Pitchfork - The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s

The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s | Pitchfork

I couldn't see thread for this yet, so here it is.

Much like their recent 1960s list, there's some pretty fascinating (read: eclectic) inclusions as well as a bunch of the usual suspects. Nonetheless, the discussion on this thread is going to be interesting.

Where I do give Pitchfork credit is that their curation of these recent lists is coming from a genuinely 21st Century perspective; where all genres and conventional forms of culture have been obliterated, fragmented and reorganised through new media and the Internet. I think that some of the most interesting music I've ever heard is being made at the moment and everything that preceded it (esp. in the 1980's): rock, pop, hip-hop, electro, jazz, experimental, African, etc is crucial in this respect.

Stray observations:

• Great to see a strong emphasis on African music, hip-hop and experimental work (La Monte Young, Laurie Speigel, Meredith Monk).
• Lots of Janet Jackson.
• Pretty excellent overall representation of female artists.
• Talk Talk's Spirit Of Eden at #24.

 

Terrible list. No Mellencamp? Scarecrow or Lonesome Jubilee aren’t in the top 200 but some of that crap is? C’mon. No Steve Earle? I’m not even sure I saw a single country music album on the list... Appetite For Destruction can’t crack the top 75? What a joke.

 

I think Lucinda Williams snuck in there. Country got a raw deal here. The 1990s via Pitchfork would be a different story however.

 

I was a little harsh but this really seemed like a list that just reflected a single author’s personal favorites and not really a general best of the decade.

 

Compilations should never be included in "album lists".
The Smiths' Hatful of Hollow is at 43.

 

1. Prince and the Revolution Purple Rain
2. Michael Jackson Thriller
3. N.W.A. Straight Outta Compton
4. Kate Bush Hounds of Love
5. Talking Heads Remain in Light
6. Public Enemy It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
7. Sonic Youth Daydream Nation
8. Janet Jackson Control
9. The Cure Disintegration
10. Sade Diamond Life
11. Eric B. & Rakim Paid In Full
12. Joy Division Closer
13. The Smiths The Queen Is Dead
14. Pixies Doolittle
15. Beastie Boys Paul's Boutique
16. Madonna Madonna
17. Prince Sign o' the Times
18. Kraftwerk Computer World
19. New Order Power, Corruption and Lies
20. Boogie Down Productions Criminal Minded
21. De La Soul 3 Feet High and Rising
22. Laurie Anderson Big Science
23. Minor Threat Complete Discography
24. Talk Talk Spirit of Eden
25. Arthur Russell World of Echo
26. Prince 1999
27. Cocteau Twins Treasure
28. Bruce Springsteen Nebraska
29. Eric B. & Rakim Follow the Leader
30. Janet Jackson Rhythm Nation 1814
31. Slayer Reign In Blood
32. Pixies Surfer Rosa
33. Prince Dirty Mind
34. Leonard Cohen I'm Your Man
35. The Replacements Let It Be
36. Black Flag Damaged
37. Sade Stronger Than Pride
38. Run-D.M.C. Raising Hell
39. R.E.M. Murmur
40. The Jesus and Mary Chain Psychocandy
41. Bad Brains Bad Brains
42. Tom Waits Rain Dogs
43. The Smiths Hatful of Hollow
44. Sinéad O'Connor The Lion and the Cobra
45. Fugazi Fugazi
46. Dinosaur Jr. You're Living All Over Me
47. U2 The Joshua Tree
48. Slick Rick The Great Adventures of Slick Rick
49. Paul Simon Graceland
50. ESG Come Away with ESG
51. Sonic Youth EVOL
52. Minutemen Double Nickels on the Dime
53. David Bowie Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)
54. The Replacements Tim
55. Metallica Master of Puppets
56. Bruce Springsteen Born in the U.S.A.
57. Galaxie 500 On Fire
58. My Bloody Valentine Isn't Anything
59. Kate Bush The Sensual World
60. EPMD Strictly Business
61. Talking Heads Stop Making Sense
62. Glenn Branca The Ascension
63. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds From Her to Eternity
64. Grace Jones Nightclubbing
65. Violent Femmes Violent Femmes
66. Vangelis Blade Runner
67. Julee Cruise Floating Into the Night
68. Husker Du Zen Arcade
69. Metallica Ride the Lightning
70. Ultramagnetic MC's Critical Beatdown
71. Motorhead Ace of Spades
72. Michael Jackson Bad
73. This Heat Deceit
    
74. Bob Marley and the Wailers Uprising
75. Siouxise and the Banshees Juju
76. Nine Inch Nails Pretty Hate Machine
77. Depeche Mode Music for the Masses
78. Madonna Like a Prayer
79. The Fall This Nation's Saving Grace
80. Manuel Gottsching E2-E4
81. Brian Eno/David Byrne My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
82. Iron Maiden The Number of the Beast
83. Jungle Brothers Straight Out the Jungle
84. Lucinda Williams Lucinda Williams
85. The Blue Nile Hats
86. Guns 'N' Roses Appetite for Destruction
87. Tears for Fears Songs from the Big Chair
88. The Stone Roses The Stone Roses
89. Cocteau Twins Blue Bell Knoll
90. R.E.M. Reckoning
91. George Michael Faith
92. Fleetwood Mac Tango in the Night
93. Steve Reich Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint
94. Morbid Angel Altars of Madness
95. Brian Eno/Daniel Lanois/Roger Eno Apollo: Soundtracks and Atmospheres
96. Fela Kuti Coffin for Head of State
97. The Raincoats Odyshape
98. Nirvana Bleach
99. Kool G Rap & DJ Polo Road to the Riches
100. Cyndi Lauper She's So Unusual
101. Alice Coltrane Turiya Sings
102. Wipers Youth of America
103. Beastie Boys Licenced to Ill
104. Public Image Limited Second Edition
105. Boogie Down Productions By All Means Necessary
106. Laurie Spiegel The Expanding Universe
107. The Feelies Crazy Rhythms
108. Young Marble Giants Colossal Youth
109. The Cure The Head on the Door
110. X Los Angeles
111. Roxy Music Avalon
112. New Order Technique
113. Spacemen 3 Playing with Fire
114. INXS Kick
115. Madonna Like A Virgin
116. Misfits Walk Among Us
117. Whitney Houston Whitney Houston
118. Philip Glass Solo Piano
119. Steely Dan Gaucho
120. Run-D.M.C. Run-D.M.C.
121. Pretenders Pretenders
122. Beat Happening Beat Happening
123. The Go-Go's Beauty and the Beat
124. Bruce Springsteen Tunnel of Love
125. Peter Gabriel Peter Gabriel (Melt)
126. David Bowie Let's Dance
127. Pet Shop Boys Actually
128. AC/DC Back in Black
129. The D.O.C. No One Can Do It Better
130. Scientist Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires
131. Echo and the Bunnymen Ocean Rain
132. Prefab Sprout Steve McQueen
133. XTC Skylarking
134. Jane's Addiciton Nothing's Shocking
135. Big Black Songs About ****ing
136. Neneh Cherry Raw Like Sushi
137. Horace Andy Dance Hall Style
138. Big Daddy Kane Long Live the Kane
139. The Durutti Colum Vini Reilly
140. 3rd Bass The Cactus Album
141. Celtic Frost To Mega Therion
142. Midori Tadaka Through the Looking Glass
143. Descendents Milo Goes to College
144. The Clash Sandinista!
145. Daniel Johnston Hi, How Are You: The Unfinished Album
146. Geto Boys Grip It! On That Other Level
147. Virginia Astley In the Gardens Where We Feel Secure
148. Rites of Spring Rites of Spring
149. Anita Baker Rapture
150. La Monte Young The Well-Tuned Piano
151. The Clean Compilation
152. Meat Puppets II
153. Meredith Monk Dolmen Music
154. LL Cool J Radio
155. Elvis Costello and the Attractions Imperial Bedroom
156. Stevie Wonder Hotter Than July
157. MC Lyte Lyte as a Rock
158. Judas Priest British Steel
159. Various Artists The Indestructible Beat of Soweto
160. Mr. Fingers Amnesia
161. Richard & Linda Thompson Shoot Out the Lights
162. King Sunny Adé and his African Beats Syncro System
163. Ryuichi Sakamoto Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
164. Pauline Oliveros/Stuart Dempster/Panaiotis Deep Listening
165. Swell Maps Jane from Occupied Europe
166. Ice-T Rhyme Pays
167. Au Pairs Playing with a Different Sex
168. Nurse with Wound Soliloquy for Lilith
169. The Faith/Void The Faith/Void
170. Yellowman Mister Yellowman
171. Scritti Politti Cupid & Psyche 85
172. Duran Duran Rio
173. Tina Turner Private Dancer
174. Ornette Coleman In All Languages
175. Godflesh Streetcleaner
176. Psychic TV Dreams Less Sweet
177. Queen Latifah All Hail the Queen
178. Joe Jackson Night and Day
179. LiLiPUT LiLiPUT
180. 808 State 90
181. Nuno Canavarro Plux Quba
182. ABBA The Visitors
183. The B-52's Wild Planet
184. Change The Glow of Love
185. Too $hort Life is… Too $hort
186. Paul McCartney McCartney II
187. Tom Tom Club Tom Tom Club
188. Yoko Ono Season of Glass
189. Butthole Surfers Locust Abortion Technician
190. Ini Kamoze Ini Kamoze
191. Bronski Beat The Age of Consent
192. Salt-N-Pepa Hot, Cool and Vicious
193. Flipper Generic Album Flipper
194. Patrice Rushen Straight from the Heart
195. Cecil Taylor For Olim
196. Virgo Virgo
197. Whodini Escape
198. Mercyful Fate Don't Break the Oath
199. Tenor Saw Fever
200. Malcolm McLaren Duck Rock

 

Proof that the eighties would struggle to make the list of the top 200 decades.

 

That's laughable... NWA #3 but no Tom Petty albums ?

 

1. Kate Bush Hounds of Love
2. Talking Heads Remain in Light
3. Pixies Doolittle
4. Laurie Anderson Big Science
5. Pixies Surfer Rosa
6. Tom Waits Rain Dogs
7. Paul Simon Graceland
8. David Bowie Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)
9. Kate Bush The Sensual World
10. Talking Heads Stop Making Sense
11. Glenn Branca The Ascension
12. Violent Femmes Violent Femmes
13. Vangelis Blade Runner
14. Brian Eno/David Byrne My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
15. Steve Reich Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint
16. Brian Eno/Daniel Lanois/Roger Eno Apollo: Soundtracks and Atmospheres
17. Philip Glass Solo Piano
18. Peter Gabriel Peter Gabriel (Melt)
19. La Monte Young The Well-Tuned Piano
20. Meredith Monk Dolmen Music
21. Richard & Linda Thompson Shoot Out the Lights
22. Pauline Oliveros/Stuart Dempster/Panaiotis Deep Listening

I'm surprised I rated around 10% of these, to be honest. Usually with these lists I'm into single digits. Still, not this time. Yah!

 

I find it very hard to rate these lists, because I feel they try to be inclusive to certain acts based on their reputation, whilst also worried about including too many albums from one act (case in point here for me would be 'R.E.M', who released several classics in the 80's, another example would be 'XTC).

I am pleased to see 'McCartney 2', 'Stone Roses', etc, on the list. One complaint would be that Peter Gabriel's 'Melt' made it, but not also the wonderful 'So'.

Anyway it looks like it will be interesting to go through listening to some of these.

 

Not to stand up for Pitchfork - but So was a step down, imo. He was going for hits, and he managed that - but at a cost, imo. He never really recovered, actually.

 

The Blue Mask, New York. No Lou?

 

It's a tricky one, but I think the key thing with these Pitchfork lists is they do make an effort to be inclusive of virtually everything that was done during a particular decade, which goes beyond the standard pop/rock template. I think that this is especially important when examining the 80's from a 2018 vantage. If this was Rolling Stone for example, then it would be a different story. If Pitchfork have one thing going for them at the moment, their fifty-odd contributors come from all kinds of backgrounds, with their fingers and ears in all kinds of genres and culture. For this reason, I've found some of their features - especially those concerning 'outer-limits' music - to be ocassionally fascinating with top tier writing.

 

Including the re-issue of 1979's Public Image Metal Box as 'Second Edition' is kind of cheating.
Jane In Occupied Europe was a weak follow-up to Marineville. How is this best of 80s?

Those two inclusions alone make me suspicious of how they compiled this list. A case of contributors wanting to include their favourite act, despite them being past their best?

 

Classic rock gets a tad overlooked--->Steve Hoffman Forum is furious

 

Were they still making classic rock in the 1980s? I thought the world had moved on.

 

It's not a terrible list - I think there should be more pop on there though - the 80s had some great pop albums. Where's Into The Gap by The Thompson Twins or ABC's Lexicon of Love? Nice to see The Blue Nile on there, although I'd vote Rooftops over Hats, but that's just a personal thing. Also where's Phil Collins Face Value??

Actually I've changed my mind, it is a terrible list...

 

I must admit that I am surprised to see bands such as Mercyful Fate, Godflesh, Celtic Frost, and Morbid Angel making this list. I usually don’t pay much attention to these lists but I must admit, I am impressed. Of course I don’t agree with all of it but I admire the fact that they decided not to go with the usual chart toppers like others do.

 

Let's check where they placed 80s albums by some of my favorite artists . . .

Frank Zappa -- they didn't include any
Todd Rundgren -- they didn't include any
Yes -- they didn't include any
Grateful Dead -- they didn't include any
King Crimson -- they didn't include any
The Rolling Stones -- they didn't include any
The Who/Pete Townshend -- they didn't include any
Miles Davis -- they didn't include any
Pat Metheny -- they didn't include any
Bob Dylan -- they didn't include any
Neil Young -- they didn't include any
Genesis -- they didn't include any
King's X -- they didn't include any
kd lang -- they didn't include any
. . . I guess I don't need to check any more



That's a pass from me

 

That is the fascinating thing about a list like this: it can be used to discover a lot of overlooked stuff during the rockism era. Of course, many will see such an operation under the guise of hipsterism, and it surely is by a certain degree. But I can't understand why people get crazy if some album doesn't get included or some artist gets overlooked.

Lists are basically a game.

 

I was sure that 'Trans' would make the list, so am surprised to see that it didn't.

 

Whoa--they don't even have a Police album on the list.

 

Oh they included a lot of hip hop and heavy metal is underrepresented , what a surprise

Yawn

 

Terrible top 20–only about a quarter of them actually belong there.

But even more messed up is how many great—or at least better—albums are ranked below Gaucho, while The Nightly is nowhere to be found...

 

On first glance, Lexicon of Love seems the most glaring omission