Penthouse And Pavement

After listening to this, I contemplated jumping out of the window of my penthouse only to land head first on the pavement below. Actually that thought occurred AS I was listening to it. Regardless that these guys shared members with the Human League, how the hell some of these albums make the list is beyond comprehension. Even if heaven existed in 17 different realms, I’m sure this album would not be included in any of them.

What an inclusion from the wiki on this: “It has since been regarded as ‘an important outing’”. Wow really makes you think. This album cover goes hard, GUYS DOING BUSINESS. But this was painful. Sounds like someone just got their Casio keyboard and has mastered the art of annoying you with every stock sound included.

You know how when something is not very good but it inspires someone to create something good. I don’t know if that’s the case but with this being early 80s maybe it influenced other music in that decade. I don’t know. That’s about the only nice thing I could say.

I’m perplexed. Flummoxed even. No clue why this album is on the list. As far as I can tell it was not popular, not critically acclaimed, has no hits, and isn’t particularly influential in the world of synth pop. So….what are we even doing? Sounds like a cheap rip off of the Lambda Lambda Lambda battle of the bands set. The album cover is pretty awesome, tho, in that so bad it’s good kinda way. 1.5/5

Voornamelijk lege interessant doenerij

Early UK synth pop

Should have just put a Pavement album here instead of whatever this was attempting to be. This was not very good at all and way too long. Think it said the genre was rock and pop. Not true. The crazy debate going on in my head right now is who did it worse, the Dylan album yesterday (really any Dylan album) or these guys? And I see another Radiohead album coming up? WTF? I suppose I had this coming after several 4 star albums. I'm guessing the next album I see will be another Neil Young. Sheesh......I guess if I gave Dylan negative stars, these guys deserve none. So zero it is...... 0

answering the question “what if thomas dolby was 11 years old and got a keyboard for christmas”

On release the public didnt like it, the critics didn't like it and it sold sod all so let's put it on the list??? The authors desperate need to convince us he's a musical intellectual is starting to get a bit stupid now.

Another truly dire album

Not good

No. Not well-received by charts or critics? Fantastic. This is a great experiment if you wondered what Talking Heads would be like without any actual talent. Every once in a while, I’d think a certain riff was decent… and then they’d repeat it for five minutes until I hated them even more. Why?

This should remain in 1981. No reason to bring it back. Yes it's got the 80s vibes but there are so many 80s soundtracks that are much better at it.

I value my life more than keep listening more than 5 tracks of this album. Not amused at all.

Outhouse..

Like a cross between Oingo Boingo, Devo, Wang Chung, and NPR. I liked a few tracks but most of it wasn't good, certainly not for 1.25 hours

Kein Folk - erster Stern. Ansonsten gibt es nur noch einen Punkt zu klären: Wie(so) hat es das Album in diese Liste geschafft?

Oh boy, that started off strong. So much keytar. I feel like if you took out the lyrics, it would be kinda cool background music.

Noise

Talking Heads did it better. Every song on this album sounds the same. No point in even ranking them.

Nice

No Thanks!

Phew. Especially the production really didn't do anything for me. It just sounds so sterile and lacklustre.

Not my thing

Þetta er ekki skemmtilegt .....

Too repetitive, pretty mindless lyrics. Musically, maybe it was a new sound in 81?

does not cllick with me

Do not like electronic.

Doesn't hold up well and I generally enjoy synth pop. Tough to get through and found it extremely jarring

La verdad es que no

#106. Big oof. This manages to be both terrible and full of pretentious twattery. 1/5: Surely no one likes this, right? Song added to playlist: Play To Win I've created a playlist on Spotify that consists of the best and/or my favorite song from each of the albums in this book. This list can be found here if you are interested: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7MAXDGLWlwLkFLb8veGfkA?si=FqkQQPgZTFWG0jAUJXLFZA&utm_source=copy-link

More like Hustler and Bullshit

Please don’t recommend me this type of music again

Didn't like this at all, fascist groove is ok

I remember when this first came out in the early 80s and how exciting it sounded along with Gary Numan, The Human League, Gang of Four etc. This was the newest thing from England and it was so different. Fast forward to today and it sounds embarrassingly dated and archaic. Fun fact, the name Heaven 17 was first mentioned in Stanley Kubrick‘s movie Clockwork Orange, when the main protagonist goes into a record shop and names off a few fictional band names to impress a girl who he’s trying to pick up. Did I say that this is horribly dated?

For techno pop that was a hard listen. It did not have a beat you could dance to and felt disjointed.

Not for me. At all.

I'm missing some quality here

I honestly hated this. Maybe it was groundbreaking at the time. Only positive was it was only 38 minutes long.

Too tech funk 80’s. Hard pass.

I tend to like synth pop but I found this album very grating. I don’t feel like it’s aged well.

Not my thing.

Nothing special.

this album has a lot of dead spots. its a little too synth-poppy (although its to be expected), like they just kinda noodle around on the keys a bit too much at times and can overwhelm the song. the vocals are pretty off. like they were more interested in making statements than you know, music.

Oh god, the production is way too generic 80s for me.

The only strong suit I can see is that, if the instrumentals were improved, the hooks on this could be so much better. The sparse, plastic-sounding instrumentals bring it all the way down to the basement, exposing the flaws of the vocals. In a list cluttered with synth pop records, this one definitely didn't need to be here. Small concession: I do like how the final track cuts out midway through repeating "For a very long time!" Pretty funny.

terrible

stupid politics, fake funk, and the shit side of 80s production

Ho boy this isn't good

0. Shit. Rubbish. That's not even music, it's CRAP.

It's got everything one wants in an early '80s classics – synths that sound like a Pong game, naive politics, sprockets-esque vocals. One can just about smell the gelled-up hair and flipped-up collars down the decades. Musically, it's plenty bouncy but totally soulless and also quite annoying. One senses the ambition for polyphonically oriented innovation or complexity or avant-gardeyness later in the record, but its falling short is the dominant impression. Rating this anywhere near the best of the '80s demonstrates just how horrendous that decade could be.

This is not the selection I expected. What rubbish. Am I missing something

unlistenable shit

Nothing special

Syhtpop is definitely not my thing, so this album was pretty boring for me. Honestly, the music that Spotify recommended afterward was a thousand times better. Not entirely sure why this is here, there's nothing particularly good about it.

It’s rare that you find an album where the tone and delivery of every track is as annoying as this one… I thought I was going crazy, I felt like my ears were engaging in civil war with my brain… wtf is this disjointed cacophony!?

If it's not historically significant, it didn't sell much, and the critics didn't like it, then why would it be on this list?

Pure Garbage.

I tire of ⭐️ albums that I can't justify being included on this list. The only tolerable parts of "Penthouse and Pavement" are the funkier bits, but even those aren't enough to save the rest from oblivion. To counteract the bleakness of the single-star stinkers, I'm going to start adding a five-star review for an album that ought to have the offender's spot. Today we'll keep it heaven-related, and open with... Temple of the Dog - Temple of the Dog (1991) I've already lamented that 90s Seattle is under-represented on the 1001, and we'll come back to that idea when we finally get Pearl Jam's "Ten." But Temple of the Dog holds an amazing place in the history of the Seattle scene. Conceived by Soundgarden's Chris Cornell as a tribute to Andrew Wood of Mother Love Bone following his death, Cornell brought together Wood's former bandmates Mike McCready and Stone Gossard to create a pre-supergroup. Soundgarden had yet to hit it big, and Pearl Jam was still yet to form. Eddie Vedder was in town to audition for McCready and Gossard's new band and was brought into the studio for the TotD recording sessions. The rest, as they say, is history. Within a couple years, Cornell and Vedder would be two of the most talked about frontmen in rock, and to this day they are my two favorite rock singers. To have them together on TotD? Its transcendent. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Esto no es música. Abz.

This type of 80s aesthetic will always be nostalgic to me but my goodness this is unlistenable.

Atrocious

this was not good

Einfach schrecklich. Ein Tiefpunkt.

1981 eh? What fucking new wave masterpiece is this gonna be today? I see the names of UK cities on the cover, too - good good, couldn't go more than a day without some kind of UK bullshit. Fuck you, Dimery. uuuuugh. I knew it would be new wave, but there was still a part of me that really, really hoped it wasn't. I'm so fucking tired of these same genres day after day. And this was worse than average new wave, too. 38 minutes never felt so long. 1/5.

I hated every second of listening to this. Those synths are something else, man. Best track: N/A

They were tedious in the 80s but with the passing of time they have become absolutely soporific. Why is this in the 1001? I can think of no justification whatsoever for including it. They had one hit - Temptation - which is not even on this and is not very good anyway.

Shit was ass

Not my speed

80's. English.

Genuinely cannot understand why this album is on the list. There were so may better electronic bands around at that time. IMO this is a poor album from an overrated band.

Boring, boring synth pop. I barely made it through.

Electro garbage

Soa com um Depeche Mode piorado.

I mostly hated this entire thing.

What in the actual FUCK is this album? It is just so damn bad. Early 80s New Wave and Synth-Pop is always very hit or miss. And this is one of the worst misses I have had the displeasure of listening to. The first few songs are mediocre at best. "Geisha Boys And Temple Girls" is problematic. It is creepy and racist and I'm sad I left Spotify to be able to listen to it. "Let's All Make A Bomb" while a strange song to follow that up with is probably the best song on the album. I do not understand how this album made it to the list. It wasn't even that influential to the genre. It's just terrible!

similar to Kraftwerk 1.5

Deary me. I am bored

Penthouse And Pavement is desperately bad, the worst of the 80s shit, get it off my ears. 1/5.

Dross. Boring, beige synthesiser stuff which has been done so much better by a lot of other people. Opening track is the best of the bunch, which isn't saying much. 1/5.

Bruuuuh detta suger fr... så störande och sångaren borde aldrig sjunga igen!

Didn’t like this one

Not the most puzzling pick in this list, but surely one of the worst?

No ty

when am i gonna have a modern album. this is bad.

Hated this. Not much more to say, definitely not for me.

Niet door heen te komen. Terror

Nee. Dit is hem niet. Nee.

Stressiges Album. Interessant aber nichts für mich.

1/10 being generous, awful

Detestable. It's been a while... since the Incredible String Band that's i've actively disliked track after track. It is amazingly dated... and shouldn't have been allowed to escape the 80's. The electronic/synth sounds/beats are unpleasant. Nothing redeeming here.

Awful 80's synth's

Cocaine is BAD

Kraftwerk did it better.

N

Hate is strong word. I fucking hated this. No melodies. Shit electronica just for the sake of it. If i never heard this again it would be too soon. 1/5 P.S- Fuck the super league.

i didn't enjoy this one

It feels like the foundation of a lot of music I like, but I would never return to this album.

My god, horrible

No famaliar songs. Not realy a nice album to me.

no

This was disgustingly 80's. Yuck!

I’m not going out tonight I’m not home 🏡 I got my car 🚘 and my truck 🛻 back from my job I just need you and me in my arms I not want nobody around to talk with nobody I want nobody around I just don’t care 🤷‍♀️ if you’re my best friend’s family is a family member that’s what I’m trying not everybody wants you to get with me.