One wonders if the folks releasing albums in January 1980 felt a little bit of extra pressure. After all, not only were they starting off the year in music, but they were also lighting the fuse for the music of an entirely new decade.
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Well, we can say for certainty that the five artists on this list rose to the occasion. Here are five outstanding albums that were released in the first month of the first year of the ’80s.
Pretenders by The Pretenders
Most of the first side of the first album by Chrissie Hynde’s merry band sounds like a feisty, spirited, but not wholly original hybrid of punk and new wave. Things start to change with “Stop Your Sobbing,” a Spectorian cover of a forgotten Kinks’ classic. It’s as if that track, the last song on the first side, gave Hynde permission to open up the songwriting floodgates. The second side provides a taste of the variety she and her band would deliver for the rest of their careers, including elegant, wistful pop (“Kid”) and attitude-laced blues-soul (“Brass in Pocket”).
The Age of Plastic by The Buggles
What might this duo have done as The Buggles had they not been seduced into joining Yes, which then in turn led to them splintering off and completely leaving behind this brand? After all, The Age of Plastic showed a ton of promise. While most other synth-pop connoisseurs of the era went for rhythmic impact, Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes concentrated on tunefulness. Of course, you know about the prescient “Video Killed the Radio Star.” But this entire album is full of hummable melodramas, such as “Elstree” and “Johnny on the Monorail.”
Permanent Waves by Rush
Throughout their career, Rush have delivered a few sweet-spot albums, those that strike just the right balance between their usual prog ambitions and more focused radio sorties. Permanent Waves certainly qualified, and it pushed the band’s mainstream exposure up a few notches because of it. It starts off with the 1-2 punch of “The Spirit of Radio” and “Freewill,” tightly constructed instrumental concoctions giving plenty of space for Neil Peart’s philosophical lyrics. For the band’s longtime supporters, epics like “Jacob’s Ladder” and “Natural Science” deliver the goods.
True Colours by Split Enz
Tim Finn invited his younger brother Neil to join this New Zealand band when the latter was still a teenager. By the time True Colours was recorded, Neil had started to take on some of the songwriting duties. He pulled the band in a more accessible direction with the power pop gem “I Got You,” the band’s breakthrough single outside their home country. Meanwhile, Tim still provided a good chunk of the album’s material, including the dreamy ballad “I Hope I Never.” A pair of inventively chipper instrumentals add to Split Enz’s winning mix on this LP.
Love Stinks by J. Geils Band
This sextet was still very much a journeyman band when they released this record, which was already the ninth of their career. It would all change the following year, when Freeze Frame made them sudden pop stars. On Love Stinks, the band continued to transition away from the soul/R&B moves of their early days, leaning to new wave accessibility instead on tracks like “Just Can’t Wait” and “Come Back.” There are forays into swaggering blues (“Till the Walls Come Tumblin’ Down”) and novelty (“No Anchovies, Please”). The title track didn’t hit big at the time, but it’s since become an anti-sentimental classic.
Photo by Fin Costello/Redferns
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