God Save the King by Robert Fripp is otherwise a compilation album, except for the title track that opens it. It is a 13-minute, 13-second masterpiece that is essentially a remix of a track called The Zero of the Signified that appeared on an earlier album called God Save the Queen / Under Heavy Manners (1980). It has, however, been altered so much that in truth it is a completely new instrumental rock track. And what an incredible track it is!
The 1980 album may have been a disappointment following the masterful 1979 Album of the year winner Exposure, but here Fripp is working at the peak of his powers. The key theme here is resignation: the track sounds extremely pessimistic to begin with, and its tone gets worse and worse towards the end. It is a major downer, not to be played at all if the listener has a tendency to become depressed by the music he or she is listening to. Needless to say, we have already found the best long track of the year.
On 25 February, Tears for Fears released their peak album Songs from the Big Chair. It was the duo's second studio album following 1983's The Hurting, and soon became their biggest hit. By far the best known song on it is its opening track Shout which became an international success and has been embedded above. Easily the strongest pop / rock song of the year, Shout is not the only strong track on an otherwise mediocre album; far from it. There is one great song after another all the way to the end.
A perfect example is the second track The Working Hour which is arguably an even stronger piece of work than the opening. In fact, there is only one notable exception to the rule. The other single hit taken from the album, called Everybody Wants to Rule the World is an excruciating exercise in banality that sounds like it has been taken from another album performed by a vastly inferior group. Please avoid it if you can, and try to tolerate it if you can't.
Next, we have to jump over two months ahead in time. Depeche Mode, who had stunned me last year with the closing track of their latest album Some Great Reward, called Blasphemous Rumours, released a new single Shake the Disease on 29 April. It was a stand alone release: apart from a greatest hits collection, it wouldn't appear on any of the group's albums. It was yet another indication that great things would soon be coming from these British synth pop makers.
May saw release schedules getting noticeably more crowded following the exceptionally quiet late winter / early spring. There were three noteworthy new albums out; one from an already well known group, and two from new, promising talents. First, there was a new album out from New Order, called Low Life, on 13 May. Also a British synth pop group like Depeche Mode, they were no newcomers but it was new to me that they had started to sound pretty good, as exemplified by the moody instrumental track Elegia embedded below.
Dire Straits were already mentioned back when they released their previous album Love Over Gold. Now, they peaked with the excellent Brothers in Arms that is certainly worth mentioning although I won't embed anything. Many people probably remember this album for its best known track Money for Nothing but there are much better songs contained on it. Thoughtful, at times surprisingly quiet mellow rock at its best. If you like, I recommend you check out Why Worry, Your Latest Trick and The Man's Too Strong.
Finally, May also marked the release of the self titled debut album by New York folk rock singer Suzanne Vega. Here was really a talent to watch. Her collection of semi autobiographical songs clearly displayed that she had not yet matured as a songwriter, but on the other hand they were a breath of fresh hair: honest, in many places touching, and full of enjoyable melodies. I could have picked a number of songs for embedding, but perhaps the opening track Cracking serves best as an example of the album content.
The title of the blog is ProgActive, and the header of this entry promised the return of progressive rock. When discussing the last few years, that once great genre has not been represented by too many examples. This is because, immediately after the seventies were over, high quality prog was nowhere to be found. The most talented musicians that were active had turned their attention elsewhere. This was not really a surprise, considering how progressive rock had almost dominated the previous decade, but back when I actually lived the early eighties, I was desperate.
Would the good times ever return? Would I eventually run out of new albums to buy? Was the era of progressive rock really now over for good? These questions may seem silly now but at the time they seemed legitimate. So, it should be easy to imagine the relief that washed over me in late June, 1985, when a couple of albums encouraged me to believe that progressive rock would return. Which it did in all its glory. It did take some time, but it resurfaced and is as strong as ever today.
Mind you, this was not my perverted way to introduce a-ha, the highly talented Norwegian pop group. It's just that before we get to those two albums, we need to mention their hit pop album Hunting High and Low that came out on 1 June. Like I mentioned before, I think the eighties were the absolute greatest time for pop music and this album is one of the best examples of that. And I'm not talking about drivel like the mega hit Take on Me but songs like the title track, embedded above, or the excellent Living a Boy's Adventure Tale. Both of them succeed in transforming pop music into a true art form.
Following that, progressive rock returned in June 1985 in the form of neo prog. The first one of the two important new albums came out some time during the first half of the month and was called The Wake, by a group called IQ. It was that group's third album and the first one I noticed, due to excellent prog songs like the title track, The Magic Roundabout, Headlong - or the opening track Outer Limits that has been embedded below.
I am assuming that The Wake was released in early June because it rose to the UK album chart on 22 June. It wouldn't peak any higher than #72, but this was quite enough to reaffirm my belief that prog would be coming back in a big way. And as it happens, by this time another album had already come out in the very same genre. The third album by Marillion was called Misplaced Childhood, was released on 17 June, entered the UK album chart precisely one week after The Wake, and sounded like an immediate lock for Album of the year.
I discussed Marillion when they released their debut in 1983, but had already given up on them after spending my hard earned money on their next release Fugazi in 1984 - quite possibly the sorriest second album by any rock band who had shown promise when debuting. But now, this was again something else! Suddenly the band had matured in a way that would have been unimaginable beforehand, particularly following something like Fugazi. A theme album with long compositions and masterful songwriting. I was stunned and giddy in an extremely pleasant way.
So, even though my latest summer job was far from enjoyable, everything was right in the world once more. Great music was again being made, and even though this neo prog thing didn't quite match ye olde prog, it still sounded pretty damned fine, as you can hear from these two examples above. Perhaps I would still be able to find good albums to buy and collect in the future as well.
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