A short list of three "must listen" to sleeper albums from the 1980's that were twenty years ahead of their time

Introduction



I wanted to start off this week's entry, by saying I hope everyone in the U.S and all of my readers around the world enjoy the upcoming holiday and have a wonderful New Years!. In this week's entry, I am going to be exploring music from the 1980's AGAIN (this may or may not be a re-occurring theme in the future). The difference between this week's entry and the music entry I wrote a couple of weeks ago, is these albums (while 80's in nature) sound as though they could have been written in this decade or even today for that matter! These artists and albums were about twenty-years ahead of their time. If you like "old classics" that don't sound as though they written thirty years ago, you will like this week's entry! Here is the list I came up with. Like always, you may agree or concur with it. If you have any comments or concerns let me know! Here is a short list I came up with this weekend:

"sleeper" albums from the 1980's that were twenty-years ahead of their time


  1. Crowded House - Crowded House (1986) - This album was written by Australian rockers and New Zealand's own Neil Finn. It made a "minor" splash on the charts, but wasn't well received in the U.S, with exception of the one single "Don't Dream It's Over", which their was corresponding video was made the following year. The album was "devoid" of any modular synthesizers and had a number of lush production techniques that are more common with today's modern "alternative" artists, including horn and string sections!   
  2. Golden Earring - Cut (1982) - This album was written by the Dutch hall of fame rockers "Golden Earring", whose career spanned well over three decades. It was "relatively" successful in the U.S, when it first came out in the U.S, due to the hit "Twilight Zone", which spawned a video on early MTV  . The song ironically was about Robert Ludlham's "Borne Identity", which would go on two decades later to become a successful movie franchise! The album went on to spawn two other hits, including "Devil Made Me Do It" and "Lost and Found", that failed to chart in the U.S, but were well received in Europe. The album is known for it's "straight-up" rock style and did not use any fancy production techniques, that were more common place in the 1980's. 
  3. Don Henley - I Can't Stand Still (1982) - Rocker Don Henley (formerly lead singer of The Eagle's)  first solo album. This album comes in stark contract, when compared with the albums he wrote later on, including  "Building Perfect Beast" from 1984 and "End of Innocence" from 1989, which depended heavy on the use of modular synthesizers. This album was stripped down and featured country, rock and roll, and pop all meshed it one making it very unique for it's time. It didn't chart well and was not first well received by critics in the U.S, unlike the later two albums mentioned above. It has since sold over 500,000 copies and has gone gold though well over twenty years later (as of 2008). It included the popular single's "Dirty Laundry" Henley's only #1 in the U.S and two other minor singles "I Can't Still" and "Johnny Can't Read". 


I think that about sums up my short list for this holiday week! You may agree or concur with this list. If you have any questions or would like me to add more albums to the list, that you feel like sound like they quite fit in the 1980's, but would be more reminiscent of albums produced today, drop me a line! I hope to hear from you. I will be back in couple of days or next week with a new entry. If you like these albums or my recommendations I hope you consider buying them at your local music shop, streaming, or downloading them off ITunes, Spotify, or Google Music! Again enjoy the holiday's and take care!

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