Urban75 Album of the Year 1979

[danny la rouge]

Wow literally no surprises.

No Neil Young, but Fleetwood Mac? I’m disowning you people.

 

[Knotted]

Tusks was lower down than I feared it might be. I'm OK with that.

 

[belboid]

I was a bit shocked. But not as much as by the fact that almost none of you recognise the genius of Lodger.

 

[andysays]

These, in no particular order, are my runners up

The Specials Specials
Cabaret Voltaire Mix Up
Magazine Secondhand Daylight
Human League Reproduction
The Jam Setting Sons
The Pop Group Y
Siouxsie and the Banshees Join Hands
David Bowie Lodger
Wire 154
The Fall Dragnet

 

[Spandex]

1 Joy Division Unknown Pleasures

Possibly the most overwhelming winner we've had, almost double the votes of LC. Probably because it is a work of immense genius.

As a 16 year old in 89/90 Joy Division were far and away my favourite band. I played the Substance comp more than this, but I played them (and Closer and Still) a lot. I lived in a Love Will Tear Us Apart t-shirt (and skinny black jeans and buckled goth boots from Kensington Market). It came as a bit of a surprise in the early 00s when I started hanging out in music discussion forums on the internet and every other band seemed to cite them as an influence how widely loved they were - they'd never seemed universally admired to my teenage self. Of course, they deserve to be and it was an easy pick for my no. 1.

Anyway, here's my list:

Joy Division ‎– Unknown Pleasures
Talking Heads ‎– Fear Of Music
Tantra ‎– Hills Of Katmandu
Candido – Dancin’ & Prancin’
The B-52's ‎– The B-52's
Crass ‎– Stations Of The Crass
Throbbing Gristle ‎– 20 Jazz Funk Greats
UK Subs - Another Kind of Blues
Shina Williams & His African Percussionists ‎– African Dances
Telex ‎– Looking For Saint Tropez

 

[Dr. Furface]

What a year it was...

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
Holger Czukay - Movies
PIL - Metal Box
Pyrolator - Inland
A Certain Ratio - The Graveyard and the Ballroom
Talking Heads - Fear of Music
James Chance & The Contortions - Buy
The Slits - Cut
Cabaret Voltaire - Mix Up
Gang of Four - Entertainment

 

[ska invita]

Azymuth - Light As A Feather
Stevie Wonder - Secret Life of Plants
Ras Michael & The Sons of Negus - Love Thy Neighbour
Freddie McGregor - Bobby Babylon
Seke Molenga & Kalo Kawongolo ‎– African Roots
Augustus Pablo - Original Rockers
Funkadelic - Uncle Jam Wants You
Michael Jackson - Off The Wall
Earth WInd & Fire - I Am
B52s- B52s

Killer way to start an album:

 

[Knotted]

My list:

L Voag - The Way Out
Art Bears - Winter Songs
The Fall - Dragnet
This Heat - This Heat
The Fall - Live at the Witch Trials
Henry Cow - Western Culture
The Raincoats - The Raincoats
Sun Ra and his Arkestra - Sleeping Beauty
The Specials - The Specials
The Residents - Eskimo

Winter Songs is a difficult listen, not because its especially hard to follow but because it is uncomfortably in your face and completely lacking any cool distance. Plus its lyrically purely descriptive - painting a picture which is actually very rare when you think about it. Those two Fall albums represent the polar opposite - verbal dexterity with observational asides ie. very much a Mark E Smith view of the world as opposed to some pretentious attempt at objectivity. And that's the way to go. But Winter Songs is still an extraordinary accomplishment. But enough waffle, I have a top ten of the 70's for anyone who can't get enough lists:

L Voag - The Way Out
Comus - First Utterance
Art Bears - Winter Songs
Can - Tago Mago
Henry Cow - Unrest
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band - Lick My Decals Off Baby
Sun Ra and His Intergalactic Solar Arkestra - Space is the Place (Soundtrack)
Chico Buarque - Construção
Third Ear Band - Third Ear Band
Kraftwerk - Kraftwerk II

 

[Knotted]

Pyrolator - Inland

Listened to this this morning. It's great.

 

[Kaka Tim]

what a fantastic time for music. loads of brilliant stuff outside the top 20 - and nearly everything in it has proved to be some of the most important and influential pop music ever recorded. Talking heads, joy division, clash, specials, gang of four, slits, the cure, bowie, throbbing gristle - all producing landmark albums that shaped music right up to the present day. fleetwood mac the only blot.

 

[Casual Observer]

Ahhh.. missed the countdown. My 1-5 are fairly nailed on but 6-10 no so much. Rema-Rema would have been right up there if they hadn't split up and their album had come out that year.

Chrome - Half Machine Lip Moves
This Heat - This Heat
The Pop Group - Y
The Damned - Machine Gun Etiquette
PIL - Metal Box
The Only Ones - Even Serpents Shine
Swell Maps - A Trip To Marineville
The Soft Boys - A Can Of Bees
The Slits - Cut
The Desperate Bicycles - Remorse Code

 

[ska invita]

This one just didnt make it as not a perfect album, but the tunes that are good are great and theres plenty of them
Life Is Not Easy, Jungle Feeling, Justice, Hard Life... and more
a bit 70s Bob Marley derivative at times but yeah the big tunes are brilliant

 

[Indeliblelink]

so my favourites were -

Sister Sledge - We Are Family
Steve Hillage - Rainbow Dome Musick
Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle
Chic - Risqué
Sparks - No. 1 in Heaven
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
Tubeway Army - Replicas
The Philip Glass Ensemble - Einstein on the Beach
Hans-Joachim Roedelius - Selbstportrait
Irene Papas & Vangelis - Odes

Gerry Rafferty - Night Owl
The Cars - Candy-O
Pat Benatar - In the Heat of the Night
Krono - Krono
Supermax - Fly With Me
Madness - One Step Beyond...
Squeeze - Cool for Cats
Mandré - M3000
Azymuth - Light as a Feather
Sugarhill Gang - Sugarhill Gang