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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37. (=)

Remain In Light 

 Talking Heads

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[First added to this chart: 12/16/2011]

Year of Release:

1980

Appears in:

2,027 charts

Rank Score:

27,959

Rank in 1980:

1

Rank in 1980s:

3

Overall Rank:

26

Average Rating:

 87 (2,294 votes)

Comments:

196

84. (=)

Speaking In Tongues 

 Talking Heads

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1983 – SIRE
Produced By TALKING HEADS

1. Burning Down The House
2. Making Flippy Floppy
3. Girlfriend Is Better
4. Slippery People
5. I Get Wild: Wild Gravity
6. Swamp
7. Moon Rocks
8. Pull Up The Roots
9. This Must Be The Place (Naïve Melody)

For their fifth album, Talking Heads went at it without producer Brian Eno, with interesting results. Speaking In Tongues turned out to be their breakthrough album, boasting hit singles and fine dance beats throughout. Strangely enough, the cassette version was the one to have…it’s six minutes longer with extended versions of the better songs. The LP and CD versions are shorter, but that’s okay…this is still a pretty fine album. David Byrne is at his quirkiest, Jerry Harrison plays some really funky guitar, and the rhythm section of Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz is as tight as can be. There are also a lot of synthesizers, but to their credit, they don’t crowd the album and the sound is not your typical eighties cheese. Leaving plenty of room for groove.

And groove is what Speaking In Tongues does. The first three songs are glorious, made up of everything that made this a great band. “Burning Down The House” is an irresistible dance hit. “Making Flippy Floppy” is weird and amazing as the title suggests, and “Girlfriend Is Better” is just a fantastic song. But that’s not all there is to this. “Swamp” is all quirky goodness, and “This Must Be The Place (Naïve Melody)” is one of their very finest songs. But there’s a significant drop after that…the other four songs, while upbeat and danceable, are also pretty forgettable. Their previous album, Remain In Light, was a tough act to follow, and they did a pretty good job of that. The live Stop Making Sense was next, and things started to slowly unravel…Talking Heads were done five years later. This is one of their better albums. Quirky, imperfect, and glorious. [First added to this chart: 10/19/2025]

Year of Release:

1983

Appears in:

626 charts

Rank Score:

5,103

Rank in 1983:

6

Rank in 1980s:

46

Overall Rank:

338

Average Rating:

 81 (799 votes)

Comments:

32

96. (=)

Naked 

 Talking Heads

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[First added to this chart: 12/12/2011]

Year of Release:

1988

Appears in:

123 charts

Rank Score:

380

Rank in 1988:

50

Rank in 1980s:

566

Overall Rank:

3,807

Average Rating:

 69 (254 votes)

Comments:

8

Total albums: 3. 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

Country	Albums	%
	63	63%
	22	22%
	5	5%
	4	4%
	4	4%
	1	1%
	1	1%

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

Showing latest 5 ratings for this chart. | Show all 29 ratings for this chart.

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Rating	Date updated	Member	Chart ratings	Avg. chart rating
80/100	02/06/2025 15:30	BorderFreeAndrew	95	81/100
85/100	01/31/2025 14:12	SomethingSpecial	1,106	85/100
70/100	01/23/2022 16:11	IlMala	178	95/100
80/100	10/22/2020 01:13	leniad	673	85/100
85/100	09/05/2020 14:13	MasterOfPuppets	174	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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Rating:  

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)

Rating:  

80/100

From leniad 10/22/2020 01:13

Respect

#259555 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Rating:  

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)

Rating:  

80/100

From 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)

Rating:  

90/100

From ForegroundNoise 11/24/2018 09:24

Really like your notes!!

#225581 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Rating:  

100/100

From 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)

Rating:  

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)

Rating:  

75/100

From tgarritsen 01/13/2014 15:59

Interesting number one pick.

#100555 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Rating:  

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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