Best Albums of the 1980s

« View best albums of the 1970sView best albums of the 1990s »

Listed below are the best albums of the 1980s as calculated from their overall rankings in over 54,000 greatest album charts.

Best albums by year or decade

Decade:

Year:

1980s decade summary

Year	Albums The number of albums from each year featuring in the greatest album charts.	Score Total rank score for each year (made up of the total rank score from all albums in that year)	Top Ranked Album The top ranked album from each year and where it ranks in the overall chart.
1980	2,189	193,469	Remain In Light (26th)by Talking Heads
1981	2,226	120,627	Moving Pictures (155th)by Rush
1982	2,178	147,704	Thriller (72nd)by Michael Jackson
1983	2,226	135,367	Murmur (139th)by R.E.M.
1984	2,185	170,247	Purple Rain (78th)by Prince And The Revolution
1985	2,213	143,778	Hounds Of Love (56th)by Kate Bush
1986	2,331	169,238	The Queen Is Dead (17th)by The Smiths
1987	2,542	161,331	The Joshua Tree (54th)by U2
1988	2,633	152,289	Daydream Nation (71st)by Sonic Youth
1989	2,667	196,987	Doolittle (19th)by Pixies
Total	23,390	1,591,037

The best artists of the 1980s were The Smiths, Prince, Pixies, The Cure, Talking Heads, U2, Metallica, Kate Bush, R.E.M. and The Stone Roses.

View chart at point in time

Share this chart

Collector's summary (filtered)Log in or register to discover the great albums that are missing from your music collection!

This chart is currently filtered to only show albums from 1983. (Remove this filter)

Sort by

634.

Life's A Riot With Spy Vs Spy

Billy Bragg

Year of Release:

1983

Appears in:

77 charts

Rank Score:

334

Rank in 1983:

Rank in 1980s:

634

Overall Rank:

4,260

Average Rating:

74 (98 votes)

Comments:

637.

Snap!
Compilation

The Jam

Year of Release:

1983

Appears in:

75 charts

Rank Score:

331

Rank in 1983:

Rank in 1980s:

637

Overall Rank:

4,286

Average Rating:

81 (119 votes)

Comments:

648.

Emergency Third Rail Power Trip

Rain Parade

Year of Release:

1983

Appears in:

70 charts

Rank Score:

325

Rank in 1983:

Rank in 1980s:

648

Overall Rank:

4,345

Average Rating:

75 (45 votes)

Comments:

653.

Thunder And Lightning

Thin Lizzy

Year of Release:

1983

Appears in:

53 charts

Rank Score:

321

Rank in 1983:

Rank in 1980s:

653

Overall Rank:

4,395

Average Rating:

74 (71 votes)

Comments:

656.

Crises

Mike Oldfield

Year of Release:

1983

Appears in:

77 charts

Rank Score:

320

Rank in 1983:

Rank in 1980s:

656

Overall Rank:

4,408

Average Rating:

73 (109 votes)

Comments:

664.

Uh-Huh

John Cougar Mellencamp

Year of Release:

1983

Appears in:

76 charts

Rank Score:

314

Rank in 1983:

Rank in 1980s:

664

Overall Rank:

4,477

Average Rating:

70 (120 votes)

Comments:

666.

Before Hollywood

The Go-Betweens

Year of Release:

1983

Appears in:

90 charts

Rank Score:

314

Rank in 1983:

Rank in 1980s:

666

Overall Rank:

4,481

Average Rating:

76 (79 votes)

Comments:

675.

Depois Do Fim

Bacamarte

Year of Release:

1983

Appears in:

46 charts

Rank Score:

305

Rank in 1983:

Rank in 1980s:

675

Overall Rank:

4,578

Average Rating:

74 (51 votes)

Comments:

680.

Hootenanny

The Replacements

Year of Release:

1983

Appears in:

77 charts

Rank Score:

302

Rank in 1983:

Rank in 1980s:

680

Overall Rank:

4,607

Average Rating:

73 (137 votes)

Comments:

706.

Djeli Moussa Diawara

Year of Release:

1983

Appears in:

46 charts

Rank Score:

292

Rank in 1983:

Rank in 1980s:

706

Overall Rank:

4,768

Average Rating:

75 (36 votes)

Comments:

« prev
1
...
6
7
8
...
10
next »
Goto Page:

Total albums: 98. Page 7 of 10

Best Albums of the 1980s composition

Year	Albums	%

1980	117	12%
1981	120	12%
1982	108	11%
1983	98	10%
1984	102	10%
1985	80	8%
1986	95	10%
1987	88	9%
1988	93	9%
1989	99	10%

Artist	Albums	%

The Cure	10	1%
Rush	8	1%
Depeche Mode	8	1%
Iron Maiden	8	1%
The Smiths	7	1%
R.E.M.	7	1%
The Fall	7	1%
Show all

Country	Albums	%

	413	41%
	391	39%
	41	4%
	26	3%
	23	2%
	22	2%
	12	1%
Show all

Compilation?	Albums	%
No	967	97%
Yes	33	3%

Live?	Albums	%
No	980	98%
Yes	20	2%

Soundtrack?	Albums	%
No	988	99%
Yes	12	1%

« View best albums of the 1970sView best albums of the 1990s »

If you enjoy our site, please consider supporting us by sparing a few seconds to disable your ad blocker.

A lot of hard work happens in the background to keep BEA running, and it's especially difficult to do this when we can't pay our hosting fees :(

We work very hard to ensure our site is as fast (and FREE!) as possible, and we respect your privacy.

Email Address
Forgotten passwords and other site notifications are sent to the email address saved on your profile. If you've changed your email address recently, please remember to update it on your profile page. (If you can't remember your password, and your email address is out of date, please contact us for assistance getting back into your account).