User
Reviews 26 Approval 99%
Soundoffs 245 News Articles 5 Band Edits + Tags 11 Album Edits 156
Album Ratings 2418 Objectivity 71%
Last Active 12-19-18 7:20 pm Joined 06-11-12
Review Comments 2,808
| Fave 1978 Albums
Hey guys | 11 | ![](images/albums/8804.jpg-thumbl) | Wire Chairs Missing
Sometimes I think it could use a trimming, but I do find Chairs Missing to do a good job of keeping my ears perked for whatevers coming next. Strange, artsy punk that sometimes ends too soon, and sometimes hits the bullseye. “Practice Makes Perfect and “Outdoor Miner” certainly hit the target dead center.
Practice Makes Perect, Outdoor Miner, Mercy
4/5 | 10 | ![](images/albums/3112.jpg-thumbl) | Bruce Springsteen Darkness on the Edge of Town
Springsteen just knows how to write about common people and common struggles. It helps that he is so damn good at making these common stories sound so huge and so bombastic.
4/5
Candy's Room, Streets of Fire, Darkness On The Edge of Time
4/5 | 9 | ![](images/albums/6574.jpg-thumbl) | The Cars The Cars
Kick ass dad rock. I think of this, in a way, as a new-wave tinged version of Rumours. It is certainly not the most “new-wave” record around, but like the Fleetwood Mac release this is a rock-solid release where every single song makes its time in the sun mean something. Spend enough time around any old Gen-X’er and you’ll have heard half of this record
4/5
You're All I've Got Tonight, Just What I Needed, My Best Friends Girl | 8 | ![](images/albums/73763.jpg-thumbl) | Yellow Magic Orchestra Yellow Magic Orchestra
A band filling in the gaps on the streets that Kraftwerk paved - this is robotic synth imbued with capital-F Funk. These dudes made it on to Soul Train. Video game music before it was properly a thing, progressive electronic for the dancefloor participant, cool and smooth, will keep your ears perked.
4/5
Firecracker, Tong Poo, Mad Pierrot | 7 | ![](images/albums/110875.jpg-thumbl) | Robbie Basho Visions of The Country
I’m finding I’m a sucker for a good finger-pluckin’ guitarist now and then, and Robbie Basho combines this with his booming voice belting out lyrics that paint a beautiful - if not mystical - portrait of the American west. When he isn’t tearing away at his guitar, there’s a piano to be played - it lends this album its best moment in the form of the cathartic Orphan’s Lament.
4/5
Orphans Lament | 6 | ![](images/albums/10860.jpg-thumbl) | Kate Bush The Kick Inside
I’ve gotta put my girl here - The Kick Inside showcases Kate’s knack for blending her lyrics with sharp imagery and gripping, provocative characters - the mysterious man with the child in his eyes, the lover of the very missed James, whatever brother-sister tomfoolery was going on in the title track, and of course turning the book to a tune on Wuthering Heights - all delivered in her sky high ghostly pitch. It’s very good stuff.
4/5
Wuthering Heights, Them Heavy People, | 5 | ![](images/albums/137435.jpg-thumbl) | Haruomi Hosono Paraiso
Hello again, Hosono - this YMO founder, in the same year as releasing that self-titled, also futzes about with the concept of ‘exotica’ as one of its population. Here you’ll find Okinawan folk music alongside an American rockabilly cover, a rhumba with vocals from a particularly English sounding man speaking basic Japanese, strange electronic soundscapes, and more!
4/5
Worry Beads, Shimendoka, Asatoya Yunta | 4 | ![](images/albums/1948.jpg-thumbl) | Brian Eno Ambient 1: Music For Airports
Does exactly what it says on the tin. This really is the perfect ambient music. Good for reading, walking, writing, meditating, ruminating, waiting, airports etc,.
4/5 | 3 | ![](images/albums/7335.jpg-thumbl) | Blondie Parallel Lines
Parallel Lines is high energy new wave, sexy, sleek, and punchy. Debbie Harry seduces with her voice, the band behind her playing tight as a drum and smooth as butter. Hooks forever and ever, this is just straight up enjoyable to listen to from its first to its last second.
4.5/5
Picture This, Heart Of Glass | 2 | ![](images/albums/155205.jpg-thumbl) | Blue Gene Tyranny Out Of The Blue
A Letter From Home is certainly one of the most beautiful pieces of music I’ve ever heard in my life. Musings on consciousness set to spacey, dreamy instrumentals and a small ghostly choir between paragraphs of the titular letter from home. Takes me to another world. The first half of the record is a mix of well thought-out easy listening and one oddly placed groovy instrumental. It's all good stuff and I’ve heard it described as ‘pop’ music but that don’t sit right with me. Next Time Might Be Your Time is a great opening hook for it. But it's really that final track that makes this my favorite record from 78. | 1 | ![](images/albums/155205.jpg-thumbl) | Blue Gene Tyranny Out of the Blue
"I can accept the way I pay attention to things even if every 96 minutes I get an urge to talk, eat, or kiss somebody. Yes, just anybody, Blue. And I start to pay attention to the miracles that I do know about. You know I never set the alarm and I always wake up on time. Even in a thunderstorm, my mother would wake up only when she heard her baby cry. When I play a piece on the piano once, it goes on rehearsing by itself and it's easier to play the next time. And there are the coincidences and the invisible ideas that reveal themselves anytime you start to go through the motions. Are they really out there, Blue? "
4.5/5
Next Time Might Be Your Time, Out Of The Blue / A Letter From Home About Sound And Consciousness | |
JohnnyoftheWell
06.22.24 | 8 thru 4 is the money, must peep that Hosono album (he's on an absurd number of winners) and jam more Basho | ArsMoriendi
06.22.24 | Cars debut is great stuff and obvious Kate Bush is a legend! You might like:
Funkadelic - One Nation Under a Groove (funk rock/synthfunk)
Tubeway Army - Tubeway Army (new wave/synthpop)
William Onyeabor - Atomic Bomb (synthy afrobeat)
X-Ray Spex - Germfree Adolescents (punk/new wave) | Ladron93
06.23.24 | 8, 6 and 3 slap. I appreciate Ambient 1: Music For Airports of what he has done, though. | widowslaugh123
06.23.24 | Sick list | mkmusic1995
06.23.24 | Super underrated Springsteen record, very nice list! | gabba
06.23.24 | 11 is among the best albums I ever heard. |
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