Most disappointing 1980s albums
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Printed Date: May 07 2025 at 22:24
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Topic: Most disappointing 1980s albums
Posted By: Steve Wyzard
Subject: Most disappointing 1980s albums
Date Posted: February 26 2025 at 12:25
| If we limit the possibilities to only STUDIO albums released in the years from 1980 to 1989, which of these established (not new) bands had the most disappointing releases? I chose 7 bands that released at least 3 (and as many as 6) studio albums in that decade. If you have another artist you'd like to nominate, please let us know. (FYI: Pink Floyd only released 2 albums, and ELP only released 1 album during those years, which I didn't feel was a strong enough sample size.) |
Replies:
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: February 26 2025 at 21:54
| King Crimson as there is nothing I like from that decade by them (and honestly it should have been called The BBF Project or something like that). |
Posted By: octopus-4
Date Posted: February 26 2025 at 22:56
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Other - GTR ------------- I stand with Roger Waters, I stand with Joan Baez, I stand with Victor Jara, I stand with Woody Guthrie. Music is revolution |
Posted By: Octopus II
Date Posted: February 27 2025 at 00:41
Genesis 
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Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: February 27 2025 at 01:01
Genesis for Many Too Many pop songs in the 1980's. 
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Posted By: Jared
Date Posted: February 27 2025 at 01:25
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almost reluctantly, I'm going to have to vote for KC... it is ironic that more than most, they attempted to keep the Prog element alive in their music and Discipline in particular really is quite original. It's just that of all the above, I struggle to sit through a whole album by them from that era, they do very little for me... and I actually really like Thrak, so go figure... A shame you've included Supertramp; there are some lovely songs on Famous Last Words and as I've said before, 'Brother... ' is one of the finest 80's albums released by a predominantly 70's band. The music of Vangelis and TD held up well in the 80's, but their music was in part made for the decade. I also like 80's Eloy, though I expect I'll be in the minority in saying that!  ------------- Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson |
Posted By: Cristi
Date Posted: February 27 2025 at 01:41
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Moody Blues I don't like anything they did after their old classic albums (1966-1972). At least with KC I can respect what they did in the 80s (my least favorite period of theirs).
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Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: February 27 2025 at 01:56
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I went for Genesis (2 awful and one just bad s/t albums), but I should've said Moody Blues, because all five (or 6) albums are atrocious. I sort of disagree that Supertramp is in the list, because they made a slightly sub-par album (FLW) , one stupendous album (Brother) and one awful (FaaB), but if you add Hodgson's two albums, this makes another VG album (Storm) and one bad one (Haï 2). So they might be the best-faring until 85 (with Crimson - by then disbanded), but after that, they s(t)unk. Rush is only saved by Moving Pictures... the rest is downright bad to awful Tull's out put was also rather poor (IMHO), as Crest was the only OK album; but UW is pure crap and the previous two were ------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
Posted By: Rick1
Date Posted: February 27 2025 at 02:51
| The 80s were a terrible time for prog. Even the neo-prog movement had fizzled out by the mid-80s but sticking to the list, I stopped buying Genesis in the 80s, I thought 90125 was OK (but it has not aged well) and as for the rest...(ELPowell was decent). Only Tull weathered the 80s well. For me personally, the appearance of Steve Hillage with The Orb in Brixton meant the 80s were finally over... |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: February 27 2025 at 03:46
I think the 80's held up somewhat OK until 84, but really started to sink in the second half. Even Tangerine Dream, though weaker after Franke & Baumann left, they managed to remain somewhat interesting (the Schmoelling years) until 85 or so. ------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
Jared wrote:Posted By: Jared
Date Posted: February 27 2025 at 04:32
Agreed... Live Miles (1987) and Franke's departure is my cut off... ------------- Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson |
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: February 27 2025 at 10:00
| ^ Pretty much agree. I was forced to listen to New Age but there were actually some interesting albums and Enya's first 2 are great (The Celts and Watermark) until she just decided to repeat the formula ad nausem. |
Posted By: Lewian
Date Posted: February 27 2025 at 11:49
| Haha, I haven't even listened to any Moody Blues album from the eighties. Looks like that I didn't miss much there. Genesis is also my answer, although I was actually quite disappointed with Supertramp, who up until Breakfast in America had already proved that they can make really great pop music, so they seemed to be well prepared for the 80s and I was looking very forward to their next albums. But Famous Last Words left me cold, and although Brother... has some respectable material, I never could connect remotely as well to Rick's voice and compositions as to Roger's. |
Posted By: verslibre
Date Posted: February 27 2025 at 12:24
THE most disappointing/worst album/project award of the 1980s easily goes to that pop-rock "3" flavor-of-the-week band that Emerson and Palmer put together in the wake of Lake's departure/absence.
Stop. You really think Permanent Waves and Signals are bad albums!? ------------- https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_ipg=50&_sop=1&_rdc=1&_ssn=musicosm" rel="nofollow - eBay |
Posted By: Big Sky
Date Posted: February 27 2025 at 12:30
I like Enya's first handful of albums. I would include Shepherd Moons too. But, yeah, there is large element of sameness in her music going forward from her first couple of releases. |
Posted By: verslibre
Date Posted: February 27 2025 at 12:33
I believe they released some of their finest albums in the '80s, but I agree Franke's departure from TD marks a sea change. (And Vangelis' Invisible Connections is just plain weird.)
I certainly hope not! Colours is probably my fave of theirs. I also love the next four!  ------------- https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_ipg=50&_sop=1&_rdc=1&_ssn=musicosm" rel="nofollow - eBay |
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: February 28 2025 at 00:13
| ^ almost agree but Performance was a bit to AORish. Time To Turn is my favourite Eloy album , I can happily just listen to the wonderful bass of Klaus Peter Matziol let alone all the other great things on that album. Metromania was also excellent (plus Roger Dean artwork!). |
Posted By: Big Sky
Date Posted: February 28 2025 at 00:16
I consider myself a King Crimson fan. But, if I am really honest, it's because of the Wetton era of King Crimson, which I truly love. Red and LTITA are two of my all-time favorite albums. Starless and Bible Black is an enjoyable listen. After that, most of the material KC released (studio) I am somewhat ambivalent. Sort of like Frank Zappa, an artist I more respect than like. The material Zappa released, excepting Waka / Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo, I'm not much of a fan. |
Posted By: Jared
Date Posted: February 28 2025 at 00:40
I know I've said this before, but if we were to name an album you personally love, but has a low PA rating and is derided by almost everyone else, it would be 'Performance' for me...  ------------- Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson |
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: February 28 2025 at 00:42
You're right. I should have voted for King Crimson instead, bearing in mind "Poseidon" is the last KC album I can bear to listen to.
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Posted By: Jared
Date Posted: February 28 2025 at 00:43
Lizard is an absolute masterpiece Paul... keep trying ------------- Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: February 28 2025 at 02:05
I could be wrong, but to me Waves is 79, right?  Signals never did anything for me, except discouragement that Rush was not for me anymore (something that started creeping with Waves) as for the other PW (Windows), it sucks, IMHO. ------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
Posted By: Jared
Date Posted: February 28 2025 at 04:09
Signals is a very powerful album, not a dud in there... though I understand that it was the album which finished what Pictures had started; a move away from longer, more complex song-writing. Power Windows picked up from where GUP started, with that harsher guitar sound... again, the song writing is strong, but by this stage they had become something quite different and I'd have been quite surprised if you said you like it.. ------------- Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson |
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: February 28 2025 at 05:23
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^ I listened to GUP recently expecting to hate it but surprisingly I couldn't find a weak track. Power Windows was a bit more ambitious but I would have liked more of that orchestral thing they did with Manhattan Project. Too much of that album is samey. Lyric wise it was tremendous though. Hold Your Fire and Presto is Rush just running out of steam. After too much touring they had were tired and needed a break. 7 albums and 7 major tours in one decade was way too much. Credit to them for the hard work though. BTW FYI Sean Trane - Permanent Waves is 1980!
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Posted By: Saperlipopette!
Date Posted: February 28 2025 at 05:37
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You're all weird. At least Genesis had a knack for writing decent popsongs. -and imo Rush nailed their Nev Wave style quite convincingly. I might even prefer them that way. King Crimson made one of the best albums of the decade with Discipline. Jethro Tull however sucked big time as a 80’s Hard Rock band with an ill-fitted flute. Everything I once loved about them all vanished. The guitar sound itself ruins it for me. Blah. They get my vote. While I like some of their earlier music, I don't care enough about the remaining bands to have an opinion - or feel disappointed. |
Posted By: Jared
Date Posted: February 28 2025 at 06:10
I thought they were ok until Broadsword tbh... we've all taken turns to denigrate UW many times before... but after that, both their musical style and IA's vocal style morphed into a sort of Dire Straits cover band and I lost interest. ------------- Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson |
Posted By: Jared
Date Posted: February 28 2025 at 06:12
No, it's a good album; same year and same sensibility as Eloy's Metromania tbh, but its understandable why committed proggers shied away from their hard edged guitar sound. ------------- Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson |
Posted By: verslibre
Date Posted: February 28 2025 at 10:37
The cover painting is by Rodney Matthews, another artist whose style I really enjoy. ------------- https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_ipg=50&_sop=1&_rdc=1&_ssn=musicosm" rel="nofollow - eBay |
Posted By: verslibre
Date Posted: February 28 2025 at 10:40
Released on 14/1/80 but recorded the previous summer. I'll let you slide on that one.
Where's the mute func!? ------------- https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_ipg=50&_sop=1&_rdc=1&_ssn=musicosm" rel="nofollow - eBay |
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: March 01 2025 at 02:21
cheers, don't know where I got my 'information' but I like the cover anyways.
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Posted By: progaardvark
Date Posted: March 01 2025 at 06:29
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Voted Other. My choice would be Banco del Mutuo Soccorso. PFM might be a second choice. All the buildings are covered with lemonade eyebrows. ------------- ---------- i'm shopping for a new oil-cured sinus bag that's a happy bag of lettuce this car smells like cartilage nothing beats a good video about fractions |
Posted By: Cristi
Date Posted: March 01 2025 at 06:35
True. Le Orme tried some pop music in the 80s as well, with appalling results.
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Posted By: The Dark Elf
Date Posted: March 01 2025 at 08:12
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Genesis. The only band on the list I abandoned completely. ------------- ...a vigorous circular motion hitherto unknown to the people of this area, but destined to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology... |
Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: March 01 2025 at 09:10
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Hi, By 1980, I had already fallen out of the mainstream and was into the imports a lot more ... I never came back to any of them except KC until the 3 drummers thing, when I got to enjoy some of their stuff. I loved, and missed the Bruford years on KC ... some far out stuff there. But France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Brittany and other places around the world were doing far better music all around, and worth the purchase, except on some card board copies of themselves as the list above. BTW, Le Orme's "Smogmagica" is a fine album, even if it is a bit on the pop side of things, with some humor in it. Banco, I'm not sure it ever fit into the pop thing at all ... PFM, blew it when they started falling apart and thought Bernardo Lanzetti would save them, killing 2 bands in one shot. PFM had nice things with Bernardo, but it tanked big time with no "stories" any more, and now just "pop" songs and Aqua Fragile never recovered ... a great little band ... lost its spark, and its attempt at recreating itself, recently, is a sad reminder of what once was, and can no longer be.
------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: Cristi
Date Posted: March 01 2025 at 09:33
it's from 1975.
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