Best Albums of 1980

Listed below are the best albums of 1980 as calculated from their overall rankings in over 59,000 greatest album charts. (Chart last updated: 3 hours ago).
Best albums by year or decade
Decade:
Year:
1980 year summaryThe best artists of 1980 were Talking Heads, Joy Division, AC/DC, David Bowie, Dead Kennedys, Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen, The Cure, Rush and Pretenders.
View chart at point in time
 Show this chart as it was on the following date
Share this chart
Collector's summary (top 1,000) Help The maximum rank used by the Collector's Summary is configurable from your profile (top 1,000 is currently selected). Log in or register to discover the great albums that are missing from your music collection!
Sort Sort by
"Was not expecting this. Much more jagged and abrasive than I thought it would be. Very good though, it brings back much of the aggression about punk that post punk had left behind."  Reply
- babyBlueSedan | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (4 helpful | 0 unhelpful) Help A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.
Year of Release:
1980
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,394
Rank in 1980:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"Released in 1980, 'Underwater Moonlight' is an album that has stood the test of time remarkably well and still sounds fresh and inventive. Reminscent of the work of Television and Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, the band manage to straddle the early new-wave of the former and the psychedlic whimsy of..."  [+]  Reply
- hairymarx1 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +10 votes (10 helpful | 0 unhelpful) Help A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.
Year of Release:
1980
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,373
Rank in 1980:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"I love how beautiful this album is. John was showing this tender side (great powerful melodies), and Yoko was at her best. Everybody loves to bring Yoko's songs down, but to be honest, I think she did great in this album. The weakest songs of the album for me is "Dear yoko" and is sang by John an..."  [+]  Reply
- Hellaboi | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +5 votes (5 helpful | 0 unhelpful) Help A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.
Year of Release:
1980
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,344
Rank in 1980:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"Bob Marley and The Wailers save one of their best for last. Coming In From The Cold, Real Situation, Work, Pimpers Paradise, Could You Be Loved & Redemption song are my favs here."  Reply
- Brandon8 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful) Help A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.
Year of Release:
1980
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,323
Rank in 1980:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"For about two years in the early 80s the only two albums I listened to were "Private Parts" by Robert Ashley and this album "Colossal Youth" by Young Marble Giants. Alison's voice was so sublimely melancoly and her pristine voice was the perfect musical vehicle for Stuart's dark existential lyric..."  [+]  Reply
- GavinB | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +7 votes (7 helpful | 0 unhelpful) Help A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.
Year of Release:
1980
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,281
Rank in 1980:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"Billy Joel adds a little more rock to his usual brand of pop, relying much less on piano than previous albums. As a pop/rock answer to the punk rock of the time ("it's still rock and roll to me"!), it's a solid album, with a very good first half which falls apart a bit in the 2nd."  Reply
- paladisiac | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (4 helpful | 0 unhelpful) Help A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.
Year of Release:
1980
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,251
Rank in 1980:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"Heartattack and vine, is half, a dirty rock album, and half, beautiful piano ballads. Waits growls and hollers on the opening title track, a great bluesy cut. Waits also goes for that gritty rock sound on the excellent, downtown, the percussion heavy, til' the money runs out, and the penultimate ..."  [+]  Reply
- garycottier | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful) Help A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.
Year of Release:
1980
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,038
Rank in 1980:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Year of Release:
1980
Appears in:
Rank Score:
967
Rank in 1980:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
39.
Boys Don't Cry 
Compilation
"I like this album better than Three Imaginary Boys. The added tracks really do the album good. And some lesser tracks are dropped. I don't regard this as a compilation.."  Reply
- wooolf | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful) Help A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.
Year of Release:
1980
Appears in:
Rank Score:
886
Rank in 1980:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"Very good post-punkband. IMHO this first album is better than From the Lion's Mouth. Don't understand that "I can't escape myself" never was a hit, it should have been."  Reply
- urshurak | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful) Help A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.
Year of Release:
1980
Appears in:
Rank Score:
853
Rank in 1980:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 1,000. Page 4 of 100

Best Albums of 1980 composition

Member  Levels
jnmayles Level 7
Liks_on_music Level 4
New levels achieved over the last 7 days. Well done to all :)