Top Ten Albums Of The 80s

God these threads are painful. Guess I'll go with:

The Waterboys -- Fisherman's Blues
REM -- Lifes Rich Pageant
Psychedelic Furs -- Talk Talk Talk
The Cure -- The Head on the Door
The Replacements -- Let It Be
They Might Be Giants -- Lincoln
Peter Gabriel -- s/t (Melt)
Echo and the Bunnymen -- Heaven Up Here
Bowie -- Scary Monsters
Nick Cave -- Tender Prey

But I know I'm leaving out some extremely important things.

 

One more...

Motorhead - Ace Of Spades
Mötley Crue - Girls Girls Girls
Metallica - Kill Em' All
Van Halen - 5150
Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time (Their best work!)
Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms
Judas Priest - Screaming For Vengeance
Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys pt2
Dio - Last In Line
Blind Guardian - Battalions Of Fear.

 

I forgot about Appetite! I'll swap Document out for Gn'R.

 

My favorite decade of pop/rock.

My best attempt at honesty:

Bruce Springsteen, "Born in the U.S.A."
Toto, "Toto IV"
Bruce Hornsby & the Range, "The Way It Is"
Bryan Adams, "Reckless"
Tears for Fears, "Songs from the Big Chair"
Prince, "Purple Rain"
Bonnie Raitt, "Nick of Time"
U2, "The Joshua Tree"
Midnight Oil, "Diesel and Dust"
Michael Jackson, "Thriller"

Closely followed by:

The Police, "Synchronicity"
The Robert Cray Band, "Strong Persuader"
Guns 'n' Roses, "Appetite for Destruction"
Dire Straits, "Making Movies"
Dire Straits, "Brothers in Arms"
Van Halen, "1984"
Van Halen, "5150"
Lou Reed, "New York"
U2, "Unforgettable Fire"
Bruce Hornsby & the Range, "Scenes from the Southside"
Los Lobos, "La Pistola y el Corazon"

The Pretenders, Talking Heads, and "Graceland" belong somewhere around here. I think I'd dry up and blow away without New Order but for them I've always depended on compilations. Same with Def Leppard and Billy Squier and Madonna. The Lloyd Cole album "Rattlesnakes" is so good I'm tempted to list it, but it seems strange because even though I've listened to it and enjoyed it countless times I don't think I know anything about the guy other than what's on that record and I don't even remember where and why I got it.

Editor's note: I think I've now edited this post 6 times. This list-making stuff is tough.

 

My other ten:

The Rave-Ups -- Town + Country
Ben Vaughn Combo -- Beautiful Thing
Leonard Cohen -- I'm Your Man
Mink DeVille -- Where Angels Fear to Tread
Camper Van Beethoven -- Key Lime Pie
T Bone Burnett -- The Talking Animals
Tom Waits -- Rain Dogs
Psychedelic Furs -- Book of Days
Guadalcanal Diary -- Jamboree
BoDeans -- Love and Hope and Sex and Dreams
+
the best song of the entire 80s: Long Ryders -- "Looking for Lewis and Clark"

I probably still listen to the Rave-Ups, Ben Vaughn, and Guadalcanal Diary more often than most heavy hitters of the 80s.

 

There you go!

 

I think the Sound does get a lot of love around here now, but it will never be what they really might've had back in the 80s if times had been more fair, that second album is one of the great ones of the 80s. Such an amazing band, listening now makes you wonder what went wrong? The first one is an amazing debut too. Third one and they were dropped, but the Shock of Daylight EP that followed is pretty great too, another big favorite of mine, six songs that could've probably all been singles if the times were different, kind of a comeback in some ways, maybe sounding a bit too much like Simple Minds for some their early fans, but solid entertainment. One of the best bands of that era.

Could've easily been in my list, probably should've if I applied some kind of objective measurement guidelines, there's another level of great records and bands that almost always gets excluded from these best of lists, that's always been the big issue. We forget more great bands than we remember, and lists tend to narrow the perspective even more.

 

Tender Prey - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Children of God - Swans
Fire of Love - The Gun Club
Psychocandy - Jesus and Mary Chain
Junkyard - The Birthday Party
The Perfect Prescription - Spaceman 3
La Chat Bleu - Mink De Ville
Days Of Wine and Roses - The Dream Syndicate
A Date With Elvis - The Cramps
Crazy Rhythms - The Feelies

 

1. U2 - The Joshua Tree
2. Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring
3. Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
4. R.E.M. - Murmur
5. Black Flag - Slip It In
6. The Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
7. Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking
8. Pixies - Surfer Rosa
9. Pail Simon - Graceland
10. The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead

 

10 more from me....

Dirty Mind - Prince
Upstairs At Eric's - Yazoo
Oh Mercy - Bob Dylan
Pirates - Rickie Lee Jones
Union - Toni Childs
Diamond Life - Sade
The Queen Is Dead - The Smiths
Strange Weather - Marianne Faithfull
Maria McKee - Maria McKee
Disintegration - The Cure

 

This probably closely mirrors top lists I've posted before in similar threads, but I love the 80s so much I can't resist.

Metallica - Ride the Lightning
XTC - Skylarking
The Smiths - debut
The Smiths - Queen Is Dead
Savatage - Gutter Ballet
Mercyful Fate - Melissa
The Cure - Disintegration
Metallica - ...And Justice For All
Billy Idol - Rebel Yell
Voivod - Nothingface

 

This Mortal Coil - It'll End In Tears
The Stone Roses – S/T
The Chameleons- Script of the Bridge
Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden
U2 - Unforgettable Fire
Joy Division – Closer
Bruce Springsteen – Nebraska
Throwing Muses - S/T
Love and Rockets - Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven
Depeche Mode - Black Celebration

 

Another 10:

Donna Summer - S/T
Diana Ross - Silk Electric
Paul McCartney - Pipes Of peace
Missing Persons - Spring Session M
Def Leppard - Pyromania
Van Halen - Diver Down
Billy Joel - Songs In The Attic
The Police - Ghost In The Machine
The Police - Synchronicity
S.O.S. Band - On The Rise


Another 10:

Sister Sledge - Betcha Say That To All The Girls
Shalamar - The Look
The Whispers - Love Is Where You Find It
Van Halen - Women & Children First
Joe Jackson - Body & Soul
Atlantic Starr - Brilliance
Ratt - Out Of The Cellar
The Pretenders - Learning To Crawl
The Pretenders S/T
Phil Collins - Face Value

I know the OP wanted 10, but, seriously, that is impossible, and i'm barely into 1984! I could go all day with this, especially when you consider that I have a very wide range of genres I like, and that I have somewhere around 3,000 albums, not including comps!

 

I went ahead and tabbed up the mentions of different albums on this thread. Not with scientific precision--there's definitely some margin for error in my counting--but this isn't exactly a scientific enterprise. Top album is #1 by a reasonably good margin, but then there's a real jumble:

1. U2, "The Joshua Tree" (25 mentions)
2. Prince and the Revolution, "Purple Rain" (17)
2. R.E.M., "Murmur" (17)
2. the Smiths, "The Queen Is Dead" (17)
2. Talking Heads, "Remain in Light" (17)
6. the Cure, "Disintegration" (15)
6. David Bowie, "Scary Monsters" (15)
8. Rolling Stones, "Tattoo You" (14)
9. Michael Jackson, "Thriller" (13)
9. Pixies, "Doolittle" (13)
11. Paul Simon, "Graceland" (12)
11. U2, "The Unforgettable Fire" (12)
13. AC/DC, "Back in Black" (11)
13. Joy Division, "Closer" (11)
13. Kate Bush, "Hounds of Love" (11)
13. Peter Gabriel, third album (11)
13. Peter Gabriel, "So" (11)
13. the Police, "Sychronicity" (11)
13. the Stone Roses, "The Stone Roses" (11)
20. Guns n' Roses, "Appetite for Destruction" (10)

 

I only have nine of these albums, and out of those nine, only two would make top ten. This reinforces again that my tastes in music is not the same as this forum's taste.

 

Some artists have their mentions split up quite a bit across albums. People are hesitant to put more than one album by a single artist on their list, and so if there's not much consensus about what that artist's best album is, their mentions get split up among a lot of albums. If you tab up mentions by artist, you get the following:

1. U2 (40 mentions)
2. R.E.M. (39 mentions)
3. Prince (31 mentions)
4. the Smiths (25 mentions)
5. the Cure (24 mentions)
5. Kate Bush (24 mentions)
5. Peter Gabriel (24 mentions)
8. Bruce Springsteen (21 mentions)
9. Talking Heads (20 mentions)
10. Metallica (19 mentions)
10. Pixies (19 mentions)
10. the Police (19 mentions)

Bruce Springsteen's mentions were especially split up among albums. He got 7 for "Nebraska", 6 for "The River", and 4 each for "Born in the U.S.A." and "Tunnel of Love".

Metallica's "Master of Puppets" got 9 mentions, which was one short of getting into the top 20 (probably within the margin of error for my tabulation). They also got 4 for "And Justice for All", and 3 each for "Kill 'Em All" and "Ride the Lightning".

 

I can see why some of them made the list, U2 is overrated though, nothing special about them or their music in my opinion.

 

I think U2 were important, but I only liked them - never loved them. Thought they were most interesting when they tried doing something weird (for them), but the fans hated it, so...

It's interesting how well-regarded Kate Bush is today. She was hardly known here in the US in the '80s. We have quite a few members in the UK and elsewhere, but probably not enough to skew the numbers too dramatically. I wonder if we pulled the same list a decade from now if she won't have climbed into the top three...

 

She was known in 1985 once her album "The Hounds Of Love", and the single "Running Up That Hill" came out with heavy promotion on MTV. Perhaps it is because i'm a music geek, but I often heard her talked about after that here in the U.S.. She was never on the top of the charts, but she was popular.

 

The Replacements - Tim
The Mekons - Rock and Roll
Pixies - Doolittle
Pogues - Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash
Robyn Hitchcock -I Often Dream of Trains
The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour
Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime
Rites of Spring - s/t
Descendents - Milo Goes to College
Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique

 

Hounds of Love only made it to #30 on the US album charts and I don't think has even been certified Gold here. "Running Up That Hill" matched it with a #30 placement on the Top 40. If I'd blinked that week I would have missed it - and her - entirely, possibly for years if not forever.

 

Pop and rock only:

Bauhaus - The Sky's Gone Out
The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace
Husker Du - Zen Arcade
Joy Division - Closer
Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime
Pogues - Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash
REM - Fables of the Reconstruction
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
XTC - English Settlement

 

I just recently started really discovering the 80s, so this is going to be a bit difficult:

Kate Bush - the Dreaming
Dexys Midnight Runners - Searching for the Young Soul Rebels
The Dukes of Stratosphear - Psonic Psunspot
Echo & the Bunnymen - Porcupine
The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace
The Go-Betweens - 16 Lovers Lane
Josef K - the Only Fun in Town
Prince - Purple Rain
Talk Talk - Colour of Spring
XTC - Skylarking
This Heat - Deceit

I'd like to mention Nick Cave, who I love, but forgot to add.

 

Joy Division -Closer
Talking Heads - Remain In Light
Grace Jones - Nightclubbing
kraftwerk -Computer World
Tom Waits -Swordfishtrombones
Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen
Womack & Womack - Conscience
The Smiths - Hatful of Hollow
Lil Louis - From The Mind Of...
De La Soul - 3 Ft High...

 

There's a bunch of artists represented in that aggregate list that didn't have much commercial success at the time, so I don't think many of us really care about sales figures when making a best of list from 30 years ago now, though I know it is important to a substantial group here that track such things. Most of us just like good music, and may not have appreciated an artist at the time, but doesn't mean they are lost or forgotten, more like just waiting to be discovered. The Pixies or Joy Division hardly tore up the charts either, but are both iconic today, and placed on the list too. Many others got a few mentions that probably aren't known at all by the general public, I know a couple on my list probably aren't very well known outside of music boards like this. We're the keepers of the good music