Thanks for covering Misplaced Childhood. I agree: it was a huge step forward for the band. (And I'm a little more partial to Clutching at Straws, too.)
Misplaced Childhood is my favorite Marillion album. Kayleigh is an all time classic imo. 1985 was also a great year for Thrash Metal. A number of classic albums released that year. Would be great if you did an episode on it. Ah I see this is the final episode for 1985. Oh well.
You covered everything, but there was also that Clan of xymox album from 4AD, in the dark wave category, holds up today pretty well. Rem Fables is a question of tastes, if you like 80's REM, it's solid.
Very interesting and funny, but "Fables of the reconstruction" was a great record with many extraordinary songs: "Driver 8", "Maps and Legends", "Can't Get There from Here ", "Feeling Gravity's Pull "...
Misplaced Childhood and Clutching At Straws are incredible albums, but don’t overlook the H albums. Brave, Marbles, FEAR, An Hour Before It’s Dark…all great albums.
When I first heard Season's end I was pissed because that's when I learnt of Fish's departure, but grew to love it. But yes, those two albums are art as much as music, thus I have a daughter named Kayleigh😁
Fables is a classic! Get with it guys!! First REM I bought. They put a bow on the jangle era with an album that celebrates southern gothic weirdness and idiosyncratic characters who live in the underbelly of the south. It's a deeply southern rock album but its through a lens far removed from the Allmans or Lynyrd Skynyrd but just as deeply southern. I mean how many songs not only name check but include in the title of the a long-forgotten, obscure dud of a 1973 comet. Fables is the sound of R.E.M. at probably their least self-conscious and their most celebratory of the south they grew up in, and the oddballs they grew up around.
Excellent post, just excellent! Awesome descriptions of REM music during this period. REM changed what alternative music could be, they are forever TRAILBLAZERS!
Such a great summary of this album. This is the album where I got on board with REM and decided they were the greatest band in the world, and for about the next four years I continued to believe that.
Meraviglioso "The Wake" degli IQ. Ma secondo me "Tales from the Lush attic" è ancor più bello e contiene una delle suite più belle della storia "The last human gateway" ❤
IQ as a link between Genesis and the Cardiacs, that's amazing. I can absolutely see that. What an inventive, eye-opening comparison. Especially when seeing IQ in the light of Niadem's Ghost; it's very urgent and fast and frantic.
I always saw IQ as the link between Genesis and those early 80's goth electronic bands like Bauhaus. Probably because I think I read somewhere that Peter Nicholls was a big fan of that music at the time.
@DorisDay-lw4xs Up is the album where they pretty much lost me. They were my favorite band for a long time, but the stretch of albums between Up and Around the Sun was just so generic sounding to me. The pulled me back in with their last two albums before breaking up when they finally stopped trying to be Pet Sounds era Beach Boys.
I met Steven back in '01, during NEARfest... I asked him about IQ, and he said he wasn't too into them. Said they were "too packaged" for his taste. Fast-forward a while afterwards, and sure enough he admits (in an interview I read) that he had his neo prog bands mixed up, and that he apparently thought IQ was a different band when I inquired at the time, lol!
IQ is soo underrated, especially this album. And you're both on the money here, neo-prog was more than just a Genesis copyists' clique, it's very much its own thing in many respects. Misplaced Childhood will always be the highest point of Fish era for me (even though Script is my personal favourite). Never got why Clutching At Straws is so celebrated though, it is literally Childhood's clone musically and structure-wise. And hey, my favourite Supertramp album!
I feel like IQ have actually gotten to their peak in the last 10 years or so, Road of Bones is the best thing they've ever done. Edit: I could have just waited 5 minutes for Steven to say basically the same thing.
I agree that IQ are very underrated. The Road Of Bones is my favourite album. I like their other albums also, with the exception of Resistance. I’m torn between Misplaced Childhood and Clutching At Straws as I like both equally.
I'm just here to support "Script" - also my personal favourite. Maybe it's because I considered Misplaced Childhood as too much pop, when I got to know the band. But of course, as Tim and Steven argue, there are amazingly good pop songs on the album and I just love the "trilogy" of Pseudo Silk Kimono, Kayleigh and Lavender
@@marcuslamprecht7948 Script was my first Marillion album - it was 2003, I was 16 and I was blown away :) and yes, MC seemed a bit too poppy after that, but it won me over pretty fast
I was surprised The Damned's Phantasmagoria didn't get a mention. In ways it was a trailblazer for Goth. An Identikit picture of what the genre was. But it also had Kate Bush's former producer and a slight Marillion texture. For myself I was listening to Curtain Call back to back with Grendel in 1983 as both songs appeared as B sides to 12 inch singles around this time.
Funny I don't really like misplaced but I looove clutching. On the radio they played the entire script before the clutching at straws premiere (those were the times) so listeners could see how bad the latter was, LOL! I love the first albums too btw
Kind of a shame way < 0 1% of the world's population will ever be exposed to their greatness. But, doesn't take away our appreciation. Amazing band. @birdzzzondayflu2489
Such a shame not to take a deep dive into REM. Possibly the best American Band of the 1980s (along with the Talking Heads) and early 90s. And no, Neil made several country-like albums. Not just that one.
yeah, as with most privately educated boys, they give the impression they know exactly wot they talkin 'bout even when their knwldge is severely limited.
That is awesome to hear. I never got into REM, so I had no idea they had such a rich discography. Is there a particular earlier album you recommend to someone who has only heard the singles?
@@CompleteProducer84 Start with 'Murmur' (1st album), give it a good few listens and you will want to progress to 'Reckoning'....after that you'll be off on the trajectory of their career album by album if you have any sense. Such a rich tapestry of songwriting, styles, melodies and themes which evolve and go off in tangents. You put in a little bit of effort and time and you will be rewarded ten fold. Enjoy
Mmmm.... None of these entered my sphere in 85 (thankfully), but each to their own. Here's my top 5 of that year : 1 Clan of Xymox - Clan of Xymox 2 City Slab Horror - Severed Heads 3 Endangered Species - Fatal Charm 4 Clifford Darling, Please Don't Live in the Past - Severed Heads 5 Low Life - New Order.
Im so ecstatic to hear Steven Wilson say he's a fan of IQ. I've always considered them as somewhat of a guilty pleasure, if there is such a thing, but I've always liked IQ up to this day, and would've NEVER guessed Steven liked them. It's one of the few prog bands today that can get me excited about a new album.
Eberhard Weber was also on The Dreaming (All the Love - featured heavily). He is on 4 albums overall: Hounds of Love, The Dreaming, Sensual World and Aerial.
I like REM but I don’t really know the first five albums at all. I really started with Green and then my interest lasted up to around Up (so the 90s output, the most commercially successful period I guess). Those albums are enough for me. Maybe I’m doing them a disservice not giving the early albums a go, but that’s what it is.
It would be great if Steven spent some time actually listening to REM because I’d love to know his thoughts about the likes of Murmur. I get the impression he has heard a little of them and has unfairly dismissed their music.
Methinks “Hounds of Love” is probably the best album (especially side 2.) Most influential, and I’m going out on a limb here is Nighttime by Killing Joke, mostly rhythmically but also for production - think NIN, Nirvana, Industrial, etc.
@@keithdawe5512 On tonight again, I don't tire of it still after all these years. It's like Pendragon's Jewel album. These days I listen to mostly psych from Scandanavia or death metal but often drift back to the sec gereration prog stuff . I remember going to see Twelfth Night at the Dominion circa '84 and got bored and walked out. That night I went into the Astoria and watched Heavy Pett'in for free. I later became godsmacked by Geoff Mann and couldn't get enough of TN. I was lucky to meet both Peter and Mike from IQ while I was at an Islington gig with my friend Andy Hall who's no longer with us but still cursing me no doubt about my Irish ways.. Considering I was an overwhelmed Irish man outside the Nag's Head in Islington , they were great, they took time to chat. I love IQ!
Yeah, I didn't quite understand the weird attitude toward REM, Fables and ALL other early REM albums are total ear candy, the band changed alternative rock for crissakes!
Wim Mertens started as a radio producer for the BRT (Belgian Radio & Television). He composed Close Cover as a tune for the late night broadcasts. It was released as a track on the mini-album Struggle For Pleasure by Soft Verdict. That's the moniker Wim Mertens started his recording career under. Soft Verdict indeed collaborated with members of Tuxedomoon.
btw, random question - does anyone know what the tablet-like gizmo that Steven is referring to on his lap in these videos? I presume it's some kind of tablet at least, he's poking and swiping on it a lot!
3 месяца назад+1
I love what you're doing here, chaps!!! A bit surprised you didn't decipher the german word "Harmonielehre" though... 😃😃😃It alludes to the book by Arnold Schönberg with the same name... Waiting eagerly for the next year in this brilliant series!! Cheers!
A fabulous album with some truly outstanding lyrics. “I was walking in the park, dreaming of a spark When I heard the sprinklers whisper, shimmer in the haze of summer lawns” 🥰
Most influential for what was to come on the alternative guitar scene from this point onwards were the 2 albums from Husker Du this year: New Day Rising and Flip Your Wig
Regarding Marillion’s excellent album, I think Steve Rothery deserved some credit. Great solos, as known, they worked over Fish’s beautiful and unique lyrics, such a great work!
Brilliant. Both are incredible. 5 hours analysing a year's albums. I learned a lot of music I didn't know. Motivated by these videos I found two more unanalysed albums, by vangelis and red hot.
I also love John Adams, Steve Reich, Eberhard Weber, and Arvo Part. Most rock critics would not go there. From 1985 I like Song for Everyone by Indian violinist L. Shankar.. An ECM release, it features Jan Garbarek and percussionists Zakir Hussain and Trilok Gurtu.
Agree about the melodic brilliance of Misplaced Childhood...it's shot through with sugar-rush moments, even on Side 2 from which no single was culled (Lords of the Backstage, Blind Curve, White Feather - all utterly anthemic) I love the H-era and think Hogarth can also be a great melodicist, but it often feels to me like the vocal melody has been 'tacked on' to a band jam. In their defence, they've done 4x the number of albums since Fish left.
😊 I absolutely love both of you guys and your tastes and your musics. Do not stop this. I absolutely love it! I'm 53 and a jazz/prog fanatic so this speaks to me on so many levels. THANK YOU!
Nice video, Steve and Tim. ^^ Sisters of Mercy - First and Last and Always, Dead Can Dance - Spleen and Ideal, Scritti Politti - Cupid & Psyche 85 and Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen are my fave albums of that year. I could add the debut album of Clan of Xymox as my fave album of it, as well.
I wondered if you’d heard Anne Pigalle’s Everything Could Be So Perfect… also 1985 and also on ZTT. It was part of my ZTT playlist at the time. Still is for that matter.. 👍
Which episode was Secret Wish on? Seems to have slipped through the cracks. Shame they missed the Colourbox album from this year. In many ways it was one of the most influential - led to MARRS Pump Up The Volume and sample culture.
We did discuss it (very favourably) on the episode that Slave To The Rhythm features, but it was edited out as (sadly) it wasn't wholly clear what album we were talking about.
I'm not really a fan, but I'm impressed Steven gave his take on IQ. Appreciate the Misplaced Childhood discussion..and yes, Mylo is definitely sad and poppy and pretty. 1 of the best parts of the record.
Andrew Poppy isn't just "operating now", he's producing some of his strongest, most accessible and most fascinating work at the moment. I highly recommend his 2019 "Hoarse Songs" and 2022 "Jelly" albums.
I loved listening to them wax lyrical about Misplaced Childhood, one of my favourite Marillion albums which was very influential on my musical tastes - I agree with everything they said! (though I do love this album, I think Fugazi might be my favourite Fish-era Marillion album). I also recently discovered that Steven was heavily involved in Fish's "Sunsets on Empire" album which is one of my favourite albums of all time!
I love the framework or series of talks you guys are doing. Amazing discussion, gents. Best part is you both are educating and exposing people to what was a monster year in music, 1985! ❤
Awesome year guys, it actually made me remember when Mylo went down And we sat and cried on the phone. I never felt so alone He was the first of our own. Some of us went down in a blaze of obscurity, Some of us go down in a haze of publicity, but that is the price of infamy, the edge of insanity 🤷♂
I'm not criticizing, but I'm just shocked that neither one of you knows or appreciates REM's Fables of the Reconstruction. REM was the most brilliant band on the planet from 1982-1986. Sorry, Automatic is maybe a good pop record, but it doesn't have the unique sound of REM.
I didn't realise that the Wim Mertens you talk about was written for Jan Fabre's The Power of Theatrical Madness. I saw that show at the South Bank Centre in London (3 hours, no break!). It was an astounding experience.
Maximizing The Audience was certainly not Wim Mertens' first album since he was making albums since 1980. He studied music theory and piano at the Ghent and Brussels conservatories.
To me 1985 also had fine LPs from Cock Robin, Sade, Mr Mister, Howard Jones and Simply Red worth mentioning. And on a heavier note, both Anthrax, Slayer and Celtic Frost released some hard hitting albums that year
@DorisDay-lw4xs Yes, Howard Jones two first albums are gems. Lucky you are to have seen him in his prime! DIA, Humans lib, The 12s album an Action replay are among my all time faves in that genre.
It's a delight to listen to you talking about albums I've never heard or even know the band. But I'm searching for the music in my streaming software (buuh!) or even find already existing playlists to your album years. That's nice. I've even bought Goldies Saturn Returnz based on your descriptions. Well, what an experience... But please, Steven, provide poor poor Tim a better chair. You are sitting in your favorite fart chair and poor poor Tim sitting on this uncomfortably looking kitchen chair (or the piano chair of the last episode). Good lord! That's rude! :D Go on with this. This is wonderful. 5 stars from me. ★★★★★
For me, Propaganda's A Secret Wish is my absolute favourite record from 1985. I liked FGTH (1984 and 1986 ) and Andrew Poppy, too (Alphabed from 1987, too).
I think the 80s was amazing for dark and nasty music but I see that most of those bands I'm thinking of skipped this year but Foetus - Nail is a perfect example. You mentioned Magma but I get the impression the 80s was good for Rock In Opposition and some say italian prog too?
Minimalism....I would never criticize anyone's taste in music. To me, minimalism is more akin to an Ernie Kovacs of Monty Python skit. There is VERY little of it that I would actually listen to. Philip Glass all sounds the same to me.
I find the R.E.M. blindspot quite baffling considering how much they give U2 (arguably the most successful pub band of all time) a free pass. They have a solid and versatile body of work, with only one truly weak record in Around The Sun (even that has some nice songs but is weighed down by anaemic production) and Stipe is one of the most distinctive and thoughtful frontmen of all time. I think Tim and Steve need to do a deep dive and maybe do a show reflecting on their findings.
Many similar thoughts about some of the 1985 albums covered today. Prefer "Clutching at Straws" over "Childhood's End" (was bummed when Fish left after CAS, because I thought they'd really found more of their own sound and style, being a bit less derivative), really thought Supertramp's "Brother Where You Bound" was a great disc (very well recorded as well...great sounding), and though I never got into the IQ release from '85, fully agree "The Road of Bones" was a really good album with some great vox from Peter Nicholls (have to confess he was a bit nasally for my taste until post 2000...his voice timbre and style definitely matured after he hit his 40s). 1985 had a big impact on me musically, so it's interesting to hear the discussions. Keep it up. Cheers!
Rodger Hodgson solo: mwahhh… Rick Davis alone (also called supertramp ): mwahhh.. Blend them together: brilliant! I think the same goes for Pink Floyd When you combine two different personalities and flavors together it can sometimes result in one great flavor. The opposite happens when Peter Gabriel left Genesis, everyone expected that it would be the end of Genesis but the opposite happened. (Fcourse also due to the more mainstream road they went ..)
Send us your album reviews and questions for inclusion on future episodes of The Album Years, we'd love to hear from you! fanlist.com/thealbumyears
Thanks for covering Misplaced Childhood. I agree: it was a huge step forward for the band. (And I'm a little more partial to Clutching at Straws, too.)
As an echo of Genesis, Fish wrote the lyrics and all music was composed by Mark Kelly, Ian Mosley, Steve Rothery, & Pete Trewavas.
Wilson keeps interrupting tim. Let him speak.
I agree - and this is coming from a long time fan of SW. Interrupters can ruin a whole podcast.
I think it’s because Wilson is the time-keeper whereas Tim is the slow-paced bloke.
Misplaced Childhood is my favorite Marillion album. Kayleigh is an all time classic imo. 1985 was also a great year for Thrash Metal. A number of classic albums released that year. Would be great if you did an episode on it. Ah I see this is the final episode for 1985. Oh well.
That REM is great, maybe their best.
yeah, I thought they still sounded a bit dangerous on that one, one reason why I love it.
You covered everything, but there was also that Clan of xymox album from 4AD, in the dark wave category, holds up today pretty well. Rem Fables is a question of tastes, if you like 80's REM, it's solid.
No, not this one Geffen sued for...it was the period of Trans, Life, Landing on Water (coincidentally, several of my favorite Neil albums).
oh and yeah, Freedom is one of his best, whether it is like him or not.
@@kenmeyerjr57Returned to the Reprise label with This Note’s For You.
Very interesting and funny, but "Fables of the reconstruction" was a great record with many extraordinary songs: "Driver 8", "Maps and Legends", "Can't Get There from Here ", "Feeling Gravity's Pull "...
Fables of the Reconstruction is a fabulous album. REM at their Southern gothic greatest.
Superb episode, nice to see IQ getting some Props. Keep them coming fellas :)
Fantastic to see The Wake, and IQ, featured. Superb band 💕🤘🏻
Misplaced Childhood and Clutching At Straws are incredible albums, but don’t overlook the H albums. Brave, Marbles, FEAR, An Hour Before It’s Dark…all great albums.
When I first heard Season's end I was pissed because that's when I learnt of Fish's departure, but grew to love it. But yes, those two albums are art as much as music, thus I have a daughter named Kayleigh😁
Fables is a classic! Get with it guys!! First REM I bought. They put a bow on the jangle era with an album that celebrates southern gothic weirdness and idiosyncratic characters who live in the underbelly of the south. It's a deeply southern rock album but its through a lens far removed from the Allmans or Lynyrd Skynyrd but just as deeply southern. I mean how many songs not only name check but include in the title of the a long-forgotten, obscure dud of a 1973 comet. Fables is the sound of R.E.M. at probably their least self-conscious and their most celebratory of the south they grew up in, and the oddballs they grew up around.
Excellent post, just excellent! Awesome descriptions of REM music during this period. REM changed what alternative music could be, they are forever TRAILBLAZERS!
Such a great summary of this album. This is the album where I got on board with REM and decided they were the greatest band in the world, and for about the next four years I continued to believe that.
Meraviglioso "The Wake" degli IQ. Ma secondo me "Tales from the Lush attic" è ancor più bello e contiene una delle suite più belle della storia "The last human gateway" ❤
Both Early Marillion and IQ are very Goth. If you are in to Cure have a listen.
IQ as a link between Genesis and the Cardiacs, that's amazing. I can absolutely see that. What an inventive, eye-opening comparison. Especially when seeing IQ in the light of Niadem's Ghost; it's very urgent and fast and frantic.
Famously Martin Orford of IQ loaned his mellotron to Cardiacs to enable them to record a Little Man & A House…
@@marshmallow1680 I absolutely love that fact.
I always saw IQ as the link between Genesis and those early 80's goth electronic bands like Bauhaus. Probably because I think I read somewhere that Peter Nicholls was a big fan of that music at the time.
I could listen to Tim talk all day.
You're missing out, fellas! Fables is top-drawer REM.
@DorisDay-lw4xs Up is the album where they pretty much lost me. They were my favorite band for a long time, but the stretch of albums between Up and Around the Sun was just so generic sounding to me. The pulled me back in with their last two albums before breaking up when they finally stopped trying to be Pet Sounds era Beach Boys.
Fables of the Reconstruction is more than alright
🎯🎯🎯🎯!
Happy to see Brother Where You Bound getting some love...
Love The Wake, a true 80’s prog classic
I met Steven back in '01, during NEARfest... I asked him about IQ, and he said he wasn't too into them. Said they were "too packaged" for his taste. Fast-forward a while afterwards, and sure enough he admits (in an interview I read) that he had his neo prog bands mixed up, and that he apparently thought IQ was a different band when I inquired at the time, lol!
IQ is soo underrated, especially this album. And you're both on the money here, neo-prog was more than just a Genesis copyists' clique, it's very much its own thing in many respects.
Misplaced Childhood will always be the highest point of Fish era for me (even though Script is my personal favourite). Never got why Clutching At Straws is so celebrated though, it is literally Childhood's clone musically and structure-wise.
And hey, my favourite Supertramp album!
I feel like IQ have actually gotten to their peak in the last 10 years or so, Road of Bones is the best thing they've ever done.
Edit: I could have just waited 5 minutes for Steven to say basically the same thing.
@@beneathsands hehe he did!
TROB is in my top5 for sure, but Dark Matter takes the cake, this record is simply flawless
I agree that IQ are very underrated. The Road Of Bones is my favourite album. I like their other albums also, with the exception of Resistance. I’m torn between Misplaced Childhood and Clutching At Straws as I like both equally.
I'm just here to support "Script" - also my personal favourite. Maybe it's because I considered Misplaced Childhood as too much pop, when I got to know the band. But of course, as Tim and Steven argue, there are amazingly good pop songs on the album and I just love the "trilogy" of Pseudo Silk Kimono, Kayleigh and Lavender
@@marcuslamprecht7948 Script was my first Marillion album - it was 2003, I was 16 and I was blown away :) and yes, MC seemed a bit too poppy after that, but it won me over pretty fast
I was surprised The Damned's Phantasmagoria didn't get a mention. In ways it was a trailblazer for Goth. An Identikit picture of what the genre was. But it also had Kate Bush's former producer and a slight Marillion texture. For myself I was listening to Curtain Call back to back with Grendel in 1983 as both songs appeared as B sides to 12 inch singles around this time.
Funny I don't really like misplaced but I looove clutching. On the radio they played the entire script before the clutching at straws premiere (those were the times) so listeners could see how bad the latter was, LOL! I love the first albums too btw
Such a pleasure to hear you talking about Marillion and IQ
Nice to hear IQ get a little love. One of the most underrated bands ever.
I discovered IQ in 1993 or 1994. I think they‘re getting better with every album!
“Singing praises was never a feature of me or my kind”
Totally agree
Kind of a shame way < 0 1% of the world's population will ever be exposed to their greatness. But, doesn't take away our appreciation. Amazing band. @birdzzzondayflu2489
@@bobmichaels6252 Very well described
I´m happy to know that both agree with me about Misplaced Childhood and Clutching Straws.
Such a shame not to take a deep dive into REM. Possibly the best American Band of the 1980s (along with the Talking Heads) and early 90s. And no, Neil made several country-like albums. Not just that one.
yeah, as with most privately educated boys, they give the impression they know exactly wot they talkin 'bout even when their knwldge is severely limited.
That is awesome to hear. I never got into REM, so I had no idea they had such a rich discography. Is there a particular earlier album you recommend to someone who has only heard the singles?
@@CompleteProducer84 Start with 'Murmur' (1st album), give it a good few listens and you will want to progress to 'Reckoning'....after that you'll be off on the trajectory of their career album by album if you have any sense. Such a rich tapestry of songwriting, styles, melodies and themes which evolve and go off in tangents. You put in a little bit of effort and time and you will be rewarded ten fold. Enjoy
@@simonodonnell778 Great thank you, I will check out Murmur tonight
Two music nerds chatting about interesting music. What more can you want!
I’m here for the Marillion analysis. These two know their stuff!
Afraid of Sunlight or Marbles
@DorisDay-lw4xsBrave, Marbles, Afraid of Sunlight
Mmmm.... None of these entered my sphere in 85 (thankfully), but each to their own.
Here's my top 5 of that year :
1 Clan of Xymox - Clan of Xymox
2 City Slab Horror - Severed Heads
3 Endangered Species - Fatal Charm
4 Clifford Darling, Please Don't Live in the Past - Severed Heads
5 Low Life - New Order.
love these chats, I'm always left with at least one unfamiliar recording to explore
IQ❤
Wim DID do soundtracks soon after this era! He did Peter Greenaway's "The Belly of an Architect" (1991)
Im so ecstatic to hear Steven Wilson say he's a fan of IQ. I've always considered them as somewhat of a guilty pleasure, if there is such a thing, but I've always liked IQ up to this day, and would've NEVER guessed Steven liked them. It's one of the few prog bands today that can get me excited about a new album.
Eberhard Weber was also on The Dreaming (All the Love - featured heavily). He is on 4 albums overall: Hounds of Love, The Dreaming, Sensual World and Aerial.
I like REM but I don’t really know the first five albums at all. I really started with Green and then my interest lasted up to around Up (so the 90s output, the most commercially successful period I guess). Those albums are enough for me. Maybe I’m doing them a disservice not giving the early albums a go, but that’s what it is.
It would be great if Steven spent some time actually listening to REM because I’d love to know his thoughts about the likes of Murmur. I get the impression he has heard a little of them and has unfairly dismissed their music.
Best podcast ever. Hope you unleash the unedited long conversation. People crave long format discussions.
Methinks “Hounds of Love” is probably the best album (especially side 2.) Most influential, and I’m going out on a limb here is Nighttime by Killing Joke, mostly rhythmically but also for production - think NIN, Nirvana, Industrial, etc.
IQ "The Wake" , has a place in my head that can never be replaced!
Desperately needs a remix (sadly the tapes are apparently lost) but The Wake is still one of the greatest hidden gems
@@keithdawe5512 On tonight again, I don't tire of it still after all these years. It's like Pendragon's Jewel album. These days I listen to mostly psych from Scandanavia or death metal but often drift back to the sec gereration prog stuff . I remember going to see Twelfth Night at the Dominion circa '84 and got bored and walked out. That night I went into the Astoria and watched Heavy Pett'in for free. I later became godsmacked by Geoff Mann and couldn't get enough of TN.
I was lucky to meet both Peter and Mike from IQ while I was at an Islington gig with my friend Andy Hall who's no longer with us but still cursing me no doubt about my Irish ways.. Considering I was an overwhelmed Irish man outside the Nag's Head in Islington , they were great, they took time to chat. I love IQ!
Seriously? Don't talk about other REM albums or we move forward? An then they talk about half of Neil Young's discography...
Yeah, I didn't quite understand the weird attitude toward REM, Fables and ALL other early REM albums are total ear candy, the band changed alternative rock for crissakes!
Fables is a great album!
Agree. Very disappointed in the boys here.
It’s ok to not like them. The podcast is about albums THEY loved back then or now.
Best podcast ever. Keep the video episodes coming!
Wim Mertens started as a radio producer for the BRT (Belgian Radio & Television). He composed Close Cover as a tune for the late night broadcasts. It was released as a track on the mini-album Struggle For Pleasure by Soft Verdict. That's the moniker Wim Mertens started his recording career under. Soft Verdict indeed collaborated with members of Tuxedomoon.
Strange not any Holy Wars by Tuxedomoon, Great video though !!! Magma !!!!!!
Fables of the reconstruction is a fabulous record! I am a little disappointed boys..
btw, random question - does anyone know what the tablet-like gizmo that Steven is referring to on his lap in these videos? I presume it's some kind of tablet at least, he's poking and swiping on it a lot!
I love what you're doing here, chaps!!! A bit surprised you didn't decipher the german word "Harmonielehre" though... 😃😃😃It alludes to the book by Arnold Schönberg with the same name... Waiting eagerly for the next year in this brilliant series!! Cheers!
Misplaced Childhood for the best of '85
A fabulous album with some truly outstanding lyrics.
“I was walking in the park, dreaming of a spark
When I heard the sprinklers whisper, shimmer in the haze of summer lawns” 🥰
Most influential for what was to come on the alternative guitar scene from this point onwards were the 2 albums from Husker Du this year: New Day Rising and Flip Your Wig
Yeah! Those Hüsker Dü albums represented a 1985 zeitgeist , especially for those of us in Minneapolis that year.
Regarding Marillion’s excellent album, I think Steve Rothery deserved some credit. Great solos, as known, they worked over Fish’s beautiful and unique lyrics, such a great work!
Brilliant. Both are incredible. 5 hours analysing a year's albums. I learned a lot of music I didn't know. Motivated by these videos I found two more unanalysed albums, by vangelis and red hot.
Absolutely love the chats... so much to learn with your wealth of knowledge
1985 for me, in song...
KATE BUSH - The Ninth Wave (yes. the entire suite)
Oh, the depth of knowledge these guys have is amazing. I have a lot of bands to discover!
I also love John Adams, Steve Reich, Eberhard Weber, and Arvo Part. Most rock critics would not go there. From 1985 I like Song for Everyone by Indian violinist L. Shankar.. An ECM release, it features Jan Garbarek and percussionists Zakir Hussain and Trilok Gurtu.
Agree about the melodic brilliance of Misplaced Childhood...it's shot through with sugar-rush moments, even on Side 2 from which no single was culled (Lords of the Backstage, Blind Curve, White Feather - all utterly anthemic)
I love the H-era and think Hogarth can also be a great melodicist, but it often feels to me like the vocal melody has been 'tacked on' to a band jam. In their defence, they've done 4x the number of albums since Fish left.
"Harmonielehre" = "Harmony Theory" or maybe "Harmonic Theory."
😊 I absolutely love both of you guys and your tastes and your musics. Do not stop this. I absolutely love it! I'm 53 and a jazz/prog fanatic so this speaks to me on so many levels. THANK YOU!
Nice video, Steve and Tim. ^^
Sisters of Mercy - First and Last and Always, Dead Can Dance - Spleen and Ideal, Scritti Politti - Cupid & Psyche 85 and Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen are my fave albums of that year.
I could add the debut album of Clan of Xymox as my fave album of it, as well.
I wondered if you’d heard Anne Pigalle’s Everything Could Be So Perfect… also 1985 and also on ZTT. It was part of my ZTT playlist at the time. Still is for that matter.. 👍
Actually, yes. A lovely album.
Great episode guys, so pleased you covered IQ, one of those much underrated bands, that amazingly seem to get better the older they get.
Which episode was Secret Wish on? Seems to have slipped through the cracks. Shame they missed the Colourbox album from this year. In many ways it was one of the most influential - led to MARRS Pump Up The Volume and sample culture.
We did discuss it (very favourably) on the episode that Slave To The Rhythm features, but it was edited out as (sadly) it wasn't wholly clear what album we were talking about.
Love Fables...a ton...you guys are a ton of fun, regardless!
Thank you gentlemen. I loved the episode. so informative. Can’t wait to hear the Wim Mertens.
Old Ways is a great album. Glad to hear that someone else thinks the same! Heck, I love Landing on Water too.
I'm not really a fan, but I'm impressed Steven gave his take on IQ.
Appreciate the Misplaced Childhood discussion..and yes, Mylo is definitely sad and poppy and pretty. 1 of the best parts of the record.
Andrew Poppy isn't just "operating now", he's producing some of his strongest, most accessible and most fascinating work at the moment. I highly recommend his 2019 "Hoarse Songs" and 2022 "Jelly" albums.
I loved listening to them wax lyrical about Misplaced Childhood, one of my favourite Marillion albums which was very influential on my musical tastes - I agree with everything they said! (though I do love this album, I think Fugazi might be my favourite Fish-era Marillion album). I also recently discovered that Steven was heavily involved in Fish's "Sunsets on Empire" album which is one of my favourite albums of all time!
Wim Mertens did do at least one movie soundtrack, for the 1987 Peter Greenaway film The Belly of an Architect, which also has music by Glenn Branca.
You guys went from one of my fav duos (No-Man) to one of my fav podcasts ♥️
girl, same!
Let's hear it for Steve Reich In The Afternoon
You guys missed a few good albums in 1985...Brian Ferry's, Boys and Girls...Level 42, World Machine and Jane Siberry's, The Speckless Sky.
As the REM album from this year. Not a great album. But Driver 8 is an amazing song and classic. The album was mostly a miss.
I love the framework or series of talks you guys are doing. Amazing discussion, gents. Best part is you both are educating and exposing people to what was a monster year in music, 1985! ❤
Awesome year guys, it actually made me remember when Mylo went down And we sat and cried on the phone. I never felt so alone He was the first of our own.
Some of us went down in a blaze of obscurity, Some of us go down in a haze of publicity, but that is the price of infamy, the edge of insanity 🤷♂
Wasn’t Neil Young putting out albums merely to fulfill a contract? He put out some trash in the 80s. Trans among them IMHO.
Ah, so THAT'S why I thought 1985 was such a crappy year for music -- I wasn't English.
I'm not criticizing, but I'm just shocked that neither one of you knows or appreciates REM's Fables of the Reconstruction. REM was the most brilliant band on the planet from 1982-1986. Sorry, Automatic is maybe a good pop record, but it doesn't have the unique sound of REM.
I didn't realise that the Wim Mertens you talk about was written for Jan Fabre's The Power of Theatrical Madness. I saw that show at the South Bank Centre in London (3 hours, no break!). It was an astounding experience.
Maximizing The Audience was certainly not Wim Mertens' first album since he was making albums since 1980. He studied music theory and piano at the Ghent and Brussels conservatories.
Songs From The Big Chair's the best pop-rock album of the year!
And what about Brazilian music?
Please keep going with this podcast! Nothing entertains me quite as much!
Fish 'not a trained musician', so are Marillion punk-prog (copyright)?😂
I was bracing for you to sh*t all over Misplaced Childhood for some reason. 😆
To me 1985 also had fine LPs from Cock Robin, Sade, Mr Mister, Howard Jones and Simply Red worth mentioning. And on a heavier note, both Anthrax, Slayer and Celtic Frost released some hard hitting albums that year
@DorisDay-lw4xs Yes, Howard Jones two first albums are gems. Lucky you are to have seen him in his prime! DIA, Humans lib, The 12s album an Action replay are among my all time faves in that genre.
Excellent episode! Everybody's Rockin' was reportedly the one that pushed Geffen to breaking point, and you can kind of see his point.
It's a delight to listen to you talking about albums I've never heard or even know the band. But I'm searching for the music in my streaming software (buuh!) or even find already existing playlists to your album years. That's nice. I've even bought Goldies Saturn Returnz based on your descriptions. Well, what an experience... But please, Steven, provide poor poor Tim a better chair. You are sitting in your favorite fart chair and poor poor Tim sitting on this uncomfortably looking kitchen chair (or the piano chair of the last episode). Good lord! That's rude! :D Go on with this. This is wonderful. 5 stars from me. ★★★★★
For me, Propaganda's A Secret Wish is my absolute favourite record from 1985. I liked FGTH (1984 and 1986 ) and Andrew Poppy, too (Alphabed from 1987, too).
not hearing anything of the music they are talking about , excerpts of 10 secs violates the copy rights?,..makes it a little awkard and boring...
Love your show.
How about lilac time/ Stephen Duffy. He’s like you, he stayed true to himself
Great podcast, guys !
Off to listen to Life And How To Live It off Fables of the Reconstruction (or was it Reconstruction of the Fables) could never work that one out.
The Wake is my favorite IQ album followed by Dark Matter
I think the 80s was amazing for dark and nasty music but I see that most of those bands I'm thinking of skipped this year but Foetus - Nail is a perfect example. You mentioned Magma but I get the impression the 80s was good for Rock In Opposition and some say italian prog too?
Minimalism....I would never criticize anyone's taste in music. To me, minimalism is more akin to an Ernie Kovacs of Monty Python skit. There is VERY little of it that I would actually listen to. Philip Glass all sounds the same to me.
I find the R.E.M. blindspot quite baffling considering how much they give U2 (arguably the most successful pub band of all time) a free pass. They have a solid and versatile body of work, with only one truly weak record in Around The Sun (even that has some nice songs but is weighed down by anaemic production) and Stipe is one of the most distinctive and thoughtful frontmen of all time. I think Tim and Steve need to do a deep dive and maybe do a show reflecting on their findings.
Many similar thoughts about some of the 1985 albums covered today. Prefer "Clutching at Straws" over "Childhood's End" (was bummed when Fish left after CAS, because I thought they'd really found more of their own sound and style, being a bit less derivative), really thought Supertramp's "Brother Where You Bound" was a great disc (very well recorded as well...great sounding), and though I never got into the IQ release from '85, fully agree "The Road of Bones" was a really good album with some great vox from Peter Nicholls (have to confess he was a bit nasally for my taste until post 2000...his voice timbre and style definitely matured after he hit his 40s). 1985 had a big impact on me musically, so it's interesting to hear the discussions. Keep it up. Cheers!
Bruce Cockburn fan here. Don't forget about him
Rodger Hodgson solo: mwahhh…
Rick Davis alone (also called supertramp ): mwahhh..
Blend them together: brilliant!
I think the same goes for Pink Floyd
When you combine two different personalities and flavors together it can sometimes result in one great flavor.
The opposite happens when Peter Gabriel left Genesis, everyone expected that it would be the end of Genesis but the opposite happened. (Fcourse also due to the more mainstream road they went ..)