Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s
by 
Romanelli 
- Chart updated: 10/28/2025 21:15
- (Created: 12/04/2011 20:38).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
There are 15 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s has an average rating of 84 out of 100 (from 29 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
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This chart is currently filtered to only show albums from The Cure. (Remove this filter)
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1989-ELEKTRA
Produced By ROBERT SMITH & DAVID M ALLEN
1. Plainsong
2. Pictures Of You
3. Closedown
4. Lovesong
5. Last Dance
6. Lullaby
7. Fascination Street
8. Prayers For Rain
9. The Same Deep Water As You
10. Disintegration
11. Homesick
12. Untitled
The Cure's 8th album is their best selling, and may be their best overall album. Robert Smith was under a lot of pressure to come up with a winner, was back on the hallucinogenics, and was under pressure from the rest of the band to fire founding drummer Lol Tolhurst, which he did, leaving himself as the only remaining original member. Although the band has always disliked the "goth" label, Disintegration is a goth masterpiece. It's dark, with solid keyboards and great songs. The big hit was "Lovesong", their only US top 10, but the rest is very listenable, well written and played to perfection. A huge step up from their tinny sounding earlier work.
The Cure still rolls on. And, according to Kyle from South Park, "Disintegration is the best album ever". [First added to this chart: 12/12/2011]
Produced By ROBERT SMITH & DAVID M ALLEN
1. Plainsong
2. Pictures Of You
3. Closedown
4. Lovesong
5. Last Dance
6. Lullaby
7. Fascination Street
8. Prayers For Rain
9. The Same Deep Water As You
10. Disintegration
11. Homesick
12. Untitled
The Cure's 8th album is their best selling, and may be their best overall album. Robert Smith was under a lot of pressure to come up with a winner, was back on the hallucinogenics, and was under pressure from the rest of the band to fire founding drummer Lol Tolhurst, which he did, leaving himself as the only remaining original member. Although the band has always disliked the "goth" label, Disintegration is a goth masterpiece. It's dark, with solid keyboards and great songs. The big hit was "Lovesong", their only US top 10, but the rest is very listenable, well written and played to perfection. A huge step up from their tinny sounding earlier work.
The Cure still rolls on. And, according to Kyle from South Park, "Disintegration is the best album ever". [First added to this chart: 12/12/2011]
Year of Release:
1989
Appears in:
Rank Score:
26,384
Rank in 1989:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
152
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1987 – ELEKTRA
Produced By DAVID M. ALLEN & ROBERT SMITH
1. The Kiss
2. Catch
3. Torture
4. If Only Tonight We Could Sleep
5. Why Can’t I Be You?
6. How Beautiful You Are
7. The Snakepit
8. Hey You!!!
9. Just Like Heaven
10. All I Want
11. Hot Hot Hot!!!
12. One More Time
13. Like Cockatoos
14. Icing Sugar
15. The Perfect Girl
16. A Thousand Hours
17. Shiver And Shake
18. Fight
“Just Like Heaven”. The song that cemented The Cure as a great band in America comes from this, their seventh album. But that’s not all that this double album from 1987 has to offer. This album shows that The Cure wasn’t just a new wave band, but that they could rock as well as just about anyone. And that they certainly knew their way around a hook. The Cure had begun their conquest of America the year before, with the release of the Staring At The Sea compilation, which gave the US audience their first real listens to classics like “Killing An Arab” and “Boys Don’t Cry”. And after Kiss Me, they followed it up with the excellent Disintegration. But it was ”Just Like Heaven” that won the US audience for them. And for good reason…it’s a perfect song. The rest borders on 80’s psychedelia, with songs that alternate between gloomy and heavy and dreamy and dark and bright. What’s not to love?
“Why Can’t I Be You?” was the lead single, and it’s as upbeat as The Cure ever was. Catchy and synth driven, with an almost playful vocal from Robert Smith. “Catch” and “Hot Hot Hot!!!” are also excellent tracks. They show their diversity on the guitar drenched “The Kiss”, the almost Indian sounding “If Only Tonight We Could Sleep”, and “Icing Sugar”. The Cure always comes back to “Just Like Heaven”, and fortunately, it’s here. The sheer length of Kiss Me can be a bit exhausting, but in the end, it’s worth it. The band has not forgotten how important this album was to their career…they play many tracks from it to this day at each live show. Kiss Me still stands as one of The Cure’s best…not a perfect disc, and a long listen, but hugely important in their history and their development as one of the world’s finest bands. And a fine reminder of how good 1987 actually was for music. [First added to this chart: 05/09/2022]
Produced By DAVID M. ALLEN & ROBERT SMITH
1. The Kiss
2. Catch
3. Torture
4. If Only Tonight We Could Sleep
5. Why Can’t I Be You?
6. How Beautiful You Are
7. The Snakepit
8. Hey You!!!
9. Just Like Heaven
10. All I Want
11. Hot Hot Hot!!!
12. One More Time
13. Like Cockatoos
14. Icing Sugar
15. The Perfect Girl
16. A Thousand Hours
17. Shiver And Shake
18. Fight
“Just Like Heaven”. The song that cemented The Cure as a great band in America comes from this, their seventh album. But that’s not all that this double album from 1987 has to offer. This album shows that The Cure wasn’t just a new wave band, but that they could rock as well as just about anyone. And that they certainly knew their way around a hook. The Cure had begun their conquest of America the year before, with the release of the Staring At The Sea compilation, which gave the US audience their first real listens to classics like “Killing An Arab” and “Boys Don’t Cry”. And after Kiss Me, they followed it up with the excellent Disintegration. But it was ”Just Like Heaven” that won the US audience for them. And for good reason…it’s a perfect song. The rest borders on 80’s psychedelia, with songs that alternate between gloomy and heavy and dreamy and dark and bright. What’s not to love?
“Why Can’t I Be You?” was the lead single, and it’s as upbeat as The Cure ever was. Catchy and synth driven, with an almost playful vocal from Robert Smith. “Catch” and “Hot Hot Hot!!!” are also excellent tracks. They show their diversity on the guitar drenched “The Kiss”, the almost Indian sounding “If Only Tonight We Could Sleep”, and “Icing Sugar”. The Cure always comes back to “Just Like Heaven”, and fortunately, it’s here. The sheer length of Kiss Me can be a bit exhausting, but in the end, it’s worth it. The band has not forgotten how important this album was to their career…they play many tracks from it to this day at each live show. Kiss Me still stands as one of The Cure’s best…not a perfect disc, and a long listen, but hugely important in their history and their development as one of the world’s finest bands. And a fine reminder of how good 1987 actually was for music. [First added to this chart: 05/09/2022]
Year of Release:
1987
Appears in:
Rank Score:
2,699
Rank in 1987:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 2. Page 1 of 1
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Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s composition
| Year | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
|
|
| 1980 | 14 | 14% | |
| 1981 | 7 | 7% | |
| 1982 | 11 | 11% | |
| 1983 | 7 | 7% | |
| 1984 | 8 | 8% | |
| 1985 | 5 | 5% | |
| 1986 | 10 | 10% | |
| 1987 | 11 | 11% | |
| 1988 | 14 | 14% | |
| 1989 | 13 | 13% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
 |
|
|
| Talking Heads | 3 | 3% | |
| Bruce Springsteen | 3 | 3% | |
| R.E.M. | 3 | 3% | |
| X (US) | 3 | 3% | |
| U2 | 3 | 3% | |
| The Jesus And Mary Chain | 2 | 2% | |
| AC/DC | 2 | 2% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s chart changes
| Biggest climbers |
|---|
| Up 2 from 33rd to 31st Pleased To Meet Me by The Replacements |
| Biggest fallers |
|---|
| Down 1 from 31st to 32nd This Is The Voice by Agent Orange |
| Down 1 from 32nd to 33rd Surfer Rosa by Pixies |
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Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s ratings
84/100 (from 29 votes)
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 5 ratings for this chart. | Show all 29 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 80/100  | 02/06/2025 15:30 | BorderFreeAndrew | | 81/100 |
| 85/100 | 01/31/2025 14:12 |  SomethingSpecial | | 85/100 |
| 70/100 | 01/23/2022 16:11 |  IlMala | | 95/100 |
| 80/100 | 10/22/2020 01:13 | leniad | | 85/100 |
| 85/100 | 09/05/2020 14:13 | MasterOfPuppets | | 91/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some charts can have several thousand ratings)
This chart has a Bayesian average rating of 83.9/100, a mean average of 81.4/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 83.2/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 13.4.
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Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s comments
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80/100
From BorderFreeAndrew 02/06/2025 15:33
Nice to see Adam Ant's "Friend or Foe" so high (a seriously underrated album), along with several other forgotten classics that tend to be ignored when most people make an 80's chart.
#307441 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
80/100
From leniad 10/22/2020 01:13
Respect
#259555 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
70/100
From 0129114 06/24/2020 03:52
some solid picks m8.
#254351 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
80/100
From 
Liedzeit 11/24/2018 10:49
Liedzeit 11/24/2018 10:49
It is nice to see an 80s chart as chart of the day for a change. And what a pathetic decade it was if even someone like you who obviously knows a lot of stuff cannot come up with better records than these. TW are okay but as no. 1? The first decent LP enters at place 23, in my opinion.
#225586 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
90/100
From 
ForegroundNoise 11/24/2018 09:24
ForegroundNoise 11/24/2018 09:24
Really like your notes!!
#225581 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From 
buzzdainer 07/16/2016 15:13
buzzdainer 07/16/2016 15:13
I love your take on the eighties! I really appreciate your #1 pick, as supergroups tend to be written off as inferior to the works of their individual members--an assumption that the Traveling Wilburys blew out of the water. Full Moon Fever, Disintegration, Doolittle, and The River are all great albums, too. Also really nice to see Blue Earth in your top ten, as I've been a huge fan of the Jayhawks for many years and love that album. Excellent work overall, especially on your notes!
#171403 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
85/100
From BraddlesHendo 12/01/2014 14:31
Great albums I guess some I wouldn't play so much. We have quite a few similar choices
#128418 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
75/100
From 
tgarritsen 01/13/2014 15:59
tgarritsen 01/13/2014 15:59
Interesting number one pick.
#100555 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
85/100
From guigs13 01/10/2013 01:33
Nice chart!
#60879 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From davidhuret 12/11/2012 09:04
Good choice at #1.
#57461 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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