Reykjavík Grapevine - 24.06.2005, Síða 40

40
Guide to
the ratin
gs
system:
Normally
, we rate
albums in

terms of
numbers
of beers,
but,
as beer w
as illegal
in Icelan
d
until 198
9, we’re r
ating the
se
albums w
ith bjórlí
ki – pilsn
er
spiked w
ith a shot
of liquor
.
Eighties
Album R
eviews
Duran Duran
Playing on June 30th in Iceland
By Paul F
Nikolov
Mezzoforte,
Garden Party (1983)
(In hono
ur of ne
w Ísland
svinur D
uran Du
ran)
Ah, the 80s. Sideways ponytails, acid wash jeans, and the whole world perpetually on the brink of global thermonuclear war.
It’s easy to understand why 80s nostalgia is so popular today. But was the music really as good as it seems today?
Grapevine decided to dig up seven 80s albums once considered timeless classics to see if they’ve withstood the test of time.
Comparable Contemporary: Skunk Anansie
Description: Airy, light compositions with an Eastern feel.
Dated Features: Fretless bass.
Rating: Your teenage sister might laugh at it, but who cares?
Costs four bjórlíki, worth four.
Comparable Contemporary: Incomparable with anyone on the air today, to
the relief of everyone.
Description: A nightmarish journey through a neon-coloured, mullet-
sporting, Reebok-wearing wasteland.
Dated Features: The slap bass, electric drums, nauseating washes of
keyboards, falsetto vocals . . . hell, it’s all dated.
Rating: The only use for this album is to remind the nostalgic of just
how horrifying the 80s could be.
Costs three bjórlíki, worth only the pilsner.
Todmobile
Betra en nokkuð annað (1989)
Stuðmenn
Með Allt Á Hreinu (1982)
Comparable Contemporary: Trabant
Description: Like trying to swallow
all the candies in grandma’s dish in
one gulp. Its sole redeeming track is
the Devoesque “Sigurjón digri.”
Dated Features: The harmonica
effect on “Haustið ’75,” among
others.
Rating: Fun to listen to only if you’ve
seen the movie of the same name,
which is actually quite good.
Costs four bjórlíki,
worth one.
Rikshaw
Angels and Devils (1990)
Comparable Contemporary: Pink
Floyd. That’s today’s Floyd, mind
you.
Description: Despite the cringingly
bad lyrics (“I’m dreaming of making
it big some day in the land of make
believe”), actually not too bad for its
time.
Dated Features: The horn section.
Rating: Decidedly dated, but
tolerable so long as you ignore the
singer.
Costs three bjórlíki,
worth two.
Bubbi Morthens
Kona (1985)
Comparable Contemporary: Bubbi
Morthens
Description: Mostly acoustic, with
two light jazz numbers (Frósin gríma
and Eina nótt í viðbótt).
Dated Features: Unnecessary and
formless keyboards.
Rating: Would be his best album
ever, if not for the keyboards.
Costs four bjórlíki,
worth three.
Helvítis Útlendingar
Comparable Contemporary: Daft Punk
Description: Driving, bare-bones, post-new wave pop songs good enough to
let you not care how uncool it is to love this album.
Dated Features: Flange galore.
Rating: As dated as hair mousse but a
hell of a lot of fun.
Costs two bjórlíki, worth four.
Duran Duran,
Duran Duran (1981)
Comparable Contemporary: Incomparable with anyone on the air today, to
the envy of many wanna-bes.
Description: Zig-zags thrillingly through jugband, boogie, and blues. Best
played in a smoky bar occupied only by you, someone asleep at a table, and a
surly bartender polishing glasses.
Dated Features: The overdone keyboards on “Enginn vegur fær.”
Rating: Timeless.
Costs four bjórlíki,
worth five. Winner.
Megas
Loftmynd (1986)