Playing By Ear
Every episode of this podcast breaks an album down, track by track, to cover why it's not only worth playing, but replaying.
Displaying 6 items of Playing By Ear with the tag "1980s".
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Dead Man's Party (Oingo Boingo)
October 20th, 2026 | 1 hr 31 mins
1980s, 80s, Halloween, danny elfman, horror, music, new wave, nightmare before christmas, rock, songwriting, the nightmare before christmas
For Halloween we're bringing out the Pumpkin King himself, Danny Elfman, for a look back at Oingo Boingo's signature album "Dead Man's Party". The band worked some new wave weird science that fills this record with spooky melodic fun that will rattle your bones from beginning to end.
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Appetite For Destruction (Guns N' Roses)
October 6th, 2026 | 1 hr 49 mins
1980s, 80s, axl rose, guitar, metal, music, paradise city, rock, rock and roll, slash, songwriting, sweet child o mine, welcome to the jungle
Welcome to the jungle! On their monster debut Guns N' Roses exploded out of the paradise city of Los Angeles serpentining their way up record charts, delivering one of the greatest albums of the 1980s, perhaps of all time. Axl Rose, Slash, and company set a rock and metal standard that perhaps no band has equaled since. I mean, where do we go, where do we go now?
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Mini-Sode: 9 to 5 (Dolly Parton)
September 1st, 2026 | 14 mins 40 secs
1980s, 80s, country, country music, dolly parton, jane fonda, lily tomlin, songwriting
To help you along with your working week, we're going to start releasing mini-episodes on individual songs, and this time, we're celebrating the late and unimaginably great Dolly Parton by analyzing one of her most famous tracks, 9 to 5.
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The Innocents (Erasure)
March 31st, 2026 | 1 hr 39 mins
1980s, 80s, erasure, music, new wave, pop, pop music, songwriters, songwriting, synth, vince clark
We give a little respect to Erasure's "The Innocents". The album features classic 80s new wave synth sounds that perfectly suit Vince Clarke's smooth voice. Vivacious, danceable, and sometimes moving, "The Innocents" perfectly encapsulates everything that makes Erasure what it is, a pop confection with more depth than you might expect at first glance.
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Flesh & Blood (Poison)
February 3rd, 2026 | 1 hr 49 mins
1980s, 1990s, 80s, 90s, bobby dall, brett michaels, c.c. deville, guitar, hair metal, metal, music, rikki rockett, rock, rock and roll, rock music, songwriting
By 1990 hair metal was on the precipice of irrelevance, soon to be swept aside by grunge. Nevertheless, the genre's last big year was filled with big riffs, big beats, and big hair as Poison ripped some incredible bops (unskinny or otherwise) that we had a blast reviewing.
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Bad (Michael Jackson)
January 6th, 2026 | 1 hr 42 mins
1980s, 80s, Michael Jackson, mtv, music, pop, pop music, r and b, r&b, songwriting
By the time of 1987's "Bad" Michael Jackson was an unstoppable cultural phenomenon, perhaps the most singularly famous person in the entire world, and all off of the strength of its predecessor, "Thriller" which remains the best-selling album of all time. Could the King of Pop continue his reign, or would this album live up to its title? Nearly 40 years on, "Bad" remains an incredible collection of infectious grooves that cements the Gloved One's place in music history.