Jump to content

1989 - best albums


Glen

Recommended Posts

My rating was bang on 80% but that might drop a point or 2 when I cross refer some songs with other albums

 

My favs were 'Wrap My Wings', 'Do What Your Told' and the last track 'Sweet Little Razor' which is pretty killer and would have made a much better lead off track imo.........

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I always liked 'Breaking up a heart of stone' and the only other one I'd single out would be 'Someone like you.' A truly decent band, but so, so, sooooo many better out there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This morning I listened to and rated Strangeways - Walk In The Fire.

 

What a great disc. I must admit that back in the day (I bought this on release), I was probably hoping for a more rocking album, but wow, now I can REALLY appreciate this.

 

Just consumate AOR throughout. Forgot how good it was and even some songs I didnt rate that high really connect now.

 

Also having rated about 25-30 albums already from 1989 this is the best production ive heard so far. Spot on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • My Little Pony

This morning I listened to and rated Strangeways - Walk In The Fire.

 

What a great disc. I must admit that back in the day (I bought this on release), I was probably hoping for a more rocking album, but wow, now I can REALLY appreciate this.

 

Just consumate AOR throughout. Forgot how good it was and even some songs I didnt rate that high really connect now.

 

Also having rated about 25-30 albums already from 1989 this is the best production ive heard so far. Spot on.

 

How does it compare to Native Sons? It's the only Strangeways album I own, and I can't imagine it being beat.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

This morning I listened to and rated Strangeways - Walk In The Fire.

 

What a great disc. I must admit that back in the day (I bought this on release), I was probably hoping for a more rocking album, but wow, now I can REALLY appreciate this.

 

Just consumate AOR throughout. Forgot how good it was and even some songs I didnt rate that high really connect now.

 

Also having rated about 25-30 albums already from 1989 this is the best production ive heard so far. Spot on.

 

How does it compare to Native Sons? It's the only Strangeways album I own, and I can't imagine it being beat.

 

 

I didn't care that much for native Sons but I thought Walk in the Fire was quite good...

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree. I think there was only one song I really like off 'Native Sons' (not that the rest is terrible, but it was so lite it was basically a pop/AOR disc, innit?). But I do also really like 'Walk In The Fire.' If I remember right, it tapers off pretty chronic on the second half of the disc, but I think the first half is absolutely superb, innit? ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No I love the whole disc.

 

Its just a great AOR album. My only (small) gripe would be its a bit one paced but when the songs are this great who cares.

 

Actually the last 3 tracks are some of my favs.

 

Production is amazing imo.

 

And thats the main flaw with Native Sons...the production is a bit thin.

 

That said, the only song I dont like that much is Shake The Seven. Love the rest - particularly Goodnight LA - which is one of my fav ever ballads.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • My Little Pony

No I love the whole disc.

 

Its just a great AOR album. My only (small) gripe would be its a bit one paced but when the songs are this great who cares.

 

Actually the last 3 tracks are some of my favs.

 

Production is amazing imo.

 

And thats the main flaw with Native Sons...the production is a bit thin.

 

That said, the only song I dont like that much is Shake The Seven. Love the rest - particularly Goodnight LA - which is one of my fav ever ballads.

 

Yeah, Shake the Seven is probably the only low moment on the disc, but still not enough to skip. My favourite might be Face to Face. Just brilliant!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just to clarify the beginning of my post is about Walk In The Fire.

 

But yeah I love Native Sons.

 

I do wonder if its ever been remastered ??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • My Little Pony

Just to clarify the beginning of my post is about Walk In The Fire.

 

But yeah I love Native Sons.

 

I do wonder if its ever been remastered ??

 

I understood.

 

My copy is the reissue from Majestic Rock. On the line, I read this version was remastered, but there is no indication in the liner notes to suggest this, and it certainly doesn't sound like it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You don't have the debut? I am really struggling to recall their discography in great detail, but I think I prefer that one to 'Native Sons.' As far as I recall it's a good one and a must for fans of the band.

 

I have what I believe may be an original of the debut (but probably an old boot, lol - got it waaaay before the current trend of boots), and I also have the original of 'Walk On Fire.' But I think I might have the same copy of 'Native Sons' as Karpetface - a re-issue of some description.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The originals were released on Bonaire/RCA I think, then the band released them on their own Hangdog label. Majestic re-issued them and then Rock Candy have done the ultimate versions (in my opinion) with a handful of bonus live tracks on each.

 

The S/T for a debut is fantastic and I remember taking a punt on it when it was first released and being knocked out by it. Separating 'Native Sons' and 'Walk In The Fire' is extremely hard for me, as I consider them both 2 of the best AOR albums to come out of the UK in the 80's, if not ever. As Glenn mentions, 'Walk..' maybe a little more one paced, so maybe loses a couple of marks over 'Native Sons' but in my opinion, both are without filler and are completely essential in this genre. One band that released 3 absolutely superb albums one after the other.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ooooo, I was wondering about rock candy. I will investigate. Does the Native Sons sound more punchy?

 

Alwsys thought it was a bit thin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • My Little Pony

Ooooo, I was wondering about rock candy. I will investigate. Does the Native Sons sound more punchy?

 

Alwsys thought it was a bit thin

 

Yeah, I might have to upgrade, too!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1989 was a pretty darn good year for me (I turned 21, among other things).

 

When I think of 1989, one album stands tallest among a forest of great releases:

 

SKID ROW

 

 

 

If I were forced to pick a silver-medalist, it would most likely be Danger Danger, but there are SO many other worthy candidates (Dan Reed Network, Great White, Blue Murder, Cult, Diving For Pearls, Drive She Said, Enuff Z' Nuff, Giant, Lou Gramm, Icon, Lillian Axe, Mr. Big... I'll stop there or I might be here all day).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've done re-rating 86 albums haha and still got plenty of left but I'm trying to pick another 14 potential to complete the top 100 asap, here's the result so far

 

SKID ROW s/t 100.0%
ROBIN BECK Trouble or Nothin' 98.8%
DANGER DANGER s/t 97.6%
BONFIRE Point Blank 96.5%
MOTLEY CRUE Dr. Feelgood 95.9%
WINTER ROSE s/t 94.4%
TESLA The Great Radio Controversy 93.6%
XYZ s/t 93.2%
FAHRENHEIT (AUS) Talking About Love 92.8%
MR.BIG s/t 92.5%

VAIN No Respect 92.3%
WHITE LION Big Game 92.1%
PRETTY BOY FLOYD Leather Boyz With Electric Toyz 91.9%
SEPULTURA Beneath The Remains 91.8%
FM Tough It Out 91.7%
BAD ENGLISH s/t 91.5%
CHINA Sign In The Sky 91.2%
ALICE COOPER Trash 90.5%
SILENT RAGE Don't Touch Me There 90.3%
FIFTH ANGEL Time Will Tell 90.3%

DA VINCI Back In Business 90.1%
TREAT Organized Crime 89.3%
TNT Intuition 89.3%
AXEL RUDI PELL Wild Obsession 89.1%
LION Trouble In Angel City 89.0%
LOUDNESS Soldier of Fortune 88.6%
STRANGEWAYS Walk In The Fire 88.6%
X JAPAN Blue Blood 88.4%
SIGNAL Loud And Clear 87.7%
SWEDISH EROTICA s/t 87.1%

BAD HABIT After Hours 86.9%
ONSLAUGHT In Search of Sanity 86.8%
LILLIAN AXE Love and War 86.7%
TESTAMENT Practice What You Preach 86.7%
EXTREME s/t 86.6%
ALIEN s/t 86.5%
BABYLON A.D s/t 86.1%
WARRANT Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich 86.1%
STAGE DOLLS s/t 85.6%
MICHAEL MORALES s/t 85.1%

EVENRUDE One Size Fits All 85.0%
L.A.GUNS Cocked And Loaded 84.8%
GIANT Last of The Runaways 84.8%
MELIDIAN Lost In The Wild 84.5%
CATS IN BOOTS Kicked & Klawed 84.4%
BENNY MARDONES s/t 84.4%
VICTORY Culture Killed The Native 84.3%
STEVE STEVENS Atomic Playboys 83.9%
KINGDOM COME In Your Face 83.8%
AEROSMITH Pump 83.8%

ENUFF Z'NUFF s/t 83.4%
ICON Right Between The Eyes 83.2%
BLUE BLUD The Big Noise 83.0%
KREATOR Extreme Aggression 82.7%
MICHAEL MONROE Not Fakin' It 81.7%
SAVATAGE Gutter Ballet 81.6%
SHARK ISLAND Law of The Order 81.5%
FASTWAY On Target 81.5%
BADLANDS s/t 81.0%
MARCHELLO Destiny 80.7%

MAXIMUM Just For Kicks 80.6%
TRANSIT Dirty Pleasures 80.5%
AXXIS Kingdom of The Night 80.5%
DALTON Injection 80.0%
JUNKYARD s/t 79.8%
WALK ON FIRE Blind Faith 79.2%
ALANNAH MYLES s/t 76.9%
VOODOO X Vol 1 - The Awakening 76.7%
DANGEROUS TOYS s/t 76.7%
EXODUS Fabulous Disaster 76.1%

KISS Hot In The Shade 76.6%
BANSHEE Race Against Time 76.4%
STARSHIP Love Among The Cannibals 76.2%
DIRTY BLONDE Passion 75.1%
LIAISON s/t 75.0%
ROBERT HART Cries and Whispers 73.9%
MASTEDON It's A Jungle Out There 73.2%
GUARDIAN First Watch 72.6%
CULT, THE Sonic Temple 70.8%
KIM MITCHELL Rockland 70.4%

BANG TANGO Psycho Café 70.3%
IT BITES Eat Me In St. Louis 70.3%
WORK FORCE s/t 68.4%
GORKY PARK s/t 66.7%
SABBAT Dreamweaver 65.5%
XENON America's New Design 58.8%

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great list Nightrain! That must have been fun!

 

I think we differ on a few. These for me are classics:

Tesla

Xyz

Vain

X Japan

Lillian axe

Warrant

Kingdom come

Savatage

The Cult

 

I really like these albums but I thought you rated them much higher than I would :

Skid row - if this gets 100 then slave must be 125 ;)

Danger danger - good album but over produced and too samey.

Mr big - never understood why people like this so much.

 

Never heard that Fahrenheit cd and will check it out.

 

Great list, great work!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks bro, and FAHRENHEIT maybe too slow for you but give it a go :)

 

TESLA, XYZ, VAIN were also rated high up there so probably if you rate them higher, maybe you're only 3-4% away

 

i'm a big fan of DANGER DANGER debut, probably that score is too high for some but well I still like it as much as I first heard it many years ago

 

well to be honest, i prefer SKID ROW's debut to 'Slave' although I'm a minority haha because I think 'Slave' is trying too hard to incorporate a heavier, thrashier side. Even though I like heavy music, somehow I think they're best while playing the debut style. I still think 'Slave' is one hell of an album and I'm tempted to give at least 90% or above, but not 100%. I'll investigate later to see if lesser known songs like 'Mudkicker', 'Creepshow', or 'The Threat' are strong enough to hold the big score, it's been a while since I spun it.

 

3 albums rated today :

BAM BAM BOYS - s/t 81%

DRIVE SHE SAID - s/t 78%

OUTFIELD, THE - Voice of Babylon 77.3%

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jeezers Christ, mate! To each their own, but far out man, they are some serious high ratings.

 

Every song on Skid Row's debut perfect? Wow, do we disagree there!! ;) I rated it 85% and had to be generous on a few tracks to give it the score I felt it deserved. Great album, but perfect? Yowser...

 

Anyway, ratings aside (because for the most part they're at very least 10% higher than what I'd give them), a few things that stand out:

 

You like Fahrenheit that much??? Better than Vain? PBF, FM, Melidian, DaVinci, Treat etc etc. You honestly think that disc is better than all those classics? Wow.

 

Anyway, to each their own and I obviously disagree with the majority of what is there, as you will with my list, but two albums that really shock me are Mr Big's debut and White Lion's 'Big Game.' Two very weak albums, imo, that would be very, very low on my list, and not close to most those classics.

 

Anyway, cool list, mate. Interesting read.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.