people on here with a genuine/serious love of UK 80s pop

[willbo]

On the "is a greatest hits enough" thread, some people were saying they found the Human League's "Dare" album indispensable. I never really think of bands like the Human League having classic albums or devoted fans. I always think of them as being mostly singles bands for discos/clubs. Am I missing out.

[DrGreggles]

Am I missing out.

Yes.
Dare is fantastic.
If you like pop music, you'll like Dare.

[steveh]

There's two or three tracks on Dare that were good enough to be singles above the four that actually were and the rest is great too.

Martin Rushent did so much fantastic work. Trevor Jackson's NTS show from a couple of years ago is a good introduction to some of his other productions: https://www.nts.live/shows/trevorjackson/episodes/trevor-jackson-11th-december-2018.

[Better Midlands]

I'll tell you what is essential, The League Unlimited Orchestra - Love And Dancing.

[xxxx xxx x xxx]

And Heaven 17's first album, Penthouse And Pavement.  Classic.

[Endicott]

And Heaven 17's first album, Penthouse And Pavement.  Classic.

Definitely.



Back to The Human League, I spent a year or so playing Love and Dancing to death before realising I actually preferred the versions on Dare.

[the science eel]

Yes.
Dare is fantastic.
If you like pop music, you'll like Dare.

That's it, really.

Do you want to talk about anything else or is it just Dare!?

[Norton Canes]

Depeche Mode's debut Speak and Spell is full of (mostly) Vince Clarke penned pop nuggets.

[crankshaft]

On the "is a greatest hits enough" thread, some people were saying they found the Human League's "Dare" album indispensable. I never really think of bands like the Human League having classic albums or devoted fans. I always think of them as being mostly singles bands for discos/clubs. Am I missing out.

Classic League:

Reproduction
Travelogue
Dare
Secrets

Nearly classic League:

Octopus
Credo

You can probably skip these in favour of a best-of League:

Romantic
Hysteria
Crash

[willbo]

just talking Dare is fine...but I haven't heard it yet... I'm listening to classic Japanese jazz album Scenery by Ryo Fukui right now...then I will try Dare

[The Mollusk]

Other proper consistently great 80s pop albums:

Madonna - Like a Prayer/Like a Virgin/True Blue
Paula Abdul - Forever Your Girl
Janet Jackson - Control/Rhythm Nation

[Better Midlands]

Tears For Fears - Songs From The Big Chair was probably my ultimate eighties LP.

Eight tracks, five singles - lovely stuff (Maybe they could have swapped out Mother's Talk for something else).

I agree with The M above on Control too, amazing LP.

[willbo]

Other proper consistently great 80s pop albums:

Madonna - Like a Prayer/Like a Virgin/True Blue
Paula Abdul - Forever Your Girl
Janet Jackson - Control/Rhythm Nation

I already like and respect US pop...but I think UK 80s pop has kind of been spoiled for me by being a kid in the 90s and all the songs used in cheesy adverts, cheesy soap/sitcom scenes, band's singers acting in soaps, etc. I suppose its a testament to its importance in pop culture by then, but to me it just seemed like that music's generation remembered it as a bit of a joke.

you know like if there was a Madonna or Prince song in an American advert it would be some really big budget sexy ad for Diet Coke or something, with sexy people on a skyscraper, but a Human League or ABC song would be in an ad for butter or gravy or something

[pigamus]

I'll have Let it Bee by Voice of the Beehive and Big Bang by Fuzzbox please Bob

[The Mollusk]

I already like and respect US pop...but I think UK 80s pop has kind of been spoiled for me by being a kid in the 90s and all the songs used in cheesy adverts, cheesy soap/sitcom scenes, band's singers acting in soaps, etc. I suppose its a testament to its importance in pop culture by then, but to me it just seemed like that music's generation remembered it as a bit of a joke.

you know like if there was a Madonna or Prince song in an American advert it would be some really big budget sexy ad for Diet Coke or something, with sexy people on a skyscraper, but a Human League or ABC song would be in an ad for butter or gravy or something

Haha yeah fair point, I can see that. Also didn't clock the UK in the thread title, soz!

[The Culture Bunker]

I was born in 1981, so a lot of the pop from the first few years of the decade was before my time. When I was about 14/15, I was so sick of the Britpop stuff on radio that I wound up going back to stuff as old as I was.

ABC's 'The Lexicon of Love' is a classic - an instance of all the places falling together (band, producer and songs) with all involved unable to come close to it again. Horn's previous work with Dollar produced 'Hand Held in Black and White', though, which is great.

I also really enjoy the lyrical silliness all over Haircut 100's 'Pelican West'.

Erasure's 'Pop!' compilation was a favourite of my dad's to play in the car, and it's got plenty of great stuff on it, though my only pick one choice would be one of the lesser known tracks, 'Oh L'Amour'. Fantastic song, that.

[phantom_power]

Erasure - The Innocents is a great album, and Circus is also good but slightly lesser

Haircut One Hundred - Pelican West. More guitar based but still pop greatness

I also have a soft spot for The Riddle by Nik Kershaw but that might just be nostalgia talking

[the science eel]

erasure

Erasure

erasure!

Erasure

Erasure

Esaure

reausre

Erasure!!

I might have bloody guessed!

[DrGreggles]

Erasure - The Innocents is a great album, and Circus is also good but slightly lesser

I'd say the other way round, but with Wonderland between them.

[DrGreggles]

erasure

Erasure

erasure!

Erasure

Erasure

Esaure

reausre

Erasure!!

JK Rowling

[pigamus]

Always had a bit of a blind spot with Erasure. You can't fault the songs but Andy Bell's voice is like claws down a blackboard for me.

[the science eel]

Always had a bit of a blind spot with Erasure.

some people call it 'good taste'

[chveik]

there's an OMD song i quite like but i can't remember which one right now. hth

[the science eel]

there's an OMD song i quite like but i can't remember which one right now. hth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXNF4KoVyoU

[phantom_power]

some people call it 'good taste'

Massive roasters, yes

[chveik]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXNF4KoVyoU

afraid not

possibly this one, nice synths

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiLwEIDJSCM

[pigamus]

some people call it 'good taste'

Jesus, I've been accused of some things in my time

[SpiderChrist]

Another shout for The Lexicon of Love and Pelican West
Dexys - Too Rye Ay (as close as Rowland has got to a pop album, anyway)
Kid Creole & The Coconuts - Tropical Gangsters
Frankie's Welcome To The Pleasuredome is fun but it's a bit patchy (and a bit indulgent in places for a "pop" album)
Big Black - Songs About Fucking

Has anyone mentioned Erasure or Dare by Human League yet?

[The Culture Bunker]

Dexys - Too Rye Ay (as close as Rowland has got to a pop album, anyway)

Funny one, as of those three 80s Dexys albums, that's the one I'm least likely to revisit, but you may be correct in saying it's the most 'pop' - and it does have 'Let's Make This Precious', which a lot of the time is my favourite out of any song by them/Rowland.

[purlieu]

The '80s were reviled in the '90s for a couple of reasons, firstly the usual cultural reaction against the previous decade, and secondly the fact that a lot of 'pop' music was good, whereas in the '90s there it was generally looked down upon due to the huge upsurge in 'alternative' music in the charts and pop being relegated to teenybopper status again.

Dare is a lovely album, and the Human League are a fine example of a group who found huge commercial success with pop music despite having come from punk. So many of the big players in British '80s pop started out either as punk bands or bands from the first wave of post-punk, roughly '79-'81: Simple Minds, OMD, Tears for Fears, ABC, Heaven 17... even Mick Hucknall started out in a punk group, The Frantic Elevators.

Tears for Fears' Songs from the Big Chair is an all-time top 10 album for me, an excellent example of the wonderfully atmospheric production that many '80s albums had: despite the numerous classic singles, 'The Working Hour' is my favourite, a hauntingly melancholic song, and the closer, 'Listen', is also stunning. Their debut, The Hurting, is less expansive, but almost as good, song-for-song.

OMD's Architecture and Morality is another beautifully atmospheric pop album, while their once-a-flop-now-a-classic Dazzle Ships is a mixture of smart synthpop and musique concrete.

Kate Bush's Hounds of Love is untouchable.

ABC's The Lexicon of Love is tons of fun, a slick blend of funk, soul and synthpop.

Simple Minds tend to get more acclaim for their post-punk era, but the transitional album, New Gold Dream, is their real masterpiece and their first directly commercial album, Sparkle in the Rain, is utterly tremendous. I'm also very fond of Once Upon a Time, although it's definitely a big step down.

For all the band's obliqueness, and the album's bizarre lyrics, Wire's 1988 record A Bell is a Cup Until it is Struck is absolutely pop (as are 1989 singles 'Eardrum Buzz' and 'In Vitrio'), and Wire do pop exceptionally well.