Kate Bush returns after 12 years since ‘Red Shoes’ to craft a spectacular double album release called ‘Aerial’ This album contains a massive variety of musical styles and its range is astounding, from the beautiful solo piano pieces of ‘A Coral Room’ and ‘Mrs Bartolozzi’ to the Medieval sound of ‘Bertie’, and the rhythmic style ‘King Of The Mountain’ (the closest track in terms of sound to the ‘Hounds of Love’ album). Darker brooding pieces are found in  ‘How To Be Invisible’, and ‘Joanni’ and a there is song called Pi where the numeric value is uniquely repeated throughout.… and this is all just on the first disk. The second disk is another one of Kate’s conceptual journeys, this time from dusk to dawn with a bird chorus theme, and it is simply breathtaking. Its layers of base rhythms, piano and intricate guitar work is amazing, particularly on a great set of headphones, and effectively it forms a number of songs joined into one piece of music. There is an ambiance to this album that is simple beautiful. The cover and cd insert booklet are also extremely well put together and really make this extra special. Kate Bush remains one of the all time great and most creative of artists, and I really hope its not another 12 years before we hear from her again.

1. Kate Bush - Aerial  (2005)

Gary Numan turned solo shortly after the release of ‘Replicas’ and this was the follow up to his fabulous debut solo album ‘The Pleasure Principle’. Arguably ‘Telekon’ remains his most intricate and musically detailed work, a dark and moody synth background throughout reflects his state of mind at the time and his disillusionment with the pressure of being famous. It has haunting melodies, and engaging sounds which merge into beautiful and sometimes somber songs. Interestingly Gary Numan deliberately gave his fans extra value by leaving the hit singles ‘We Are Glass’ and ‘I Die You Die’ off the LP to create space for more tracks. Now that they are added back to the remastered CD it lifts this collection into one of the all time great disks all round. This artist was at the time unique and groundbreaking, I certainly have never found an album that sounds similar to this one, and for me it was probably his creative peak. ‘I Dream Of Wires’ remains one of my all time favourite album tracks and alongside ‘The Aircrash Bureau’ shows what a fabulous writer he was at that time. He started to change direction and sound shortly after this release, and whilst the next album ‘Dance’ contained some great music, he never really captured this level of brilliance again until 2006 when ‘Jagged’ arrived.

2. Gary Numan - Telekon (1980)

Whilst my appreciation for Genesis began with a borrowed copy of ‘And Then There Were Three’, I simply could not help but be astounded with my first hearing of ‘A Trick Of The Tail’, an excellent album that seems to defy time, and is one of the most awesome series of tracks ever put together on one record. ‘Dance on a Volcano’ opens the record in dramatic fashion with an almost odd but captivating beat, but it is the enthrallingly atmospheric ‘Entangled’ and the acoustic ‘Ripples’ that really make this record stand out as one of the greatest. ‘Squonk’ is a fabulous story about a mythical creature who when captured dissolves itself into tears, and ‘Robbery, Assault, and Battery’ is a more lighthearted song about a burglar who tries to get away with his crime. The excellent cover illustrations capture images from the songs themselves and all helps to draw the album together as a whole and make it a well thought out overall concept. The final instrumental ‘Los Endos’ even uses musical ideas from the other various songs on the record to round off and complete the picture of this powerful record. There are other superb Genesis albums around but this is an inspirational album with guitar work that is awesome throughout, and an overall feeling that each track is just made to follow on into the next. An amazing piece of work all round, and in many ways the most beautiful album I have ever heard.

3. Genesis - A Trick Of The Tail (1976)

Gary Numan in a brave move ditched his Tubeway Army band name quickly after the successful ‘Replicas’ and went solo with his next release ‘The Pleasure Principal’ just a few months later. He remained at the cutting edge of musical development in this era, completely moving away from the usual instruments such as the guitar and composing an album solely using the synthesizer with a drum overlay only. The release of ‘Cars’, which largely remains his most famous song, instantly put him back at the top of the charts. The album is full of sweeping synth moods, there is a great instrumental in ‘Airlane’ quickly followed by one of my long time favourite tracks ‘Metal’. The drum rhythms on ‘Films’ remains highly regarded in the music industry as one of the all time greats, and is a live favourite amongst fans. Two of the longer tracks ‘M.E’ and ‘Conversation’ are involving and take you on a journey, the former about the thoughts of the last machine left on earth after everything else has been destroyed. The use of the moog synth defines this album, some may feel it is dated, but many would regard it highly and as something groundbreaking from the early 1980’s that defined a generation of music that was to come. If anything it remains pretty unique in its sound now and was one of my most played records ever, the music will completely fill the room with soaring layered chords, deep bass rhythms and overlaid with electronic keyboard effects.

4. Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle (1980)

Kate Bush is a creative genius with an immense talent for writing groundbreaking music, creating stories with her lyrics, and drawing in your emotions with her exceptional vocal style. The release of her 4th album after the excellent ‘The Dreaming’ and ‘Never For Ever’, was ‘Hounds of Love’ which was greeted with critical acclaim, with side one an almost perfect collection of exhilarating songs from the amazingly haunting single ‘Running Up That Hill’ to the layered heavy drums of Hounds of Love’ and ‘The Big Sky’ and then the immense storyline of ‘Cloudbusting’. Sitting amongst them was a soft lullaby called ‘Mother Stands For Comfort’. Side two was a more groundbreaking conceptional piece called ‘The Ninth Wave’ intertwining amazing vocal sounds and lyrical imagery that takes you on a journey through the consciousness of man who is near death. Musically this is simply exceptional and dramatic and tracks like ‘Waking The Witch’ make your ears work hard just to capture all the intriguing elements that make up the songs. A fantastic and involving achievement and an album that is generally considered a classic and sounds as clever and fresh now as when it was first released.

5. Kate Bush - Hounds Of Love (1985)

Tubeway Army fronted by Gary Numan provided a new dark and engaging synthesizer sound just at the right time for me as a young teenager. Replicas was an album capturing dark sci-fi story elements and translating them into haunting tracks that were simply perfect to my impressionable ear, and with a clever cover design linking into the single releases to complete the experience. No other album has initially had quite the same impact on me as this one, making the hairs on my neck stand on end on the first listen through. The collection of songs on side one still represents my favourite side of any LP, from the upbeat ‘Me I Disconnect From You’, onto the classic hit ‘Are Friends Electric?’ through the guitar driven ‘The Machman’ to a personal favourite ‘Praying To The Aliens’ and then sinister and menacing ‘Down In The Park’. Side two was more varied in style, with two heavier guitar led tracks, sandwiched between them a classic anthem title track which grows on you over the years, and then two great instrumentals to finish the record. At its time its synth usage emerging from the punk era was a groundbreaking new musical direction which spawned many bands of the early 80’s. This is definitely one of the greatest albums and Gary Numan was the master of them all.

6. Tubeway Army - Replicas (1979)

Depeche Mode have become one of the great bands of all time, still going strong after more than 25 years. They matured gradually and progressively from their early 80’s beginnings before producing the critically acclaimed album ‘Violator’ in 1990. This paved the way for their best period of songwriting by Martin Gore which included the menacing album ‘Songs Of Faith & Devotion’ and then more stylish ‘Ultra’. Whilst it is hard to pick out a best album from these three, there is something a little more mature and interesting about ‘Ultra’, with a greater use of guitar rifts and an uplifting orchestral arrangement. The singles ‘Barrel Of A Gun’ and ‘Its No Good’ are elaborate, edgy and almost gothic in style, but alongside this the orchestral string arrangements of ‘Home’ makes this amongst their best ever tracks recorded. The softer ‘Sister Of Night’ is beautifully sung and sits nicely with the almost country style of ‘Freestate’ as a change of pace. Also interspersed through the album are two decent instrumental tracks ‘Uselink’ and ‘Jazz Thieves’ in a throwback to their early releases, and one that would become typical again for future releases. The whole feel of this album is right, it just ebbs and flows together perfectly becoming much more than a collection of different songs and standing out as a well conceived and intricate piece of recording.

7. Depeche Mode - Ultra (1997)

I have always enjoyed female vocalists but every now and again something extraordinary catches you and transports your musical interest into a new direction for a while. Duffy is one such artist, a Welsh singer and newcomer this year, and I have to agree that the hype has been justified with this album ‘Rockferry’. The music will throw you back to the 60’s with edges of Motown and Blues and some comparisons to Dusty Springfield and Sandie Shaw. Written by Duffy and Bernard Butler the sound is almost unique against other current mainstream pop releases blending in the soft and sensual vocals with some wonderful orchestral string arrangements. ‘Mercy’ is the most uptempo track and was the high profile single and very much Motown in its direction. The other single ‘Rockferry’ is more soulful and soaring musically with a neat guitar introduction near the end. This album is relaxing, beautiful and has so many great tracks. Early listens have the motown sounding ‘Warwick Avenue’ and the blues style ‘Syrup and Honey’ standing out alongside the piano led ‘Stepping Stone’ and the emotional ‘Hanging On Too Long’ which is simply fabulous. My only complaint is that some tracks simply faded out a little too quick for me at between 3 & 4 minutes, just when I was keen for the music to continue and elaborate a little more, but then this is album is more in tune with the 60’s where lengthy tracks were less common.

8. Duffy - Rockferry (2008)

‘Songs of Faith & Devotion’ was the follow up to the critically acclaimed ‘Violator’, and was a brave change of direction into a dark, sensual and more menacing period of songwriting, only touched upon before in ‘Black Celebration’. This is a powerful album right from the start as ‘I Feel You’ and  ‘Walking In My Shoes’ blasts out a dramatic opening. Martin Gore, the main songwriter not only upped the darkness and aggression here, using David Gahan’s vocals to the maximum range, but also added use of more variable sounds and noises to increase the depth of the tracks. ’Judas’ for instance is an amazing piece of work and one of his best ever compositions, as the track lingers on after the vocals into a further two minutes of music with an Indian undercurrent that simply carries you away. Sandwiched by ‘Mercy In You’ and the brilliant single ‘In Your Room’ this becomes the highlight middle section of a great album. Like ‘Violator’ the final track is another masterpiece in ‘Higher Love’. Lyrically this is also one of their best, offering spiritual insight and questions about faith and religion. This album was a continuation of a great new era for Depeche Mode, a darker place that was much starker and also more cleverly conceived. The latest remastered sleeve notes suggest the final mixing wasn’t quite perfected due to time constraints but I am unsure to be honest how it could have been made too much better.

9. Depeche Mode - Songs of Faith & Devotion (1993)

This was the first Genesis album I ever listened to, some 25 years ago, and to be honest in recent years I had largely forgotten how good it really is. Its recent SACD remastering release has resurrected my interest and ensured its inclusion again into my top list. Following the departure of Steve Hackett from Genesis, the 3 remaining band members Banks / Collins / Rutherford (hence the title) wrote slightly shorter and more accessible mainstream tracks for this album which included their most successful to date top 3 hit single ‘Follow You Follow Me’. There are excellent slower heartfelt tracks like ‘Many Too Many’ and the rhythmic ‘Snowbound’, and the album has an overall consistent ambiance and moody quality. I very much like the overall sound style that was achieved here. The equivalent of side two of the original vinyl contains by favourite tracks and is extremely strong, with the fantasy style lyrics of ‘Scenes From A Nightsdream’, ‘Say Its Alright Joe’ and ‘The Lady Lies’ sandwiched between the more famous ‘Many too Many’ and ‘Follow You Follow Me’. This series of songs is an amazing piece of music to sit back and chill out too. Often this Genesis album receives less praise from core Genesis fans than earlier albums, but maybe due to my introduction via this era I actually find the ‘Trick of the Tail’ / ‘Wind & Wuthering’ / ‘And Then There Were Three’ series to be my favourite period for the band.

10. Genesis - And Then There Were Three (1978)

Depeche Mode, a well established group from the 1980’s became a worldwide sensation with the release of the album ‘Violator’ in 1990. A significant step above anything else they had produced before, this album is a collection of 9 excellent tracks which is acknowledged in the industry as one of the all time great album releases. With strong baselines, a more dance orientated feel underlines much of this album. ‘World in my Eyes’, ‘Halo’ and ‘Policy of Truth’ are more upbeat than usual, and in between these are the slower and more intricate laid back tracks of ‘Sweetest Perfection’ and ‘Waiting for the Night’. The two most recognisable and also very successful singles are ‘Personal Jesus’ and the immense ‘Enjoy the Silence’, the latter recognised as one of the greatest of all singles ever released. The orchestral ‘Clean’ is an outstanding end to the whole composition. It remains a defining moment for this band musically, and stands the test of time well, and was a launchpad for the bands darker writing period to come over their next two releases. The newly remastered version and SACD remixes are exceptional and a must buy over the original CD release, with a much clearer and cleaner sound evident. This is simply one of the classic ‘electronic’ albums.

11. Depeche Mode - Violator (1990)

After a string of great early albums from Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark peaking with ‘Architecture & Morality’, this was a great recovery following the experimental ‘Dazzle Ships’ (which I rather liked) and the rather poor ‘Junk Culture’ (which I didn’t). With producer Stephen Haguet this moved into more mainstream popular songs, and a number of hits are found from this release ‘So In Love’ (a chart success also in America), ‘Secret’ (a moderate hit) and ‘La Femme Accident’ (a low chart placement), however these for me are not even the best tracks. Standing out are more edgy ones including ‘Block Block Block’, the lilting vocals of ‘Women III’, and the more raw sounds of ’88 Seconds In Greensborough’ and ‘Native Daughters Of The Golden West’. Two other tracks ‘Crush’ and ‘Lights Are Going Out’ are less like pop songs in their content and reminisce in style to earlier albums where the group try something a little different, with sound effects and repeated vocals, and both work well. This remains as one of my most often played albums over many years, and OMD never quite scaled these heights again, although ‘Sugar Tax’ in 1991 remains a recommended release and became their final taste of chart success despite two further albums ‘Liberator’ in 1993 and ‘Universal’ in 1996. This is a collection of fabulous and catchy pop songs, along with their usual addition of a couple of more strange sound effect tracks.

12. Orchestral Manoeuvers In The Dark - Crush (1985)

Alanis Morissette is a rock chick at heart but successfully adds in other acoustic styles and many different instruments to create her excellent albums. She has become one of my favourite singer songwriters who burst onto the scene with ‘Jagged Little Pill’ in 1995, arguably the greatest album of that decade. Many will expect that album to be the one to make my chart, but despite containing her best track ‘You Oughta Know’ I feel musically she continued to progress over the 5 studio albums into even more elaborate songwriting. One of her key talents is to create heartfelt stories over just a few verses that will leave you emotionally attached to the message of the tracks. Her lyrics are simply stunning at times. ‘Jagged Little Pill’ was by far the most successful album, the follow up ‘Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie’ is 17 tracks long and is a little more difficult to follow at times with darker subject matter. ‘Under Rug Swept’ is a slightly more commercially routed back in rock and pop and was a return to top form. Her 4th album ‘So Called Chaos’ is the one I most like to listen to from start to finish with no reasons to skip any tracks here. Alongside her newest release ‘Flavors Of Entanglement’, this is her most accomplished work musically with string instruments added occasionally, and mixing rock styles with slower more acoustic tracks and even containing an oriental theme in ‘Knees Of My Bees’. Her vocals are gorgeous and her lyrics clever and emotive, a superb album all round.

13. Alanis Morissette - So Called Chaos (2004)

Gary Numan has now released 17 studio albums, and after his groundbreaking early releases of ‘Replicas’, ‘Pleasure Principle’ and ‘Telekon’ back in the late seventies and early eighties, his creativity just could not keep the quality and pace he originally set. After some more nondescript industrial sounding albums, his emerging comeback began from the darker sounding ‘Pure’ in 2000, and now thankfully ‘Jagged’ officially restores him to his creative peak as an artist. ‘Jagged’ is much heavier than the early aforementioned releases, a deeper bass synth and guitar thunders through many tracks with a terminator style effect, overlaid with many layers of interesting sounds, noises and rhythms and with anthemic style repeated chorus lines that you just cannot help singing along to. All the tracks are excellent, some are inspired and my favourites have already changed since my first listen through. ‘Halo’ is up with the best singles he has released, and alongside this ‘Slave’ and ‘In A Dark Place’ are more varied, clever and intricate than anything he has previously written since the ‘Telekon’ album. ‘Haunted’ overlays real drums to add more depth, and the whispered scaryness of the title track ‘Jagged’ is truly astonishing. Gary Numan when he gets is right is head and shoulders above the rest, and this is a dark, scary and very clever piece of work, although it seems better on headphones where all the intricate sounds are more evident to the listener.

14. Gary Numan - Jagged (2006)

Visage was a New Romantic band formed in 1978 combining Steve Strange with amongst others the Ultravox members Midge Ure and Billy Currie. Their opening album ‘Visage’ contained the famous single ‘Fade to Grey’ which became a classic worldwide hit of the genre. Whilst their first album contains many gems, it is their follow up album ‘The Anvil’ which truly stands out for me as one of the best of all time. It certainly contains an undercurrent feel from Ultravox but has much more of a dance mix initiated by Steve Strange’s nightclub roots. The result is nine superb tracks, all but one being upbeat, and with the final track ‘Whispers’ becoming a fine ending in a soft keyboard instrumental with a slow build up. The best tracks are had to pick out, but ‘Damned Don’t Cry’, ‘The Anvil’, ‘Night Train, ‘The Horseman’ and ‘Look What They’ve Done’ are all fantastic. There is an out of print CD release of this album, but it is rare and hard to get. The album cover is one of my favourites with its black and white photo surrounded by a matt black textured border and excellent font used for the title. A highly underrated release, it is one of the classics of the New Romantic music genre. This CD has recently been re-released by Cherry Records which is welcome news as it has been unavailable, but sadly it has no signs of any remastering to the tracks and this lets it down a little.

15. Visage - The Anvil (1982)

One of the greatest early synthesizer bands of 80’s, OMD continued to produce excellent mainstream albums well into the mid 1990’s with the releases ‘Crush’ and ‘Sugar Tax’ in particular. However it was their early and more adventurous albums that I enjoy most, from the dark and haunting ‘Organisation’, the emotional ‘Architecture & Morality’ and the concept exploration of ‘Dazzle Ships’. The middle release of these still stands out as an exceptional creation, ‘Architecture & Morality’ is a somber affair, drawing you in with its brooding sounds and creative musical journeys. The upbeat tracks ‘Georgia’ and elaborate drum layers of ‘Maid of Orleans’ are a stark contrast to the soulful ‘She’s Leaving’ and ‘Souvenir’. The more creative pieces such as ‘The New Stone Age’, the 8 minute meandering track ‘Sealand’ and the closing melodic music of ‘The Beginning And The End’ are really well created, and take unexpected directions. OMD certainly have released more readily acceptable albums since this one, but this is the kind of album that pushes musical ideas in general into new directions, and is better for it. The cover is appealing, and has appeared in many different colours from the light green original LP, to the original blue CD in the mid 80’s and now the highly recommended yellow/orange of the excellent remastered edition, complete with extra tracks.

16. Orchestral Manoeuvers In The Dark - Architecture & Morality (1981)

Emerging out of the punk era, Stuart Adamson and Richard Dobson formed the backbone of a fantastic and energetic band called The Skids which I was introduced to via a great single ‘Into The Valley’ in the late 70’s. They went on to create 3 excellent guitar and synth driven albums together, with a 4th folk album called ‘Joy’ which was made after Adamson had left to form Big Country. Two of these albums are exceptional, ‘Days in Europa’ (the original mix though by Bill Nelson with an Olympian cover) and ‘Absolute Game’ which is the most rounded of them all with soaring guitar solos and anthemic chorus lines. You can barely find fault with ‘Absolute Game’, lyrically it is strong, the guitar work is brilliant and particularly with the opening 5 up-tempo tracks (formerly side one of the LP) you cant help but sing along. Side two is more involving and varies the tempo a tad but is no less captivating. Stand out tracks include ‘Circus Games’ with children overlaying the chorus line, the more aggressive ‘Out of Town’, ‘Women In Winter’ with a superb guitar solo from Jobson, ‘Happy to be With You’ and the slightly slower ‘Devils Decade’. The hopeful news is that Captain Oi records have already remastered and released ‘Days In Europa’ on CD and rumours are that ‘Absolute Game’ may well follow early in 2008. Given it is almost impossible to find the 2004 CD release, it will be a real answer for many fans like me who want upgrade their 1980 LP.

17. The Skids - Absolute Game (1980)

Rage In Eden was the second album following the recruitment of Midge Ure as lead singer, and a follow-up release to the classic ‘Vienna’. Despite other great albums from this band, for me this was Ultravox’s finest moment, the programmed heavy synth baseline running throughout this record, overlaid with soaring chords, extra drums and excellent vocals is exceptional. It is a consistent and ambitious piece, all the tracks fit together well alongside each other and often run blended into each other. Whilst not particularly aiming at making chart singles success, ‘The Voice’ and ‘The Thin Wall’ did quite well in the UK, and the latter track is a true masterpiece. There are a couple of slower more unusual and haunting tracks on the album, the title track and a fitting finale in ‘Your Name (Has Slipped My Mind Again)’ but the combined 12 minutes of ‘Stranger Within’ leading into ‘The Ascent’ is inspired. The cover art symbol was a neat idea, and has appeared in different forms over the years. Although their follow up albums ‘Quartet’ and ‘Lament’ were still extremely good, Rage In Eden is often a forgotten album by Ultravox, but I believe it is their best.

18. Ultravox - Rage In Eden  (1981)

Alanis Morissette is back after 4 years with a fantastic new album produced by Guy Sigworth. If you are interested in this CD then buy the DELUXE 2 DISK EDITION as the 2nd disk actually contains some of the best tracks. This album has more of an electronic and programmed undercurrent to it, but contains a lot of variety too. It is less raw than usual and has a more intricate production layers, which is different it works rather well. It begins with a heavier rock driven ‘Citizen Of The Planet’ followed by a more simple synth programmed song ‘Underneath’. The next 2 tracks feature a more edgy Alanis singing about overbearing relationships, ‘Versions Of Violence’ is great and remeniscent of previous albums but ‘Strait Jacket’ may have been better replaced for the much more catchy ‘The Guy Who Leaves’ from the extra disk. The 5th track ‘Not As We’ is a gorgeously simple piano and vocal solo which is stunning. ‘In Praise Of The Vulnerable Man’ is a fine track but shouldn’t have kept out the acoustic ‘Orchid’ from disk 2 which could be one of her best ever songs. ‘Moratorium’ is another excellent elaborate composition with strings, synth chords and effects and is one of the best on the CD, ‘Torch’ is a piano led heartfelt story that Alanis is so good at, conveying the sad loss of a soulmate. ‘Giggling Again For No Reason’ is an uptempo more meanstream pop style song, while ‘Tapes’ launches into introvert negative thoughts that conveys sadness and emotion, another really great track. Finally ‘Incomplete’ is a more acoustic and lighter in style but lyrically covers regret and dissatisfaction. Disk 2 has alongside the excellent ‘Orchid’ and ‘The Guy Who Leaves’ a beautiful piano led track ‘Madness’ and an orchestral soaring ‘Limbo No More’ story.

19. Alanis Morissette - Flavors Of Entanglement  (2008)

With the experience as lead singer of Genesis it was only a matter of time before Peter Gabriel released a classic album. This deep bass driven composition is quite a different sound to any Genesis offering and quickly grabbed its place amongst my favourites. The two most uplifting and up-tempo tracks ‘Sledgehammer’ and ‘Big’ are well known great singles, but beneath these lie the equally convincing and slightly more evocative tempos of ‘Red Rain’, ‘In Your Eyes’ and ‘That Voice Again’. Two further tracks have guest vocalists, and certainly could not have been better chosen, the softness of Kate Bush on the heart-wrenching ‘Don’t Give Up’ is perhaps the best duet style track ever recorded, and the more exploratory half spoken/sung ‘This Is The Picture’ with Laurie Anderson of ‘Oh Superman’ fame is amazing. Both these become real highlights on an exemplary album, but to me are still topped by the thoughtful and laid back beauty of ‘Mercy Street’. Finally the shortest song ‘We Do What Were Told’ is more reminiscent in sound of his earlier releases and is a nice link towards the development of this album. There is nothing to let this down, and I love the way he doesn’t fade out the music too quickly after the vocals, allowing you to drift along more with the track. The remastered edition really elevates the overall sound quality too, with loads more detail now evident to the listener.

20. Peter Gabriel - So (1986)

This was the first album by Ultravox following the departure of John Foxx as lead singer, with the arrival of the now somewhat legendary Midge Ure in his place. This is generally an up-tempo synthesizer album, but one where guitars are still very much at the forefront. This is a varied piece of work which sets the tone of the new Ultravox for their future. ‘Astradyne’ is the opening 7 minute instrumental, a fabulous start which is quickly followed by a number of fast paced tracks including the fabulous ‘New Europeans’ and ‘Sleepwalk’. The variation kicks in more on side two of the original vinyl with the repetitive basslines in ‘Vienna’ and ‘Mr X’ very much holding the attention, and overlaid with intermittent chords and vocals. ‘Vienna’ of course has become quite a classic single from its era, but both these songs show additional creativity to what was previously around at the time. The closing track ‘All Stood Still’ is another great fast paced and guitar driven song. Extra tracks are provided on the latest release, one of which ‘Alles Klar’ is a build up track in the vein of ‘Mr X’ and one I have always liked. This is another classic 1980’s album, and one that made ‘Ultravox’ famous.

21. Ultravox - Vienna (1980)

Never for Ever was the third Kate Bush album and was the first record by a female British artist to top the UK album chart. The range of styles on Never For Ever is much more diverse than her previous offerings, from the straightforward rock track, ‘The Wedding List’, to the waltz style of the hit single ’Army Dreamers’. Never For Ever was the first Kate Bush album to be composed on synthesizers and drum machines as opposed to the piano and orchestra, in particular she used the Fairlight CMI. Her storytelling came to the fore in this album, for instance with ‘The Infant Kiss’ forming the story of a governess who is frightened by the adult feelings she has for her young male charge. The famous ‘Babooshka’ concerns the feelings of a wife who seeks to test her husbands fidelity. ‘Breathing’ is a much darker and deeper track about a nuclear holocaust from the perspective of a fetus knowing it is about to die. This album is both varied and intriguing, and was her first departure into producing more creative and sometime unusual compositions which was continued into her next release ‘The Dreaming’.

22. Kate Bush - Never For Ever (1980)

Eurythmics are one of the great UK bands formed in the early 80’s as Dave Stewart & Annie Lennox. This was their 2nd album release and is the one that made them famous. As an album ‘Sweet Dreams’ holds together very well today combining a mix of warm and cold styles, and the iconic title track has become a modern-day standard against which others are judged, still retaining its careful mix of passion and menace. ‘Love Is A Stranger’ was another successful single and is arguably even more sinister, and the forgotten early single ‘The Walk’ competes well with ‘Sweet Dreams’ as a standout track, a moody and disturbing vocal and lyric offset by a stunning brass arrangement. This album is not just a collection of short pop songs, it contains great variation, with ‘Jennifer’ a melodic, heartfelt but unsettling track, and ‘This City Never Sleeps’, a lengthy track and a classic tale of urban alienation, which contains great sound effects and is a subdued yet powerful end to the album. Eurythmics made many fabulous albums, but this was their crowning moment. The brand new remastered version is outstanding and elevates the musical power and neat packaging to another level, and restores it as one of my all time favourites.

23. Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (1983)

Madonna is the artist that continually manages to reinvent herself successfully. This was her 7th studio album, and one of her biggest selling to date, teaming up with William Orbit to make her debut into the world of electronica. The two singles are outstanding and also very different, the fast paced dance track of ‘Ray of Light’ and the laid back orchestral layered ‘Frozen’. The remaining 11 tracks are different blends of the two styles, with loads of moody synth chords and trance sound effects overlaid. This again is a well thought out album, it all fits well together with a consistent ambient sound. Other stand out tracks include ‘Drowned World’, ‘Nothing Really Matters’ and ‘Swim’ but even with 13 tracks included it doesn’t feel like any of them are extras to make up the numbers. Whilst her previous album ‘Erotica’ and subsequent ‘Music’ are great accomplishments, it is this one that stands out from them all as her best work so far. It is critically acclaimed as one of the best albums of all time, and deservedly so.

24. Madonna - Ray Of Light (1998)

Gary Numan had one more trick up his sleeve in terms of creative genius for the follow-up to ‘Telekon’, turning to the ex Japan basis Mick Karn to layer this record with a fretless base sound beneath his complex synthesizer rhythms, and add a splash of saxophone too. This album wrongly received much media criticism at the time, as he continued his move away from chart successes styles to make music the way he wanted. As a result this release now stands the test of time so well, with 2 tracks approaching 10 minutes ‘Slowcar To China’ and ‘Cry The Clock Said’ standing out as amazingly clever pieces of work. ‘She’s Got Claws’ did make a good chart run, and the tracks ‘Crash’ and turkish styled ‘Stories’ show that he had not lost his touch in creating the short singles style either. The latest CD release contains extra tracks that fit perfectly with the rest of the album. ‘Dance’ was the short title track that was never included, and the fantastic ‘Stormtrooper In Drag’ became a very popular live track with fans. His later album releases never quite came as close to his earlier brilliance, although ‘I Assassin’ and ‘Beserker’ are perhaps not too far behind.

25. Gary Numan - Dance (1981)

Simple Minds were formed in 1977 by lead singer Jim Kerr, but it was not until their 5th album ‘New Gold Dream’ that they were lifted from relative obscurity into mainstream chart success. It is critically considered their best work amongst the 15 studio albums now released (the latest was in 2005), which contains their strongest period of songwriting during the eighties. Backing onto the New Romantic movement this is a mix of vocal and instrumental songs driven by layered guitars and synthesizers, strong bass lines and a fairly unique soft and slightly echoey drum rhythm. In fact, the remastered Virgin CD version from 2003 is one of best sounding albums on my system for pure quality of the recording. The most famous tracks are ‘Promised You A Miracle’ and ’Glittering Prize’, with the former obtaining singles chart success at #13, while the album itself peaked at #.3. Their direct follow up albums ’Sparkle In The Rain’ and ‘Once Upon A Time’ departed from the melodic sound of this album into more U2 style rock, which matched the mainstream favour at the time. To sum up ‘New Gold Dream’ is a beautiful album, being tuneful, melodic and fairly unique in its sound even compared to Simple Minds other material. It contains two long instrumentals within the 9 tracks and most tracks are close to or exceed the 5 minute mark in length.

26. Simple Minds - New Gold Dream (1982)

The Dreaming was the 4th album release by Kate Bush and was en even more progressive and edgy record than its predecessor ‘Never For Ever’. It weaves great storytelling into songs with passion and lyrical beauty. The sound relies on a great deal of percussion overlaid with synthesizers and deep bass lines. It opens with a fabulous track ‘Sat In Your Lap’, an excellent aboriginal fast paced and heavy drum led song, and moves on a journey through some great story images, including an American solider stalked by a Vietcong, presented from the Vietcong's point of view in ‘Pull Out The Pin’, a botched bank robbery sung in a cockney accent in ‘There Goes A Tenner’, the adventures of a drug smuggler in a lovely track called ‘Night of the Swallow’, and the ecological and social carelessness of the English in Australia in ‘The Dreaming.’ At times this album is beautiful, the piano led ‘Houdini’ and uplifting ‘Night of the Swallow’, and at other times dark, passionate and almost frightening in ‘Get Out Of My House’. Whilst the album is varied, it still holds together so well as a whole and has one of my favourite of all time album covers depicting a scene from one of the songs ‘With this kiss……’ in ‘Houdini’. Kate Bush remains inspirational to this day, but this one pushed the boat out more than perhaps any other and as such often remains an album you either love or hate. What we really need now is a remastered version (are you listening EMI !).

27. Kate Bush - The Dreaming (1982)

I resisted putting this album in the top 25 list, purely due to the historic stigma when I was younger that was often attached to admitting a liking for this famous group. However, listening through the deluxe edition of this CD I cannot help but admit that this is a superb set of pop songs, with a nice interlinking twist on the final 3 tracks into a musical called ‘Girl With The Golden Hair’. It contains two well known number one hits, ‘Take A Chance On Me’ and ‘Name Of The Game’ and a third track ‘Thank You For The Music’ which was never a big hit, but now is almost as well respected and popular today as their number one hits. The opening 7 minute track ‘Eagle’ is my favourite and best described as a souring piece of music with great vocals and beautiful musical melodies. The remaining songs include ‘One Man One Woman’ and ‘Move On’ both very catchy songs that will stay in your mind. This was Abba’s fifth album release, and definitely constituted a new sense of purpose with longer more complex compositions, better lyrics and orchestral arrangements and a more layered approach the vocals. It was one of the earliest albums I actually bought myself and still stands up extremely well against time. This for me was the golden age for Abba sitting alongside its predecessor release ‘Arrival’ which contained the classics ‘Dancing Queen’ and ‘Knowing Me Knowing You’.

28. Abba - The Album (1977)

Visage was a New Romantic band formed in 1978 combining Steve Strange, Rusty Egan with amongst others the Ultravox members Midge Ure and Billy Currie. Their first album release was self titled and contains one of the most famous New Romantic track ‘Fade To Grey’ which was a worldwide hit in 1980 and remains one of the highlights and most representative songs of the era. It has a moody and ambient sound and contains a female french vocal mid-way through. The overall album is a mix of standard vocal tracks sung by Steve Strange alongside some great instrumentals including ‘The Dancer’, ‘Moon Over Moscow’ and ‘The Steps’ which rank up alongside the best tracks on the album. The other real standout tracks alongside ‘Fade To Grey’ are ‘Mind Of A Toy’ which tells the sad story from the point of view of toy that has lost its appeal, and the opening song called ‘Visage’. This is a musically strong album, underpinned by sweeping electronic chords and keyboard layers and is generally fast paced in its nature. Visage did even improve upon this album with their next release called ‘The Anvil’ before fading away from the limelight as key bad members moved onto other projects.

29. Visage - Visage (1980)