Best Album Of 1981?

For me, these two would be tied for best album of 1981:

 

Carpenters - Made In America
Tom Tom Club - Tom Tom Club
Marcos Valle - Vontade de Rever Voce
Serge Bulot - Les legendes de Broceliande

 

I thought this would be an easy question to answer, but do I go with my somewhat obvious choice of ELO's Time, or an album I've only more recently discovered from the same year - Adventures In Modern Recording by The Buggles?

 

My top two favorite albums are from 1981



See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang Yeah! City All Over, Go Ape Crazy! - Bow Wow Wow

Juju - Siouxsie & the Banshees

Mask - Bauhaus
Talk Talk Talk - The Psychedelic Furs
Duran Duran - Duran Duran
The Flowers of Romance - PiL
Heaven Up Here - Echo & the Bunnymen
Tin Drum - Japan
Faith - The Cure
Psychedelic Jungle - The Cramps

 

there's a lot of great posts in this thread.
and i agree with a lot of the new wave ones.


NOTE : there's a lot of duplications from people that haven't seen previous posts

NOTE : there's a lot of image only posts, so sadly i can't see a lot of them due to a slow connection
and possibly broken links.

PLEASE label your post if you put up an image, and i would be grateful.

later
-1

 

Just going by likes I think Moving Pictures is the best album of 2981 and I won't even deny it.

 

Quoting this typo because it's so awesome.

 

lol. It will probably be he best album of that year too.

 

Cabaret Voltaire - Red Mecca
Duran Duran - Duran Duran
The Police - Ghost In The Machine
Men At Work - Business As Usual
Ultravox - Rage In Eden

 

You're right! So sorry, I failed to do that.

First image is Mission of Burma, Signals, Call and Marches
Second image is Japan, Tin Drum

 

Limiting myself to my faves that were not mentioned yet over here:

Univers Zero - Ceux Du Dehors
Vangelis - Chariots Of Fire
Pat Metheny - Offramp
Marco Antônio Araújo - Influências
Franco Battiato - La Voce Del Padrone

.

 

Oh yes! Mind-bogglingly innovative at the time.
Fast forward to 2016 or 2017 and I saw not one but two approx. 20 year olds Shazam it in the queue to pay when it was playing in London's flagship Levi's store on Regent Street

 

Stand And Deliver is a classic.

 

Heaven Up Here Echo And The Bunnymen.

 

Some have been already mentioned and others don't:

The Rolling Stones - "Tattoo You"
Electric Light Orchestra - "Time"
The Kinks - "Give The People What They Want"
Kraftwerk - "Computer World"
Billy Joel - "Songs In The Attic"
The Undertones - "Positive Touch"
The Knack - "Round Trip"
Joao Gilberto - "Brasil"
Pretenders - "II"
King Crimson - "Discipline"

 

All that's left to argue is what was the second greatest album of 1981.

 

Wow, you can really see the changing of the guard in this thread. Even artists now seen as mainstream like Genesis and Police were not issuing standard-issue seventies-style rock in 1981.

 

Four more new wave ones (the guard was indeed changing):

Go-Go's - "Beauty & The Beat"
The Police - "Ghost In The Machine"
Ramones - "Pleasant Dreams"
Madness - "7"

 

Music progressed at a rapid rate in the late 70's/80's.

 

The album as a whole was a let down following the brilliant Kings Of The Wild Frontier - but the three singles - title track,"Ant Rap" and "Stand & Deliver" plus "Scorpios" are all great. The rest not so much. Bounced back with Friend Or Foe

 

"Ant Rap" great? You have got to be joking

 

Its a classic single on a s*** album