After looking at five brilliant but underrated albums from the 1970s it's time to jump forward a decade. Here are five awesome albums from the 1980s this time. These were also underrated in my view and I’d highly recommend each and every one of them for a listen.
There was a lot going on in the world in the 1980s with famine in Africa followed by Live Aid and the fall of the Berlin Wall. There was the emergence of the internet, MTV, CDs, and AIDS. We saw wars and terrorism, outer space revisited, smallpox eradicated, and the Chernobyl disaster.
A decade of ups and downs. And that's matched by the music at times too, with plenty of highs and lows. Music continued to develop with electronic dance, a later new wave, and young romantics all coming to the fore. Although there was plenty of doom and gloom there was a much brighter feel to a lot of the music too.
The 1980s saw many new bands and debut albums
Bands came and went. We also saw the emergence of many great new artists in the 1980s. U2, REM, The Eurythmics, Bon Jovi, Depeche Mode, Guns N’ Roses, and New Order all being just some of the big-name artists with debut albums that decade. And of course, The Rolling Stones just kept on rolling, like they still do!
The five underrated albums here are all bright, lively, upbeat and brilliant. Each stands out as excellent examples of the artist's music. The albums were all reasonably successful, though some much more than others. Let’s take a closer look at them.
Danny Wilson - Meet Danny Wilson
There should have been a Scotpop category back in the 1980s. Lots of amazing bands and music were emerging from Scotland at that time. Danny Wilson was just one of many. If you don't know them, Danny Wilson is not a person, it’s a trio of two brothers, Gary and Kit Clark plus Ged Grimes.
Meet Danny Wilson was their debut album, released in April 1987. It had some success, but it was a bit of a slog to get that, and it deserved so much more. The single “Mary’s Prayer” was released three times in the UK before reaching the number three spot. It also got into the US top 40. But that wasn’t enough to take the album any higher than number 65 in the UK.
This is a great album though. It's not just about the single, however good “Mary’s Prayer” is with its slick lyrics and bright sound. Gary Clark was the lead singer and songwriter and has talked of his main influences being Frank Sinatra, Burt Bacharach, Steely Dan, and Tom Waits, amongst others. And you can hear all that coming through on the album. Meet Danny Wilson and the group's name are both named after a 1952 Sinatra movie.
The album is packed with clever instrumentation and sophisticated arrangement. Lush soft vocals on some tracks are matched with upbeat pop on others. There are jazzy tones throughout. “A Girl I Used To Know” is another standout track, a simple bass line underlining some great guitar work and a snappy drum beat. It all sounds way too sophisticated for a wee band from Dundee on a debut album.
Marshall Crenshaw - Field Day
Well, the critics certainly had a field day with Marshall Crenshaw's second album. After the almost instant success of his debut and self-titled album just a year earlier, this second album was deemed a letdown by those who know best (or so they think anyway). That led to very low sales, only up to 52 on the US album charts, and a lead single “Whenever You're On My Mind” not even breaking the top 100. Ouch!
The main blame was deemed to lie in Crenshaw deciding to switch producers and bring in Steve Lillywhite for Field Day. Lillywhite came with an impressive portfolio, including much acclaim for his work on Peter Gabriel’s third album, known as III or Melt. Crenshaw and Lillywhite’s Field Day was slated for its big echoing sound with crashing drums prevailing heavily.
Crenshaw holds no grudges with Steve Lillywhite and has told him so since. He reckons Field Day is amongst his best work. He has a valid point. Get used to the echoes and reverb and the album is full of great songs, well written and performed by Crenshaw. He’s added maturity and more musical complexity to this second album.
Despite the critics' view, the single that missed, “Whenever You're On My Mind”, should have done far better. Over the years there has been a growing appreciation for Field Day and an acceptance that it was underrated and hard done by when released.
Graham Parker And The Rumour - The Up Escalator
Graham Parker and The Rumour are very much on my favourite artists' list. From the early bootleg albums in the seventies onwards, they had power, soul, R&B, and a bit of anger in Parker’s voice all spilling out in their songs. This album came later and was the end of the pairing between Parker and The Rumour, for a long while anyway.
Released in May 1980, The Up Escalator followed the highly successful Squeezing Out A Spark a year earlier. That earlier album had seen changes with The Rumour horns section having left, which continued on The Up Escalator. The rest of them separated from Parker just after the new album was released.
As with that Crenshaw album above those pesky critics weren’t kind to the Up Escalator either and quibbled about its production too. Again denting sales and limiting success, the album only reached number 40 in the US. That’s a real shame as it had lots going for it.
Parker was in great form. For the album he still had established musicians like Brinsley Schwarz and Martin Taylor in The Rumour and their superb guitar playing. Bruce Springsteen once referred to Parker as the only singer he’d pay to see. And he continued his support by adding his background vocals on “Endless Night”.
“Stupefaction” is a classic Parker song, “No Holding Back” likewise, with a hint of early Elvis Costello too. Throughout the album Parker sneers, sounds soulful, and has fun with the lyrics. This is another superb album deserving more love and appreciation.
Hue and Cry - Seduced And Abandoned
There could be a theme here. The Scotpop and jazz-styled songs could be a thing. That’ll have more to do with the music I like alongside the underrated element. Here’s another album that fits all that nicely.
Seduced And Abandoned was the debut album from two Scottish brothers, Pat and Greg Kane, as Hue and Cry. It was released in 1987 and you may know the second single from it, “Labour Of Love”. Either from its couple of releases, the second being a remix in 1993 which reached 25 in the UK, or from the 2005 video game soundtrack for Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City. It’s slightly odd to think that the song was heard by several million more people on that game than on the album, which only gained a silver award for reaching 60,000 sales.
Hue and Cry have a distinctive style all of their own. Pat Kane’s amazing voice and the keyboard skills of his brother, Greg, mix very well. They blend very well together and both the vocals and the piano, along with the songwriting bring those strong jazz elements together strongly with some funky beats driving it all along at times. This album is a great taster of things they still had to come and not one to miss.
Fine Young Cannibals - Fine Young Cannibals
This is a debut album that is underrated in comparison to their second. It was just as good, perhaps even better. But didn’t get the same recognition or sales and awards as their follow-up.
Fine Young Cannibals was released as a self-titled debut album in December 1985. This was a trio formed by two ex-members of The Beat, David Steele and Andy Cox who did a fabulous job in a long search to find a singer. They selected Roland Gift, which turned out to be a masterstroke.
The album had a couple of singles on it which were both top 40 UK hits. “Johnny Come Home” and “Suspicious Minds”, the latter probably being better than the original version by Elvis Presley. That’s quite a statement to make, but Gift’s voice is superb. Add in some backing vocals by Jimi Somerville (of Bronski Beat and Communards fame), with the rhythm from the guitars and tight drum beat and it all makes for a great cover song.
Gift’s vocal talents are displayed throughout the album. He and Steele did a lot of the writing, Cox added in on some too. They combined to bring a mix of Motown and soul, with perhaps a bit of The Beat in there too. It makes for a brilliant set of original songs alongside that Elvis cover.
The album was successful, striking gold in the UK and a number 11 chart position. Their second album, The Raw & The Cooked, made number one in both the UK and the US, it also was awarded multiple platinum status and a bunch of awards. That overshadowed their debut album, which tends to get overlooked by the two singles, but for me, having bought and loved it from its release, it’s my go-to album for this fine trio.