Until now, I had been under the impression that the album Permanent Waves by Rush was released already in 1979. That's what it says in all the copyright labels. Apparently this is not the case: according to the internet, that most trustworthy of all information sources, this album actually came out on New Year's Day, 1980. 1 January sounds like a peculiar date to release a rock album, but when you think about it, it actually makes sense.
It seems that the Canadian power trio wanted to be the first among their peers to release a new album in the new decade. And what a brilliant album it was: one of the year's best, it contains several candidates for embedding above. I chose the most obvious one, the extremely catchy opening track. It also serves as a good example of one of the directions that prog was evolving towards in the new decade. Rush is considered by many a prog band, althought in my opinion they were always just a hard rock band with some complicated passages in their songs here and there. This was one modern variation of prog; others were to follow later.
Smallcreep's Day by Genesis bassist Mike Rutherford, out on 15 February, was a much more traditional prog album. This was Rutherford's chance to continue working with one time guitarist of Genesis Anthony Phillips, with whom he had already collaborated on Phillips's debut solo album The Geese and the Ghost (1977) that we already discussed earlier. Now, Phillips was playing keyboards on Rutherford's album.
On the same date with Smallcreep's Day, David Bowie released his own version of one of my childhood favorites. I remember mentioning that Alabama Song by The Doors had been my favorite on that group's first album in 1967. Bowie's brilliant new version was, in some ways, even better and so I was once again enthralled with this same song more than thirteen years later.
28 March saw the release of a new Genesis album called Duke. I waited for the new album with eager anticipation, so you can imagine the size of my disappointment when I heard the end result for the first time. Oh, no. The golden age of these prog giants was clearly over. Tony Banks era had ended, and the infamous Phil Collins era had begun. Art rock and prog had given way to mindless pop with catchy rhythms. Gag.
Except... that only applied for the most part of the album, not all of it. There were still a couple of remnants from better times. Even though it is easy to see that Duke is the weakest Genesis album since their amateurish debut From Genesis to Revelation (1969), there are two tracks on the album that are still quite good, and they are the only reason I am even mentioning it here. One was the brilliantly conceived Duchess, and the other the absolutely magnificient and definitely progressive Duke's Travels, embedded above.
In April, another version of eighties prog emerged. The double album Sky 2 by Sky was, for the most part, an embarrassing affair but I liked one album side quite a lot. Unlike at the time, I can no longer listen to Vivaldi or Toccata with any real enjoyment, but the over 17-minute long instrumental composition in four parts called FIFO still works. I couldn't find it in its entirety either in YouTube or Spotify, but above you can listen to its fourth and final part Watching the Aeroplanes.
Sky was never really prog, and this track exemplifies it well. Their instrumental art rock often had some classical influences, and they also liked to inject some really lame humor onto their albums. A good example of this is a track called Tuba Smarties on this very same album. The group went on to make a few more recordings that sounded very similar to each other but never progressed anywhere, and of course they were never able to top FIFO.
Before moving on to May, let's discuss one album whose release date or month is unknown to me. Some time during 1980, the former singer and bassist of King Crimson, and the current one of U.K, John Wetton released his first solo album Caught in the Crossifre. It was mostly an enjoyable listening experience, whose highlight was the lovely Cold is the Night, embedded above. Nothing too complicated, only a simple, moving song.
Then, it was 16 May. My 17th birthday was only five days away when Paul McCartney released a solo album of his called simply McCartney II. It is a bit strange for me to have a favorite track on an album like that, granted, but nonetheless I had one. I can understand if someone thinks that Waterfalls is too sweet and cloying a song to really enjoy, but I was able to do so. Even someone like Paul McCartney singing about needing love like a raindrop needs a shower wasn't - and still isn't - beneath me! Check it out below, maybe you'll like it too. Like a second needs an hour.
Precisely two weeks later, on 30 May, it was time for Peter Gabriel to release his third solo album, once again called simply Peter Gabriel. I had other things to worry about, such as starting my first summer job that actually took the entire summer instead of only a small portion of it like last year. But I did have time to listen to Peter Gabriel after returning home from work, and I must say I was quite impressed. Following the lackluster second album, this time the former Genesis singer was out to kick some ass.
The atmosphere on Peter Gabriel 3 was much like its front cover: dark and vaguely intimidating. My first favorite song on it was track number two called No Self Control but later I have come to think that perhaps the song that describes the album even better is its threatening opener Intruder. Like the second track, it boasts drum work by former bandmate Phil Collins that carries so much weight that it seems impossible to keep it in the background. It is as essential to the song as Gabriel's vocals.
However, as impressive as Gabriel's third solo album was, it still pales in comparison with his former bandmate Steve Hackett's fourth release Defector; out in June as the only album worth mentioning during that month. This was quite an album! Very much like Robert Fripp did the previous year, Hackett created a collection of songs that varied in style - one of them was even a faithful recreation of 1920's entertainment that was recorded in mono - that succeeded in just about everything it attempted.
I have always felt that an album that tries a lot of things is a much braver effort and worthy of more respect than one that only has a limited number of ideas that are played for extended periods of time. Even if an ambient album sounds great, in most cases it basically has only one idea that has succeeded. It is braver to try many different things, with shorter running time for each try. Defector is a perfect example of perfect success in this format.
At this point, it seemed obvious that I had already found the best album of the year. Let's verify this in the next blog entry. Perhaps the second half of the year has something even better to offer, although at this point it is really hard to imagine.
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