Any Major Album of the Year: 1984
The year 1984 was really a year for mega singles and mega-stars, though some of these stars were transient phenomena. It was the year when Prince, Madonna, Lionel Richie and Bruce Springsteen joined Michael Jackson in the stratosphere, when Frankie Goes To Hollywood were a supernova that briefly looked unassailable, when Wham! made it big, when Tina Turner and her fishnets made one of the great comebacks in pop, and when even The Pointer Sisters put together a sustained run of hits.
Some of these released great albums that year, above all Prince. Purple Rain is a perfect album, a case I’ve made before, most recently with the Purple Rain Recovered mix. U2’s The Unforgettable Fire is the band’s only album which I like unreservedly.
On the other hands, Born In The USA is not one of Bruce Springsteen’s finest moments. It still makes my Top 20 for 1984, because even at his less good, Springsteen is better than most of the rest.
This list comprises the 20 (well, 21) albums I’d rate as my favourites of that year’s release (note: I’m not claiming they were the best albums of 1984). Some evade the severest scrutiny because my attachment to them as an 18-year-old provides for an emotional bond that exceed critical faculties. That is true of the albums by Alison Moyet, Patrice Rushen and Heaven 17 — all good albums with a few excellent songs on them, but also a lot of stuff that has not stood the test of the intervening 40 years.
Aztec Camera’s Knife might be the least known on this list, which is a pity, because it is a beautiful set of songs, produced by Mark Knopfler (who also had a hand in Tina Turner’s comeback). Aztec Camera also featured on Any Major Albums of the Year 1983, as did four others. Similarly gorgeous is Lloyd Cole & The Commotions’ debut, Rattlesnakes.
I’m not in the habit of including soundtracks on these lists, but Ennio Morricone’s score for the magnificent Once Upon A Time In America is my all-time favourite of that genre. It must feature. I also once decided to excluded live albums, which was a stupid idea which I’m now easing myself out of by including as an extra-track a cut from Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense live album — which, of course, is also a soundtrack (a track from which featured just recently, on Any Major Backing Singers).
Frankie, Turner and Madonna were not on my shortlist, but Chaka Khan, Simple Minds, Roger Waters and Depeche Mode were in the running.
A companion to this collection is the Life In Vinyl 1984 collection: Volume 1 and Volume 2.
So, what are your albums of 1984?
By nature of the thing, this mix can’t be timed to fit on a standard CD-R, but it includes home-magicked covers, and the above text in an illustrated PDF. PW in comments.
1. Prince and The Revolution – Baby I’m A Star (Purple Rain)
2. The Cars – Magic (Heartbeat City)
3. Joe Jackson – You Can’t Get What You Want (Body And Soul)
4. Wham! – Everything She Wants (Make It Big)
5. Matt Bianco – More Than I Can Bear (Whose Side Are You On?)
6. The Style Council – My Ever Changing Moods (Café Bleu)
7. Aztec Camera – Head Is Happy (Heart’s Insane) (Knife)
8. Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken? (Rattlesnakes)
9. Ennio Morricone – Deborah’s Theme (Once Upon A Time In America OST)
10. U2 – The Unforgettable Fire (The Unforgettable Fire)
11. Big Country – Where The Rose Is Sown (East Of Eden)
12. The Smiths – This Charming Man (The Smiths)
13. Echo & The Bunnymen – Seven Seas (Ocean Rain)
14. Bruce Springsteen – No Surrender (Born In The USA)
15. John Prine – People Puttin’ People Down (Aimless Love)
16. Alison Moyet – Steal Me Blind (Alf)
17. S.O.S. Band – No One’s Gonna Love You (Just The Way You Like It)
18. Patrice Rushen – Feels So Real (Won’t Let Go) (Now)
19. Sade – Hang On To Your Love (Diamond Life)
20. Heaven 17 – Sunset Now (How Men Are)
21. Talking Heads – Burning Down The House (Stop Making Sense)
Previous Albums of the Year mixes:
1971 Vol. 1
1971 Vol. 2
1972
1973
1974
1982
1983
PW = amdwhah
Memories of high school!
Hmmm, Roger Waters, 1984, so Pros & Cons Of Hitchhiking. That was a weird one. It has it’s moments, but I’m not surprised it didn’t make the cut. Of his solo stuff, I’d put Amused To Death up at the top of the list. But that’s just me. :)
I actually listened to that (well, dip-listened) in preparation for this post, and still liked the quasi-titletrack, but it’s not a very good album really.