Tag Archives: Decades

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Song of the Day #2,949: ‘Hungry Heart’ – Bruce Springsteen

springsteen_riverI wrote about Bruce Springsteen’s The River nearly five years ago finished my blog post by stating “I’ve read enough about The River to know that I have to hear it in full.”

That never happened, and I sit here now writing about this celebrated 1980 album with the same thought running through my head. The River was Springsteen’s fifth album, sandwiched between Darkness on the Edge of Town and Nebraska. It marries the somberness of those records with a pop sensibility that would show up again four years later on Born in the USA.

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Song of the Day #2,948: ‘Just Keep Walking’ – INXS

inxsLike yesterday’s SOTD, today’s track comes from the 1980 debut album of a popular rock band with a brash, charismatic lead singer. Only these lads come to us all the way from Australia.

INXS’ self-titled debut doesn’t sound at all like the music that would make them famous. Five years before Listen Like Thieves and seven years before Kick, they were searching for an identity, mixing up New Wave and post-punk into an unremarkable stew.

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Song of the Day #2,944: ‘Love For Tender’ – Elvis Costello

gethappyMy #1 album of 1980 was an easy call, considering it’s one of my very favorite albums by one of my very favorite artists.

Elvis Costello’s fourth studio album, Get Happy!!, doesn’t exactly capture the sound of the 70s giving way to the 80s (it’s a throwback to the R&B and soul records of the 60s) but it’s a blast start to finish, showcasing Costello at his peak both lyrically and musically.

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Song of the Day #2,943: ‘Sleeping With the Television On’ – Billy Joel

glasshousesMy #2 album of 1980 would elicit gasps among the critical elite, who have long dismissed Billy Joel as a hack. Fuck ’em. Glass Houses is a blast — not The Stranger or 52nd Street great, but a whole lot of fun.

Rolling Stone wrote a vicious review of this album that ends with the admittedly catchy line “his material’s catchy… but then, so’s the flu.” And that’s about the kindest thing they had to say.

I don’t get it. But I’ve never gotten the hostility so many music snobs have for Billy Joel.

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