New Order - Power, Corruption & Lies (1983)

1. Age Of Consent
2. We All Stand
3. The Village
4. 5 8 6
5. Blue Monday
6. Your Silent Face
7. Ultraviolence
8. Ecstasy
9. Leave Me Alone
10. The Beach

- Synth Rock
- Post-Punk
- Alternative Dance
- Club / Dance

Review:

New Order's second album was their giant step out of the looming shadow of Joy Division, clearly establishing their own unique and innovative musical identity. Seamlessly incorporating Gillian Gilbert's lush synth patterns into the mix, Power, Corruption & Lies springs from the propulsive, almost liquid bass of Peter Hook and the increasingly strong compositional skills of Bernard Sumner to firmly install the group as a cutting-edge electronic dance unit, one with unsurpassed reserves of humanity and depth — tracks like "Age of Consent" and the shimmering "Your Silent Face" speak to the mind and the body in equal measure. The U.S. release also appended their breakthrough club hit "Blue Monday," a masterpiece of the genre.

Bauhaus - In the Flat Field (1980)

1. Double Dare
2. In the Flat Field
3. God in an Alcove
4. Dive
5. Spy in the Cab
6. Small Talk Stinks
7. St. Vitus Dance
8. Stigmata Martyr
9. Nerves

- Post-Punk
- Rock
- Goth Rock

Review:

Few debut albums ever arrived so nearly perfectly formed; that In the Flat Field practically single-handedly invented what remains for many as the stereotype of goth music — wracked, at times spindly vocals about despair and desolation of many kinds, sung over mysterious and moody music — demonstrates the sui generis power of both the band and its work. This said, perhaps the best thing about the album isn't what it's supposed to sound like, but what it actually does — an awesomely powerful, glam-inspired rock band firing on all fours, capable of restraint and complete overdrive both, fronted by a charismatic, storming frontman. Starting with the challenging angst of "Double Dare," with shattering guitar over a curious but fierce stop-start rhythm while Murphy rages ever more strongly over the top, In the Flat Field contains a wide variety of inspirations and ideas. The astonishingly precise rhythm section of David J and Haskins pulls off a variety of jaw-dropping performances, including the high-paced tension of the title track and the brooding crawl from "Spy in the Cab." Ash, much like his longtime hero Mick Ronson, turns out to be a master of turning relatively simple guitar parts into apocalyptic explosions, from the background fills on "St. Vitus Dance" to the brutal descending chords of "Stigmata Martyr." Murphy, meanwhile, channels as much Iggy Pop as he does Bowie, proving to be no simple copyist of either, able to both maniacally sing-shout and take a somewhat lighter touch throughout. Concluding with the seven-minute "Nerves," an aptly titled piece that alternates between understated energy and unleashed power toward a dramatic ending, In the Flat Field started off Bauhaus' album career with a near-perfect bang.

The Cure - Boys Don't Cry (1980)

1. Boys Don't Cry
2. Plastic Passion
3. 10:15 Saturday Night
4. Accuracy
5. So What
6. Jumping Someone Else's Train
7. Subway Song
8. Killing An Arab
9. Fire In Cairo
10. Another Day
11. Grinding Halt
12. Three Imaginary Boys

- New Wave
- Goth Rock
- Post-Punk

Talking Heads - Remain In Light (1980)

1. Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)
2. Crosseyed And Painless
3. The Great Curve
4. Once In A Lifetime
5. House In Motion
6. Seen And Not Seen
7. Listening Wind
8. The Overload

- Experimental Rock
- New Wave
- Post-Punk
- Dance-Rock

Joy Division - Closer (1980)

1. Atrocity exhibition
2. Isolation
3. Passover
4. Colony
5. A Means To An End
6. Heart & Soul
7. Twenty Four Hours
8. The Eternal
9. Decades

- Post-Punk

Review:

If Unknown Pleasures was Joy Division at their most obsessively, carefully focused, ten songs yet of a piece, Closer was the sprawl, the chaotic explosion that went every direction at once. Who knows what the next path would have been had Curtis not chosen his end? But steer away from the rereading of his every lyric after that date, treat Closer as what everyone else thought it was at first — simply the next album — and Joy Division's power just seems to have grown. Hannett was still producing, but seems to have taken as many chances as the band itself throughout — differing mixes, differing atmospheres, new twists and turns define the entirety of Closer, songs suddenly returned in chopped-up, crumpled form, ending on hiss and random notes. Opener "Atrocity Exhibition" was arguably the most fractured thing the band had yet recorded, Sumner's teethgrinding guitar and Morris' Can-on-speed drumming making for one heck of a strange start. Keyboards also took the fore more so than ever — the drowned pianos underpinning Curtis' shadowy moan on "The Eternal," the squirrelly lead synth on the energetic but scared-out-of-its-wits "Isolation," and above all else "Decades," the album ender of album enders. A long, slow crawl down and out, Curtis' portrait of lost youth inevitably applied to himself soon after, its sepulchral string-synths are practically a requiem. Songs like "Heart and Soul" and especially the jaw-dropping, wrenching "Twenty Four Hours," as perfect a demonstration of the tension/release or soft/loud approach as will ever be heard, simply intensify the experience. Joy Division was at the height of their powers on Closer, equaling and arguably bettering the astonishing Unknown Pleasures, that's how accomplished the four members were. Rock, however defined, rarely seems and sounds so important, so vital, and so impossible to resist or ignore as here.