.

May 19th: The Human League – Dare (Virgin)

I’ve hit on a bunch of synthpoppy albums while doing this, but this one is maybe the truest expression of the genre. The Human League sound like, as soon as they heard a synth play a pop song chord, they said “yes please, we’ll be doing that and only that”. Accordingly, given that I’m not huge on synthpop on its own, this album didn’t do much for me. Gravitated towards the weirder stuff like “I Am the Law” mainly for a change of pace. And “Don’t You Want Me” is one of the better “big” songs that’s shown up in these, I’d say that one holds up.

May 22nd: Polyrock – Changing Hearts (RCA)

I found Polyrock’s first album a while back—they seem kind of like one of these “if you know, you know” small post-punk bands. Like their neighbors one state over, The Feelies, Polyrock seem interested in stretching the bones of rock music out and riding some grooves, but they do it in a slightly more NYC art punk/new wave kind of way (honestly, The Strokes sound way more like this than Television or The Velvets). Changing Hearts is thirty-six minutes long and the rhythm section is always on. The self-titled album seems more highly regarded, but this one is nearly as good.

May 24th: The Slits – Return of the Giant Slits (CBS)

Ah, the “Difficult Second Album” was definitely a major feature of this era of music, and this might be one of the clearest adherents to this phenomenon. Not that The Slits were ever the poppiest band, but at least Cut sort of sounded like a punk album amidst the reggae and weirder flirtations. This one is all offbeat, out there stuff—maybe a bit too unmoored. The first song is awesome, there’s definitely more great moments (“Improperly Dressed”, also very good) and they’ve got a good “sound”, but it doesn’t quite work for me as a whole.

May 26th: Tuxedomoon – Desire (Ralph)

Hey, this is pretty neat! First album I’ve ever listened to by Tuxedomoon, a long-running “RIYL” weirdo rock band but one that doesn’t really (that I’ve seen) have the cult following the groups like Einsturzende Neubauten, The Residents, Pere Ubu etc have. Desire is recognizably a post-punk album, although certainly a wonky and post-rock-y one. The whole thing is interesting but it does lose some steam towards the end. As an opening punch “East/Jinx” is hard to top.

May 28th: Blue Öyster Cult – Fire of Unknown Origin (Columbia)

Hey, just because it’s the 80s doesn’t mean 70s hard rock disappeared immediately. Fire of Unknown Origin has BÖC’s SECOND biggest hit, “Burnin’ for You”, a nice piece of power pop (yeah, I said it) that I probably like better than that other song by them. The album’s full of BÖC’s brand of somewhat dark but still quite fun rock music—not every song on this one works, but the title track, “Joan Crawford”, “After Dark”—these songs have some meat on them. Music to paint your van to, yes.

May 30th: Scientist – Scientist Rids the World or the Evil Curse of the Vampires (Greensleeves)

Dub time. Today it’s Scientist (not to be contused with ScientistS, the garage rock band that put out a good album this year too), and his album with the really long title that seems to be one of his most beloved ones as well. I like a lot of dub-influenced things but rarely listen to full-on dub, but this was enjoyable. Other than the monster-inspired snippets, I don’t really have the knowledge to properly differentiate this from other dub albums, and I can’t say this one converted me to becoming a dubsciple, but I do see the appeal in this kind of thing. Thank you, Scientist, for ridding the world of the curse of the evil vampires. 

June 1st: Agent Orange – Living in Darkness (Posh Boy)

California! Punk rock! A bit harder than, like, X, but not recognizably “hardcore” to me (I think the serious tone of it gets it stuck with that label more than the sonics, which are classic punk to me. Maybe they would’ve been a post-punk group band if they were British, but it’s better this way). The surf rock influence is pretty neat. I don’t really know too much about this band, but this album holds up pretty well forty-some years later (even though it’s less than 20 minutes long, stretching the whole “album” thing).

June 3rd: The Teardrop Explodes – Wilder (Mercury/Fontana)

I think this one gets grouped into the “difficult second post-punk album” camp, but really it’s not too esoteric of a listen unless you’re allergic to horns in your guitar music. It’s Julian Cope so there’s bound to be a bit of psychedelia contained herein; it sounds more or less how “The Teardrop Explodes” should sound. It didn’t really blow me away on first listen or anything, but it’s a worthy follow-up to 1980’s Kilimanjaro (which is probably still the one to check out for this band, but don’t skip this one if Kilimanjaro works for you).

June 4th: Dome – 3 (Dome/Rough Trade)

According to science, most people live their entire lives without hearing a single Dome album. I’ve now heard three of them. This was Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis’ side project while Wire was on ice for most of the 80s—it’s quite experimental. I like the first Dome album a little bit. The second is okay, but by the third most traces of the parts of their music I like aren’t present and it’s mostly just industrial somewhat ambient noise. Decidedly not for me.

June 7th: Roger – The Many Facets of Roger (Warner Bros.)

Roger Troutman is not the only reason to respect Ohio, but he’s one of the better ones. Between his solo albums and his band Zapp he’s an all-time funk great—I know the singles but this is the first full album I’ve heard. Six songs here, including his eleven minute vocoder synth-funk version of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and the laser of “So Ruff, So Tuff”. The stretch from “A Chunk of Sugar” to “Maxx Axe” is a lot smoother but still very good, especially the latter of the three.

June 8th: Genesis – Abacab (Charisma) 

I’m almost done with these, but we’re going to check in on Pop Genesis before we go. Abacab is one of the albums that you aren’t “supposed” to like, but it’s pretty solid new wave-y 80s pop music (yes, it’s weird that this band also made Selling England by the Pound—okay, got that out of the way). Starts off strong, gets tedious around the seven-minute song about the dodo bird and the genuinely irritating “Who Dunnit?” but recovers with a couple nice ones towards the end. Even on the weaker songs, though, you can’t say they aren’t trying.

June 12th: Svart – Gryning (Stranded)

I stumbled upon this mostly unknown Swedish post-punk/art punk album while looking for albums to do for this exercise—this has to be the most obscure one I’ve done. This is a pretty interesting find—there’s some synthy new wave stuff but on the whole it sounds pretty weird. Some of it almost prefigures the indie rock of the next decade. It didn’t blow me away or anything, I wouldn’t put it up there with the best of ‘81–but, like I said, it’s an intriguing find.

June 17th: Tom Verlaine – Dreamtime (Warner Bros.)

Closing the door on this project with an album from the late legendary guitarist. I’m not surprised by how it sounds (like Television, but more singer-songwriter-y) but that’s not a bad thing. A testament to his/his band’s influence, Dreamtime doesn’t sound like ‘81, or any year, really. This is always necessarily going to be overshadowed by Marquee Moon, but if you like that album and haven’t explored Verlaine’s work beyond it, I’d say this is worth a listen.