Any Major Dude With Half A Heart

At no time in my life did I ever buy as many newly-released albums as I did in 1985. There were many fine albums in that lot, but also a lot of rubbish. Some acts I liked then, but don’t have much interest in now (such as Phil Collins, who was marvellous in concert, though).

A benefit of compiling the albums of 1985 — an exercise in total subjectivity — is the absence of releases by the stratospheric stars of the mid-‘80s. No new albums by Jackson, Springsteen, Wham!, U2, Richie, Madonna, Duran Duran (though three of them created the dull Arcadia album), or Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Of the bestselling acts in 1984, only Prince and Sade released new LPs. As did the less stratospheric Style Council and Lloyd Cole & The Commotions.

Compiling a Top 20 of albums of 1985 was easy when it came to shortlisting, and difficult when it came to reducing that shortlist to 20.

When it came out, I thought Prince’s Around The World album was disappointing. Like many other disappointed punters, I wanted another Purple Rain or 1999. What we got was a psychedelic trip laced with stimuli from classical music. Listening to it without preconceptions provides for a happy revelation. Nobody sane will vote this as the greatest-ever Prince album, but it didn’t deserve my disappointment.

In 1985, I was only vaguely familiar with Steely Dan, other than a handful of tracks. So when it was reported that the new China Crisis album was produced by Walter Becker (who was even listed as a band member on the cover), I was unimpressed. I loved the lead single Black Man Ray and liked follow-up King In A Catholic Style regardless.

Revisiting China Crisis’ Flaunt The Imperfection, Becker’s fingerprints are all over it, with a kicked-back but shimmering production, flawless arrangements, and top-rate musicianship. But it didn’t come at the expense of the Liverpudlian band’s innate sound. Perhaps it is no accident that I chose the Steely Dan-iest track on the album for this Top 20 collection. The exquisite You Did Cut Me features a guitar solo, by Tim Renwick, so fine it would earn a place on any Dan album.

There was some exquisite soul music released in 1985. Alexander O’Neal’s eponymous debut features one of the great soul classics in If You Were Here Tonight, and Luther Vandross’ The Night I Fell In Love album is his first without any skippable numbers.

Whitney Houston (whose mother Cissy did backing vocals on the Luther album) was also a superb soul singer, but the soul was diluted to aim at the pop market. It was a delicate balancing act: too much soul, and the pop market wouldn’t buy the album; too little, and the soul market would reject it.

In the event, the right balance was found, with songs like the superb You Give Good Love and the duets with Jermaine Jackson and Teddy Pendergrass keeping the soul fans happy, and the hybrid soul-pop stuff — along with the mighty showstopper Saving All My Love For You — helping Whitney break through.

Other soul albums that landed just outside my Top 20 are Freddy Jackson’s Rock Me Tonight, with its mighty title track, and Cameo’s Single Life, whose title track provided one of 1985’s best dance tracks.

On the other end of the smooth soul spectrum were acts like The Smiths and Jesus & The Mary Chain, who provided an antidote to the peach tones of Whitney’s album cover. The latter were in their Beach Boys with feedback phase, which was almost shocking to 1985 ears. The Smiths, meanwhile, were telling us by LP title and in song that Meat Is Murder — just as I embarked on my vegetarian journey, not inspired by Morrissey, which would last more than a decade.

Politics were important to me in 1985. The Style Council provided naïve paroles, but acts like Latin Quarter dug a bit deeper with their political and social critique, and the Fine Young Cannibals’ great Blue (featured on A Life In Vinyl 1985 Vol. 2) articulated a critique to Thatcherism that was all the more powerful for its absence of sloganeering.

Apart from the soul albums mentioned, others that failed to emerge from my shortlist into the Top 20 were Simple Minds’ Once Upon A Time, A-ha’s Hunting High And Low (which to me is a 1986 album, really), George Benson’s 20/20, Michael McDonald’s No Looking Back, Big Sound Authority’s An Inward Revolution, Eurythmics’ Be Yourself Tonight, Dexys Midnight Runners’ Don’t Stand Me Down, Paul Young’s The Secret Of Association, and Sting’s The Dream Of The Blue Turtle.

Best-sellers and/or critics’ favourites that failed to make it on my list include Dire Straits’ Brothers In Arms, Kate Bush’s Hounds Of Love, Tom Waits’ Rain Dogs, Propaganda’s A Secret Wish, Phil Collins’ No Jacket Required, Stevie Wonder’s underwhelming In Square Circles, Killing Joke’s Night Time, and Bryan Ferry’s Boys And Girls. Some of them I own(ed), others I never bought.

So, what was my album of 1985? Presented with a pile of LPs, I think the first one I’d put on would be The Pogues’ Rum, Sodomy & The Lash.

But the one I think is artistically above them all is Tears For Fears’ Songs From The Big Chair, with its often bruised lyrics, the musical range from the pop of Everybody Wants To Rule The World to the almost symphonic The Working Hour, and the daring of appending the upbeat Head Over Heels with a downbeat live coda of Broken.

And what were your albums of 1985?

This mix is a bit longer than CD-R length, but I’ve included home-liveaided covers anyway, and the present text in an illustrated PDF. As companions to this mix you might enjoy A Life In Vinyl 1985 Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.

1. New Order – The Perfect Kiss (Low Life)
2. The Cure – In Between Days (The Head On The Door)
3. Talking Heads – And She Was (Little Creatures)
4. Prince – Pop Life (Around The World In A Day)
5. Tears For Fears – Head Over Heels/Broken (Songs From The Big Chair)
6. The Style Council – The Lodgers (Our Favourite Shop)
7. Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Cut Me Down (Easy Pieces)
8. China Crisis – You Did Cut Me (Flaunt The Imperfection)
9. Sade – Is It A Crime (Promise)
10. Simply Red – Jericho (Picture Book)
11. Alexander O’Neal – If You Were Here Tonight (Alexander O’Neal)
12. Whitney Houston – You Give Good Love (Whitney Houston)
13. Luther Vandross – If Only For One Night (The Night I Fell In Love)
14. Fine Young Cannibals – Funny How Love Is (Fine Young Cannibals)
15. Latin Quarter – Radio Africa (Modern Times)
16. Strawberry Switchblade – Let Her Go (Strawberry Switchblade)
17. Prefab Sprout – Faron Young (Steve McQueen)
18. The Jesus And Mary Chain – Just Like Honey (Psychocandy)
19. The Smiths – That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore (Meat Is Murder)
20. The Pogues – The Sick Bed Of Cuchulainn (Rum, Sodomy & The Lash)

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Previous Albums of the Year mixes:
1971 Vol. 1
1971 Vol. 2
1972
1973
1974
1982
1983
1984