David Bowie, Scary Monsters, 1980 on RCA Victor. Bowie working with Tony Visconti, guests include Robert Fripp, Pete Townsend, Carlos Alomar, Andy Clark Transitional album between the Berlin…
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Organisation, 1980. Mine’s a 1986 UK pressing on Virgin sublabel Dindisc. Via Dyno Records in Newburyport (pre-covid). “Enola Gay, you should have stayed…
UB40, Signing Off, 1980 on Graduate Records. Opens with “Tyler” (about Gary Tyler, sentenced to death at 17 in Louisiana, who served 41 years before being released in…
Mutant Pop 78/79 on PVC Records, 1980 Mekons, Scars, Human League, 2.3, The Flowers, Gang of Four. Collected singles from the Fast Product imprint out of Edinburgh
Van Halen, Women and Children First, 1980 on Warner Brothers. I didn’t really discover VH until 1984, with Panama, but then went back to the earlier albums including…
Travelogue, The Human League, 1980 on Virgin (UK pressing). This is early Human League, with Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh, who went on to found Heaven 17,…
Tiny Desk Unit recorded live at the 9:30 club opening night, May 31st 1980 NPR’s Bob Boilen on the synthesizer They recently reunited for the 9:30 club’s 30th…
B-52s Wild Planet. “Who is really to blame when parties get out of hand? / Who’s to blame where they are poorly planned?” Questions just as relevant today…
Record store folks tell me they have a hard time selling “various artist” compilations but I always enjoy them. Picked this up a few weeks back at The…