# Best Pazz & Jop Critics Poll Album 1980 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 23, 2014, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1980/705421 "2014-11-23T18:45:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2014, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1980/705421/21 "2014-11-23T23:26:40Z")
This is as close to a three-way tie as there could be, between The Pretenders, The Clash, and Gang of Four. Today, I vote the first, but another day, either of the others would be equally likely. Those three are probably in my personal top ten of most played albums. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1980/705421/22 "2014-11-24T09:54:27Z")
**The Clash** : _London Calling_ is the obvious choice IMHO but _The River_ is my favourite **Springsteen** song. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1980/705421/23 "2014-11-24T11:01:00Z")
I like _London Calling_, but really— nothing can compete with _Remain in Light_, which I believe may be the best album ever recorded. I felt that way about it when it first appeared in the late summer of 1980, and I still feel that way about it. Really blew my mind and moved the world on my hips. After 34 years, I still can’t believe how awesome “The Great Curve” is. Ecstatic. Nowadays, nobody could possibly get away with a song like “Listening Wind”—not even Public Enemy or Rage Against the Machine would dream of making such a song. I still marvel how TH even got away with it back then. My, how things have changed. Anybody who made “Listening Wind” nowadays would be put under DHS surveillance and the no-fly list so fast it would make their (_talking_) heads spin, for starters. The world has moved on… I’m kind of disappointed that _Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)_ didn’t make this list. My favorite Bowie album of all, and that’s really saying something. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1980/705421/24 "2014-11-24T16:29:12Z")
I was born in 80. I remember being enthralled with the _Remain in Light_ album cover (we had the record at home, and then the CD), well before I ever listened to it. Once in a Lifetime was, of course, my gateway song into the album (and to Talking Heads generally), but the whole thing is just a stunning work of art. It really opened my mind and broadened my ideas of what music could be. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1980/705421/25 "2014-11-24T16:32:58Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > This is as close to a three-way tie as there could be, between The Pretenders, The Clash, and Gang of Four. Today, I vote the first, but another day, either of the others would be equally likely. Those three are probably in my personal top ten of most played albums. Out of curiosity, I checked my last “top ten albums of all time” list here on the Dope (from Feb 2013), and it looks like I had _London Calling_ at #4, _Pretenders_ at #6, and _Entertainment_ at #8, so it really does depend on what day you ask me. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nema98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d2c977/32.png) [@Nema98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nema98)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1980/705421/26 "2014-11-24T18:05:40Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > I like _London Calling_, but really— nothing can compete with _Remain in Light_, which I believe may be the best album ever recorded. I felt that way about it when it first appeared in the late summer of 1980, and I still feel that way about it. Really blew my mind and moved the world on my hips. After 34 years, I still can’t believe how awesome “The Great Curve” is. Ecstatic. > > Nowadays, nobody could possibly get away with a song like “Listening Wind”—not even Public Enemy or Rage Against the Machine would dream of making such a song. I still marvel how TH even got away with it back then. My, how things have changed. Anybody who made “Listening Wind” nowadays would be put under DHS surveillance and the no-fly list so fast it would make their > (_talking_) > heads spin, for starters. The world has moved on… > > I’m kind of disappointed that _Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)_ didn’t make this list. My favorite Bowie album of all, and that’s really saying something. I should have voted for Talking Heads instead MJ; also I agree with the Bowie album . ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1980/705421/27 "2014-11-25T05:03:01Z")
Speaking of _London Calling_ and violent resistance songs against the Man, I was grocery shopping today and guess what I heard from the store’s Claszak Rock\* speakers — “Guns of Brixton.” :eek: Interesting how even today that one flies under the censors’ radar. \*Reference to how the Muzak of old has been replaced by classic rock channels. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1980/705421/28 "2014-11-25T09:26:52Z")
Holy Christ, so many great records. I had to go with _London Calling_, But _Peter Gabriel_ and \*Remain in Light \*deserve votes too. In fact there’s not a really bad album on this list. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1980/705421/29 "2014-11-25T09:54:34Z")
Damn, _Dirty Mind_ beats Beefheart for me this year. Sorry, Don. Lots of great records besides those two, as well. My “wish it was there to vote for” this year would be The Cramps’ _Songs the Lord Taught Us_\*. It was a revelation to me, and that record has brought me more joy than 90% of my collection. \*The spine of the LP advises “File Under Sacred Music”. Indeed. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2014, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1980/705421/30 "2014-11-26T00:36:25Z")
Came down to Public Image Ltd, Talking Heads, Pretenders, and Michael Jackson. Surprised myself and went with MJ. Captain Beefheart was still making important music in 1980? I had no idea. I thought his career paralleled, say, Sly Stone’s – after some great work in the earliest 70s, nothing (but the occasional Zappa collaboration). I guess I was wrong! ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2014, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1980/705421/31 "2014-11-26T00:39:38Z")
Thought about “Seconds of Pleasure,” but had to go with the only band that matters. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2014, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1980/705421/32 "2014-11-26T01:19:23Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Captain Beefheart was still making important music in 1980? I had no idea. I thought his career paralleled, say, Sly Stone’s – after some great work in the earliest 70s, nothing (but the occasional Zappa collaboration). I guess I was wrong! He actually got kind of more serious, and complex later in his career. His later albums are more challenging for me to listen to than the early ones, (a lot less Bo Diddley/Howlin’ Wolf influence, for instance) but they’re still rockers. He gave up the music business when his art dealer told him something to the effect of “you can be a serious painter, or you can be a musician who paints”, and he picked painting. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2014, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1980/705421/33 "2014-11-26T02:20:42Z")
Captain Beefheart made an ill-advised attempt to “go commercial” in 1974 with the albums _Unconditionally Guaranteed_ and _Bluejeans and Moonbeams_, which served only to alienate his old fans without winning any new ones. In desperation, he went cap-in-hand to Frank Zappa, whom he had spent the last few years badmouthing in the press, and got hired for the 1975 tour that produced _Bongo Fury_–mostly Zappa’s material, but with a couple of spoken word pieces by the Captain. His next album, _Bat Chain Puller_, was a major return to form, but it became a casualty of Zappa’s legal troubles with his ex-manager and went unreleased. Two years later, a reworked version of the album emerged as _Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)_, an excellent album that combined the creativity and weirdness of Beefheart’s peak period (_Trout Mask Replica_) with some of the more accessible moves of his early '70s albums. The album on this list followed–a darker and more challenging listen, definitely one of Beefheart’s best. But he had only one more album in him. Although _Ice Cream for Crow_ was another winner, it consisted largely of leftovers. Beefheart was scrounging for material, and had approached Zappa again in hopes of salvaging unused tracks from the original _Bat Chain Puller_, but Zappa rebuffed him. _Ice Cream for Crow_ became the last music Beefheart would ever release to the public. (A CD version of the original _Bat Chain Puller_ was released posthumously.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1980/705421.md?page=1)