1981: July to December

In compliance with years old tradition, Electric Light Orchestra released their new album first overseas, and only after that on their home turf. Time came out in July in the US, and in August in the UK. I had zero expectations following the horrifying disappointment, a repulsive piece of absolute crap that was called Discovery (1979). However, this album was once again much, much better.

Time was the album that Discovery should have been. Granted, it was far from perfect, and not on par with the seventies albums that preceded Discovery. Still, it was a perfectly fine goodbye from a group that had made some amazing recordings during the previous decade and even won Album of the year once (1975). There would be one more ELO album following Time, but it would once again be a very poor release, so we will bid the group farewell with their fantastic opening medley of Prologue and Twilight, embedded above.

Now that Phil Collins had taken over, Genesis suddenly became a surprisingly productive group. Only a little over a year had passed since Duke, and here was a new album already, called Abacab and out on 14 September. Yes, we had to skip August because nothing worthwhile came out then. Most of the new Genesis album sounded like a Phil Collins solo album would, but just like on Duke, there were two excellent tracks that made it worth mentioning. Embedded below is the first one of them.

Genesis was no longer be a progressive rock group, and I detested a sugar coated Phil Collins song as much as the next guy. But this one, I will always be ready to defend. Abacab is an absolutely brilliant rock song in all its simplicity. The emphasis is on a catchy rock rhythm; there is no ludicrous pop here. In particular, the seven minute album version works wonders because of its peculiar structure. The first four minutes comprise the actual song, after which we listen to three minutes of its instrumental repetition that never seems to reach any kind of conclusion. Instead, it only fades out.

The other brilliant song on the album is closer to pop and is called Me and Sarah Jane. It is virtually the last reminder of the Tony Banks era during the group's career: keyboard driven and armed with a beautiful, somehow nostalgic melody that is really difficult not to like. There are also noticeable Phil Collins elements present, but in spite of them, the song works wonderfully.

Eleven days later, on 25 September, it was time for something truly exceptional. John Foxx, once a member of the futuristic pop group Ultravox, released a solo album called The Garden. For the most part, it contained mediocre synth pop songs of the times, but the title track that closed it was truly something exceptional. The single greatest track of the entire year, The Garden never fails to astound. Please check it out above. You will be thankful that you did. Had the entire album reached the same level, it wouldn't have only been the best of the year, but the decade.

The Police, led by Sting, began their career in the late seventies as the rarest of rare things: a reggae / pop band whose members were all white. I had enjoyed some of their earlier songs like Can't Stand Losing You and Don't Stand So Close to Me. But it wasn't until their 2 October album release Ghost in the Machine that I started seeing genuine artistic merit in their output. The sequence of the first three tracks on this album is among the best of the year.

3 October saw the single release of the brilliant synth pop song Europa and the Pirate Twins, by Thomas Dolby. This catchy song was one of my great pop favorites of the year. Above, you can find the original video, which is again a bit funny due to its old age but remember, people were still learning how to make music videos. The song would be included on Dolby's album The Golden Age of Wireless which wouldn't however come out until March, 1982.

October also marked the release of Ismism, by Godley & Creme, the other and I suppose also the more creative half of the popular seventies pop / rock group 10cc. Their new album was hardly groundbreaking; as a matter of fact, the duo might as well have been forgotten already, had it not been for one single great song that was also released as a, you guessed it, single.

Under Your Thumb is a minor classic among the pop songs of the era. It begins like some slightly humorous affair but ends up being a deadly serious tale of tragic consequences of too much pressure in a relationship. "Don't want to be under your thumb forever", repeats the chorus, and what initially sounded like an escape attempt from a bad relationship, suddenly becomes an escape attempt from life itself. A successful one. Important and thought provoking songwriting.

Another October release was one of the finest albums of the year, and produced by Rupert Hine whom I mentioned in the previous blog entry. But it wasn't his album: instead, it was the fourth album by the Canadian group Saga, who were already mentioned when discussing the year 1980. Their new release Worlds Apart represents another quantum leap from Silent Knight, which itself was already a major improvement over the group's earlier two efforts.

The third track Wind Him Up is perhaps the best example of the exceptionally inspired songwriting on the album, but it is far from the only one. Nearly every song is very good and even those that aren't, are by no means weak. One of the most evenly excellent albums of the year, Worlds Apart also marks the pinnacle of Saga's recording career. They were never again to reach this level, although some of their later efforts were also pretty good.

I was never a fan of seventies favorite, "first heavy metal band" Black Sabbath. Their lead singer Ozzy Osbourne however caught my attention with the title track of his new solo album Diary of a Madman, out on 7 November. It had all the pathos of a monumental progressive rock piece, even though the actual genre was hard rock bordering on heavy metal. Please pay attention to the magnificient guitar work by late, great Randy Rhoads who died shortly afterwards, in March 1982.

Only one day after Ozzy, on 8 November, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark released their new album Architecture & Morality. The British synth pop group had already enjoyed immense success the previous year, with their single hit Enola Gay. The new album wasn't, for the most part, much more ambitious, but it did contain a killer opening track. The New Stone Age was simplistic when it came to instrumentation, yet packed a real punch when it came to atmosphere and overall impact.

And that was it for 1981. The last noteworthy release came out almost two months before the year's end, then nothing else. One must admit though, that there were some surprisingly great releases even though progressive rock was mostly absent. This gave me some new hope that, even though my number one favorite genre was not having its best time, it would nonetheless be replaced be something of high quality. At the time, it seemed that progressive rock was really dead. It would of course be resurrected.

And so it came to be that not a single album release during the rest of the year was able to match the first noticeable one. Camel takes the prize for Album of the year, closely followed by Worlds Apart, an excellent effort by Saga.

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR:
Camel: Nude
Rush: Moving Pictures
Saga: Worlds Apart

UNMISSABLE TRACKS OF THE YEAR:
Camel: The Last Farewell
Genesis: Abacab
Genesis: Me and Sarah Jane
Godley & Creme: Under Your Thumb
John Foxx: The Garden
Kate Bush: Sat in Your Lap
Moody Blues: Meanwhile
Moody Blues: The Voice
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark: The New Stone Age
Ozzy Osbourne: Diary of a Madman
Phil Collins: In the Air Tonight
Rupert Hine: I Hang on to My Vertigo
Rupert Hine: I Think a Man Will Hang Soon
Saga: No Stranger
Saga: On the Loose
Saga: Wind Him Up
Thomas Dolby: Europa and the Pirate Twins

Best albums of the year, 1967 to 1980:

1967: Pink Floyd: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
1968: -
1969: Procol Harum: A Salty Dog
1970: Genesis: Trespass
1971: Genesis: Nursery Cryme
1972: Yes: Close to the Edge
1973: Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of the Moon
1974: Mike Oldfield: Hergest Ridge
1975: Electric Light Orchestra: Face the Music
1976: Genesis: A Trick of the Tail
1977: Yes: Going for the One
1978: Genesis: And Then There Were Three
1979: Robert Fripp: Exposure
1980: Talking Heads: Remain in Light
1981: Camel: Nude

Best short tracks (under 12 minutes):

1967: Pink Floyd: Bike
1968: Pink Floyd: Julia Dream
1969: Pink Floyd: Cirrus Minor
1970: The Beatles: The Long and Winding Road
1971: Genesis: The Fountain of Salmacis
1972: Gentle Giant: Schooldays
1973: John Cale: Paris 1919
1974: Mike Oldfield: Mike Oldfield's Single
1975: The Tubes: Up from the Deep
1976: Gong: Chandra
1977: Yes: Going for the One
1978: Genesis: Down and Out
1979: Barclay James Harvest: Play to the World
1980: Saga: Don't Be Late
1981: John Foxx: The Garden

Best long tracks (12 minutes or over):

1970: King Crimson: Lizard
1971: Van der Graaf Generator: A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers
1972: Yes: Close to the Edge
1973: King Crimson: Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part 1
1974: King Crimson: Starless
1975: Mike Oldfield: Ommadawn, Part 1
1976: -
1977: Yes: Awaken
1978: Popol Vuh: Brüder des Schattens, Söhne des Lichts
1979: U.K: Carrying No Cross
1980: Mike Rutherford: Smallcreep's Day
1981: -