The Sound debut is post-punk recorded on the razor's edge

The Sound : I Can't Help Myself

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In the first week of November 1980 The Sound released Jeopardy, their critically-acclaimed debut album on the Korova label. Perhaps because of the band's generic "new wave" name,  I missed out on all things Sound. I rank Jeopardy as my best musical discovery from 1980. This is as energetic as post-punk gets, but it came at an awful price for songwriter Adrian Borland, who put his music ahead of his own mental health. On "I Can't Help Myself" he sings  "Left alone I'm with the one I fear".

The Sound. Adrian Borland is third from left.

I'll let the critics of 1980 have their say. Dave McCullough of Sounds gave the album a five star review, writing :

There's a richness and depth here that places Jeopardy alongside Boy (U2) as early eighties tonics for ailing mainstream rock, that gives the almost bankrupt era the spirit and sheer modernity of the best moderns. Its form is a practically incredible, but consistently effective synthesis of Teardrop-meet-Bunnymen ( and survives the strain). The Sound are on to a winner...an inconspicuous but real missing-link between the Modernist Jam and the vibrantly Post Mod Joy Division.

Steve Sutherland of Melody Maker also gave the album the magazine's highest possible rating. He wrote: 

"Jeopardy is one of those records that makes me want to throw all the windows open, crank it up to full volume and blast it out to the world. It clears my head of boredom, strips away the gloom and single-handedly restores my belief in the power of pop to make people stop, think and question. [...] Jeopardy has got more spirit, more soul and more downright honesty about it than any other record I've heard this year".

The album did not sell in big numbers. Adrian Borland threw himself in front of a train in 1999, dying before the reputation of Jeopardy began building to the point where it is now ranked among the best 20 albums of 1980 by RateYourMusic, ahead of those by The Cure, Bunnymen, and Teardrop Explodes.

The greatest, and most obscure, post punk single of 1980

The Sound : Heyday

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In September of 1980 The Sound released "Heyday"b/w "Brute Force"  on the Korova label they shared with Echo and the Bunnymen. The single was well received in the press, with Dave McCullough of Sounds calling the song "one of the most exciting and most astonishingly adept big label debut singles I've heard since the Jam's 'In the City'"

The forthcoming album, Jeopardy, would get a perfect score from NME, Sounds, and Melody Maker upon its October release.

1980's most anxious songs about nuclear war

U.K. Subs : Warhead

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On March 2, 1980 the English punk band UK Subs entered the UK charts at #42 with "Warhead", one of the year's most anxious nuclear war songs. In the midst of the Cold War, we were all living with the possibility that a nuclear war could break out at any moment.  The evening news reported escalating tensions between Russia and the United States, especially after Russian invaded Afghanistan. There were new countries with nuclear capabilities.  The weapons were more powerful than ever.  With its lyrics "Bye bye planet let alone your nation", "Warhead" would peak at UK#30, but it is far from the only song of the year to deal with nukes.

Top 10 Anxious Nuclear War Songs of 1980

1. UK Subs  "Warhead"

While the heads of state are having their fun Are they ready?
We're looking at the world through a barrel of a gun Are we ready?
You stand there beating on your little war drum Are you ready?
And it won't be long before your time has come Are you ready?

2. The Sound "Missiles"

Missiles cause damage
And make an eerie sound
Missiles leave carnage
Where there once was a town
Who the hell makes those missiles?

3. Peter Gabriel Games Without Frontiers

If looks could kill, they probably will
In games without frontiers, war without tears

4. The Police : When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around
Plug in my M.C.I
To exercise my brain
Make records on my own
Can't go out in the rain...
When the world is running down
You make the best of what's still around

5. The Clash : Ivan Meets G.I. Joe
He wiped the Earth clean as a plate
What does it take to make a Ruskie break?
But the crowd are bored and off they go
Over the road to watch China blow

6. XTC : Living Thru Another Cuba

Russia and America are at each other's throats
But don't you cry
Just on your knees and pray, and while you're
Down there, kiss your arse goodbye

7. Kate Bush : Breathing
We've lost our chance
We're the first and the last, ooh
After the blast Chips of plutonium
Are twinkling in every lung

8. The Specials : Man at C + A
Warning, warning, nuclear attack
Atomic sounds designed to blow your mind
World war three - nuclear attack
Rocking atomically - this third world war - atomic sounds

9. OMD : Enola Gay

These games you play, they're gonna end in more than tears someday
Uh huh Enola Gay, it shouldn't ever have to end this way

10. Data Fallout 

You'd better run for shelter, and put yourself in a Fallout suit
You'd better get yourself used to, just living in a Fallout suit
A satellite clockwork information, is going to give you
The duration Of the fallout