1989 - best albums

[Glen]

I wonder if people even know sometimes that some songs are covers?

 

Is that the Girl song? One of my faves.

 

Yeah its a Girl cover. Lillian Axe's version is infinitely better imo, but its still a cover.

[Jez]

Demon Drive's version of 'Burn' better than the Deep Purple original, L.A Guns better than Led Zeppelin and now Lillian Axe's version of 'My Number' better than Girl...What the flippin' heck have people been drinking or smoking round here and precisely which planet are they actually on.. absolute sacrilege

[Glen]

Planet reality mate ;-)

 

Theres no denying the songwriting skill behind the track but Girls original is so basic sounding.

 

The LA version is huge.

[PeterS]

Oh my. Just listened. Must be an alternative reality as the LA version should be thrown out for that whoo.

[Glen]

Oh my. Just listened. Must be an alternative reality as the LA version should be thrown out for that whoo.

 

Ha ha I think they go whoo cos they sing a naughty word ;-)

 

Yeah I like the original and am all for an organic sound an all that but the LA version just kicks serious arse and sounds a million bucks.

[Nightrain]

I think I still treated a cover track like any other tracks, but a full cover album is separated from the list. It belongs in the compilation / rarities / cover version category I guess

[Geoff]

 

 

Rated Dangerous Toys and Workforce this morning.

 

Both pretty weak albums if I'm honest.

 

I havent listened to the Dangerous Toys debut in like 15 years, and it hasnt aged well. I love the song 'Scared' but nothing else really stands out on the album. When compared to modern day sleaze like Crashdiet or Hardcore Superstar it really is pretty average.

 

I could have told you that.

 

I rated Boysvoice's (first two) and Boulevard's two albums today... not really good news for either. No-one topped 80%. It's funny looking back at all those albums in detail how few actually live up to the memories you have of them, when you scrutinise them. Brass Kitten also went very averagely, but that wasn't a real surprise to me, bar a couple of fantastic songs.

 

 

Oh I know 'Into The Street' will rate very highly for me - I listen to that regularly and aside from one maybe 2 tracks it is brilliant throughout imo.

 

1989 is surprising me tho (shouldnt really I suppose)....I really thought I would have about 20 albums over 90% but its looking more and more likely that it won't happen.

 

Still a lot of (supposed) gems to go so we'll see how it pans out.

 

Its making me realise just how great 2009-2014 has been.

 

 

I thought 'Into the Street' would rate really high for me too. It's a very good solid album, but it's problem for me was that there was not one single song that really stood out. A lot of 8's in the first half, and then a weaker second half. It's a good disc, but I thought it was better. To be totally honest, there is nothing on that disc which even comes close to touching the first two songs off their debut, which, for me, are both near perfect.

 

As for 2009-2014 being that great, I'm not sure that's the solution. A truly consistent excellent album is just really hard to come by, in any year. I thought I'd have a lot of albums over 90% from the olden days too, and I'm starting to realise it won't happen. But what I do think will happen, is that there will be a heap more albums in the 80-90% region (which is still excellent) than in later years.

 

As for rating covers, yep, I just rate them as a normal album track - good, bad or ugly. Because a lot of the time, if I didn't read liner notes, I probably wouldn't realise they are all covers. I listened to 'My Number' by LA for years before realising it was a cover. And I agree, it is one of their better songs - love it.

 

@ Nightrain, not sure I get your logic about stretching your scoring to other genres in order to generate more high scores? If I stretched out my ratings to thrash metal and classic heavy metal, I'd have a hell of a lot more albums in the 10-30% region, and still exactly the same amount of albums in the 90% region!!!

 

I review everything from Backstreet Boys and Busted CDs, to glam/AOR/hard rock/melodic rock, to modern metal. I'll even add Roxette, Icehouse etc. My range will be massive, but a 90% album is a 90% album; doesn't matter at all what else is in the mix.

[Glen]

Mmm, on reflection Im not convinced by that 'My Number' tune - original or cover version.

 

I like it plenty enough and its a solid (albeit slightly querky) track but I rated it 8/10 in the end which on Love and War makes it a middle of the pack song.

 

In fact 'Love & War' is a very difficult album to rate. It has some songs which are musically awesome like 'All's Fair', 'World Stopped Turning' etc but have annoying parts (like spoken word) or are too long, and then some rockers with nice hooks but are pretty basic.....still not entirely happy with my rating of 82% as I feel as I listen to it it should be worth more??

 

Hey ho.

[Nightrain]

@geoff :

well i'm pointing that out to Glen as I believe he also loves some metal and prog, and most of the guys here who spent their teenage years in 80s were mostly exposed to other genres as well, such as thrash, heavy metal, new wave, and punks that are huge in rock category in terms of album sales, and maybe those albums were rated classic too.

 

Now some do enjoy many genres like me, but if you only enjoy hard rock then no point in stretching to other genres, but because you're limited to only one type of music, then I believe it's much harder to look for 20 or more albums in the 90% category because the style is too similar

 

Consider this another way, what if those modern rock albums you love turns out to be albums that were out in the 80s ? surely you will stretch to that genre and can include 3-4 highly rated stuffs like Cauterize, hit the lights, etc in your top 20 ? But of course, for me and maybe other, those albums might ended up in the 10-30% category but I guess you get the logic of stretching

[Nightrain]

Mmm, on reflection Im not convinced by that 'My Number' tune - original or cover version.

 

I like it plenty enough and its a solid (albeit slightly querky) track but I rated it 8/10 in the end which on Love and War makes it a middle of the pack song.

 

In fact 'Love & War' is a very difficult album to rate. It has some songs which are musically awesome like 'All's Fair', 'World Stopped Turning' etc but have annoying parts (like spoken word) or are too long, and then some rockers with nice hooks but are pretty basic.....still not entirely happy with my rating of 82% as I feel as I listen to it it should be worth more??

 

Hey ho.

 

I got 86.7% for that album, almost the same mate

well I dig 'My Number' and gave it a solid 8.5. My best picks here are 'She Likes It On Top' and 'Show A Little Love' and I'm a bit struggling with 'Ghost of Winter' and 'Letters In That Rain'. How do you score that two tracks ?

[AlphaMale]

Do you still need Dirty Blonde's "Passion" Nightrain?

[AlphaMale]

Here are my ratings for the year of 1989. There will be more added and the list updated when I get through some more releases.

 

Babylon A.D. - 90

Badlands - 90

Bonfire - 89

Bad English - 88

Danger Danger - 88

Lillian Axe - 88

Skid Row - 88

Angelica - 87

Tesla - 87

Diving For Pearls - 86

Bang Tango - 85

Giant - 85

Signal - 85

Treat - 85

Vain - 85

Icon - 84

L.A. Guns - 84

Shark Island - 83

Leatherwolf - 83

Great White - 82

Tora Tora - 82

TNT - 81

XYZ - 81

Motley Crue - 80

Law And Order - 80

FM - 80

Dream Theater - 80

Blue Murder - 80

Victory - 80

Silent Rage - 80

Alice Cooper - 80

Whitesnake - 79

Strangeways - 79

Michael Monroe - 78

Cats In Boots - 78

Dirty Looks - 78

The Almighty - 77

Dangerous Toys - 77

Mr. Big - 77

Tangier - 77

Pink Cream 69 - 77

Pretty Boy Floyd - 77

Little Angels - 76

Fifth Angel - 75

The Cult - 75

Extreme - 74

Gun - 74

Saraya - 74

Kiss - 73

Enuff Z'Nuff - 72

Faith No More - 70

Steve Jones - 70

Tim Karr - 70

Raging Slab - 64

[Nightrain]

I'm surprised to see only one 90% album on your list mate, makes me wonder what albums do you really think is perfect back in the days ?

[Glen]

That LA Guns rating looks well high.

 

I rated that yesterday and there are some weak fillers in the middle section.

[Geoff]

Russ, you crazy, crazy bastard! Do you realise that means that you think Revolution Saints and Eclipse are better than any single album released in 1989?! Are you sure about that, mate? Holy shit, I'd rate about half of those CDs well above those two.

 

To each their own, but the PBF, Victory and XYZ ratings look way too low for how amazing those albums are. And Angelica seems awful high. I rated it 75%, but I'm more surprised about the massive albums you have it ranked above.

 

Anyway, interesting read and a cool list. Funny how I wouldn't have Badlands in probably my top 100.

[Glen]

Ahh but you see you wouldnt cos when you get stuck into it, you find that although there are moments of utter brilliance on some of these albums, they go hand in hand with a few fillers too which drags the score down.

 

I'll be the first to admit that some folk have slightly overrated the Eclipse and Rev Saints albums (I havent rated yet, but doubt either would hit 90%), but they still do compare favourably with most releases from 89.

 

IMO of course.

[Glen]

Ive done 13 albums so far.....i'll probably post them up in batches when I hit 25...50....75....then 100 releases, over the coming weeks.

[Geoff]

Oh, but I disagree. I've only rated my collection up to the end of "B" so far (aside from a couple of random stragglers) and I already have a bunch more I'd rate above them... and I'm only in "B!!!"

 

Albums I've rated higher than both Eclipse and Revolution Saints so far:

 

Bonfire - Point Blank - 1989 - 93

Robin Beck - Trouble Or Nothin' - 1989 - 92

Blue Blud - The Big Noise - 1989 - 91

FM - Tough It Out - 1989 - 87

Skid Row - Skid Row - 1989 - 85

Bad English - Bad English - 1989 - 84

Albums I've rated above Revoltion Saints, so far:

TNT - Intuition - 1989 - 83

Warrant - Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich - 1989 - 83

Bad Habit - After Hours - 1989 - 82

Babylon A.D. - Babylon A.D. - 1989 - 81

220 Volt - Eye To Eye - 1989 - 81

[Glen]

thats cos your rating of Rev Saints is too low ;-)

[Glen]

I rated Robin Beck this morning - I really like that album....it's one of the few female fronted albums that I truly do like.

 

But I had to laugh cos I was reminded of Steel Panther's 'I Want Pussy'....when at the end the song keeps going up and up and up and up.

 

I mean how many times does Robin need to go 'up' at the end of these songs....bless her.

[AlphaMale]

My grades are always subject to change.

 

I have dropped Rev Saints to a 88% and Eclipse to 89%. As always, the more I listen to something, the more I critique it.

[AlphaMale]

I'm surprised to see only one 90% album on your list mate, makes me wonder what albums do you really think is perfect back in the days ?

 

That's the brilliance of rating them now. Back then, those top discs would have been in the high 90's for me.

[Geoff]

My grades are always subject to change.

 

I have dropped Rev Saints to a 88% and Eclipse to 89%. As always, the more I listen to something, the more I critique it.

 

Haha. I can read you like a Walt Disney book. You should get me to do your reviews for you.

 

@ Glen - my rating for Revolution Saints is definitely not too low. Listening back to the best 4 CDs of the year this week, I wonder if I might have rated Revolution Saints and Eclipse a little too high myself. Not by much at all, but I much, much prefer the Care Of Night and Issa discs, if we're doing things in pairs... which I am in this post.

[Glen]

Rev Saints and Eclipse are in a different league, but that's just my opinion.

 

Back on topic and 1989....

 

Rated Bang Tango - Psycho cafe last night - still really like that album, but I think the follow up might have been better. Anyway, did they get that lead track wrong or what?? Weakest track on the album for me.

 

and....

 

Rated DRN - Slam this morning. Really classy disc. Really hope I can catch them live at Rockingham in October - would be at least 20 years since I last saw them. Still supposed to be great live.

[Geoff]

Haha, I rated Bang Tango's debut 71% and the follow-up 70%. Much of a muchness. Even though it's only the one percent, my preference is definitely the debut over the 2nd one by quite a bit. Two great songs lift the score of the second album, but the debut is far more consistent. Better vibe too. These albums bring back cool memories, but I am not sure I will hold onto them if I ever truly cull my collection the way I'd like to, if CDs are ever sellable again.