1979 in music. • Page 2

i announce the winner sunday and post the new thread monday

 

seems like i would have noticed that by now but no

 

That switch to a week made a world of difference for me. I’ve been really enjoying spending a week exploring new stuff

 

This year is so freaking stacked. Gonna rank a Top 10 for sure once I get some listening in.

These two XTC songs are permanently etched into my brain since childhood, they were always staples on vacation mixtapes my Dad made. The whole record is great but these two are stone cold classics.

 

this was the worst year for me in the last handful. pretty top heavy. the top 5 are great but it falls off a bit after that for me

 

Your list is very rock-heavy. It was a good time for funk/soul/disco on the rise. Might find you a few more to be enthusiastic about.

 

I don’t quite LOVE Drums And Wires like I do the next few, but it’s so great. Also love “When You’re Near Me I Have Difficulty”, “Real By Reel”

(and “Chain Of Command” which I don’t think is on the LP but it’s a bonus track on the CD)

 

Hell yes! Also love "Life Begins at the Hop". Good point about this record, it definitely has the straightforward art-pop down to a T, but they get a little bit more interesting on the next several records, culminating in Skylarking.

Glad some others on here enjoy this band as much as I do!

 

for sure. looking at the longer lists, it's a lot of names I didn't recognize enough to include them in my own stuff to check out list.

 

I’ll be curious what you check out and get into. I’ve already heard a couple killer ones I’ll post about eventually

 

Checked out In The Heat of the Night by Pat Benatar.

I may have listened to this before, but certainly not in a long time. It was released this week, 42 years ago too.

Production is excellent and crisp, and she’s got a real powerful rasp or howl of a voice, but also has no problem with gentler melodies. It’s great fun, but didn’t really pass beyond that into something more essential, but for 35 minutes of rocking music, this is a great time.

 

I wish she'd tried more stuff like "We Live for Love" in her career. I LOVE the twin-guitar rock sound she aced on the next two records, but she definitely had range to follow some threads in her career that she didn't really pursue.

 

Sales pitches for sleepers:

Commodores - Midnight Magic
The perfect fusion of funk, soul, and disco and their best-ever set of songs. It's got a bunch of varied, killer dance stuff, and "Sail On" doesn't get enough credit as maybe Lionel's best ballad.

Christopher Cross - Christopher Cross
Probably the best soft-rock album ever made. If you replace the knowing hipster snark with sincerity and romance, it's basically Aja. It even has a ton of the same players. "Sailing" and "Ride Like the Wind" deserved to be the massive hits they were, but "Minstrel Gigolo" is absolutely one of my favorite songs of all time, and a perfect album closer. There's a little grace note where the sax solo fades into the guitar solo on the same note that's just literal perfection.

Steve Forbert - Jackrabbit Slim
His career got sandbagged by the "new Dylan" hype, but this album delivered the goods in that tough/streetwise poet mode. "Romeo's Tune" is exceptional, but I think my favorite is "Sadly Sorta Like a Soap Opera".

Irakere - Irakere
I don't know jack shit about Afro-Cuban jazz, but I know this album is fucking fire. Chucho Valdes and Arturo Sandoval absolutely rip, and the percussion is out of this world.

 

The Police- Regatta
Prince- Prince
Van Halen- VH2

 

police are kinda wild. one of the biggest bands in the world for nearly a full decade and it feels like their legacy is non-existent

 

Thats bruno mars erasure

 

(But yeah, kinda)

 

Do you remember their reunion in 07-08ish?

They made appearances at literally every big event (Live Earth '07!?), massive tour, pretty sure they also played a bunch of the big festivals that year too.... I'm sure it was financially a success, but definitely hardly made a splash for their critical legacy, as you mentioned.

I have kind of had a hard time enjoying their full albums thus far. The big singles just noticeably outshine the album tracks, in my opinion.

 

The reunion tour is one of the highest grossing tours of all time.


The albums are very messy. Skewed tunes like "Mother" or "Miss Gradenko" or "Does Everyone Stare" don't go down super easy, but they balance the hits and make for great records that always reveal new things.

Of which Regatta de Blanc has to be the best. They were playing dumb on Outlandos, but Regatta is loose. Right in the pocket, their musical connection touches regions beyond. Even lighter songs like "It's Alright For You" or "No Time This Time" are really, really lively

 

that was also almost a decade and a half ago haha

 

It’s fun going through the #1s and seeing which ones have become mainstays of the pop cultural lexicon, which ones are generally forgotten, and then the interesting ones where I definitely *know* the song, or at least the hook, but never actually knew the song name/artist because they never became household names beyond the brief moment they were in the spotlight - eg, until the chorus of “Ring the Bell” hit I would have sworn I had never even heard of it/Anita Ward before.

 

Nile Rodgers is easily one of the greatest pop song writers in history. And I realize that Chic was very much a band where the music/vibe was given far more weight than the lyrics. But good god, did every fucking song have to be about dancing?

 

my familiarity with him is mostly as a sideman to Bowie. need to listen to chic more.

 

I mean…yea. It was disco. Haha

“I Want Your Love” isn’t about that, though, and that song rules

 

Chic’s hits are great but also just go through his production discography, especially Diana Ross’s 1980 album. His chop chord is such a distinct sound that he uses in like half his songs, and once you notice it, it’s impossible to un-hear it whenever a song by him comes on