Sulk

Sounds, bad. Style, annoying. Total listening experience, also bad.

This must be a joke. The sounds are so thin that I thought that I was listening this through some tweeters. Also that singing is very "interesting".

Oh gawds. Artsy post-punk electronica, distressed flamboyant vocals, super tinny soundscapes and 80's vibes. I guess they're shooting for psychedelic weirdness, but it comes across as art school student work and forced strangeness. The cool bits that were happening in early 80's underground music have been layered on top of each other willy nilly and the cracks filled with "I want to add this" without a thought to consistence or coherence. This is fucking awful.

The worst kind of 80s synth pop, the type where it's all so overwrought and they clearly think so much of themselves - let's have upbeat music sang over by a man who sounds like Dracula discovering he has a fear of heights while in flight, tonal shifts so hard they could kill a man (who told you Gloomy Sunday needed a cover??), and tons of new ideas for instruments while still sounding like a less-good Cure. Too much freedom, too many ideas, none of the execution. Looks like the guitar isn't the only thing full of piss in this band.

Boring

If Adam Sandler and Talking Heads went to the mall to collaborate on a pop album in the 80s, it would sound like this... but better.

Love the 80s vibe but the record feels pretty flat, nothing exciting

1.0 - Awful

A Scottish post punk/pop band......fuck... It's so strange to me how you can 100% guarantee that if a band is Scottish, their music is going to be absolute dogshit. This may be one of the worst records I've been forced to listen to .It's awful. Dudes voice sounds like David Byrne from Talking Heads. The music is everything that was wrong with 80s pop. So much of this absolute garbage on this list.....fuck Scotland's shitty music. Where are all the bagpipes? At least back then, when bagpipes were being used in traditional celtic songs, you could make good music. Where did it all go so horribly wrong? Favourite songs: Arrogance Gave Him Up, simply because the lead singer shuts the fuck up, and this song is fully instrumental. Least favourite songs: No, Bap De La Bap, Skipping, Nude Spoons, Gloomy Sunday....and the rest of this album. I don't care....I've lost interest..... 1/5.....0/5 if I could. Nothing about this album is remotely "necessary listening". Fuck the writers of this shitty britpop enthusiasts book. It certainly isn't an essential listening book as advertised. Robert Dimery is obviously some form of moron.

This album got me thinking. About my aunt, who recently passed. She would have loved this. She always loved the worst crap from this age. I wish I could still ask her about it. Love ya Kerry xx

Trash

I couldn't latch onto it personally :/

And back to British music. Music is ok, singing is terrible, and songs are repetitive. Only ok song is Arrogance Gave Him Up, which is an instrumental. Best song: Arrogance Gave Him Up

Dieses Album war kacke - 1 Stern

point4.

noh art-pop screych.m paskaa ja ajan kliseotä täynnä...

not my style

Turned off after a few tracks couldn't take anymore

This. Was. Awful. Very 80’s and VERY bad 80’s. First album I couldn’t finish. If I could give it negative points I would. On a positive note, it is winning for worst album cover.

Total whiplash compared to my previous album. The instrumentals? Trash. The vocals? Annoying. I didn’t like this at all.

When I think of the albums that could've/should've been on this list and I hear this cringe inducing shite, I'm thinking the compilers should be locked in a room with this on repeat play for eternity. Maybe they will then learn the error of their ways.

Nearly unlistenable Boy George wannabies. They could have been big if only they had stuck at it and been any good.

I listened to the original track listing, first 10 tracks - not all the extra alt/demo bloat. Unfortunately, it didn't make it any better, it's far too melodramatic. I'm sure there are better albums that represent the a similar space and time.

Basically a David Bowie wannabe act. Why not just give us Bowie?

Rating: 1/10 0/10 vocals and mediocre instrumentals. Sounds like generic synth-pop that is trying too hard to be experimental.

Is this a joke? Am I getting trolled?

At last, an album bad enough to challenge The Cramps. I wanted to turn it off after about 30 seconds of the first track, but I've been surprised many times while working through the albums on this list so I persevered. Made it to track 3, and that was a huge fucking effort to not turn off. Musically it was awful, vocals were just as bad. The only plus side was this is the bands only release, thank fuck for that!

Horrible. Not my cup of tea but I can see how it influenced other artist who also make shitty music.

sounds like I’m listening to a rookie band that hasn’t figured out how to do vocals yet

Synthy, falsetto art rock, disco, glam, minimalism which I hated.

Ich habe keine Ahnung was David Bowie dazu bewogen hat, im LSD-Rausch ein Album unter Pseudonym zu produzieren. Aber vermutlich ist es auch nur unter dem gleichen Drogeneinfluss ohne Hörkrämpfe anhörbar.

Not for me.

Ah, Sulk, where The Associates try to convince us they’re doing something artistic by throwing every instrument they can find into a blender. It’s moody, it’s eccentric, and it’s entirely incomprehensible. Imagine sitting through a storm of synths, operatic yelping, and lyrics that make as much sense as your Aunt Marge’s fridge poetry. Billy Mackenzie tries to hit high notes that would scare away bats, and every song feels like a contest to see how much echo they can cram in.

Utter crap.

This feels like an Andy Samberg parody of a worse soft cell. yet I though I was going to hate it more than I do.

Biggest piece of dogshit I've ever heard

New album, new band for me. Some experimental music really works - see anything by David Byrne, or even that clangy album by the German band everyone on here hates (Einstürzende Neubauten). This just seems to be trying too hard to be David Bowie. Then again, not all of David Bowie’s experimental music works, so I guess they got it down after all. I was going to give this album a 2 for forgettable, but the more I listen to it the angrier it’s making me.

This album is so disjointed, I can't imagine anyone finding it enjoyable. The vocals are terrible, the drum beat machines seem like they're always off tempo, and the synth is absolute shit. This is concentrated hot garbage being funneled through a disposal directly into my earbuds. I did not care for this in any way shape or form.

"you know what the world needs? a two minute synth keyboard intro" W T F.

Some of this might have been bearable (e.g. Skipping), but I found the singer's delivery really irritating. First track's drums seem off.

The opening track was an instrumental. I was thinking this was an 80’s style upbeat synth pop album so maybe listenable. Then the next track - the vocals. When I say this sounded like my cat hacking up a furball, I’m not kidding. He actually burps into the mic in one song. That’s when I heard the most refreshing sound - the sound of the skip button. The fact that this album is 23 tracks makes it the most skipped so far in my journey. An occasional instrumental gave me a reprieve. But overall I have to say this has been one of the worst of the 50ish albums so far. What label in its right mind pays to produce such garbage? Reading the wiki article - which I always do AFTER I listen to the album - makes me think either the reviews were paid for like some 80’s version of an Amazon rating scam or the music critics were collectively insane at the time.

First listen. Nah

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds minus the baritone and cool lyrics, add 8-bit instrumentals. Not enjoyable and kind of discomforting like sitting on a couch with a plastic cover over it. Let me guess, they were big in the UK? Beans for breakfast and shit music, never trust a Brit's taste in anything.

Some songs would start out promising and then the vocals, melody and lyrics would emerge to burst my bubble. Should bot be on this list. Where are the real special albums by far superior blues, jazz, roots, early rock and soul artists? Huh? Where?? ,

Not good, and not even in an interesting way.

Awful is the only word to describe it. The album title should have been Suck

this makes my head hurt, what even is this?

It’s oddly magnetic for a few minutes—sort of like the draw to stare at a car accident. These guys must have been out of their mind weird, but I don’t need to listen again.

Was so bad I was sulking by the end of it

More 80s synth pop uggghhhh. Why did they have to gate the drum sounds like that?!?!?!

the concept was there but the execution was not

Does one half decent song make an album 'essential'? I don't think so, especially when it isn't as good as Ultravox and Simple Minds of the same era. Most of this album is pure dreck

Fav: Skipping Least Fav: Bap De La Bap

É um álbum do início dos anos 80 com todas as características definidoras da música pop dos anos 80, mas que, apesar de ser um produto de sua época, parece uma trilha sonora composta em para um besteirol que satiriza os anos 80. Os músicos conseguem colocar todas essas características (de um gênero que gosto muito, diga-se de passagem) juntas de uma maneira que fica insuportável de ouvir. A sonoridade é brega, a produção é ruim, a voz é estridente, as músicas são enjoativas. Simplesmente terrível.

Sulk brings a bad end to a bad week. Just really bad art synth new wave bollocks, some of the worst of that genre we've had, 1.

I don't even know, man

Lost me at bap de la bap.

I tried to make it through this several times and just couldn't. Not my jam.

Nit a big fan, but it's not that bad. I could hear the influence of David Bowie on a track or two. Not something that I will probably listen to again

I try to listen to all of these, but barely made it through 3 songs on this one. Awful.

I've never heard of this album or artist before, but I do love eighties music, so I'm excited to give this a listen. This album was certainly... something. I went into this expecting something more pop-forward, but got something frantic and echo-y instead. I really didn't care for this album. There were moments here and there that I enjoyed, specifically the synthesizers and keyboards on some of the songs. But that enjoyment was often ruined by the vocals, which I hated. The overall sound of the album was really muddled by the echoing effects, and it was hard for me to pick up on anything melodic on most of the songs. These songs weren't insanely long, but they felt like they droned on and on. I think I felt like most of the songs didn't go anywhere musically. The little snippets that I did enjoy often faded away or weren't really built upon throughout the song. "nothinginsomethingparticular" was probably my favorite song. It was bolstered by its short length and lack of vocals, which easily made it stand out from the rest of the album. I can't really find anything noteworthy or influential on this album, and I'm really confused as to why it's on the list.

Maybe I'm just not in the mood to listen to this kind of music, but I didn't like it, 1/5

This album is the answer to the question: What would it sound like if David Bowie was terrible at writing songs? I’ll bump them up to a 2/5 for their attempts to be inventive in the studio. … Just mercifully got to the end of this travesty. I take this comment above back. It would be too complimentary. There is nothing Bowie-like here. Sliding it back down to a 1/5.

Had to stop after the 3rd song; all this seemed pretty weird! Than I read some previous reviews and, yes, I had to agreed with those smashing this album! There was a lot more and better music from this year, why this album is on this list became a mistery to me :-(

Wtf

80’s weird pop stuff. Not for me.

Forferdelig.

Disappointing

I could've died without hearing this one. Honestly, a lot of songs the singer seemed to be in a different key than the musicians. A lot of 80's musical tropes. Just not great.

This feels like a joke. Like a parody of Duran Duran or Flock of Seagulls. The keyboard is the quintessence of the 80s. All you need is a Roland 808, some bad drum beats, and you’re fully capable of turning out some terrible music. That anyone ever bought this album, joke’s on you, kid. Gloomy Sunday!

This is not good. I understand that this is early synth pop goth. At best, it sounds like a bad joke. The more I hear, the less I like. 1/5

i could feel my ranking sink the longer i listened. could i write poetry to this? n

Wow... this is terrible. Possibly the worst album in this project so far. I tried to give it some credit for being so early in the Post-Punk/New Wave/New Romantic movement, but I just cant. It's bad, no matter how you approach it. Negative infinity stars.

This album has nothing redeemable.

This was like if you took the Cure and removed everything good they have going on. Annoying music, annoying wailing, nothing really interesting going on.

It's just bad and it goes on and on...

This is one of the worst albums I have heard, an album hasn't made me angry like this to finish in a long time. Boring and very very annoying

Terrible

You a band is a one hit wonder when their 3 most popular songs on Spotify are all various remixes or remasters of the same song. And it's a fucking terrible song. Better than some of the other songs on the album but still terrible. These guys were clearly trying to bite Bowie's style but did it poorly.

Please stop the music!

Could not dislike this more.

If I had to describe this as anything I would call it teen emo punk in space meets the 80s synth addiction voiced by Dennis from Always Sunny singing the Day Man song. If that sounds all over the place it's because this album is trying to do everything at once and is overwhelming. I thought this one was a chore to get through and I had to listen in multiple parts. This guys definitely think they are music's gift to the world because they released all their songs in triplicate assuming that anyone would every want to listen to this more than once.

This was so hard to listen to. Perhaps I don’t understand this music. It sounds like some guys messing around in the studio making songs on the fly. The odd timing of the drums sounds like “mistakes” as they are played at odd and infrequent times. One song sounded like the singing was recorded without any backing track whatsoever, then simply layered over some music. Maybe it just went over my head

2/10 not a fan at all

First song is way too repetitive. I don’t think I’m a fan of this style of music. This album feels so long because every song is boring and has nothing going for it. The 80’s style is driving me insane.

classic of shitty new wave

The colors they chose for the album art are nice I guess...

80te dance, OK ali nije moj stil

This is bad. These folks are yelping and making noise that I find harmful to my ears. Too much going on, and not even in a cool prog-rock sort of way

Did not enjoy at all

Truly awful.

God awful album. I liked gloomy Sunday but the rest was torturous to listen to

Not feeling this, a David ish Bowie vibe But not, hahaha Now it went kinda Talking Heads on better this way

I really have no clue what I just listened to. While not the worst thing I've ever listened to, I definitely won't be seeking it out again in the future.

Yikes

A little on the synth-y side for my taste, and I am not keen on the vocal delivery. Didn't do much for me overall.

I can't finish this album. It's terrible singing on top of very generic 80s new age synthpop music. There's nothing special about it and it's a 23-song, 2-hour commitment I'm just not willing to make

Dear god, it’s been a rough few days. This is so overproduced in the worst possible way, the amount of reverb on the snare creates so many moments where everything just feels out of time, and it’s all a complete mess. At least Einstürzende Neubauten from yesterday were TRYING to be unlistenable with their uncompromising industrial hammering - The Associates tried to record a pop album and somehow shat this out

Goth pop ? No thanks 1 star

Bizarre Scottish duo, Sometimes sounding like Bowie's vocals, i.e. 'Gloomy Sunday'

I disagree with choosing this album. I could’ve gone my whole life without hearing this one.

23 songs from the 80's that I never heard of - and maybe never needed to. Kind of like Devo and Oingo Boingo without any hits. I could not get thru this.

I did not associate with the associates. Just couldn’t get into it.

So it started with an instrumental and I was wanting vocals. Then I heard his voice. Think the worst of Bowie's excessive overkill on the Berlin trilogy (I detest the Berlin trilogy) but with no break. This is some of the worst noise ever committed to disc. Truly awful shit.

Not my cup of tea.

Booooooooo

The 80’s were great, just not this !

Not my taste

This is not really my style of music and I listened to the album more than once to try and give it a fair listen to, however, this just did not sit well with me. Not a fan of the musicality of it all

Nooooope, this was turd. Too poppy and 80s electro for me - despite it being from 2000

Couldnt finish it. Was going to give it 2 stars, but albums that I dont listen to the end only get 1. How this got a 2012 remaster shocks me

Not for me. 2/10

Look, I get it, all right? You're really into the Thin White Duke. But the thing about that is, you're not David Bowie. Nobody is except for David Bowie and even HE could barely pull off the Thin White Dukes sometimes. Stop trying, you're not nailing it. These songs are a mess and the vocals are even more of a mess. They rarely stay on key throughout the entire melody line, the fake vibrato is off the charts, and the performances are... well, let's just say they are "not skillful" and leave it at that. Overall, a very disappointing listen. And it's not like I was expecting much because the '80s were the worst decade for recorded music.

Stereotypical 80's synth....not for me.

As if sparks tried to make an Echo and the Bunnymen album. Wait, no that would probably sound better. This is as if echo and the Bunnymen try to make a Sparks record.. Total rubbish.

Did not like and couldn’t finish

This brand of synthy Brit pop is maybe my least favorite genre out there

Pretty inconsistent album. Some tracks I start to like, then the next one comes on and it's nearly unlistenable. Party Fears Two had some strong Talking Heads vibes and is by far the best song on the album, the number of listens on Spotify certainly backs that up. I'm guessing a large portion of listens of some songs are only thanks to this 1001 albums list.

I can just about get that at peak-80's some record company exec agreed to release this, thinking anything with a synth in it was guaranteed to generate £'s. But why the hell does it make this list.....??

Not a fan. So whiney. It's like listening to a siren and it's battery is running down.

Do NOT like Nude Spoons, or much else I'm hearing. There have been albums where I think, "this sounds dated." All I remember about this first listen is that I didn't want to remember anything at all.

This almost could not be less my thing. I couldn't wait for it to end. Sounds like a 1980s horror movie soundtrack.

My god, can't it get any worse. Is dit niet een voorbeeld van hoe slecht de jaren 80 waren.

N0PE

I thought that Morrissey’s voice was annoying, but Billy Mackenzie’s cabaret falsetto here takes the cake. The best song on the album is country club, where his voice is somewhat bearable, but it’s mostly because of the excellent bass work by ex Cure member Michael Dempsey. But like most post punk, early 80s new wave music this got old real fast.

First song is just a cocaine-fueled synth instrumental that then sounds like trash rattling in the wind. Second song sounds like Xymox, but off key and slowed down. Third song explains why I’ve never heard of this band. Fourth song - oy vey. It gets worse from here. This is not good. I understand that this is early synth pop goth. At best, it sounds like a bad joke. The more I hear, the less I like.

1/5. Et par av sangene var 2/5.

Oh boy more UK garbage

God, I did not like this album. I think because it sounded like bad David Bowie. It was just all over the place, with grating vocals and repetitive synth wailing. There are some nice riffs here and there, and I think if I had to pick a favorite song it’d be “18 Carat Love Affair” but that’s truly saying the best of the worst. I didn’t find any of the “hits” to be anything special, and some were downright painful (“Bap De La Bap”). Really struggled through this listen and ultimately I think that garners it a very low score.

Not the best that came out of the 80s. Not a fan

Hated. 0/5

Pants

No

Gothy synthy garbage. From the discordant nonsense of the first instrumental track to all the grating vocals that followed, this was awful.

Just no.

Couldn't finish it.... how this mess of synch-pop crappola made it past my filters, I don't know. 0 stars if I could

❌ my ears are angry

Oof.

80s style music, but just noise and an attempt to sound like David Bowie.

Meh...I couldn't even get through it. The overuse of synthesizer was giving me a headache. I will say I can see how it influenced music to come but not worth the time to finish it.

This is what the term "80s music" makes me think of, and I don't like 80s music. This makes the second album so far (you know the first one) that I didn't finish.

Maybe this qualified as experimental and edgy in the world of British synth-pop in 1982, or something. For me, it qualifies as straight 1 star, very unpleasant listening.

The beeps were good! But the boops were not..........

Unlistenable. What is this shit?

No. No. No. listened to 3 songs. That was enough. Cannot go on. Scottish imitation 80’s and punk. I can respect Scottish accomplishments for many things but not crappy music. No.

Super bad 80s music.

No. Some songs are really hard to listen to.

What on earth was that? Sounded like a blend of New Wave and Gothic Rock that I hope never gets repeated again.

Somehow all the worst parts of 80's music got amalgamated into a single album and then I had to listen to it.

Puke

Goddammit.

I've never heard of this band before and I didn't remember hearing anything from the album before but "Party Fears Two" seems vaguely familiar. Didn't like it, and thought it was a bit boring. Going by the number of Spotify plays, not many other people like this album either.

bap de la bap. what a fucking mess of an album. disappointed i didn't get some banging 80s basslines and rolled up pastel blazer vibes.

Not as good as anything Blue have done

I get this right after a Kraftwerk album? Bleh. This actually sounds like David Bowie became the lead singer of Kraftwerk. Since I don't really like either of those artists - 1.

Parece um tanto de barulhos irritantes de videogame antigo, mas deve ter importância na história do pop dos anos 80 que cada vez confirma minha antipatia pelo aclamado pós-punk.

Not for me

I’ve never heard of this band, but apparently they make screamy garbage music.

https://tenor.com/u5t9.gif

Whatta a nightmare listen to this album.

Very badly dated music that wasn't exactly stellar back when it was new. I fail to fathom what this album is doing over here.

I really could not get into this album at all.

The title of the second track sums up my opinion of this record: No.

Feels like i'm missing something. Sort of a less interesting version of the Cure.

When the two best songs are the opener and closer and they're the best, not because they're good, but because the singer doesn't sing on them, you have a bad album. It's very very bad. The singer is what you think of when you think of a parody of bad 80s singers, like I kept waiting for them to be in on the joke.

Välillä taustat ihan ok, mutta viimeistään laululla pilataan. Kasaripopsoundin huonoa puolta