This is a bonkers documentary about one man’s quest to expose the truth about what happened to two Japanese soldiers in his regiment in New Guinea at the end of WWII. I can honestly say I’ve seen few films like it. I also think it’s a bit of a landmark as, though this type of …
Tag: 1987
Star Force: Fugitive Alien II (1987, Minoru Kanaya, Kiyosumi Kuzakawa)
No, I have not seen the first Fugitive Alien.
The White Pass: Gateway to the Klondike
This is a readable and well-researched history of the building of the White Pass & Yukon Railway. As far as I know, this is Minter’s only book and it’s clearly a passion project. But it’s also the work of a non-professional. As such, it’s better than it should be but it’s also not necessarily a …
Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway (1987) by Susan Jeffers
This self-help book is only 34 years old, yet it feels like it was written some time earlier, perhaps in the ’60s even. Reading this book, especially after you’ve read more recent self-help books, is like going back in time. It’s incredible how sophisticated self-help and “wellness” has gotten in the interim. (That is both …
Cry Wilderness (1987, Jay Schlossberg-Cohen)
This is one of those low-budget movies that thinks that location can substitute for a lack of a good story, coherent character motivations, good acting and competent filmmaking techniques. Specifically, these people got permission to film in a couple beautiful parks in California and apparently decided that this was enough to make a good family …
Shaka Zulu (1987) by Ladysmith Black Mombazo
By my rough count, this is Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s 23rd album but, according to much of the world, it’s their first, as it’s the first one produced by a famous (white) singer-songwriter and it’s the first one they released after appearing on his record (as part of Simon’s violation of the apartheid boycott, which is …
Daddy’s Highway (1987) by The Bats
This is my first encounter with the ‘Dunedin Sound’ probably because, like so many music scenes from outside of North America and the UK, it didn’t get much play where I live.
Calenture (1987) by The Triffids
I can’t speak for the Australian critics, but i feel like the American critics who went gaga over this record are guilty of a fairly common problem, where they over-hype a band from a “smaller” English-speaking country like Australia or Canada when if the same band appeared in the US or the UK they might …
Floodland (1987) by The Sisters of Mercy
I have never heard The Sisters of Mercy before and only know of them by reputation. So I got a surprise when I found out that this was basically the lead singer and songwriter’s solo album, as the original band broke up before it was created. I don’t know that this means anything, especially since …
Savage (1987) by Eurythmics
I don’t know Eurythmics very well. Sure, I know their biggest hits, but that’s it. And I only ever recently sat down to listen to an Annie Lennox album. So I have no idea about context here. For example, I had no idea they were so damn prolific. (Seriously, what the hell? 7 albums in …
Nightfall (1987) by Candlemass
I am, I supposed, a peculiar kind of metal fan. I like a lot of metal but one of the things I love about great music is particularly un-metal: variety. So every time I encounter one of these bands that practices within a very specific metal sub-genre, I find my love of variety challenged by …
The Lion and the Cobra (1987) by Sinead O’Connor
I get why this record was such a big deal when it came out: in 1987 it seemed rare that someone with such a distinctive voice comes along, who writes her own songs, and who seems like her artistic personality is already fully formed.But I think that, in retrospect, that view says more about 1987 …
Robbie Robertson (1987)
When I was growing up my dad had a Robbie Robertson album, I don’t remember which one. When I discovered the Band, I had a hard time reconciling the memories I had of his solo music with The Band’s music – they seem to have been made by two totally different people, or at least …
Faith (1987) by George Michael
I have never had any desire to listen to George Michael. Nothing about his music has ever really struck me. I find myself listening to this record only because of my podcast. It’s a weird combination of cheese and kitsch with earnestness and bravado. As someone who has only recently started (seriously) listening to music …
Strangeways, Here We Come
To say I dislike The Smiths would be an understatement. I don’t hate them so much as I hate the aura around them and this idea that they somehow saved British music from itself (and synthesizers! don’t forget the synthesizers), almost like a younger, hipper Bruce Springsteen (because Springsteen saved rock music from disco, don’t …
The Perfect Prescription (1987) by Spacemen 3
Programmic music is often hard for, whether it’s some Romantic composer trying to conjure up a storm or a picnic, or someone trying to show me what a drug trip is like, I often find the concept unnecessary to my enjoyment of the music.
Music for the Masses (1987) by Depeche Mode
I agree with the general consensus that Martin Gore is perhaps synthpop’s best songwriter. At least at this “mature” stage of the band’s career Depeche Mode sound most like the band willing to leave the confines of their genre to serve his songs. I find his lyrics to be, on average, significantly better than the …
Earth Sun Moon (1987) by Love and Rockets
I love Bauhaus and, initially, I think I found it hard to get into these guys simply because they are not Bauhaus, which is unfair. It’s unfair because these guys are very much their own band, particularly with the wind instruments. (By the way, that flute solo is hilariously Ian Anderson, who I would have …
Actually (1987) by The Pet Shop Boys
Full disclosure: I don’t love synthpop and I don’t like most dance music, electronic or otherwise. So this was likely going to be a chore for me.
Diesel and Dust (1987) by Midnight Oil
My whole life I’ve sort of wondered why “Beds are Burning” was a hit. (It topped our chart when I was 6.) I never liked the song but I never listened to lyrics.
Darklands (1987) by The Jesus and Mary Chain
The UK has a long, weird tradition of hilariously opinionated and antagonistic rock front men who bash other musicians and other people and then make wussy music; the Reids, Morrissey, the Gallaghers. (I’m sure there are many more.) That shouldn’t matter, really, but I find it harder to accept pop music (and poppier rock) on …
Bad (1987) by Michael Jackson
I grew up with “Fat” and have a hard time separating the real song, the title track of this record, from its parody. But I haven’t listened to “Fat” in so long. Listening to Bad for the first time (and to the remaster, no less), I can’t help but wonder, “does “Fat” sound this terrible …
Hysteria (1987) by Def Leppard
I have had a hard time finding this album online; Google Play doesn’t have a license for the early Def Leppard stuff (just their later, better stuff!!) and YouTube is missing a bunch of songs. So I probably shouldn’t review it. But I can and I will.
Upstairs at Eric’s (1982) by Yazoo aka Yaz
As someone is absolutely not a fan of synthpop, this works better, as expected.
Scum (1987) by Napalm Death*
Full disclosure: my favourite Grindcore band is Anal Cunt, because they are a joke. Grindcore has always struck me as a joke, or at least something easily turned into a joke, because of the brevity of the songs and the over-the-top nature of the music. But there are and have been tons of grindcore bands …
Whitney (1987) by Whitney Houston
This is one of the most commercially successful albums of its era, so I guess that’s why I felt I had to listen to it. But if I learned one thing from this album, it’s that the things that I like about music and the things that most consumers like about music are not the …
Broadcast News (1987, James L. Brooks)
This is a well-meaning satire of television news and where it was headed in the 1980s (i.e. where we are today with infotainment) that is hijacked by a love triangle, which prevents it from turning into the 80s Network, which is certainly could have been.
Ives: Symphonies Nos 2 and 3; The Unanswered Question (1966) by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Berstein
This is a compilation of the New York Philharmonic and Leonard Berstein’s performances of the middle symphonies and The Unanswered Question, originally a piece paired with another but one that has found a lot of attention as a standalone.
Angel Heart (1987, Alan Parker)
This is an over-stylized but interesting attempt at reviving American Film Noir in a decade in which it could be presumed dead and it’s combined with an interesting genre-mashing twist.
Missa in Angustiis aka Nelson Mass (1987) by Margaret Marshall, Carolyn Watkinson, Keith Lewis, Robert Holl, Rundfnkchor Leipzig, Staatskapelle Dresden conducted by Neville Mariner
This is widely considered to be the greatest of Haydn’s masses and, according to some people, the greatest of Haydn’s compositions.