Friday Random Five: 80s, but the good 80s.

A lot of my collection comes from the 80s when I started collecting CDs, and they’re starting to show up in the playlists. My fault, really, for feeding every last one of them to the computer to be mp3ed. Now I’m stuck with them. Our possessions are our joy and our curse. One reason why I’m not going through Vinyl Conversion Hell. Some things are better left in the box.

Here are the five for today:

A Rush and a Push and the Land is Ours by The Smiths Album: Strangeways, Here We Come
Was there ever a finer band than the Smiths? Reams have been written about the dour/jangly songwriting team of Morrissey and Marr, but sometimes you just have to go on a Smiths phase and hear the songs again to remember how well-constructed and engaging they are (except for ‘Barbarism Begins at Home’). This song opens their last album, where things were just starting to get interesting. Guitars were making way for other instruments, different styles of songs were cooking, and then Johnny Marr ended it by leaving the band and never doing anything worthwhile again ever. “Oh, but don’t mention lerv. I’d hate the pain and the strain again.”

Primitive Heart by Cocteau Twins Album: Tishbite (Single 2)
There were two singles for Tishbite, each with their own b-sides. This track comes from the rarer one. A lovely single from the band before their breakup. Not as dreamy perhaps, but still easy on the ears. Also, it’s fun to say ’tishbite’. What is a tishbite? Elijah was one, I know that much.

The Ritual Echo by Bill Nelson Album: Sounding the Ritual Echo (Atmospheres for Dreaming)
Continuing on the floaty thing. Bill Nelson, rock guitar virtuoso from Be Bop Deluxe, reworked his sound in the early eighties, producing song after song of soft and intricate soundscapes on antiquated analogue equipment. These songs worked into a five-album set known as ‘Trial by Intimacy’. I remember spending many afternoons in the undergrad days looking from my 6th floor dorm window, gazing out onto the foggy valley below. This was the soundtrack.

Fooled by a Smile by Swing Out Sister Album: It’s Better to Travel
This whole album from Swing Out Sister was a perfect slice of Art Deco Paris-in-the-thirties tongue-in-cheek jazz-pop that could really evoke the hyphens like few before or since. The production was smooth, the horns and strings sassy and precise, the instrumentations full of angles and chords. Great vocals too. A very assured debut.

We Care a Lot (Original Version) by Faith No More Album: Who Cares a Lot? – Greatest Hits
Just as Nirvana wasn’t Nirvana until Dave Grohl joined, Faith No More wasn’t really Faith No More until Mike Patton. But this is still a fine song from the early days that answers the musical question “To what extent does Faith No More care?” I seem to remember an early review in Spin that didn’t really review the album, though it did take the piss out of Kim Carnes, for some reason.

Will we hear some newer stuff next time, or is Daniel’s iTunes Library so clogged with 80s stuff that it resembles KROQ’s playlist? Tune in next time and find out.