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.
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1985 – WARNER BROTHERS
Produced By NEIL DORFSMAN & MARK KNOPFLER
1. So Far Away
2. Money For Nothing
3. Walk Of Life
4. Your Latest Trick
5. Why Worry
6. Ride Across The River
7. The Man’s Too Strong
8. One World
9. Brothers In Arms
The greatest commercial achievement for Dire Straits also turned out to be the beginning of the end of the band. The last five years had been a struggle for Mark Knopfler and company following the excellent Making Movies. Love Over Gold had the exceptional 14 minute track “Telegraph Road”, but not much else. This had been followed by a somewhat lame extended play and a disappointing live album (Alchemy). So, when Brothers In Arms exploded in 1985, it was actually something of a surprise. That they became the poster band for MTV was even more surprising. “Money For Nothing”, with its cheesy slick animated video and backup vocals by Sting, became ridiculously enormous. The better tracks fared not as well, but don’t disappoint. “So Far Away” is a fine song, but points the way to more mellowness to come. “The Man’s Too Strong” and “Your Latest Trick” are better representative of what Dire Straits was now about…this was fast turning into one of the mellowest bands in the world…had they continued on, they may have gotten even softer.
The two tracks that people identify most with the album are actually the two that don’t fit in. “Money For Nothing” is that huge guitar riff over some badly recorded snare shots and “I want my MTV”. The other is “Walk Of Life”, which (thankfully) sounds nothing like anything the band ever recorded. The rest is Knopfler maturing, and even though the sound is sometimes so quiet you can barely hear it, it’s pretty strong work. The tracks are long…five of the nine are over six minutes long. It’s the stuff that didn’t get hammered into the radio over and over that will stick with you. The hits are disposable and dated, and the album would be better without them. But songs like the title track, “Why Worry”, and “Ride Across The River”, while sounding like whispers compared to earlier Dire Straits tracks, have a definite beauty about them. The band made only one more album, six years after this, and then they were gone. But there’s enough to make you smile here. You just won’t spend much time rocking out to it. [First added to this chart: 12/07/2011]
Produced By NEIL DORFSMAN & MARK KNOPFLER
1. So Far Away
2. Money For Nothing
3. Walk Of Life
4. Your Latest Trick
5. Why Worry
6. Ride Across The River
7. The Man’s Too Strong
8. One World
9. Brothers In Arms
The greatest commercial achievement for Dire Straits also turned out to be the beginning of the end of the band. The last five years had been a struggle for Mark Knopfler and company following the excellent Making Movies. Love Over Gold had the exceptional 14 minute track “Telegraph Road”, but not much else. This had been followed by a somewhat lame extended play and a disappointing live album (Alchemy). So, when Brothers In Arms exploded in 1985, it was actually something of a surprise. That they became the poster band for MTV was even more surprising. “Money For Nothing”, with its cheesy slick animated video and backup vocals by Sting, became ridiculously enormous. The better tracks fared not as well, but don’t disappoint. “So Far Away” is a fine song, but points the way to more mellowness to come. “The Man’s Too Strong” and “Your Latest Trick” are better representative of what Dire Straits was now about…this was fast turning into one of the mellowest bands in the world…had they continued on, they may have gotten even softer.
The two tracks that people identify most with the album are actually the two that don’t fit in. “Money For Nothing” is that huge guitar riff over some badly recorded snare shots and “I want my MTV”. The other is “Walk Of Life”, which (thankfully) sounds nothing like anything the band ever recorded. The rest is Knopfler maturing, and even though the sound is sometimes so quiet you can barely hear it, it’s pretty strong work. The tracks are long…five of the nine are over six minutes long. It’s the stuff that didn’t get hammered into the radio over and over that will stick with you. The hits are disposable and dated, and the album would be better without them. But songs like the title track, “Why Worry”, and “Ride Across The River”, while sounding like whispers compared to earlier Dire Straits tracks, have a definite beauty about them. The band made only one more album, six years after this, and then they were gone. But there’s enough to make you smile here. You just won’t spend much time rocking out to it. [First added to this chart: 12/07/2011]
Year of Release:
1985
Appears in:
Rank Score:
7,216
Rank in 1985:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
87
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1985-BLANCO Y NEGRO
Produced By THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN
1. Just Like Honey
2. The Living Dead
3. Taste The Floor
4. The Hardest Walk
5. Cut Dead
6. In A Hole
7. Taste Of Cindy
8. Never Understand
9. Inside Me
10. Sowing Seeds
11. My Little Underground
12. You Trip Me Up
13. Something’s Wrong
14. It’s So Hard
Another highly influencial British band, The Jesus And Mary Chain came out of Scotland in the early 80’s and began immediately challenging the boundaries of what a band could and could not do. William and Jim Reid were heavily influenced by The Sex Pistols, and by the time they started getting noticed, they were an oddity because they were not a synth band like everyone else. The band started adding noise and feedback to their already punkish sound, giving them a unique sound that they carried to their debut album, Psychocandy. People didn’t quite know what to make of this band with the blasphemous name and singles with titles like “Suck” and “Jesus Fuck”. As terrified as their label was of them, they also knew that the music was exceptionally good. Psychocandy became an instant classic, setting the stage for bands like My Bloody Valentine.
It’s not that the songs were anything complicated. Basic punk structures with a Velvet Underground state of mind were the norm. But the sound was something else altogether. Psychocandy is a sea of sound, pop songs buried in sonic blankets topped with searing white noise. This is one of the best albums of the 80’s for good reason…there’s really nothing else like it. “Just Like Honey”, “Taste Of Cindy”, and “The Living End” are examples of what was to come later on in the decade from other bands…but this band did it first and best. They abandoned their sound for the next album and the rest of their careers…they also never came close to the greatness of Psychocandy. This is a great sounding album. How in the world did we miss this in the 80’s? Not sure. But it’s never too late to make a discovery like this one. [First added to this chart: 12/16/2023]
Produced By THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN
1. Just Like Honey
2. The Living Dead
3. Taste The Floor
4. The Hardest Walk
5. Cut Dead
6. In A Hole
7. Taste Of Cindy
8. Never Understand
9. Inside Me
10. Sowing Seeds
11. My Little Underground
12. You Trip Me Up
13. Something’s Wrong
14. It’s So Hard
Another highly influencial British band, The Jesus And Mary Chain came out of Scotland in the early 80’s and began immediately challenging the boundaries of what a band could and could not do. William and Jim Reid were heavily influenced by The Sex Pistols, and by the time they started getting noticed, they were an oddity because they were not a synth band like everyone else. The band started adding noise and feedback to their already punkish sound, giving them a unique sound that they carried to their debut album, Psychocandy. People didn’t quite know what to make of this band with the blasphemous name and singles with titles like “Suck” and “Jesus Fuck”. As terrified as their label was of them, they also knew that the music was exceptionally good. Psychocandy became an instant classic, setting the stage for bands like My Bloody Valentine.
It’s not that the songs were anything complicated. Basic punk structures with a Velvet Underground state of mind were the norm. But the sound was something else altogether. Psychocandy is a sea of sound, pop songs buried in sonic blankets topped with searing white noise. This is one of the best albums of the 80’s for good reason…there’s really nothing else like it. “Just Like Honey”, “Taste Of Cindy”, and “The Living End” are examples of what was to come later on in the decade from other bands…but this band did it first and best. They abandoned their sound for the next album and the rest of their careers…they also never came close to the greatness of Psychocandy. This is a great sounding album. How in the world did we miss this in the 80’s? Not sure. But it’s never too late to make a discovery like this one. [First added to this chart: 12/16/2023]
Year of Release:
1985
Appears in:
Rank Score:
5,625
Rank in 1985:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
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1985-MERCURY
Produced By CHRIS HUGHES
1. Shout
2. The Working Hour
3. Everybody Wants To Rule The World
4. Mothers Talk
5. I Believe
6. Broken
7. Head Over Heels
8. Listen
In the second half of the eighties, when great albums were hard to find, Tears For Fears made two of them. The second of the two, The Seeds Of Love, was expected to be great, and is a notch better. Songs From The Big Chair came from nowhere and established the band as one of the best of the decade. This album established the duo (Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith) as international stars, and the parade of hits from the record is as impressive as you’ll find anywhere. The lead singles, “Mothers Talk”, did okay in Great Britain, but it was the second single, “Shout”, that made the band huge stars. “Shout” opens with as infectious a chorus as you’ll find, and stays perfect: an excellent single. Equally as impressive is “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” (sung by Smith), a song the band considered too weak for inclusion that became the 1986 Brit Single Of The Year.
The final hit from Songs From The Big Chair is the lovely “Head Over Heels”, a picture perfect love song. With half of the tracks from the album having been hits, what about the other half? “I Believe” (dedicated to Robert Wyatt) was the final single, and although it didn’t chart as high as the others, it’s still a great track. “Broken” is built off of the same riff as “Head Over Heels”, and is performed live as a combo with that song. “The Working Hour” and “Listen”, both of which clock in at over six minutes, are solid anchors, holding the
album firmly together. In all, what you get with Songs From The Big Chair is one of the very best albums of the decade, consistent and strong from start to finish. After The Seeds Of Love, Smith left Tears For Fears to Orzabal, who kind of drove the name into the ground for a few years before Smith Came back. They still play, but they’ve never been able to duplicate their two album creative peak. This and The Seeds Of Love are necessary albums. [First added to this chart: 07/22/2018]
Produced By CHRIS HUGHES
1. Shout
2. The Working Hour
3. Everybody Wants To Rule The World
4. Mothers Talk
5. I Believe
6. Broken
7. Head Over Heels
8. Listen
In the second half of the eighties, when great albums were hard to find, Tears For Fears made two of them. The second of the two, The Seeds Of Love, was expected to be great, and is a notch better. Songs From The Big Chair came from nowhere and established the band as one of the best of the decade. This album established the duo (Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith) as international stars, and the parade of hits from the record is as impressive as you’ll find anywhere. The lead singles, “Mothers Talk”, did okay in Great Britain, but it was the second single, “Shout”, that made the band huge stars. “Shout” opens with as infectious a chorus as you’ll find, and stays perfect: an excellent single. Equally as impressive is “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” (sung by Smith), a song the band considered too weak for inclusion that became the 1986 Brit Single Of The Year.
The final hit from Songs From The Big Chair is the lovely “Head Over Heels”, a picture perfect love song. With half of the tracks from the album having been hits, what about the other half? “I Believe” (dedicated to Robert Wyatt) was the final single, and although it didn’t chart as high as the others, it’s still a great track. “Broken” is built off of the same riff as “Head Over Heels”, and is performed live as a combo with that song. “The Working Hour” and “Listen”, both of which clock in at over six minutes, are solid anchors, holding the
album firmly together. In all, what you get with Songs From The Big Chair is one of the very best albums of the decade, consistent and strong from start to finish. After The Seeds Of Love, Smith left Tears For Fears to Orzabal, who kind of drove the name into the ground for a few years before Smith Came back. They still play, but they’ve never been able to duplicate their two album creative peak. This and The Seeds Of Love are necessary albums. [First added to this chart: 07/22/2018]
Year of Release:
1985
Appears in:
Rank Score:
5,227
Rank in 1985:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
[First added to this chart: 12/06/2011]
Year of Release:
1985
Appears in:
Rank Score:
762
Rank in 1985:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
[First added to this chart: 12/13/2011]
Total albums: 5. 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 | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
 |
|
|
| U2 | 3 | 3% | |
| Talking Heads | 3 | 3% | |
| Bruce Springsteen | 3 | 3% | |
| R.E.M. | 3 | 3% | |
| X (US) | 3 | 3% | |
| The Cure | 2 | 2% | |
| The Jesus And Mary Chain | 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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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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