Reviews (page 6 of 7)
I thought Brits were immune or allergic to boy bands? Sounds like the British pop version of Color Me Badd. It's harmless and unimpactful. Every single track sounds exactly the same; there's no tonal, lyrical or sonic variety to be found here. If the year of release was 2023 I'd assume this whole album was written and performed by ChatGPT. It should probably just stay in the $1 records value bin where it belongs.
it has everything to be good but honestly, it lacks soul
Slightly dull new wavey stuff. A lot of new wave on this list, and I have enjoyed a fair amount of it, but this one falls a bit flat for me
Fun and upbeat, some great 80's synth work going on but ultimately not as catchy as I had hoped. Put a few songs on 80's playlists though so that's a plus for it.
Although I can't deny tapping my foot to some of the bouncy, trouncy beats, overall I'm not a fan of the Michael Jackson-lite singing and this style of music. Need to go listen to some classic Who or Led Zeppelin as an antidote. 2 stars.
Started off with a bit of potential but quickly became just a background annoyance.
Dit vond ik niks
Mid 80s soul/pop album that sounds exactly like Prince and Janet Jackson sounded at that time, but without an inkling of their respective genius. Pity. 2/5
What am I missing here?
I don't have a purpose omission, I'm empty by definition.
This is like male Madonna stuff. very clinky and synthy. how ultimately dull.
Sounds dated, but I hear the innovation here.
J’ai juste trouve ca vraiment trs moyen… 2
Ei tääkään nyt lähde mulle yhtään. Tylsää 2/5
Varmaan merkittävä levy Briteissä mutta vaikea ulkopuolelta saada kiinni. En kauheesti ehtiny keskittyä sanoihin, jotka on kai hyviä. Kakkoseen jää.
It's interesting? But it's very 80s and sounds super dated. A historical curiosity but nothing more than that.
Perfect Way was lyrically interesting, but the music did absolutely nothing for me. In general, I think the issue was probably my feelings about generic 80s synth pop. The songs that were musically slightly more interesting did nothing for me lyrically. Some more boring to me on both fronts. The description says that there is preoccupation with politics in the lyrics, but that doesn’t really come across very much. Interest in words and wordplay, sure, but barely anything here seemed intensely political.
Not good. Like if the characters in a cheesy after school show like Saved By The Bell, but worse, started a band, this is the kind of throw-away music the producers would have had made for them to be their songs.
Unlistenable for me
Normally I feel like even a 1 deserves to be on here. & honestly, based on the reviews, thought this album was going to at least be memorable... There isn't anything special about this album.
Awful vocals! It sounds like he tries to sweet talk his girlfriend with a baby voice. The rest is just boring 80’s beat sounds. Defintely not an album everyone needs to hear, more like a very small segment of all people in the world.
i hated it.
For some reason I had thought Scritti Politti were a punk band and went into this without reading any reviews or the wiki page. Couldn't have been any further from punk if it tried. Bland 80s synth pop, Wham without George Michael and a whiff of Michael Jackson instead. Awful shite altogether. 1 star
This album consists of annoyingly synth-y, cheesy 80s pop. You could say it's high-energy and groovy, but it's a kind of music I dislike. Synths and bass have to be used a certain way for me to receptive to them, and this is just not it.
Scritti-Polliti Sophisti-Pop...Sub-Par!!
At the age of 13, I thought Scritti Politti were absolute scrote. All these years later, I now know that to be true. WTF are those overproduced vocals with that faux American accent? I have zero idea why this would be considered for inclusion on this list. It’s sugary 80’s pop which hasn’t aged at all well.
Boring
It's 80's pop. It's not even good 80's pop. It's filler 80's pop. It's the stuff they use in movies so you are fully aware what time they are in, and it's cheap because it's not the good stuff. Seriously generic artists like this shouldn't be on the list. There have to be better artists to highlight mid 80's pop.
I’m more than 100 albums in now… Maybe 150 or so even… And this by far was the low point of this project for me so far. I feel bad for the one star albums I gave previous to This because I’d like to rank this lower. I definitely could have avoided this before I die. I felt like it was the soundtrack to some cheesy 80s beach vibe movie. One of the few albums I gently struggled to actually listen to so far.
oh hell nah
Surely this was only played in Hallmark stores in the 80's. I don't think music could be more uninteresting. Being incredibly tame means its not necessarily repulsive though? Review: 2/10 No fave songs
Nope
No idea… that is such roulette. 85. That bodes ill. Yeah. Bad as I feared. Opened with badly used dub. And it didn’t improve. One thing I will say about this exercise is that it has exposed me to A LOT of mediocre and outright bad British pop and soft rock from the turn of the millennium. But so far the exposure to the unknown treasures from the 60s and 70s far outweighs the pain of whatever the editor of “the book” was doing to be relevant. But man… this is… yeah this is getting a 1. Maybe yesterday it was a 2 for effort and production but not today. Today it’s pissing me off. Man anything good about this was ripped directly from MJ. What’s with pop acts in the 80’s thinking it was cool to just imitate MJ? But I guess that continued…I mean God and I have three songs to go… 1 Boolean: no, definitely not
About as mundane, dated, and uninteresting as this style of music gets, it just made me want to listen to Michael Jackson or some other '80s pop artist who far excelled in this style. I just feel like it lacks a necessary boldness; the vocals feel so restricted, like the melodies here aren't sticky or sharp at all, they just sort of exist. And the production left a bad taste in my mouth because while it is lush and ever-evolving at times, it also just reeks of its time in all the worst ways, just super clunky and screams FM presets. Most definitely not for me.
OMG. Horrible. Sounds like a really bad Michael Jackson. And I don’t like Michael Jackson.Awful. And Long.
This is hideous. Save the 39 minutes of your life to do anything else.
This isn't even that bad of an album to listen to, it just feels like "one of the many" on a list dedicated to "the few" - it feels like a "perfectly fine" pop album. It's very consistent so if you like one song you should have a good listen on your hands, the hard, blunt synth sounds and the sorta loveschlock lyrics At the most positive, I would say this album at least feels a couple years later than it is, I'd put it at 1987 or 1988
this shit is so boring and ass 1
1/5 could not listen
The 80s were a rough time, huh?
Terrible, juste terrible.
Boring boring boring
dit was echt echt heel slecht en ik heb t niet afgeluisterd
dit is echt ass wrm kan hij niet zingen
This is music for a twink who's trying to fuck. It's not good. I tried to find something here, but aside from the production not being horrible, it's really not good. I mean, unless you're a Twink and you're trying to fuck and it's 1986, there's not a whole (hole) lot here. This should be relegated to the dustbin of history. To be clear: ain't no shame in being a Twink!
1,4/5
First of all, bad band name. Secondly, this album kinda sucks. It's like Party City Michael Jackson meets Savage Garden. Not a fan.
10 seconds into the first song I was prepared to give this 1 star. Synthy over bright over produced 80's pop - none of those descriptors have ever appealed to me, even back in the 80's. Well, I guess for a week in primary school I thought Transvision Vamp were good, but that passed. Scritti Politti were never on my radar then or since. So I started looking them up. "Leftist punk" was a word used to describe them, but alas, long before this album. They shifted to synth pop a long time ago. "Intellectual and political lyrics" which when I read this I was listening to the line "drowning in my teardrops (teardrops)"... OK then... (Jumping ahead here but having said all that, the lyrics to Lover To Fall were standing out a bit so I looked them up, and yes, despite the MGTOW vibes, there are some clever things going on there.) But by the time Perfect Way started, my head started to hurt. I shouldn't blame them - I'm lacking sleep, over stressed and I had a headache yesterday too - but still, I'm choosing to blame Scritti Politti for this one. But I promised my son I'd finish it. So finish it I did. And it remains 1 star. Oh, one last thing... The vocals are just terrible. It's like he's singing and mewing at the same time
The most charitable way to define this is as "lighthearted and silly 80s pop". 2/10
using up a perfectly good fake dumb band name on this trash
Tough listen. I could swear someone was recently telling me these guys were good. If I remember who that was I’m gonna give them a piece of my mind
Absolute 80’s crap
🤮I hated 80’s music, in the 80’s!!
No nyt oli paskaa. Ihan kun suoraan jostain huonosta kasarin Steve Martin -romcomista. 80-lukua huonoimmillaan. Tästä ei jäänyt mitään muistijälkeä yhdestäkään biisistä.
80's Yuppie trash... No thanx...
1.5 Scritti Politti has always been, like, a joke band to me. An awful name, and I’ve always heard their music is bad and embarrassing! Hey, the world was right! This is terrible and should not be on the list! Glad I don’t have to listen to it ever again!
Not my thing at all
It feels like the worst sins of '80s pop all thrown together.
Nothing here warrants inclusion on this list. 1 star
Why is this here?
Scrotum Politti. Should I be offended by something that is this soft?
Unbearable, hated everything about this.
sickly sweet, bland, and stereotypically 80's. not for me.
👎👎
Album #77: Cupid & Psyche 85 - Scritti Politti Genre (W): Pop, synth-pop, art pop, electro-funk, blue-eyed soul, sophisti-pop, R&B, bubblegum pop, pop-soul Singles: Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin), Absolute, Hypnotize, The Word Girl, Perfect Way I have not listened to this album before. Thoughts?: This feels so dated. I hate the way it sounds and the way it just imitates other, better bands from the 80’s that at least tried. I don’t know where the “art” is in this supposed art pop album. Boring and underwhelming. Favorite songs: None of them.
this was pretty not great.
🤔
Even though I listened to the entire album, it felt like I didn't. Nothing stuck out to me that wasn't already done by every other 80's artist.
The best bits are a poor man’s Prince, the worst bits a skint yuppie’s hangover.
cheesy as fk
This is nothing, but also very annoying. Nothing has confused me this much as to why anyone would think I needed to hear it.
This album was not good, in between his vocals and the electronics and it all sounding the same. They are a bad version of Wham, who were not great in and of themselves.
I could do better which I should not say about an album that is “worthy” of such a list like this
In a nutshell: an assault of the senses This was a surreal listening experience and I really don't understand how such a pretentious piece of music became a hit in the UK. It's a strange mix of Culture Club, Wham! and Prince with lots of Fairlight-CMI. And I mean LOTS. Can someone check if that Fairlight okay? Overall: 2/10
This was the first album this site suggested to me. Make of that what you will.
Pretty awful. Sounds like a weird pastiche of Michael Jackson done by some White English guys. No idea why it's in the book.
Hated it
Sad that I have been introduced to them.
Typical 80 album. Nothing special
Obladi oblada
Very generic 80s synth pop. Not my jam
Oh great. 80s brit-pop. Gross.
The only thing I liked about this album was the band's name.
well wasnt that boring?
This is terrible.
Enough with the New Wave!
Gross. Threw up in my mouth.
Sounds like music for a Caribbean vacation advert. Didn't finish the album. Hard pass.
Not an enjoyable experience!
Schifezza Monnezza
I put up with a lot of shit from Brit-Pop, but this I cannot abide.
The music sounds like it's written to make money. The production is overlayered and unpleasant, the vocals are extremely weak. I don't like to feel like I'm consuming a product when I'm listening to music, and this feels like an unabashed attempt at it. To add insult to injury, it's not even well crafted.
Awful
Still better than nick cave
1.3
Embarrassed to admit I had this on cassette as an early teenager. Couldn’t be gayer. It’s just so over the top.
Euro pop. Ugh
🌽🏀
synthowe studium milosci i duszy czlowieczej
AI, generate generic 80s thrash pop
First impression is they are the most formulated 80s band of all time. Little techno fills and wannabe iconic lines. Also why does he try and make his voice sound like that, can’t be natural.
I think this is one of those albums that people love because they feel nostalgic about it. Like, you had to be there to get it. I wasn’t there, so i clearly don’t get it.
This is he had another example of why the 80s are the worst decade music. Yet another synth pop record that is both repetitive and uninspiring infected with reggae beats that would make Bob Marley turn in his grave.
Had surgery recently, not listening to music while I cook. I'm falling behind.
Bland.
Oh HELL no what kind of white bread nonsense is this? I've had mayo sandwiches more interesting than this. Albums like this make me seriously question why I should consider this 1001 albums list worth my time at all. It's almost like whoever "curated" the list just grabbed anything that happened to chart in the last 50 years, assuming that makes the album worth listening to. It really doesn't. There's been some good stuff on this list here and there but then this? Come on, man.
Spotify shows credits now, including mixing engineer where available. Since there is a mix engineer credited on some tracks, I am sure the ones without such a credit simply didn't have one. Some of the levels here are bafflingly severe. The 2022 remaster is sonically better, but there's only so much that can be done to this production. Aside from that, my favorite parts were the instrumental sections. 15 albums in, I am realizing the point of the 1001 Albums journey is not to hear 1001 great works of timeless art, but to become well versed in the difference between good and bad music.
Lol I was gonna give this a two but the I listened again. A lot of people say this sounds like a worse version of George Michael, but I think it sounds like a worse version of the Communards! I’m not opposed to this style of music but there’s nothing exciting about this album. Also most of the band’s Wikipedia page is about how the dude’s a sellout.
I'm feeling bad about giving the Style Council one star now, because this is clearly worse by some quite large measure. I hate the weedy vocals on it so much.
I don't know what this is
I've never listened to this album before, but I've heard it a million times. Standard 80s pop filled with drum machines and surprisingly little synths. hum-drum
I’m a very open minded music listener but this was so bad I almost quit the 1001 albums. Rate it a zero if I could.
getting back on the horse with doing this project is much harder when your first album back is this absolute fucking drivel
I was expecting much better from this list. This is awful.
This album is one of the 10,000 Hells on earth. We may imagine that listening to this album serves only a few wicked purposes. One of those purposes is to remind us of what is playing in the background of Jean-Paul Sartre's play No Exit.
I just gave Michael Jackson's Off the Wall 2 stars because I didn't think it was good. If we start there and penalize Scritti Politti one star for blatant fraudulence then we are done here. No thought required just morals and math.
More New Wave?!?! Music critics are dumber than usual over 80s music. This has to be a joke. This is like the song created for Teen Titans Go! Or like if AI was asked to create music created by a terrible white 80s R&B band from the UK. These lyrics make Color Me Badd look like Bob Dylan. This is the worst 80s R&B. This has no business on this list and whatever critic put it on there should not be allowed near any form of music. These guys might have done the entire soundtrack to Short Circuit. Wood Beez, these guys suck at everything. This is white knock-off New Edition. I like cheesy 80s R&B and this sucks. El DeBarge...that's why it reminds me of Short Circuit! The homeless man's El DeBarge.
You don’t need Prince and MJ. We have Prince and MJ at home. There was a time before this album came out. It was a better time
This has aged really badly… and I don’t think it was very good before the decay of time.
Shitti Politti more like. An abysmal album of soft rock/pop tinged with faux funk and reggae syncopation, wham-esque vocals, and some of the worst excesses of the 80s all thrown into the pot. A horrible use of samples and synth patches with an attempt to provide what I presume to be ‘texture’ to the songs but made it sound clustered and clash with itself. Listen to the breakdown 3 minutes into ‘perfect way’ and explain to me how the hell this managed to make its way onto this list. Fuming.
This sounds like the soundtrack of a 1980 b movies. Didnt pass test of time. Sounds outdated and boring.
More New Wave?!?! Music critics are dumber than usual over 80s music. This has to be a joke. This is like the song created for Teen Titans Go! Or like if AI was asked to create music created by a terrible white 80s R&B band from the UK. These lyrics make Color Me Badd look like Bob Dylan. This is the worst 80s R&B. This has no business on this list and whatever critic put it on there should not be allowed near any form of music. These guys might have done the entire soundtrack to Short Circuit. Wood Beez, these guys suck at everything. This is white knock-off New Edition. I like cheesy 80s R&B and this sucks. El DeBarge...that's why it reminds me of Short Circuit! The homeless man's El DeBarge.
This album is so boring that I pondered hurting myself a little just to escape its masturbatory dullness. By the way, I recommend reading their Spotify bio - you can really picture Green Gartside trying to suck himself off after writing each line. Amazing!
Cheesy 80s music at its worst.
pass
Could be the music of any movie of Eddie Murphy in the 80’s
WHY IS THIS LIST OBSESSED WITH LOUSY BRITISH POP
This went from sounding like really bad tiki bar music to someone doing a terrible George Michael impersonation. “Perfect Way” had some airplay back in the day so I guess that’s what landed it on this list, but man that’s a low bar. Rounding down out of respect for the 2.5’s that got rounded down. 1.5/5
This made me yearn for deafness. Like a shittier version of music that sucks.
I don't know how many 80s British "post-punk to bubblegum pop" bands I can take. I got Orange Juice's Rip It Up yesterday, which I enjoyed and gave four stars, but this is just noxious. Give me some dour, anxious, angular music!
this is the most mediocre thing i’ve heard from the 80’s…. it’s like a bad copy of things done in a much better way. is this hallmark’s version of the 80’s? why is this on the list? a question i’ve asked myself many times on this project so far. i did find myself rather enjoying “absolute” but i couldn’t help it. 1/5 - i’m in a harsh mood ⭐️
Ah, an album from way back, when artists suddenly had all sort of new buttons to press, knobs to twist and pedals to, err, pedal. And this artist decided to try them all. Way back then, I might have rated this higher than I am going to today, but it hasn’t aged well at all. It now just sounds like a soppy electronic mush.
this is painfully mid and infuriating at times. i don't understand how it got on this list in the first place. absolute is the only actually listenable song
As suggested via another review, this feels like the soundtrack to an unmade Police Academy movie. I would much rather have listened to an hour of the Police Academy guy making cool sounds than this soft-core sonic sodomy.
ni
I think I had this group and milli vanilli merged into one band. When I realised I thought that must be an insult to scritti... But this was rubbish, so I'm not sure. It was like listening to a guy who wanted to make a Michael Jackson album, but with the voice, songs or production value. I vaguely remember a bit early on in the album that might have been worth commenting on, but it wasn't a positive thing and it was all so forgettable I've even forgotten my complaint. Apparently their early stuff was a Marxist punk band. I think that would have been much better.
Really can't find any enjoyment in this. Boring 80s vocals, poppy synth, very low energy.
Maybe I'm in a bad mood but I'm so sick of the 80's chud on this list. Awfully dated, redundant and forgetful. Occasional shred of melodic prowess but lost to some stupid 80's musical trope.
Hated everything about this. Everything that’s bad about 80s pop all rolled up into one terrible package
Was happy when it finished.
Oh my lord what a pity.
Objectively bad album. It’s the stuff of 80’s montages, synthetic slap bass, and vocals inspired by Milli Vanilli and Michael Jackson’s worst day. I have no idea why this is on the list; hopefully it’s a message to never repeat it, but I’m afraid there are more surprises. 0.3/5
Holy hell, this was bad. It was like a parody of a parody of 1980s pop music. So vanilla and lifeless, I literally respect this author so much less because he put this on here. This “band” listened to a lot of Hall & Oates and Michael Jackson and said, “Hey, that stuff is too hardcore. Let’s tone it down a bit.” This album is just spamming the synth and easy listening beat and doing fuck else. Scritti Politti (god, what a shit band name) will be joining the Hall of Shame as my seventh 1/5
156/1001 Scritti Politti - Cupid & Psyche 85 Heard before? ❎️ Revisit? ❎ This whole album feels like a turned down Michael Jackson tribute album without the vocal talent or anything remotely resembling a decent tune. Too polished, too cheesy. If I thought the Steve Winwood album earlier in the week represented everything I disliked, this takes it down to a whole new low. This is truly abysmal stuff.
Dreadful. Praying that this the worst inclusion in the list. 0.5/5
I instantly hate this.
Bargain bin 80's.
Sanitized 80's bubblegum pop. Can't say it's bad, structured songs that can get your head bouncing. They aren't poorly written songs or anything. But I can definitely say that it's not for me. Probably not for anyone who didn't subscribe to Teen Beat or Tiger Beat.
The album feels like mundane synthpop. In a way, it sort of encapsulates my general dislike of 80s pop - monotonous chord progressions, repetitive melodies, the same beat on everything. On top of it, the singing sounds like a parody of MJ and Prince.
Wow this is a very 80's sound. I don't really love it though, it feels like the stereotypical 80's tones but with none of the charm that made the decade so special. The compositions are pretty bland and lack any of the big over the top moments. Oddly it sounds a bit like some B versions of Michael Jackson's worst songs.. I really didn't like this... hate to do it but it's a 1 for me and I really don't think it should be on the list.
I don't know how to Politti-ly say this but Scritti Politti sucks. More like Shitti Politti
no thank you 1/5
I can understand the appeal, but I find the dancing parts a bit clunky, and it's so, SO much rooted in the 80's it's almost painful to listen at times.
AI slop didn't exist in 1985. Which leaves us with two options. 1) This was recently generated by AI and subsequently inserted into music history by also generating Wiki articles, reviews, and so on. 2) Scritti Politti were way ahead of their time because they managed to foresee and emulate AI slop at a time when people still thought of Salvador Dalí when you were talking about images with weirdly shaped and numbered hands and fingers.
Spent all of the 80’s avoiding this stuff and just when I thought it was safe to come out again some despot puts it on this list forcing me to grab Tales From Topgraphic Oceans to cleanse my soul. 1/5 16/11/25
The only thing this album inspired me to do was look up a thesaurus for words similar to awful. Some examples included horrendous, dreadful, ghastly, atrocious, hideous, abhorrent, repugnant, wretched, abysmal, loathsome, woeful and pitiful. Any of those words would be apt descriptions for this putrid album.
It's giving Goofy Movie - and not in a good way.
In 3 words: 80's movie montage.
This starts out awful, but don't worry, it eventually gets even worse. The score from the Police Academy movies are more interesting than this.
80’s pop rubbish Not for me
Couldn’t even get thru 2 songs. New wave British pop crap
Just awful
Boy band vibes. Very '85 synth pop sound and N-Sync/Backstreet Boys vocal style. Wouldn't be surprised if those bands pulled inspiration from Scritti Politti. Personally this is my least liked genre/style so my rating will be bias. 3/10, wouldn't listen to again, and none of the songs made it on my playlist.
okay pbs kids
Soooo, not sure why this band is here they weren’t even a major mover and shaker in 80s British pop, they are certainly no Duran Duran, or even Wham. Jeez I cant stand this, the synths just hurt my head. I have now started screaming in a high-pitched voice MAKE IT STOP and this is from someone who feels pop is a perfectly acceptable musical genre. How much did Scritti or Politti pay to have their album here. That is the question. Yet this album did get great reviews across the board and so I am flummoxed, for me this is meaningless pap. I rest my case.
This is not what I thought this band was for some reason. I really did not care for this. The upbeat songs were listenable but the show ones were quite insipid.
God, I just hate the 80s drum sounds. I'm interested, furthermore, in what makes an album worthy of being listened to before the listener's eventual, inevitable death. Is ¨And Out Come the Wolves,¨ ¨Illmatic,¨ or ¨Nervous Breakdown¨ on this list? Why is this? So I can imagine a fucking redhead in a John Hughes movie walking down a high school hall? I remembered correctly that Scritti Politti began as a leftist punk band and slowly evolved into the dated 80s mess I'm currently listening to. I'm happy musicians can make money, but what about making timeless records? ¨Never Mind the Bollocks?¨ Timeless. ¨London Calling?¨ Timeless. The first five Ramones albums? Timeless. ¨Cupid & Psyche 85?¨ Like a mosquito trapped in amber used to regenerate dinosaurs, it sounds fossilized. Best songs: ¨Hypnotize¨ because it's the last one
Love a lot of 80’s synth music, but this is just bad.
nahhh
Wow that’s bland
I thought the first song on this was alright. Not good exactly, but it kind of had a bit of that 80s pop reggae flair. After that though, it went down hill really quickly. This is almost like a parody of 80s pop music -- it takes all the elements that make 80s pop cheesy and beats them to death throughout the album. It's hard to believe there's actual instruments on this album (including the great Robert Quine), because everything sounds processed to within an inch of its life. 1.5 stars.
Very cool
No. This is not the album I am looking for.
I like 80s music but this is just corny. I had the urge to skip every song, not one thing I liked on this album
This was an odd one, it sounded like a parody of the 80s and the first few songs that singer’s voice had me thinking wtf is this. I thought “Lover to Fall” was the best song. But that’s because something about it reminded me of NEPO and The O, so at least it put me in the right direction to listen to those guys all day. I didn’t like this, but I didn’t find it offensive or unlistenable, that warrants 2 stars, right? But I don’t think this should be on the list, so 1 star.
That first song, The World Girl, doing the faux reggae just killed me. Honestly, I thought there was nothing redeeming about this. I'm not even sure this was good for the time.
This album is what happens when the weird lonely kid creates a YouTube channel but instead of being a hidden gem, it’s every bit as bad as you might imagine.
Shite
Excruciatingly awful. Could not finish.
Shitti politti
This was pretty terrible with no redeemable qualities at all.
I would expect better from Gramsci fans.
80s synth pop hell, this was so bad it made me feel nauseous.
Yeah this is pretty much the epitome of 80s pop. Not the good kind either. The generic, synthy stuff with no hooks. The kinda stuff that would be playing nonstop at a mall, or in the background during a tutorial video. It's cringe. But who am I to say, I was born in the 90's.
Nope.
boring af lyrics make me want to throw up
Ooft. Painful and boring
Looked up the band out of curiosity and basically everything the Wiki said on them pointed to Punk/Post-Punk roots. This album is 100% not that
Perfect Way sounds so so much like the much better song Who's Johnny (she said, you know I love you)
The fact that this album had any traction at all is a testament to how popular Michael Jackson was in the 80s. The only explanation I can think of for anyone listening to this is that people were so desperate to anything close to MJ that even this F-minus high school talent show impression was somewhat popular.
WTH is this crap
Look, at my age, life is too short to listen to this.
I just can't remember a thing about this generic shit I've just listened. Absolutely no edge to it. Cringe vocals. Extremely decaffeinated. Hard pass.
Apple Music says this is post punk??
Nice to see that yuppies also get some representation on the list
vauvvan ensimmäinen albumi onneksi olkoon sanoin ensin! sitten kammottava totuus paljastui: miesmäinen henkilö tehnyt tämän albumin. sitten luin että wales, from wales and welsh. sitten ymmärsin paremmin. siellähänpäin kaikilta miehiltä leikataan testikaalit poikuudessa. ulkomailta tuodaan miehiä siittämään naiset että eivät sukupuuttoon jää. outo paikka tuo WALES. joka ikinen ''mies'' siis ilman testikaaleja siellä vähän itseäni ihmetyttää että mikä historiallinen ja kulttuurillinen konventio tuottanut tämän että ei haluta partaa kasvattaa... röökiä polttaa... salilla käyä... noh albumista tota paskahan se on. dont work that hard
A really bad way to start the album challenge; genuinely did not know if I could get past the second song. Same formula over and over again!
This is like a super terrible wannabe Michael Jackson and it being British is the only reason I can think of for it being on this list. Absolute dog shit. Listening to this just made me mad and now I have to go scrub my ears out
I am clearly completely missing the point on this one but a pop album without one solitary bop, not a fan
It sounds like the second song that features on a 90s Disney film credits.
Sometimes I pop across an album on this list that I truly don't understand what it's doing here. This is one of them. I feel like someone heard Wham! and thought, fuck, I could do that even though my voice is annoying and I have no musical talent. And here we are.
Yeah, not a fan of this. This is my first 1 star rating. It just sounds so dated and not innovative. I'm sure it was at the time, but it's like all kind of awful 80s synths and the Brit-boy singing. Not my cup of tea at all.
Utter turd
Awful even by 1980s standards
Too 80's for me. DNF. 1/5
I physically felt sick, like when you eat too much candy. So repetitive it seemed like torture at some point. And I can't tell which one is torturing my ears the most, the male vocalist or the synthetizer+drums combo. By far the only redeeming factor are the feminine vocals. Fav. Track: Flesh and Blood.
Why? WHY is this a must-listen album???!!!! What a mediocre waste of time.
This is white nonsense and the singer's voice gives me the ick. Hated almost every minute of this.
I'm sure the experts can explain why this album is listed. I hated bunk pop in the kid 80s and hate it now.
Yuck. All the cheesy nonsense of the 80's with nothing fun to offering a bit of saving grace. I can't think of single reason I would ever listen to this again.
< the Beatles I'm not rewarding this British boring completely unnecessary bullshit with kind ratings anymore. Albums like this prove that the people who put this list together worked decently hard for about 30 minutes coming up with albums from around the world that are unique and worth listening to and then for the rest of the 786 albums put their favorite British band albums that they remember from their childhood.
what the actual fuck.
"Perfect Way" has always been a good track for any cheesy 80s playlist, but even by cheesy 80s standards, this album as a whole is bottom-of-the-barrel generic junk. I get the feeling some music exec walked up to a random musician and said "I'll give you a big bag of money if you write and record an entire album over the weekend . . . And don't you dare take any singing lessons before you do it!" After hearing the entire album, I'm not sure I can even enjoy "Perfect Way" anymore.
I can easily think of 1,001 albums from the 80s that are way better than Scritti Politti!
No va
Noooope.
Idk what they are going for, me not like. Songs are quiet, slow and repetitive.
Vilken skit
yo this not good
Thoughts before listening: English post-punk band I believe. I don't know much about them, but I do recognize the name which is hard to forget. I guess I have always assumed they were overly political with the second part of their name, but thats really just a guess. Review: Wait what? This is not what I was expecting at all. According to the band's bio, they apparently started as a "punk adjacent" band but quickly morphed into top 40 pop hitmakers. This album is from after the sound change. This sucks. Its the cheesiest 80s sound possible. How did this make the list? I haven't given a 1-star rating in a while, but this deserves it.
Every 80s cliche going. Only 30 minutes long but this is painful
Bad George Michael
Unlistenable. Bad.
Track 1 - grown British men cosplaying as the Jackson 5 or something? Track 2 - feels like a soundtrack to a shitty 80s action comedy Track 3 - sounds like someone experimenting around with their new Casio keyboard, but somehow the best track so far… Track 4 - utterly forgettable Track 5 - more shitty soundtrack music, but this is for the montage Track 6 - ok I’ve heard this one before, probably back in the 80s. I hated it then, too. Track 7 - more weird Jacksonesque shit with cheesy synth and horn flourishes Track 8 - not terrible, and at least now there’s a light at the end of the dayglo tunnel Track 9 - a pretty bad song to end on, but fits the “end credits” vibe so I guess it makes sense. Overall? Really bad. I can’t believe Gartside still performs under the Scritti Politi name. I’d be so embarrassed by this album I’d fake my own death, change my name, and move to the Faroe Islands or something.
1 - bad
Suuuuuuuuuuuucks
Not for me
Bufff
Nothing for me here.
I’ll pile on. No reason for this to exist. Not even Perfect Way - a nominally passable pop song - saves the juvenile and cloying cringefest that this album is. Boom! 💥 Roasted!
Sometimes the pioneers are exceeded by their followers so much they don’t seem to be anything special. This is one of those cases. Horrible 80s synth bass.
Terrible, bad, blech! Sounds like an asthmatic Michael Jackson!
Flock of seagulls is this bands fault?
Wow, that was... something. Very music. Much sounds. 100% not my type of music.
just terrible
3/10 This album sounds like it was designed to annoy me.
Boring synth pop
2/10 Little to redeem this. It is everything I dislike about 80s pop - it's music with the soul removed.
1/5 not a fan
What absolute garbage
Sounds like everything bad about 80s music was shoved into a bag then left in the sun to rot. Sounds like 80s music had a baby with its sister. Sounds like the soundtrack to Prettiest in Pink, written and directed by John Hughes’ neighbor and with none of the cast from the first two movies, but starring a Molly Ringwald look-alike. Do you ever make orange juice from one of those cardboard tube cans of frozen concentrate that calls for one can of concentrate and one can of water, only you added three cans of water? Sounds like the 80s music version of that. Sounds like I fell into a wormhole that took me to an alternate 1980s where instead of neon everyone was wearing pastel and they were
Not my thing
Really?
didn't like this at all, more crappy 80's pop, nothing but beige on beige
Imagine if Wham! sucked ass. The word girl was painfully boring. I was begging for small talk to end. Absolute finally has a cool instrumental but is 20 years long. Right back to boring for a little knowledge. Don't Work That Hard at ripping Prince off, am I right? Perfect way is listenable but again, 5 minutes? Lover to Fall asleep, am I right? Wood Beez is alright but I feel like I'm truly trapped in hell at this point. Hypnotize is fine and perhaps the only song that didn't feel like it overstayed its welcome. I hope I never have to hear anything on this album ever again. Garbage.
The first song got me somewhat excited for a Sublime-like album. It then flipped into garbage 80s "pop", and it went downhill from there. After first listen, I was planning on giving this a 2 after a second listen; however, I can't find myself to do that, so I'm dropping it to a strong 1. Nothing stood out. I tried listening to the vocals, but had to stop because they were so bad. 10/10 do not recommend.
One minute it's shitty wham, next it's shitty MJ, then it's some other shitty rip. How does an album like this get on this list? What context am I missing here? This is so bad. This may be the worst album I've ever heard. Why the fuck shouldn't I be able to die without hearing this? Only positive is that it isn't that long. Holy shit this thing sucked. Listening to it is a human rights violation, they should be playing this at gitmo
What happens when you mix desecration of your beliefs with S Club Juniors. I am angry, sad, and resigned in equal measure. The definitive sell-out album. What nothing to offer. What a fucking waste.
They all sound incredibly embarrassed to be making this music, as well they should be. A lot of commenters mentioned what this sounds like. To me, it's the rehearsal tape of an 80's high school band preparing for their first high school talent show, 24 hours before they get unceremoniously heckled off stage.
Horror show 80s production; white kid funk and island music out through a blender of super-80s synth. Unlistenable.
Gonna be honest, couldnt even get halfway through this thing (although I did skim the later songs just to confirm I wouldn't like those either). This album feels like it was specifically designed for me to hate it. It's excruciatingly 80's. You couldn't make a more 80's sounding record. The vocalist is insufferable to my ears and it's like they tried to take every 80's music trope, sound, and production technique, and cram them all into one 40 minute album. Like they took a soundboard of every cliche 80's sound that exists and made sure to hit every button on the board.
Boring instrumentals, terrible singer and cheesy lyrics. Every song sounds like a discarded Disney song. Yeah I think I hate this
Forgettable, bad, why is this here
Shortest album ever because I only listened to each song for about 20 seconds. Hated it.
This shit is so goddamn 80's. Transports me into the drive-in restaurant scene of Footloose immediately. It all sounds the same....doesn't feel like any emotion - just going through a formulaic process. Wouldn't seek out, wouldn't listen again. Also what the hell is a Scritti Politti?
Double meh. Even the hits were unremarkable. 1/5
could i write poetry to this? n
Glad to know that my opinion of this band has not changed in forty years. It's everything wrong with 80's music in one package.
5 songs in and I’m still waiting for good song. This may be one of the worst albums I’ve ever heard. This is not boding well….it’s confirmed. This is up there with one of the worst. I’ll never get that 38 minutes and 48 seconds back.
Starting off with white boy reggae is not a good way for me to like your album
I hate low stakes 80s pop that uses the chintziest sounds possible.
Dear God No!
NO
This has the "We have Michael Jackson at home" vibes. Great Britain in the 1980s seemed obsessed with synthesizer reggae. I would appreciate this way more if this was an instrumental album, but these vocals creep me out. The song Lover to Fall angers me.
One of purest representations of '80s music I've ever heard. It might have been just right for the time, but I just don't think it holds up. It's honestly hard on my ears. I made it all the way through, but only just barely.
Pretty sure you really have to love 80s music to enjoy this. Unfortunately, I do not.
I'm not surprised I've never heard of this band. Christgau is obviously a big fan of this insipid British New Wave stuff considering how much I've heard in my first 100 albums, but I mostly can't stand it and frankly I'm tired of it showing up here. Don't Work That Hard is the worst song I've ever heard that features slap bass.
Really didn’t enjoy this. Really bland and flat.
Corny 80s ish
This played as an overly slick and dated attempt at blue eyed rnb. It seemed a little soulless and quite frankly, boring and forgettable.
Went by without rembering a single detail or hook. That's fine but for a pop record was expecting a memorable moment. Not my favourite genre or period but still I couldn't wait for it to finish
Oh God... I hate this. Sounds like Milli Vanilli but much much worse. And that's their voice. So no excuse.
Another album of this kind. Who is going to listen to this? An 80s album to run away from. All I can say is: ugh, ugh, ugh! That definitely means minus three stars
A whole album of 80s TV theme songs. Still no Seger
Tedious dross
bad
This album checks a lot of 80s music boxes in terms of instrumentation. Vocals are all the same. To me, a forgettable album. It's not bad, just boring. No idea why it's on this list.
An album I started and then four songs in thought “I don’t care” and turned it off
Written by someone who's only been exposed to a Michael Jackson slow jam cover band and performed using only a toy Casio keyboard. Somehow this is rotting my teeth.
Wow that was horrible. It kinda sounds like Michael Jackson singing over a goofy synth pop sound on repeat.
A snapshot in time musically that I'd rather forget. Can't stand the 80s production.
D'une immense platitude. On dirait la version Walmart de Wham! ou de n'importe quel contemporain générique. Le gros "single" ne m'a même pas paru différent du reste de l'album et était particulièrement oubliable. Vraiment une perte de temps et aucune raison que cet album apparaisse ici. Clairement un choix personnel de l'auteur. 2.5/10
What kind of crap was that? The 80s were really weird. Strange music developed and strange oddballs crawled out from under their rocks. But there were also great things. This album is not one of them. My life would be nothing poorer if I had never heard of the band and the album. This purring, irrelevant and boring pop even managed to fail as background music. The album got on my nerves so much that I only played 3 tracks and then switched it off in frustration. 1/5
Did NOT LIKE
This was a sort of innocuous 80's album that stood out not at all to me. One or two tracks seemed vaguely familiar. I sort of hoped it was an album that had barely made the cut...
I had deep hatred for '80s music prior to starting 1001. That's because I assumed the all 80's music sounded like this band. Fortunately, I found out I was wrong. I discovered a load of decent 80's music such as, The Go-Go's / The Police / The The / Violent Femmes / Minor Threat / Halen / AC/DC / The Cult / Jesus & Mary Chain / Pixies / The Cure and a couple others. It's not all bad, just most of it.
This is why I hate the 80s. Well, and Ronald Reagan.
Not if this was the 10,001 albums list.
1. uuorld - 1 2. talk - 1 3. abzolute - 1 4. knouuledge - 1 5. hard - 1 6. perfect - 1 7. lover - 0 8. uuood - 1 9. hypnotize - 0
1
Man, I really hated this. It sounded like the music from an 80s movie, but a shitty 80s movie
Synth-pop twaddle. This album embodied everything I hated about 80's music.
Not only is this not for me, the album absolutely sucks
Move over Brotherhood of Man. Bugger off William Shakespeare (horrendous Australian singer back in mid-70s). We have a new candidate for worst song of all time: THIS WHOLE ALBUM! Every '80s cliche fronted by the most embarrassing voice since Crazy Frog. Somehow I avoided this nightmare back in the day and I know to avoid them now. It feels like a caster oil enema just exploded in my ears.
absolute chore to get through this
Shit, Shit, Shit. Shame on anyone that gave this atrocity anything over a one, come on, you can't be serious.
The artist title is more memorable than the artist's tracks. That being said, I've heard Perfect Ways more times than necessary.
Not my thing
Cupid & Psyche 85 by Scritti Politti is often praised for its groundbreaking production, but when the polish outshines the songs, that’s a red flag. Once a band with post-punk roots, this album cemented Green Gartside’s solo takeover, erasing their earlier sound in favour of slick, radio-friendly pop. Partnering with producer Arif Mardin and keyboardist David Gamson, Gartside crafted a pristine sonic landscape, drawing inspiration from Thriller. Indeed, the album is a marvel of digital sampling and MIDI sequencing, arguably one of the most finely-tuned pop records of its time. But is that a compliment? While the production is pristine, the songs mostly range from average to merely good, but they’re hardly memorable. The hyper-produced sheen feels cold and emotionally distant, and despite all the technical brilliance, there’s little hint of heart. Session musicians fill the album, adding a “clock-in, clock-out” feeling that drains the tracks of further energy. Gartside’s philosophical musings are often touted, but if postmodernism or Marxism exist here, they're buried too deep to matter. Furthermore, it’s cheeky to claim Marxist ideals while ousting your original bandmates and chasing a purely commercial sound. Many of these songs sound like leftovers of Prince’s leftovers—tracks that wouldn’t even make his vault. In a decade full of timeless synth-pop and new wave, Cupid & Psyche 85 feels stuck in its own era, offering little to listeners beyond a slick and vapid snapshot of 1985. Did/Do I own this release? God no! Does this release belong on the list? God no! Would this release make my personal list? God no! Will I be listening to it again? God no!
Not good.