1981
Noah’s Barks pages relating to the year 1981.
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Alice Cooper – “Special Forces”
Alice Cooper attempts jagged new wave/art rock on Special Forces and fails completely. There is no energy at all in this album. It’s like listening to and watching a stone golem dance in an ’80s night club. I promise you that’s a decent analogy. Take Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) and invert its quality and… (read more)
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New Order – “Movement” (1981)
Movement is generally considered to be New Order’s awkward era, of a time when the band didn’t know where to head after Joy Division and instead repeated the sound of their previous band. I find this to be a sizable exaggeration bordering on misnomer. Movement can be divided into three elements: 1. The ghost of… (read more)
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Killing Joke – “What’s THIS For…!”
What’s THIS For…! is Killing Joke‘s second album and contains all of the muscle and fury of their self-titled debut, only with less synthesizers and a stronger emphasis on thick percussion with ritualistic drum patterns. Despite being the same amount of tracks, What’s THIS For…! is a noticeable seven minutes longer than its predecessor. This shows… (read more)
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Gang of Four – “Solid Gold”
Gang of Four were one of the pioneering dance-punk bands of the post-punk scene. It’s easy to see why on Solid Gold, with its funky bass and catchy, repetitious guitar riffs. While the album is a consistently high quality, nothing reaches the heights of “What All We Want,” which is now one of my favorite… (read more)
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Wipers – “Youth of America” (1981)
The murky production on Youth of America is amazing—dark and hollow. Perhaps the perfect halfway point between punk and post-punk music. The music is still aggressive, it’s just that the textures contain it, allowing that energy to echo in its confinement and build up greater impact. Of course, it would be wrong of me to… (read more)
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Black Flag – “Damaged”
On Damaged, Greg Ginn is one of the best punk guitarists I’ve ever heard. His semi-droning buzzsaw riffs are sharp enough to probably grind through metal if played at a high enough volume. Sadly, their edge is dulled by Henry Rollins’ dumb meathead lisp. He’s like the Rocky Balboa of vocalists, but at least Rocky… (read more)