![]() ![]() Listening to Virgo isn’t so much a flashback to Chicago’s house heyday as it is a portal to another dimension. The twisting basslines and searching drums-played by hand without sequencers-take on a human fragility. “Deep” doesn’t begin to cut it: There isn’t a millimeter of wasted space, and each moment surges in confident, monastic introspection. Virgo is understated throughout, which is perhaps one reason it was so widely slept-on in its time. Tracks like “Ride” and “Going Thru Life” reach beyond the dancefloor, shimmering like mirages and glowing with an intimate warmth that would make most DJs blush. ![]() It was largely written in seclusion during a burst of heady collaborative inspiration between producers Eric Lewis and Merwyn Sanders, and it both captures and transcends its moment. Fingers and Joe Smooth while using many of the same Roland drum machines and synthesizers that would define the era. Listen to selections from this list on our Spotify playlist and our Apple Music playlist.īorn of Chicago’s burgeoning ’80s house music scene, Virgo’s only LP shares the dreamy yearnings of Mr. Our list still reflects the realities of the ’80s-many great artists worked more successfully in singles than in full albums, for example-but we hope it represents the best of what this innovative decade has to offer, as well as how people consume music now. For this new list, we gathered votes from more than 50 full-time staffers and regularly contributing writers to open up our discussion. That list was shorter, sure, but it also represented a limited editorial stance we have worked hard to move past its lack of diversity, both in album selections and contributing critics, does not represent the voice Pitchfork has become. And that means, in part, looking at Pitchfork’s own history frankly: Longtime readers may remember that, in 2002, we made a list of The Top 100 Albums of the 1980s. Now, with hindsight, we’re attempting to look at the ’80s with new eyes-reassessing old favorites, rediscovering undersung gems. ![]() And hip-hop was evolving at a head-spinning clip, expanding its reach and ambition along the way. Singer-songwriters in folk and R&B were plumbing new depths of the human experience, getting frank about social and gender politics. Jazz and ambient were pushing their experimental borders, getting more cinematic and free. Rock was getting more ridiculous, with Aqua-Net to spare, but it was also paring back into the thoughtful nexus that would someday be called “indie rock”-or it was throwing up pentagrams, getting sludgier and meaner, and turning into metal. It was a time when disco and punk were in tatters, its artists rebuilding from the rubble with new innovations to birth hardcore and new wave. And when it comes to its music, well, that’s even more ubiquitous: The decade was one of great upheaval and innovation, and the seeds it planted continue to flourish. It’s arguably the defining throwback aesthetic of American culture today, from the TV series we reboot to the prints we wear. Sometimes it feels like the neon thumbprint of the 1980s never went away. ![]()
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