British Design | Performance Loudspeakers | Experts Since 1972
"This week is my birthday so am looking to my birth year of 1984 as my inspiration for my album of the month. A quick check through my collection on J-River brings up a lot of fantastic albums from 1984. It was a cracking year for music and a tough one to narrow down. Favourites show up in the form of Ride the Lightning by Metallica, Purple Rain by Prince and Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen. The 1980’s is by far my favourite decade for music and looking through the year shows pockets of explosive creativity for many recording artists.
The choice I’ve settled on out of an esteemed list perfectly fits the zeitgeist of 1984 and is my personal favourite of them all; 1984 by Van Halen. It has everything you could want in an 80’s rock album with Eddie Van Halen’s virtuoso playing, David Lee Roth’s over the top singing and the iconic 80’s sound of the Oberheim synthesiser. It is arguably their most accessible album in terms of hit tracks with many radio friendly songs people immediately recognise. To me this is a genuine all killer, no filler album with my standout track being Panama; I still have the preset on my guitar rig from a teenager spending hours trying to replicate the delay, reverb and panning effects from the intro . For an added bonus, check out their music videos from this era when MTV was still relevant and tremendous effort was made to make fun and entertaining content.
1984 was one of the first HDCD encoded discs (EAN – 9362477412) that I owned. The impressive additional improvements brought when listening to it on a capable CD player and, thanks to clever ripping software DB Poweramp, enables you to rip with the HDCD encoding intact and enjoy fully on your streaming system….make sure to crank the volume to 11!"
About the artist
Californian Hard Rock band Van Halen was formed in 1972, quickly becoming one of the most iconic bands of all time. The band has released 12 studio albums during their career and was indoctrinated into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.
About the album
One of Rolling Stone Magazine's best albums of the 1980s, 1984 is filled with personality and comedic elements, breaking the mold in comparison to other hard rock/metal bands of the time.
How to Listen
Spotify | Tidal | Apple Music
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