Back on Boogie Street after not so funny seven days with Covid. 1982 again. My favourite time travel zone in 2022. One of the strangest years. Sex, drugs, and rock‘n‘roll, sure, if you forget about drugs (except my uninhibited addiction to Julio Cortazar‘s „Rayuela“, deapest reading experience ever), replace, better, equal, the s-word by love, and have a wider view of what has been rocking & rolling my ears. And what a year in music! I had my sympathies for Bruce Springsteen‘s „Nebraska“, and Kate Bush‘s „The Dreaming“, but i didn‘t fall in love with them. And Michael Jackson‘s „Thriller“, no way. „Avalon“, nope. These are my six shining stars. Last year, XTC‘s double album got a fantastic remastering, and is now, as an audiophile vinyl treasure, more than ever, one of the best sounding rock albums of the 80‘s. The music gorgeous anyways, with – sic! – drummer Terry Chambers delivering his masterpiece. Terrific work of a band with senses working overtime. I listened to it yesterday. Loud. It is an album to be heard loud. Mark Smotroff’s song of praise in comment 1. And legendary Kevin Rowlands claims his most famous work should have sounded slightly different, and so, for the 40th anniversary, it will happen, „the director‘s edition“ – marketing strategy? Come on, Eileen! And well, nearly everything is said and written on this blog about my numbers one and two. Wild things run fast, yes, but not in Mr. Eno‘s wilderness. And „Big Science“: a work of avant-garde wonder that is entirely unlike anything else released in the vocal world of 1982. Mr. Tibbetts and Mr. Gabriel are constantly changing their places. By the way, on number 7: Donald Fagen‘s The Nightfly.
1) Brian Eno: On Land
2) Laurie Anderson: Big Science
3) XTC: English Settlement
4) Kevin Rowlands & Dexy‘s Midnight Runners: Too Rye Aye
5) Peter Gabriel: Security
6) Steve Tibbetts: Northern Song