Best Albums of the 1980s

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Listed below are the best albums of the 1980s as calculated from their overall rankings in over 58,000 greatest album charts. (Chart last updated: 4 hours ago).

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

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311.

World Of Echo

Arthur Russell

"I liked this a lot, spaced out sounds with lots of strings and dreamy vocals, kinda early folktronica id guess." Reply

- andyw110183 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1986

Appears in:

136 charts

Rank Score:

813

Rank in 1986:

Rank in 1980s:

311

Overall Rank:

2,027

Average Rating:

76 (130 votes)

Comments:

312.

Among The Living

Anthrax

"Best Anthrax album. A thrash metal masterpiece. That's right. I said it. Anthrax made a masterpiece. Joey is probably the best vocalist in all of thrash metal. I don't say that lightly either. Some of the best metal riffs I've ever heard. Indians is probably in my top 5 thrash songs ever." Reply

Jasonconfused | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (4 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1987

Appears in:

182 charts

Rank Score:

813

Rank in 1987:

Rank in 1980s:

312

Overall Rank:

2,030

Average Rating:

78 (238 votes)

Comments:

313.

Grace Under Pressure

Rush

"I think this album works as a whole, rather than the sum of its parts - there are no real weal tracks and there is a nice consistency of sound and feel to the album. Afterimage, Red Sector A and Between The Wheels are the best moments." Reply

- FieryGunHand | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +5 votes (5 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1984

Appears in:

168 charts

Rank Score:

811

Rank in 1984:

Rank in 1980s:

313

Overall Rank:

2,033

Average Rating:

77 (267 votes)

Comments:

314.

Bella Donna

Stevie Nicks

"Worth a listen, If you like Fleetwood Mac then you should listen to this." Reply

- | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1981

Appears in:

195 charts

Rank Score:

803

Rank in 1981:

Rank in 1980s:

314

Overall Rank:

2,053

Average Rating:

76 (204 votes)

Comments:

315.

Music For A New Society

John Cale

"This is my favourite John Cale album. The sounds are amazing." Reply

lancashirearab | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (4 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1982

Appears in:

121 charts

Rank Score:

791

Rank in 1982:

Rank in 1980s:

315

Overall Rank:

2,079

Average Rating:

77 (115 votes)

Comments:

316.

Mob Rules

Black Sabbath

"This comment will now outdate my comments about Heaven and Hell and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath whereby I stated that they were my top Sabbath albums. Without a doubt, this for me is top of the tree. The vocal delivery by RJD coupled with the overall musicianship which includes the best guitar work an..." [+] Reply

- Junomoogmello | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1981

Appears in:

181 charts

Rank Score:

790

Rank in 1981:

Rank in 1980s:

316

Overall Rank:

2,083

Average Rating:

75 (267 votes)

Comments:

317.

Tug Of War

Paul McCartney

"McCartney's second best behind Ram. Not a bad song here, and most are quite exceptional. Best tracks are Tug of War, Take it Away, Here Today (best song off the album), Ballroom Dancing, The Pound is Sinking and Dress Me Up as a Robber. Proof that McCartney's 80s career wasn't a complete waste." [+] Reply

- clockworkfiction3 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +5 votes (5 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1982

Appears in:

173 charts

Rank Score:

788

Rank in 1982:

Rank in 1980s:

317

Overall Rank:

2,088

Average Rating:

75 (258 votes)

Comments:

318.

Beauty And The Beat

Go-Go's

"I still think this 1981 record is one of the great pop albums ever." Reply

swhaze | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1981

Appears in:

198 charts

Rank Score:

788

Rank in 1981:

Rank in 1980s:

318

Overall Rank:

2,089

Average Rating:

75 (182 votes)

Comments:

319.

The Visitors

ABBA

"They say that a prophet is never accepted in his homeland. Likewise it is often that art which challenges us to explore new vistas is never fully appreciated until time has passed and hindsight is used grant it immortality. So it was that the works of many a great composer, writer or artist were ...""They say that a prophet is never accepted in his homeland. Likewise it is often that art which challenges us to explore new vistas is never fully appreciated until time has passed and hindsight is used grant it immortality. So it was that the works of many a great composer, writer or artist were ignored in their own time, and lay waiting, dormant until the day would come when a new generation, freed from the prejudices of the past, would learn to adore what had previously been spurned. A case in point was the 18th century composer Vivaldi whose music remained forgotten until rediscovered in the 20th century. And so it is, in its own small way, with The Visitors, ABBA’s last and least commercially successful album! If the fact that it failed to deliver more than one big hit single was not disastrous enough, the entire album concept was given a mixed reception and even panned by some of the more serious music critics of the time. Rolling Stone which awarded the album only two stars out of five blasted the album as "lousy" while the album’s commercial performance itself could only mirror that exact description managing the lowly position of 29 on the American Billboard Hot 100 Album listings. The exploration into melancholy and maturity in a new modern musical style was interpreted as nothing more than synch-drenched melodramatic balladeering. For the group itself, lacking only unanimous critical acclaim and used to almost 7 years of unbroken commercial success, the relative failure of the album must have been particularly hard to take. Within a year they had effectively disbanded, split up; gone their separate ways. Once again we were witness to the sorry sight of the artists attempt to break the chains of necessity and discover for us new worlds being spurned and derided. And now a decade into a new century, their music lives on: stubbornly refusing to let go of the old fans with its nostalgia and rich diversity; seducing and enchanting new fans with its timeless melodies and addictive hooks. Prominent among the many reasons for ABBA's staying power has been the effect of their music catalogue to touch a raw nerve in practically every emotion. From bounding joy to deep sadness, ABBA music has a power over its listener that the critic no longer dare dismiss and no ABBA album tugs at the emotional strings stronger than the Visitors. In truth there is an air of defiance permeating the entire album. However this is no grand scale strategy on the part of the creators but the ordinary and breakable human defiance of real people desirous of artistic freedom. From the muffled cry of "help me" on the title track, to the refusal to lie down and cry in "When all is said and done", and to the admission of a twinge of guilt in "Slipping through My Fingers", there is an emotional honesty with which we, the everyman listener can readily identify with. While the primary ideas for the concept and the music lay with the male group members, Benny and Bjorn, the creative process can not be entirely disassociated from their female colleagues, for it is to them that is assigned that momentous task of actually bearing open the human soul and showing it to us. In hindsight theirs is truly a wondrous achievement both guiding the listener and then imparting the emotional meaning throughout the progression of the various themes. Notably it is on the Visitors that Frida really gives a spectacular rendition of her capabilities with songs like The Visitors, When All is Said and Done, I Let the Music Speak and Like an Angel Passing Though My Room, all bearing witness to that vocalists range and powers of mimicry. It would be unfair and essentially factually incorrect however to ascribe all the virtues of that album to its emotional power alone. The music, the melodies and the harmonies are as good as anything the band had come up with before, while new styles are explored and then performed with aplomb. In the overall reckoning the album forms a key component in the progression from bubble-gum pop fantasy to adult musical maturity and reality. If ABBA was a story then the defining moment is the song "I Let the Music Speak", effectively their final soliloquy. All that follows, including the magnificent The Day Before You Came, can be then viewed as mere epilogue. In contrast to its troubled conception and birth, it is in its maturity that The Visitors has come constitute one of the more revered parts of the ABBA canon. The formers band members can rightfully look back with pride for having put faith in their own artistic capabilities and for producing a work which is both magnificent in itself as well as being oblivious to the times in which it was conceived. Freed of the commercial baggage they produced a work of art which has both meaning and enjoyment in the lives of many living and will do so for many generations to come. For the artist the temporary rewards of commercial success, initially satisfying though they maybe, are as nothing compared to those of art and the immortality that it brings. For the critics and for the rest of us, has not the time finally come when we should acknowledge this album in its rightful place, as one of the finest works ever produced in the history of popular music? " [+] Reply

- jomclane | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +8 votes (8 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1981

Appears in:

164 charts

Rank Score:

786

Rank in 1981:

Rank in 1980s:

319

Overall Rank:

2,097

Average Rating:

74 (217 votes)

Comments:

320.

Safe Mode: On

The Pros And Cons Of Hitch Hiking

Roger Waters

"In the late 70's Roger offered two projects to his bandmates of Pink Floyd, it was to be this or "The Wall". I think they did the right thing by choosing The Wall just because it was such a massive, obvious winner of a concept not because this one was no good. The musicianship is great and if any..." [+] Reply

Robert Anton Wilson | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1984

Appears in:

131 charts

Rank Score:

785

Rank in 1984:

Rank in 1980s:

320

Overall Rank:

2,102

Average Rating:

70 (208 votes)

Comments:

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Total albums: 1,000. Page 32 of 100

Best Albums of the 1980s composition

Year	Albums	%

1980	119	12%
1981	119	12%
1982	107	11%
1983	96	10%
1984	100	10%
1985	87	9%
1986	92	9%
1987	87	9%
1988	98	10%
1989	96	10%

Artist	Albums	%

The Cure	10	1%
Iron Maiden	8	1%
Depeche Mode	8	1%
The Smiths	8	1%
Rush	8	1%
U2	7	1%
The Fall	7	1%
Show all

Country	Albums	%

	414	41%
	392	39%
	40	4%
	27	3%
	22	2%
	20	2%
	12	1%
Show all

Compilation?	Albums	%
No	966	97%
Yes	35	3%

Live?	Albums	%
No	980	98%
Yes	21	2%

Soundtrack?	Albums	%
No	989	99%
Yes	12	1%

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

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