The Serpent's Egg, by DEAD CAN DANCE

Year: 1988
Country: Australia / UK

Dead Can Dance released the follow up album to their masterpiece Within the Realm of a Dying Sun (1987) on 24 October, 1988. The result proved that some recording artists don't have only one peak album but two: The Serpent's Egg doesn't really pale in comparison with its already stunning predecessor. Last year's album failed to win Best album of the year because there was one unbeatable competitor. This one wins, even though once again there is one extremely strong competitor.

The Serpent's Egg boasts one of the best opening tracks ever. The Host of Seraphim is one of the greatest achievements in music history: it runs a little over six minutes but you don't really want it to end at all. Like I already mentioned in the previous blog entry, it is my number one short song of the entire decade. Some four years after its release, filmmaker Ron Fricke used it in his film Baraka (1992) and that is where the film clip below is from. Much later, Frank Darabont also used the song to great effect while leading up to the bleak ending of his mainstream horror film The Mist (2007).

Following this, nothing really feels like anything but Dead Can Dance still manage to create an excellent album. None of the rest of the songs are quite as great as the opening but many of them are still great. There seems to be an even more clearcut division between Lisa Gerrard's mostly ethnic songs and Brendan Perry's more easily accessible art rock. Even though the opening track is Gerrard's tour de force, it is actually Perry whose songs are more memorable on the rest of the album.

Following the short Orbis de Ignis, again sung by Gerrard, there follows a succession of three excellent songs that, together with the opening, are more than enough to ensure The Serpent's Egg a place among the ranks of all time greats. Perry begins his singing duties with the absolutely beautiful Severance which is then followed by a further two classic songs The Writing on My Father's Hand and In the Kingdom of the Blind the One-Eyed Are Kings.

The first one of the two songs following Severance is again Gerrard's, but unlike most of the others she has written this time, there aren't too many ethnic influences on it. The Writing on My Father's Hand sounds like one of Perry's songs which is one reason why it fits so perfectly in between the two that actually are his. Instrumentation is very sparse. The duo relies on beautiful melody and the singer's voice which are backed up with only very few instruments. Kingdom of the Blind is vintage Perry; a very beautiful song.

This is where A side of the vinyl version ends. B side opens with a number of Gerrard's less accessible explorations on how to make Eastern and Western music meet on an art rock album somewhere between the opposite ends and more likely closer to the Eastern end. The results are very good and genuinely interesting, but in my opinion do not reach the same level of greatness as the rest of the album.

Finally, it is then time for Perry to provide The Serpent's Egg with its last masterpiece and second best track. The almost unbearably lovely closing track Ulysses is not only the best Perry song on the album - and that is quite a feat considering the greatness of the others - but perhaps also the best he ever wrote; assuming that singing duties in the group befell the individual who had written the material or at least been more heavily involved with it.

The Serpent's Egg was the last album Dead Can Dance published while Gerrard and Perry were still a couple. Following the end of their romantic relationship, their professional co-operation under the Dead Can Dance banner continued, but some creative spark seemed to be missing from their following recordings. Their next full length album, out in 1990, was still quite good but not as good as the previous three, and from that point onward new releases became progressively weaker.

So, the best album and short song have already been found. For a second year in a row, I was unable to choose anything in the over 12 minutes category, so Dead Can Dance remains as the only winner this year. Here is our annual summary of the very best both this year and since 1967.

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR:
Clannad: Atlantic Realm
Dead Can Dance: The Serpent's Egg
Talk Talk: Spirit of Eden

UNMISSABLE TRACKS OF THE YEAR:
All About Eve: Martha's Harbour
Bangles: Something to Believe in
Brian Eno: Saint Tom
Dead Can Dance: The Host of Seraphim
Dead Can Dance: In the Kingdom of the Blind the One-Eyed Are Kings
Dead Can Dance: Severance
Dead Can Dance: Ulysses
Enya: Orinoco Flow
Enya: Watermark
Metallica: One
Ministry: The Missing
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Mercy Seat
Siouxsie and the Banshees: Carousel
Siouxsie and the Banshees: Peek-a-boo
Talk Talk: Inheritance

Best albums of the year, 1967 to 1988:

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
1982: Rush: Signals
1983: Ozzy Osbourne: Bark at the Moon
1984: Rush: Grace Under Pressure
1985: Marillion: Misplaced Childhood
1986: Depeche Mode: Black Celebration
1987: Suzanne Vega: Solitude Standing
1988: Dead Can Dance: The Serpent's Egg

Best short tracks (under approx. 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
1982: Laurie Anderson: O Superman (For Massenet)
1983: Brian Eno: An Ending (Ascent)
1984: Laurie Anderson: Blue Lagoon
1985: Talk Talk: Time it's Time
1986: Ultravox: All in One Day
1987: Suzanne Vega: Ironbound / Fancy Poultry
1988: Dead Can Dance: The Host of Seraphim

Best long tracks (Approx. 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: -
1982: Mike Oldfield: Taurus II
1983: Mike Oldfield: Crises
1984: Jean-Michel Jarre: Ethnicolor
1985: Robert Fripp: God Save the King
1986: The Enid: The Change
1987: -
1988: -

1988, minus one

For the first time in a really long while, I can get all music worth mentioning in a particular year to fit in a single blog entry. Well, minus one - we'll get to that soon. This entry will be slightly longer than most of the others, but not by that much. And this is not even to say that 1988 is an exceptionally poor year quality-wise: we will be discussing two of the greatest albums of the eighties, and on top of it, the single greatest short song of the decade.

We begin 1988 in a very delicate manner. On 16 February, the debut album of All About Eve, called simply All About Eve, was released. Above, you can listen to Martha's Harbour which is my favorite track on it and was also a moderate hit as a single, reaching #10 on the UK album chart. Why the official music video cannot be found in YouTube, I don't know; I am aware that one at least used to exist since I saw it plenty of times in 1988. Another favorite song of mine on the album is called What Kind of Fool.

All About Eve were a British group playing mostly mellow, acoustic soft rock and pop with noticeable folk influences. The singer Julianne Regan was formerly a journalist. The group went on to release four albums in quick succession between 1988 and 1992; this self titled debut turned out to be their biggest hit, although the second one came quite close.

Next, let's move a couple of weeks ahead. On 1 March, the American supergroup Toto released their seventh studio album, fittingly titled The Seventh One. This was once again proof of the eighties' greatness in the genre of simple pop music. I had been paying close attention to Toto's output already at the end of the seventies, but it wasn't until now that they completed their most satisfying album. The Seventh One is full of quality pop and has the same outstanding production values that the group is so well known for.

By only a very small margin, my favorite track on the album is the rocking Home of the Brave, embedded above. It was not a self evident choice; there are also two near perfect pop songs Pamela and Stop Loving You, as well as a couple of more thoughtful ballads Mushanga and A Thousand Years to choose from. Oh, the quality of the eighties pop was simply incredible. Toto IV (1982) may have been the group's most successful and best known release, but in my mind, The Seventh One is their best.

I associate the Toto album with my final months in the army, and it was only two months later, on 3 May, that I had once again earned my freedom. Soon after that, my adult life began in earnest when I moved to Helsinki and started my first permanent job on Monday, 16 May. Strangely enough, there was very little in the way of great new albums for building a soundtrack for those times. The Toto album had come out on 1 March, and the John Farnham album wouldn't be coming out until as late as 25 July.

So, let's fill that empty space of nearly five months with two mostly instrumental albums of almost incomparable beauty, whose exact release dates in 1988 are unknown to me. If you clicked Saint Tom above, you will already know that Brian Eno created some of the most stunningly beautiful melodies of his career this year. Music for Films III contained also other great tracks such as Asian River and Theme from 'Creation' but Saint Tom is the pinnacle of this particular release. It is the best thing Eno wrote in the eighties - although An Ending (Ascent) topped my short track list the year it was released, and Saint Tom will not.

The other mainly instrumental album I was referring to above is the Irish new age group Clannad's greatest masterpiece Atlantic Realm which in its flawlessness is obviously one of the best albums of the year - yet it has no chance of winning that title or even getting second place in a year like this. In any case, there are really no weak tracks on this atmospheric collection, so I was more than happy to find a video in YouTube that combines two of them. In Flight and Moving Thru are tracks number 6 and 3 in a collection of 13 minor masterpieces.

And then we jump straight to the end of July. It is this exceptional emptiness of significant releases for several months that has allowed me to contain an entire year in a single blog entry, even though it isn't a weak one. I already mentioned pop singer John Farnham above; his album Age of Reason borders on not being worth mentioning at all. But I decided to include him anyway, because his album is a pretty decent pop album and the title track as well as Blow by Blow, Listen to the Wind and Beyond the Call are all high quality eighties pop. Let's not embed anything and move on.

In August, we were treated to a new album by French electronic music composer Jean-Michel Jarre called Revolutions. This is also an album that wouldn't be worth mentioning at all, were it not for its outstanding opening sequence called Industrial Revolution Overture. Embedded above is the entire album: start from the beginning and listen to it as long as you can. It is truly great at the beginning, then slowly peters out to meaninglessness.

I had been aware of the American heavy metal group Metallica for some time now, but had not paid much attention. Before 25 August, I remembered them best for a comment that someone made to me upon hearing the opening riffs of Almost Like Love by Yes: that it was amusing how the progressive rock supergroup suddenly sounded like Metallica. The metal favorites already enjoyed a following that was way too large to be called mere cult. I have heard fans call ...And Justice for All the best album of all time.

I can't quite agree with that claim, but neither can I deny the power of One, embedded above. One of the most impressive anti war statements ever, it became Metallica's first genuine MTV hit, in spite of its extremely grim subject matter. The heavy metal song is simple in structure as well as arrangement, but uses the storyline of the pacifistic film Johnny Got His Gun (1971) to great effect and leaves you both impressed and strongly moved.

Like last year, September of 1988 also brought four noteworthy albums, and even though they weren't, on average, quite as impressive as last year's quartet, one of them did join the ranks of the decade's absolute best. The album in question was not Peepshow, out on 5 September; but it was nonetheless in my opinion the best album by the British goth rockers Siouxsie and the Banshees. They were another group that I had already noticed but had not paid very much attention to until now. The album's opening track Peek-a-boo, embedded below, is one good example of why I was forced to do so.

As good as that song is, it isn't even the best of the album - I just couldn't resist embedding it because it comes with a cool music video. My number one favorite has however always been the atmospheric, icily beautiful Carousel which I suggest you listen to as well. Other highlights on Peepshow include the beautiful The Last Beat of My Heart and the slowly building closing track Rhapsody.

On 16 September, Talk Talk released their greatest masterpiece Spirit of Eden that simply must have come as a complete surprise to others as well as me. Sure, the 1985 Best short track of the year winner Time It's Time did indicate that some kind of transformation was taking place, but how could anyone have foreseen its results? The former melodic pop group had turned into a blossoming art rock ensemble just like that, without any visible effort. The beauty and calm of Spirit of Eden even defies the use of word rock. Instrumentation is that of a rock band but the music defines a genre of its own.

When Spirit of Eden first came out, I was absolutely certain that I had just heard the best album of the year. This wasn't to be: only a little over one month later such a towering masterpiece was released that Spirit of Eden ended up on second place, even though it would have been a deserving winner in almost any other year in the eighties. This was very much like it was with Within the Realm of a Dying Sun by Dead Can Dance last year. Inheritance, embedded above, is a great example of the album's style.

Three days later, two very different albums came out on the same day. Both of them had an impact on me. On 19 September, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds released their album Tender Prey, whose angry opening track Mercy Seat left an indelible impression on me. I wasn't particularly taken with the rest of the album, but this song certainly packs a punch. The album version is perhaps a bit overlong and repetitive at the end, but that is a minor complaint and doesn't even apply to the video embedded below which plays the shorter version.

And then, Enya became a superstar. On the same day with Tender Prey, the Irish singer's breakthrough album Watermark also came out, and what an album it was. The new age masterpiece did not contain many unnecessary tracks, sold millions, and gave us the singer's first major hit Orinoco Flow. This coincided conveniently with the heyday of music video. It was only Enya's second album following her self titled debut that we mentioned earlier. Her third one would be yet another major hit.

The lyrical, lovely music video, embedded below, entered the power rotation of MTV and other satellite channels of the time, playing in the same feed with the works of the era's best known pop stars. It must have seemed a little out of place, but definitely helped a lot in making the singer a household name. I was convinced: here was a major new talent, and her hit song a minor masterpiece. Perhaps we are getting a little too ethereal; next up, something a bit more raw.

I had never been a big fan of metal, even though I had chosen Ozzy Osbourne's classic Bark at the Moon as the best album of 1983. Here, I have already praised Metallica and there is more to follow. On 11 October, another American metal group Ministry released their third album The Land of Rape and Honey which I suppose became their eventual breakthrough. Those who weren't paying attention in 1988, noticed the aggressive masterwork a couple of years later when its opening track Stigmata featured in the science fiction cult classic film Hardware.

Stigmata is a great heavy metal song and there are also several other memorable tracks on the album. But, instead of Stigmata, my favorite has always been The Missing. Clocking just under three minutes, it is a very compact song but manages to do everything a metal track should in that short time frame. Embedded below is how far I have come from the seventies prog days. But this is how it is: the most inspired musicianship can appear in many different genres when times change, and one must always be ready to follow it.

Finally, there are only two album releases left to discuss. We will get into one of them now. Hence the title 1988, minus one for this blog entry. That second album came out on 24 October and easily won the title of Album of the year. And, just as importantly, it opened with the best short track of the entire decade - the one that in my books beat even Ironbound / Fancy Poultry, last year's classic track by Suzanne Vega.

That album, whose name I shall not mention now, will be discussed in the next blog entry and, only after that, we will compile the traditional year end list of all the best songs and albums. This entry will only discuss one more release, which is once again a showcase of high quality pop music of the eighties. The album Everything by Bangles was released on 18 October and contained the chart topping single hit Eternal Flame which even I liked quite a lot.

But, since I always tend to prefer things that the majority don't, I found my number one favorite on the album in the song embedded above. Something to Believe in still gives me goosebumps and remains my favorite among the Bangles' entire output.

1987: August to December

There really are no significant releases from August 1987, at least none that I know of, even though the title of this blog entry seems to imply that. Let's use this opportunity to briefly discuss one more interesting album release whose exact timing is unknown to me.

Suffice to say that some time in 1987, Canadian alternative rock singer Lisa Dalbello released what is in my opinion her best album She. It was her fifth, most fully accomplished collection of new songs. She would go on to release only one more album nine years later. Tango, embedded above, is a perfect example of the new album's sound and style.

As strong as Tango is, it is hardly alone: there are several equally strong tracks on the collection, such as Baby Doll, Body and Soul and Immaculate Eyes. Listening to these songs, you get the impression that comparisons made at the time between Dalbello and Peter Gabriel were not that far fetched, although you could never hear Gabriel use his voice quite as aggressively as Dalbello did, particularly on Tango and Body and Soul. Essential alt rock of the era, with some regular pop thrown in for good measure.

Next comes the incredible September with four noteworthy releases, most of them semi-classics. From the start of the month, the worst was over for me in the army and I strongly associate the next four albums with the relief that autumn's somewhat easier period brought with it. It was grey, somewhat rainy, and the new music was truly great. Let's begin with the least important of the noteworthy September albums.

I already skipped the ludicrous The Final Cut (1983) by Pink Floyd, their weakest effort in a long, long time. On 7 September, its follow-up A Momentary Lapse of Reason came out. The internal fights of the supergroup had been solved by sacking Roger Waters, but while this new music turned out to be a slight improvement over that extremely sorry previous album, it still wasn't really anything special. The only track on the album that I really liked then and still do, is One Slip, embedded above.

Strange as it probably sounds, I actually preferred a pop album that also came out on 7 September, to Pink Floyd's latest - that's how far we have now come from the seventies. Said pop album was Actually by the British pop duo Pet Shop Boys. Sure, more than half of it is rubbish and if I hear It's a Sin one more time I am likely to become physically ill. But there are also moments of greatness on the album too, hidden away on the vinyl version's B side.

Mind you, there are already a couple of truly refreshing pop songs on the A side - I have nothing bad to say about What Have I Done to Deserve This? or Rent - but when the B side opener, Ennio Morricone composed It Couldn't Happen Here fades out in all its majestic sadness, the listener can't help but be completely blown away. And it isn't even the best track on the album; that one comes last. King's Cross, embedded above, is a stunning pop masterpiece and one of the best songs of the entire decade, regardless of genre. How Pet Shop Boys were ever able to create these two downbeat masterworks, I will never know. They were never able to repeat the greatness they displayed here.

Ten days later, on 17 September, a new Yes album called Big Generator came out. I already skipped (not quite as ludicrous as The Final Cut but nonetheless embarrassing) 90125 (1983), one of the group's weakest efforts. Big Generator saw them moving perhaps even further away from prog - but also from the intolerable pop of 90125. New guitarist Trevor Rabin seemed to be influencing the group to develop a more rocking sound than before. This is usually a bad idea for prog bands, but here it works surprisingly well.

Many fans hate Big Generator - I loved it from the first time I heard it. Sure, it is not as good as the seventies output but on the other hand it is one of those all too rare albums that doesn't have a single weak track, and Rabin's gleeful rock riffs are so refreshing and infectious. Shoot High Aim Low, embedded above, is perhaps not the best example to represent the album's overall style (that would be either the opening of Almost Like Love or the title track), but it is overall the strongest song on it. Be sure to hear also the incredible I'm Running, an enjoyably wacky orgy of prog hidden near the end of the album.

Finally, on 28 September, Depeche Mode released their new album Music for the Masses. Anticipation was high following the greatness of their previous effort Black Celebration, Album of the year 1986. Although I have grown to appreciate Music for the Masses, it felt like a slight disappointment at the time. It was in my personal power rotation in any case, but felt a bit cold, distant and alienating.

Never Let Me Down Again, embedded above, was the first single release and a small masterpiece. My other favorites include Behind the Wheel, To Have and to Hold and the instrumental album closer Pimpf. At the other end of the spectrum there were songs like Strangelove and Sacred that to me felt completely pointless and waste of space. For this reason, Music for the Masses doesn't reach my personal top three Depeche Mode albums that consists of Black Celebration and the group's next two albums that will be coming out in 1990 and 1993 and will be discussed then.

Next, it is time to bid farewell to Tangerine Dream, a long standing favorite. Their last truly good release was the soundtrack to the vampire film Near Dark, an early work by Academy Award winning director Kathryn Bigelow. The soundtrack album wasn't released until next year, but I count the movie's US premiere, 2 October, as the first public release of its music, so this is the point in time where it gets its deserved albeit brief mention.

Then, a four week pause followed. After the extremely busy early autumn, only two excellent album releases worth mentioning came out during the rest of the year, and they did so within the space of eight days. First, on 30 October, we received yet another piece of evidence that eighties was the greatest decade for pure, simple pop music. This was when George Michael released his masterpiece Faith, which contained three surprise favorites of mine.

Upon the 25-million copies selling megahit album's release, I particularly enjoyed songs like Father Figure or Monkey - the latter as the original album version, not the vastly inferior remix I've been hearing more recently. But perhaps the most deserving song to be embedded here is Hand to Mouth, which is not only a lovely pop song; it actually has something to say about the society we live in. Hence, you can listen to it above.

All right, this is it. The great music year of 1987 is almost over. It is time to discuss the last noteworthy album of this exceptional period. To do so, we will leave pop music behind and get reacquainted with the eccentric genius of David Sylvian. His artistically ambitious output already reached one landmark with last year's double album Gone to Earth. His new release, called Secrets of the Beehive and out on 7 November, was perhaps not quite its predecessor's equal, but close.

The best track of Sylvian's new album is, in my mind, the stunning Let the Happiness in that has been embedded above, accompanied by a fan made video. On this track, flugelhorn and trumpet are played by film composer Mark Isham. Listening to this peaceful song is a lovely way to end this year. Other highlights include the atmospheric short opening called September, and a longer track called Orpheus that appears in the middle of the album.

Best albums of the year list offers no surprises, as I have already written about the top two separately. Prog legends Yes appear as a close third. The greatest short track is obviously Suzanne Vega's undying classic Irounbound / Fancy Poultry. There are, however, no real candidates for the best long track category, so we will have to leave that one unawarded.

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR:
Dead Can Dance: Within the Realm of a Dying Sun
Suzanne Vega: Solitude Standing
Yes: Big Generator

UNMISSABLE TRACKS OF THE YEAR:
David Sylvian: Let the Happiness in
Dead Can Dance: Cantara
Dead Can Dance: Summoning of the Muse
Dead Can Dance: Windfall
Depeche Mode: Never Let Me Down Again
Depeche Mode: Pimpf
Depeche Mode: To Have and to Hold
Heart: There's the Girl
Marillion: Hotel Hobbies
Marillion: The Last Straw
New Order: 1963
New Order: True Faith
Pet Shop Boys: It Couldn't Happen Here
Pet Shop Boys: King's Cross
Pink Floyd: One Slip
Sielun veljet: Rakkaudesta
Suzanne Vega: Ironbound / Fancy Poultry
Suzanne Vega: In the Eye
Suzanne Vega: Wooden Horse (Caspar Hauser's Song)
Whitesnake: Still of the Night
Yes: Shoot High Aim Low

Best albums of the year, 1967 to 1987:

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
1982: Rush: Signals
1983: Ozzy Osbourne: Bark at the Moon
1984: Rush: Grace Under Pressure
1985: Marillion: Misplaced Childhood
1986: Depeche Mode: Black Celebration
1987: Suzanne Vega: Solitude Standing

Best short tracks (under approx. 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
1982: Laurie Anderson: O Superman (For Massenet)
1983: Brian Eno: An Ending (Ascent)
1984: Laurie Anderson: Blue Lagoon
1985: Talk Talk: Time it's Time
1986: Ultravox: All in One Day
1987: Suzanne Vega: Ironbound / Fancy Poultry

Best long tracks (Approx. 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: -
1982: Mike Oldfield: Taurus II
1983: Mike Oldfield: Crises
1984: Jean-Michel Jarre: Ethnicolor
1985: Robert Fripp: God Save the King
1986: The Enid: The Change
1987: -

Within the Realm of a Dying Sun, by DEAD CAN DANCE

Year: 1987
Country: Australia / UK

On 27 July, 1987 an album so great was released that it would easily have earned the title of the best album of the decade so far... had it not been for Solitude Standing by Suzanne Vega that was released only four months earlier. Adding insult to injury, this also meant that there was no way this masterpiece could even win the title of Album of the year, even though it would easily have won it on any preceding year in the eighties. Life isn't fair.

We have taken note of Dead Can Dance before. Until now, the art rock group led by Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry had released two full length albums: the self titled record in 1984 and Spleen and Ideal in 1985. Also, there had been an interesting EP in 1984 called Garden of the Arcane Delights. These releases had already shown much promise; in particular, Spleen and Ideal was a truly interesting, if a little sombre album and definitely one of that year's best. However, with the new album Within the Realm of a Dying Sun the group took an unanticipatedly massive leap forward into genuine art of the very highest order.

Dead Can Dance were now working at the peak of their talents. The stunning album opener Anywhere Out of the World is already more than enough to capture the listener's full attention. All tracks on the album are credited to both Gerrard and Perry, but it sounds like they have divided the singing duties in accordance with which one of them is more strongly connected with the material. Like on their later solo albums, the songs Perry sings have a more general art rock feel, whereas Gerrard sings on those that are more ethnic or harder to approach.

On Within the Realm of a Dying Sun, these two main styles of Dead Can Dance have been neatly divided on the two sides of the vinyl disc. Perry sings on side A; Gerrard sings on side B, and there is the occasional instrumental composition in between. Anywhere Out of the World, embedded above, begins Perry's half of the recording, so to speak. It is then followed by a beautiful instrumental that has been embedded below.

As impressive as Anywhere Out of the World is, it was Windfall that truly convinced me back when I was listening to the album for the first time. Yes, the opening track had been great. But the fact that the second track succeeded in even improving on it was an unmistakeable sign that we were now fast approaching Album of the year level excellence. Windfall is simple in structure, but endlessly powerful in delivery. Even the third track In the Wake of Adversity succeeds in being yet another masterpiece. Brendan Perry sings again, and his deep voice brings an atmosphere of its own to the music that has by now established a genre of its own.

Perry and Gerrard, who have come to be known as the faces and voices of Dead Can Dance, were not actually the only members of the group even now that they were in full control of its musical development. There was still a third full member Peter Ulrich, who played timpani and snare drum. There had also been a number of other members on the previous albums, but by now they had all left and following this one, Ulrich would also leave.

Following the outstanding one, two, three, there are finally some minor bumps on the road. The closing track of Perry's A side, Xavier is obviously weaker than the first three, although not a failure by any means. Gerrard's B side opens with an even weaker introduction, Dawn of the Iconoclast, but as it runs for only two minutes, it doesn't take us long to move forward into some of the greatest musical moments of the decade.

The mesmerizing sixth track of Within the Realm of a Dying Sun, called Cantara, is an undying classic that helped me learn an important lesson at the time of its release. I hadn't been paying much attention to ethnicity as an interesting element in music; here, it works wonders. Lisa Gerrard sings, the percussion as well as some of the other instruments bring Near East world music to mind, and the repeating melody that opens the track and carries on throughout is simply lovely.

At the time, I felt that Cantara was the real signature track of Dead Can Dance. Later on, I have actually come to like the next song Summoning of the Muse even better. Like its predecessor, it opens with a memorable melody that carries nearly all the way to the end and is this time played with an instrument that sounds like a bell chiming. Gerrard sings with an angelic voice, with several vocal tracks mixed on top of each other. There is a nice video for this masterpiece embedded further below.

Following all this greatness, it is a slight disappointment that the B side ends a little like the A side did: with a fourth song that is longer than any of the first three, yet not fully satisfying. Persephone (The Gathering of Flowers) is a beautiful song, a little better than Xavier, but not quite as ambitious as the previous two and therefore not as memorable. Gerrard's voice is however again simply divine.

Solitude Standing, by SUZANNE VEGA

Year: 1987
Country: USA

On 1 April 1987, the greatest album of the eighties was released, and it came from an unexpected place. The best albums of the previous two decades had both originated from the United Kingdom; this one was from New York, USA. And more importantly, the best albums of the previous two decades had come from giants of progressive rock. This one came from a female singer-songwriter who had nothing to do with prog and had released only one album previously. And, I might add, one that had given absolutely no indication of the greatness that was to come.

A cappella opening song Tom's Diner already caused my jaw to drop back when I heard it for the first time. It is hardly the greatest achievement on the album, but I remember thinking already in 1987 that it was a truly original - can I even say ballsy? - way to open an album. In those days, there were no streaming services: those who were considering buying an album often listened to how it began in a record store, from a real disc. An anti-commercial opening like this hardly improved the odds of a sale.

But, of course, there were other ways of getting acquainted with new music even in those days. One was radio play; the other, music video. The second track of the album is also its best known and probably more widely associated with the album. Selected as a single, Luka wasn't a difficult choice for radio stations to play in a pop/rock rotation. Also, the music video below played on MTV and other satellite channels of the era. It gives the random listener a more accurate impression of what the rest of the album would be like than Tom's Diner.

The somehow light sounding, beautiful song carries a weighty message about domestic violence that gives it a bittersweet feel. The young boy subjected to said violence has not yet given up hope, nor should we, implies the optimistic sounding ending. Don't get me wrong - I like Luka very much and it is essential listening for 1987. But no, I don't think even the best known song on the album is among its very best tracks. Perhaps a bit too easily accessible for my taste, it is nonetheless a fitting choice for a single release.

So, even though I had really liked the first two tracks of Solitude Standing, at this point I still wasn't fully convinced. It took track number three to finally hit me on the head with your proverbial sledgehammer, to finally realize that I was listening to a major masterpiece. Ironbound / Fancy Poultry is a two part song that is not only Suzanne Vega's greatest work ever; it also belongs to my personal all time top 10 list of musical achievements. (Strangely enough, it is NOT my number one song of the eighties; we will get back to that anomaly when we reach 1988.)

Much like Tom's Diner was about creating a realistic sounding memory imprint of a certain place and time, Ironbound does the same in a much more complicated and satisfying way. I have been criticized for labeling Suzanne Vega as art rock, and maybe rightly so when considering her entire recorded output. But for both Luka and Ironbound this label fits perfectly - just listen to that impeccable light rock instrumentation. The electric guitar ends up on top, sounding cold but not soulless.

The second part of the song, Fancy Poultry begins with a much simpler arrangement. Now there are only the singer-songwriter's voice and her acoustic guitar. The long instrumental finale that closes the track is one of the most astonishingly beautiful ever composed, and wisely takes its time to slowly fade out. Even when you think it is over, you can still hear faint echoes, and kind of want it still not to have ended. Jaw, meet floor.

And the most pleasant surprise of all is that, even after rising to unimaginable heights, the album continues on nearly the same quality level for several next tracks. I specifically remember that this was what finally sold Solitude Standing to me as the best album of the decade so far, well before it was even over. Irounbound / Fancy Poultry was its greatest masterpiece, but it is one thing to write one great song and another to follow it up with others that don't pale next to it.

The fourth track In the Eye has been embedded above. It is very much like Luka, only better. And there is never a misstep on the first side of the vinyl version. I will not embed everything so you will need to find some gems on your own. Suffice to say that the fifth song Night Vision is a definite step towards a less accessible direction. An acoustic track with a less immediately memorable tune requires two or three repeated listenings before you can fully appreciate it.

The sixth track that closes the vinyl's A side is the title track and that I will once again embed because there is a music video for it. Another great song with a peculiar, even slightly ominous (or is it just me?) atmosphere would be much better off without that embarrassing "one, two, three, four" at the beginning of the video. It certainly isn't there on the album. And then, this near perfect album side is over. There are a further five tracks on B side.

Of the remaining tracks, three are fully on par with the first six and one of them is such a masterpiece that I will have to embed it. Track number 10, Wooden Horse (Caspar Hauser's Song) is the other key song on the album that you must hear to believe; Calypso and Language are solid pieces of work if not quite on the same extraordinary level as Wooden Horse.

This leaves us with only two tracks that I am able to criticize, if only a little bit. Track number 9 called Gypsy is a perfectly fine song, but sounds average-ish in this group of near or full masterpieces. It feels like it would have been a better fit on Suzanne Vega's self titled debut album that contained several similar songs. Even that said, the melody in the chorus is very beautiful.

And finally, there is the closing track, an instrumental reprise of Tom's Diner. It is still very good, but here it no longer has the strong punch that it had at the beginning because of its completely unexpected format. The instrumental version is not bad, but feels a bit unnecessary. If there was nothing left to say, perhaps Wooden Horse could have ended this masterpiece equally well.

1987: January to July

Some time in 1987, most likely during its first half, one of the strongest Finnish rock and roll songs ever was released as a single. The group that performed it was called Sielun Veljet: a zany post punk outfit that I hadn't been paying much attention to until now. Their new powerhouse love song Rakkaudesta (in English, About Love) quickly escalated their status in my book to major favorites.

The first three months of 1987 were very quiet. It was an extremely cold winter in Helsinki area; I lived in Vantaa, worked in Espoo, and my thesis was closing completion. Then came 1 April, and the best album of the entire decade was released. Remember when I mentioned this in 1977? The eighties were the third decade in a row whose best album release came out in the year ending with number seven. Before this, there were The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967) by Pink Floyd and Going for the One (1977) by Yes.

Now, there was a new masterpiece for a new decade. I am not going to disclose its name yet; instead, let's repeat ourselves and honor it by dedicating a blog entry of its own entirely to it. This also seems to be where the rule of exceptional years ending with seven ends. I think I remember the best album of the nineties coming out already in 1992, and I certainly remember the best album of the 00's coming out in 2002. So, for the next couple of times, the magic year will be the one ending with number two instead of seven.

Only six days after the eighties' greatest album, on 7 April, heavy metal band Whitesnake released the pinnacle of their career, either called 1987 (in Europe) or left without a title (in the US). This was the British heavy metal group's seventh studio album and a major hit, selling over 10 million copies in the US alone.

Even though the group was seeking to inject a more heavy metal sound to their music, the best known tracks on 1987 were ballads like Here I Go Again, Crying in the Rain and Is This Love? However, the opening track Still of the Night was a genuine hard rock / heavy metal masterpiece, pathetic lyrics or not, and featured a killer electric guitar sequence about two thirds of the way in. David Coverdale, who had been close to disbanding the group only a couple of years earlier, had finally achieved his greatest success with them.

Another six days went by. Then, on 13 April, the British-American group Fleetwood Mac released their 14th studio album called Tango in the Night which, on the whole, has always been their most satisfying album to me. Sure, many of their best songs appeared on other albums, but none of those could achieve similar consistency of high quality. Tango in the Night contains one great song after another, with few sidesteps to mediocrity.

This is also the reason why I felt it best to embed the entire album above. How could I possibly choose only one track from so many good ones, like Big Love, Seven Wonders, Everywhere, Caroline, Mystified, Little Lies, Welcome to the Room... Sara and Isn't it Midnight. Come to think of it, Tango in the Night must obviously be one of the Albums of the year, even though it has no chance of winning that particular race.

A couple of weeks after Fleetwood Mac's album release, I officially graduated from the university; I was now what they call a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering. My independent adult life still couldn't quite begin, for reasons we will get to only a couple of paragraphs further down. Before that, let's enjoy Aldebaran from Enya's self-titled debut album, out in May. The song is dedicated to film director Ridley Scott, for a reason not known to me.

A stunning beauty with the voice of an angel, Enya was a new talent whose otherworldly, ethereal new age songs provided an easy target for ridicule but whose artistic merit cannot be denied. Before her solo career, Enya had been a member of the Irish group Clannad. Her debut solo album Enya provided the soundtrack to a BBC documentary series called The Celts and was re-released with that title in 1992 when she had become more of a household name due to the major success of her second and third albums. The debut has been better known with that title ever since.

And here comes the reason for not being able to really begin my adult life even after earning my university degree. As a punishment for having been born a Finnish male, I was imprisoned against my will for eleven months worth of hard labor called army service. My sentence began in the early days of June and ended in early May, 1988. It is for this reason that the next music releases are particularly well etched in my memory: it is quite a different thing to listen to music casually, than it is to use it as a means of mental escape from unjust imprisonment.

The first days went by in a haze. I was in hell, commanded by worst idiots you can imagine and accompanied by many of their like. On 6 June, Heart released their finest album Bad Animals that was filled with great pop songs such as Alone, RSVP and Wait for an Answer. My number one favorite among them has always been There's the Girl, embedded above. The official video doesn't really do the song justice, but this is how they were in those days. Slightly embarrassing, but far from able to spoil the sonic experience.

The first two to three months in the army are the worst. The next album release we will discuss is the one I will always associate with them. 22 June saw the release of Clutching at Straws, the fourth and final album of the Fish era Marillion. It wasn't the masterpiece that the Album of the year 1985 Misplaced Childhood was. In fact, it left me with very mixed feelings. There were several undeniably great songs such as the opening track Hotel Hobbies, embedded above; Warm Wet Circles, That Time of the Night (The Short Straw) and the wonderful closing track The Last Straw.

On top of those, an additional track called Going Under that was inexplicably missing from the vinyl release was added to the CD. It was among the very best songs in the collection, and I always wondered why it had been left out in the first place. There were a number of other songs I would rather have dropped. The rest of the album was a series of disappointments and on the whole, I still consider it only the group's third best at that point; a lot better than the disaster that was called Fugazi (1984) but clearly weaker than the other two.

About one month later, yet another pop classic came out. On 20 July, the British synth group New Order released an excellent single where the B side was almost as great as the A side - but not quite. True Faith, embedded above, became an instant classic and a summer favorite of mine. Please make sure to check out the B side 1963 as well. The songwriting is also there of such high quality that many artists would have been likely to release it as a separate A side. True Faith and 1963 represent New Order's finest hour.

Finally, on 27 July, one more great album came out - so great, in fact, that we will skip it here and dedicate yet another blog entry of its own to it. On any other year it would have been a strong contender for Album of the year. But, having been released this year, it was struggling to maintain even its second place. Both the 1 April release and this one are worthy of their own entry, so before we continue 1987 all the way to its end, we will concentrate on these two masterpieces separately.

1986: July to December

Even though the second half of 1986 contained several memorable new releases, to me it always felt like more than just a little disappointing period in time. Almost everything worth noting at all seemed to be plain pop music. There is nothing wrong with high quality pop, but nonetheless I felt saddened by the lack of ambition on display. Among the nine releases discussed below, there is really only one truly ambitious piece of work, and even that one cannot be called progressive rock.

The lovely single Through the Barricades by Spandau Ballet, out on 15 July, is perhaps a little closer to art rock than most of the other selections here. Excellent sequences with acoustic guitar and great songwriting made this song memorable and one of the essential selections of the summer. The British group, formed in London in the late seventies, would make no more impact on my favorites list but it might be worth mentioning that the Kemp brothers would later go on to star in a brilliant gangster film The Krays.

Another July release worth noting was the debut album by another British group Cutting Crew, called Broadcast. They had an international hit in their hands with (I Just) Died in Your Arms Tonight, which was of course one of the songs on the debut that you just couldn't listen to more than once. Most likely, those who grew tired of that track playing repeatedly everywhere never took a closer look at the rest of the album. I think they should have: it was much better than the oversimple hit single indicated.

I would probably never have known either, had I not heard Life in a Dangerous Time just by chance. It attracted my attention: are these really the same guys that play on that obnoxious radio hit that pisses me off at least twice a week? This is actually good. And that's how I came to realize that Cutting Crew had written several quality pop songs for inclusion on their debut album, such as Any Colour You Like, One for the Mockingbird and in particular I've Been in Love Before. It was just that their most nerve-wracking one had received all the attention.

The next noteworthy release of the year was a little edgier than your average radio hit. Cyndi Lauper had a style completely of her own. Her hair looked like something had exploded in its middle; strong makeup, small build and badass attitude completed the picture. Her best album True Colors would be coming out at the end of September; 25 July saw its title track released as a single. Below, I have embedded the original video which is admittedly a little cheesy. Nevertheless, the song itself is beautiful and remains Ms. Lauper's best work to this day.

August saw the release of a new album by one of my seventies favorites Tangerine Dream. Underwater Sunlight was a catchy, inviting title and the cover artwork could be called lovely. There was now a new member in the group: Paul Haslinger had joined Edgar Froese and Christopher Franke. New directions, perhaps? Renewed inspiration?

Well, not exactly. The new direction was only to make the classic electronic music group sound more contemporary than ever before. Technically advanced production values, electric guitars, percussion; a credit was given even to a computer programmer. And yet, as foreboding as all of this sounds, there were some moments of brilliance contained on the album, which is of course the only reason we are even discussing it.

The second track of Underwater Sunlight, titled Song of the Whale Part 2: ...to Dusk is an 11-minute instrumental that suddenly shows Tangerine Dream's composing skills honed to their very best, but is severely handicapped by an excruciatingly mediocre two-minute sequence in its middle. We begin with a lovely piano introduction, then synthesizers join in with a beautiful main theme. Then, between the 5 and 7-minute marks, drums and guitars are added to play a theme that has nothing to do with the rest of the composition. Were it not for this part, this could have been the Best long track of the year.

We are now entering an important time in my life. At the end of August, I moved away from home to Vantaa to live and work there for nine months, and to use that time to prepare my thesis while working. The first interesting release during this period came out on 8 September and was yet another pop song. I have never even heard the rest of Bouncing off the Satellites by The B-52's, but the single Girl from Ipanema Goes to Greenland felt like a bull's eye in its own genre. And just look at that silly music video.

Only five days later, on 13 September, the only artistically ambitious release of the second half of 1986 that I found likable came out. David Sylvian, the former singer of Japan, released his third solo album, a double vinyl called Gone to Earth which was the first one that I really took notice of. Japan's output had already been perfectly fine art rock with futuristic roots; now it sounded like Sylvian's solo work was developing into something even more ambitious and interesting.

On the other hand, I can fully understand those who dislike the English singer's solo works. He does have a tendency to sound, at times, more than just a little artificial. Even one of my favorite tracks on Gone to Earth, called Laughter and Forgetting admittedly suffers from that. Yet its greatness cannot be denied. But, as a compromise, let's embed the lovely Home from side four of the vinyl release. No one can possibly have anything against it, right? Please enjoy it below.

October saw only a couple of more pop albums. Or actually, in the case of Berlin, it was only one song on their new album Count Three & Pray, out on the 13th. The magnificent opening of You Don't Know creates an oriental sounding mystery that the rest of the song doesn't really match, but it is a very recommendable listening experience in any case. I will not embed it here but please go ahead and look it up.

One week later, on 20 October, it was time for yet another minor classic of pop / dance music. Once again, the classic in question was not an entire album but rather only one song on it. Following the massive success of their first singles a couple of years earlier, Frankie Goes to Hollywood must have been under a lot of pressure to succeed with their second effort. They didn't, but the opening track that begins with a lengthy introductory sequence to the entire album was a minor masterpiece.

It looks like there is no satisfactory video of Warriors of the Wasteland available in YouTube, so the best alternative is to listen to the first 4 minutes and 54 second of the album embedded above. There are all kinds of remixes available but the only one that packs the full punch of the song is the album version. It is a beautifully orchestrated introduction to a mediocre dance music album that promises way more than the rest of the songs actually have on offer.

Finally, there is only one more 1986 album left to discuss. I already mentioned the extremely popular Finnish rock group Eppu Normaali back in 1985. They started their career as a punk rock outfit, then moved on to regular rock and roll and ended up flirting with art rock. Their new album was out on 4 December and was called Valkoinen kupla which is a humorous Beatles reference. In Finland, the Beatles' White Album is generally called Valkoinen tupla. By changing only one letter the White double became a White bubble. And of course, the album cover was all white.

The band's greatest masterpiece En saa mielestä sinua (in English, Can't Get You Off My Mind), embedded above, is even better than last year's Voi kuinka me sinua kaivataan. While it is a great melodic rock song regardless of instrumentation, its crowning achievement is to have added those Spanish sounding acoustic guitars that elevate it way above your average rock and roll single. This was to be the pinnacle of the group's output: for them, it would all be downhill from here.

As great a return to form as So by Peter Gabriel was, it will have to take second place behind Depeche Mode's fantastic Black Celebration which I am happy to name Album of the year. The best short track is not very difficult to choose either: Ultravox wins with All in One Day, easily their best work ever. Finally, in the long tracks category it is Tangerine Dream's flaws, described above, that allow The Enid to win with their well over 18-minute masterpiece The Change.

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR:
Depeche Mode: Black Celebration
Peter Gabriel: So

UNMISSABLE TRACKS OF THE YEAR:
Cutting Crew: I've Been in Love Before
Cutting Crew: Life in a Dangerous Time
Cyndi Lauper: True Colors
David Sylvian: Home
David Sylvian: Laughter and Forgetting
Depeche Mode: New Dress
Depeche Mode: A Question of Time
Depeche Mode: Stripped
The Enid: The Change
Eppu Normaali: En saa mielestä sinua
Frankie Goes to Hollywood: Warriors of the Wasteland
Jean-Michel Jarre: First Rendez-vous
Jean-Michel Jarre: Second Rendez-vous
Madonna: Live to Tell
Peter Gabriel: Red Rain
Peter Gabriel: Big Time
Peter Gabriel: We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)
Public Image Ltd: Ease
Queen: Who Wants to Live Forever?
Spandau Ballet: Through the Barricades
Tangerine Dream: Song of the Whale Part 2: ...to Dusk
Ultravox: All in One Day

Best albums of the year, 1967 to 1986:

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
1982: Rush: Signals
1983: Ozzy Osbourne: Bark at the Moon
1984: Rush: Grace Under Pressure
1985: Marillion: Misplaced Childhood
1986: Depeche Mode: Black Celebration

Best short tracks (under approx. 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
1982: Laurie Anderson: O Superman (For Massenet)
1983: Brian Eno: An Ending (Ascent)
1984: Laurie Anderson: Blue Lagoon
1985: Talk Talk: Time it's Time
1986: Ultravox: All in One Day

Best long tracks (Approx. 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: -
1982: Mike Oldfield: Taurus II
1983: Mike Oldfield: Crises
1984: Jean-Michel Jarre: Ethnicolor
1985: Robert Fripp: God Save the King
1986: The Enid: The Change