Journey’s Frontiers claims the 13th spot on my list of 1983 albums. Like all of the albums toward the bottom of this list, Frontiers earns its spot on the strength of a few songs.
In this case, those songs are ‘Separate Ways (Worlds Apart),’ ‘Send Her My Love’ and especially the lovely road song ‘Faithfully.’ Solid tracks such as ‘Chain Reaction’ and ‘After the Fall’ flesh out the album nicely. Power ballads performed in Steve Perry’s terrific voice — that’s always a winning formula.
Violent Femmes’ self-titled debut is my #14 album of 1983, and a good example of the kind of album for which I have a lot of affection even though I never play it.
I discovered this album, and band, in college almost a decade after they first became popular. The alternative music scene at that point was leaning toward grunge, but the folk-punk aesthetic of this record still felt just right.
While the world has self-quarantined to stave off the dreaded coronavirus, I figured now is as good a time as any to immerse myself in the more innocent world of the early 1980s.
Yes, it’s the latest installment of my ‘Decades’ series, where I feature the albums from a certain year across four decades (70s to 00s). Last time out I explored 1973, which brings us to 1983. I was 11 years old and hadn’t started up much of a music collection myself, but so many of the artists I’ll write about were very familiar even then.
The self-titled New York Dolls debut, released in July of 1973, is considered one of the greatest rock albums (and one of the greatest first albums) of all time.
This band, and this record, influenced countless acts in the rock and punk worlds, from Kiss and the Sex Pistols to Guns N Roses and The Smiths. It reminds me of the line people use about The Velvet Underground’s debut, “not many people bought it, but everyone who did started a band.”
I’ve never been a fan of Steely Dan. I enjoy a lot of artists and genres that are Steely Dan-adjacent (I’m even into Donald Fagen’s solo work) but for some reason the band itself has always left me cold.
In fact, Steely Dan leaves me so cold that this is — astoundingly — the first ever song of theirs I’ve featured on the blog. Eleven years and more than 4,100 posts without a single ‘Hey Nineteen,’ ‘Deacon Blues’ or ‘Do It Again.’ That’s dedication to not giving a damn about Steely Dan!
Meet Me In Montauk 