717. Metallica / Ride the Lightning. 1984. 5/5

Ride the Lightning was the first Metallica music I ever heard, albeit it was at the beginning of 1986 and not at its release of 1984. Thirty years on from that release date, and everything that makes it one of the best and most admired albums of the metal is still there and relevant to listeners new or old.

This album was a step up from their debut Kill 'Em All, without losing the elements of thrash that made it the standout it was. The start of the opener "Fight Fire With Fire" draws on that immediately, the clean guitar beginnings lulling the listener into a state of ambiance, before cranking into the thrash guitar riffs that envelops the speakers into the heart of the song. Just brilliant. I will never forget the day when, on a school bus trip we asked the driver to put this album on over the stereo. The beginning of the album brought responses from many of the girls on board of "Wow, isn't this nice music!"... before the anguished cries of "OH, what is THIS shit!" as the real guitars kicked in. The perfect response to the start of the album, from lovers of metal and detractors alike. The title track "Ride the Lightning" follows, and in turn moves into "For Whom the Bells Tolls". "Ride the Lightning" is dominated by the guitars and Hetfield's squealing young vocals, while "For Whom the Bells Tolls" is distinguished by Cliff Burton's bass warbling through the song, wah wah pedal on full. Great stuff.
Two tracks on this album highlight what made Metallica stand out from the crowd. The first is "Fade to Black", what some people in the mid-80's called Metallica's 'sell-out' song - how wrong they were, and little did they know what the 90's would bring in that regard! "Fade to Black" instead showed all the strengths of the band, without losing the intensity of their music. It is one of their signature pieces, because it showed that as a thrash metal band their were able to diversify without losing their roots (certainly, at this stage of their career anyway). "Fade to Black" has been the song I have played on every stereo I have bought since this time, to judge if it is good enough to stand up to my music needs. That's how I feel about the strength of this song.

Shifting onto Side 2 of the album, and the goodness just keeps on coming. Opening up with the brilliant "Trapped Under Ice", the speed returns in true style and hammers along with glee. The hugely underrated "Escape" follows. It seems to be a song that has slipped through the cracks of Metallica folklore, and I for one have never really understood that. Hetfield's vocals in particular are great in this song. Perhaps part of the reason for this song's undervalue is that it is followed by "Creeping Death", certainly one of Metallica's most favoured. Thirty years later it is still as good as it was back in the day. A gem. The closing song on the album is the second of the two songs that helped Metallica pull away from the crowd. The instrumental "The Call of Ktulu" is an amazing song, combining every great aspect of the Metallica legacy. It too combines those clean guitars with the thrash and heavy metal throughout different stages of the song, telling its own tales even without lyrics to do so. The building crescendo to finish the album is majestic, and puts an exclamation mark on what is a classic album.

Ride the Lightning still stands the test of time, and thirty years on is still as important as it was when it was released. The memories and nostalgia that it brings up for me whenever I listen to it continue to make this one of the finest albums of its genre.

Rating: Feel no pain but my life ain't easy, I know I'm my best friend.  5/5

716. Dio / The Last in Line. 1984. 5/5

Trying to follow up an album such as Holy Diver, which in itself was attempting to follow up what Ronnie James Dio had produced with Black Sabbath, which was (somewhat) trying to follow up what Dio produced with Rainbow, is no meat feat. In hindsight, almost impossible. Holy Diver had sold and performed well, on the back of relentless touring from the new band, and many of the tracks on that album had already become classics. To then come out a year later, and release an album that would be as remotely well received as it was quite a task. A task that was met and matched.

There's not much you can say about the opening two tracks to the album that hasn't been said somewhere else a thousand times. "We Rock" became one of Dio's anthems, drawing the band and audience together through the lyrics and making you feel a part of the legacy. This is followed by the masterpiece that is "The Last in Line" - heavy, loud, melodic, booming. Ronnie's vocals power the song along, Vinnie Appice's heavy-handed drumming beats down hard along with Jimmy Bain's gutteral bass guitar, and topped off by Vivian Campbell's squealing guitar licks. Still an absolute classic thirty years later.
Just as awesome as these opening tracks are the follow ups. "Breathless" is dominated by Vivian's guitaring, and despite all of the brilliant songs on this album, this remains my absolute favourite. I love Ronnie's vocals here, and the rhythm ties it all together magnificently. This is followed by "I Speed at Night", which runs along at a speed that is worthy of the title. This is a brilliant example of the best that Dio can produce. While the band (and most of Dio's work in general) don't usually dabble in such fast-paced songs, this is a beauty, and one of my only regrets with Dio's volume of songs is that he, and the band, didn't do more fast songs like this. Completing side one is "One Night in the City", a more subdued song after the frantic opening, but still a great one that hung around set lists for some years.
Just like Holy Diver, the strength of this album is not just in the songs that everyone knows, it is in the heart of the album, the songs that mightn't have been heard by casual listeners of the band's work. Not every song on an album has to be an epic. It doesn't have to be that you try and fit nine songs as memorable as "We Rock" on an album. Not every song has to be absolutely unforgettable, or considered a timeless song in the anthology of the band. Not everyone would consider Iron Maiden's "Quest For Fire" or "Ganglands" as top shelf Maiden songs, but they contribute to the brilliance of the albums they are a part of. And so it is here on The Last in Line. Songs such as "Evil Eyes" and "Egypt (The Chains Are On)" may not be the first songs you think of when it comes to Dio's best, but they help to make this album as great as it is, because they meld into the fabric of the tracklist, and become enmeshed in the whole listening experience. What's more, if these songs happen to come up on a random mix at home or at a party, they immediately stand out to you, because although you may not think of them often especially in the framework of listening to the album from first track to last, when you hear them on their own out of that environment you absolutely appreciate them. I love them both.
"Mystery" was one of the singles from the album, and was often slated as one that was written directly for the commercial market. Whether or not this is true I don't know, but while it is the less heavy song on the album, I have always loved and still love it. I used to sing it to my daughter when she was little, and it still forms that bond with me when I hear it now. As a retaliator, listen to Ronnie's vocals on "Eat Your Heart Out". Heavy lyrics, which Ronnie spits out with emotion. He really dishes it out on this song especially, in a fashion like those of the two opening tracks.

Ronnie's vocals here are at their peak, soaring at velocity. Vivian's guitaring too is just brilliant, driving the songs and taking over during the solo breaks. Those that only know him through his work with Def Leppard would not believe he could be this good. He is just brilliant on this album, unbelievably excellent. And, though you may not necessarily notice them between these two legends, Vinny's drumming and Jimmy's bass are as solid as ever here, providing the foundations for the other two to work their magic.
On first glance, when balancing the worth of the tracks on the first two Dio albums, you would probably say that Holy Diver was the better album, hands down. On closer inspection and listening, there is really not that much between the two of them. The Last in Line is a creeper, because the balance of the less famous songs stands up pretty well against those of the debut album. When push comes to shove, I find it very difficult to separate the two when it comes to choosing a favourite. Suffice to say that I still think this is a brilliant and, perhaps in many instances, underrated album.

Rating: You've been hungry all of your life - so eat it out!  5/5

715. Midnight Oil / Red Sails in the Sunset. 1984. 3/5

When this was released it went gangbusters both on the music charts, and also amongst the school fraternity of Kiama High School. At the time I didn't understand the great outpouring of love for this album, and thirty years later my opinion hasn't changed. That's not to say that Red Sails in the Sunset is a bad album, but I just don't think it is as exceptional as it was portrayed at the time. It followed on from 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 which I just loved, and had worn out listening to it, and I just didn't think this was able to follow it. With the hindsight of thirty years on, it feels diminished even further given that Blue Sky Mining and Diesel and Dust were to follow.

Two tracks stand out as the best on the album, the single release "Best of Both Worlds", and the timeless "Kosciusko". These two songs announce themselves immediately that they come on, shining the best possible focus on themselves. Great vocals, great guitar licks and hard rocking drumming. These are the two songs that showcase Midnight Oil's strengths, with all parts of the band - the vocals, the guitars, the drums - coming out loud and proud, front and centre, hitting you square in the face. For the most part, the rest of the album doesn't quite match that.
There are other reasonable songs on the album. In fact, it would be unfair to say that they are not all reasonable. It's just that for me, they don't grab me like other albums. "When the Generals Talk" and "Sleep" are the other songs on this album I feel good about.
At the time of its release, I did wonder if my attitude regarding Red Sails in the Sunset was just me being set in my ways, that I couldn't possibly like this album if everyone else around me LOVED it. Having been through the act of listening to the album again on several occasions over the past few days, I am willing to say that it still just doesn't have the hooks to make me think differently. What came before and after more than makes up for this being a slightly boring album.

Rating: No end to the hostility, now they wanna be somewhere else. 3/5

714. INXS / The Swing. 1984. 3.5/5

Much like Queen's The Works, this was one of the first albums I ever bought, and for similar reasons. While I had heard the odd single on the radio that INXS had released to that time, it was when "Original Sin" and "Burn For You" hit the airwaves that my ears really pricked up, and I was encouraged to spend my hard earned pocket money on this album.

Four singles were released from this album, and throughout 1984 they were on heavy rotation on Australian radio. They have been generally regarded as the shining lights of the album, and while for the most part I agree, there are some gems here that, if you have never heard The Swing, you are missing out on. "Melting in the Sun" is a great song, as is the title track "The Swing". "Burn For You", as the penultimate song on the album, brings it altogether nicely. However, the star attraction for me has always been "Johnson's Aeroplane", a nondescript song that has slipped through the cracks when the very best INXS songs are spoken of. It has always been a favourite for me.
For some reason The Swing seems to be a forgotten masterpiece in the INXS catalogue, with surrounding albums such as Shabooh Shoobah, Listen Like Thieves and Kick rated more highly by fans. For me, with the possible exception of Kick, The Swing is INXS's finest album, with a mix of popular singles and classic tracks that showcases the exceptional variety that the band had in its prime.

Rating: Four long lines one darker than the rest. 3.5/5

713. Dokken / Tooth and Nail. 1984. 3.5/5

I still find it difficult to understand why it took me so long to get around to listening to Dokken. It wasn't until 15 years after this album was released that I really heard much of the band, and I still regret not having had this album while I was in high school.

This was the real start for Dokken after a couple of releases that made a ripple without starting the wave. The fabulous foursome of Don Dokken, George Lynch, Mick Brown and Jeff Pilson come together here and put together an impressive slate of high energy hard rock. Mixing Don's smooth vocals with George's at times electrifying guitar licks, and the effervescent rhythm of Jeff's bass and Mick's drumming, the basis for Dokken's rise through the 1980's is in place here.
The start of the album is just terrific. The instrumental opening "Without Warning" rides straight into the title track, a fast track emphasised by Lynch's solo work and a punchy chorus. From here the album slides straight into "Just Got Lucky" which relies heavily on Don's great vocal work, and never fails to remind me of George's solo, which in the video for the song he was playing on the side of a volcano, and his boots were apparently melting from the heat while he played. I still love this song.
The second half of the album gets itself into a good groove, though it can appear to be a bit repetitive on the surface, with songs like "Heartless Heart", and "Don't Close Your Eyes" and "Into the Fire" and "Bullets to Spare" all of a similar ilk when it comes to rhythm and pace of the song. Each has their own differences of course, but they all sound very similar in structure. Not necessarily a bad thing, and it is only a small criticism, as I enjoy each of those songs mentioned.
The power ballad "Alone Again" was the song that got some attention in the radio market, and to me is the weak link on this album. I know bands "have" to write and perform this kind of song, but they can be album killers. Probably the fact that this is the penultimate song on the album means that it doesn't detract as heavily as it may have. Also, it is followed by the impressively fast and aggressive "Turn on the Action", which makes up for the flaws of the previous song and ends the album on an upward trend.

I really enjoy this album, though I think the potential of the opening tracks is not fulfilled. It's an easy listening album, and given it has been playing at work almost non-stop for two days on this rotation, it still remains so.

Rating: You were just using someone, and I was the one!  3.5/5

712. Queen / The Works. 1984. 5/5

Following on from the experimental haze and daze that was Hot Space, Queen continued to push ahead with their trailblazing feats with The Works, an album that mixed radio hits that reclaimed their identity as one of the world's biggest bands, but mixed style and substance with a variety of music genres that continued to allow them to market themselves to the widest possible audience.

Hot Space had divided Queen's fan base, with many unable to dissect what they were trying to achieve with the vast change in style the album contained. The Works probably did not win back all of those disgruntled fans, the ones that had been with the band since their inception. However, a new crowd of teenagers climbed on board with their radio hits, and then could absorb the different approach of the songs that make up the whole album.
Kicking off with the unapologetic pop anthem "Radio Ga Ga", this is very synth based in the style of the previous album, but comes through tougher in the chorus with a crowd-like chant which gives it a rock feel that defies it's musical background. This kicked goals for Queen on the radio as it was given huge airplay. "Tear it Up" follows, and is Brian May's attempt to revive the hard rock edge of Queen, hailing back to a style more reminiscent of their earlier albums. This is replaced by Freddie Mercury's "It's a Hard Life", which is dominated by his soaring vocals and melodies, only broken up by May's wonderful guitar solo in the middle of the song.
"Man on the Prowl" is reminiscent of another of Freddie's rockabilly songs, "Crazy Little Thing Called Love". However, on an album where I find every other song has an impact and a place, this has always been the one song which makes me a little less enthused. Even on a album that has this much variety in its song structure, I still find this is out of place. This is recovered by the unique and brilliant "Machines (Back to Humans)", a song that again has a heavy use of synths to create the robotic performance the song was looking for.
John Deacon steals the show again with his hit single "I Want to Break Free", which got mega air time on music channels with the video for the song. Like his best songs, "I Want to Break Free" juts along with his terrific bass line, while the others fall into line around it. "Keep Passing the Open Windows" is another Freddie special, where he again writes spectacularly for his own vocals, which convey all the right emotions of the song. It has always been my second favourite song on this album. My favourite, perhaps obviously, is the thundering "Hammer to Fall", which, while always sounding great in this studio version, has always been a live song, and one that grows in stature in that environment. The album concludes with the thought piece "Is This the World We Created?", which was written about the poverty in Africa, and was subsequently played at Live Aid as an encore.

Fans reactions to this album has always been a mixed bag, with many fans of the band who had followed them from the start of their career being less enthused about it than those who were only just discovering the band at this time, or had been drawn to the band by the success of the radio singles. The Works was one of the first albums I ever bought, and though I had heard earlier singles from the band on the radio in my pre-teens, it was this album that made me a fan of the group, and subsequently went looking for their earlier albums from this point. While I don't consider this to be their masterpiece (that is probably still A Night At the Opera or perhaps even The Miracle), I still have very fond feelings and memories of this album. It is still prominent in all of my memories of 1984 and 1985, and is part of the soundtrack of that time of my life.

Rating: We just wanna scream it louder and louder.  4/5

711. Quiet Riot / Condition Critical. 1984. 2/5

Do you remember that fun album by that band? The one where they seemed to have this mascot? He was in a couple of their music videos for songs off this album too. Those singles highlighted the album, but also drove it in along and made it an album worth listening to. Well, this is the album that immediately followed it. Now, I know that the band would have had a lot to live up to after the phenomenal success of that previous album, but surely, given the good vibes that followed it, you could expect some good stuff from the follow-up?

Well, the answer is a pretty emphatic 'no they couldn't'. That's not to say that Condition Critical is a complete loss, but it sure suffers from a lack of originality and a heavy dose of boring and uninteresting songs and lyrics that fail to ignite any great joy or optimism in the result.

"Sign of the Times" is the lead-off track, and perhaps more indicative of Quiet Riot's presence than it was meant to be, and "It's the same old story" an indicative line. As an anthem it doesn't make the grade. But that's okay, because this is followed up by a whole bunch of other songs that would like to be labelled as anthems that also don't cut it - "Party All Night", "Stomp Your Hands, Clap Your Feet", "Winner Take All", "Scream and Shout", "Bad Boy" and "(We Were) Born to Rock" are shallow, simplified rock beats with lyrics attached that are designed to suggest they are songs of the people, but fall flat in almost every regard. Even the follow-up Slade cover "Mama Weer All Crazy Now" feels like a forced "hey, this worked the first time, let's just do it again!" grab fest for glory.

Quiet Riot aren't the first band to fail to live up to an album that has done spectacularly well, and won't be the last. Look at the talent in the four main members of the band however and you would have expected better, if not with the follow-up to Metal Health, then surely the album after that? Unfortunately for QR, their competitors were coming thick and fast in the form of Motley Crue, Dokken, Ratt, L.A Guns and the like, and they were unable to go with the pace.

Rating: Having fun ain't no crime.  2/5

710. Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force / Rising Force. 1984. 4.5/5

When I first heard this album in 1986, I was blown away. It was unlike anything I had ever heard before in a guitar-oriented album. Probably because I'd never heard of Yngwie Malmsteen before at that time of my life. Everything about it was new, and those feelings of love for this album still exist for me today.

The start of "Black Star" is still just a brilliant experience, Yngwie just comes at you through the speakers with his wiggling fingers on the fret board. "Icarus Dream Suite" is just superb, just a wonderful arrangement. "Evil Eye" is the same, showcasing his amazing talent.
Let's face it though, Yngwie has arranged this album and its music specifically for his guitar. I mean, everything else on the album - the drums, the keyboards, the bass - are all just set up to allow Yngwie to do his thing, in his own way, and without being shown up in any way. It's all about him and his guitar, and that is fine, fantastic even. It's funny that even the keyboard solos are set up almost just so that when Yngwie's guitar fights back in during the duels, it is obvious which is the master, and even which is more obvious in the mix. You can't miss it.
With most guitar-based instrumental albums, it can be an effort to put on and listen to them more than the occasional time. Moods can dictate, but although they are broken up into 'songs', without lyrics to escort you along and without a dynamic structure rather than just a basis for guitar-widdling output, there is a tendency for such albums to become... well... boring. I can understand people feeling that way about this album, but for the most part I tend to disagree, such is the vitality and vibrancy of Yngwie's guitar playing.

Only two songs are deemed vocals-worthy. "Now You're Ships Are Burned" is good without being great, but "As Above So Below" has always been a favourite of mine, and I love Jeff Scott Soto's vocals here.

Rating:  I will never die, cos I will fly, to the other side  4.5/5

709. Whitesnake / Slide It In. 1984. 3/5

I have both versions of this album, the original UK version, and the remixed and some parts re-recorded US version. Personally I prefer the UK version, which seems to give Jon Lord a fuller presence, but the reality is there isn't much changed.

Dave loads up on the sexual innuendo here (even more than previously), laying it on like a really thick spread of butter on toast (nope, no innuendo there). There's not a lot of imagination required when it comes to songs like "Slide It In", "Slow & Easy" and "Spit it Out" in order to decipher the double entendre that seep through the title and lyrics. Slide It In acts as a real bridge between Saints & Sinners and 1987 in terms of style and possibly substance. The production is not as polished as future albums were, but that doesn't detract at all from the songs. What can detract slightly is the repetitive nature of the lyrics on some of the songs. "Standing in the Shadow" and "Hungry For Love" really let you know what the title of the song is, and while that is fine in a chorus perspective, sometimes it drags things down. Then there is a song such as "Guilty of Love" (in the first degree), where the lyrical content is slightly gag-worthy. But hey, it was the '80's, and it was a different world. Someone out there probably though this was beautiful and thought-provoking, most likely Coverdale himself.

My attitude to this album really has always depended on the mood I'm in. This can be an album I really enjoy listening to, or it can be a test of the nerves. My favourites still rank as "Love Ain't No Stranger", "Give Me More Time" and "Slide It In".

Rating: I'm guilty of love, it's a crime of passion. 3/5