Best Albums of the 1980s
Listed below are the best albums of the 1980s as calculated from their overall rankings in over 59,000 greatest album charts. (Chart last updated: 5 hours ago).
"JCM is up there with Springsteen & Dylan as one of America's finest this album has a heart warming feel to. Love it" Reply
Year of Release:
1987
Appears in:
Rank Score:
610
Rank in 1987:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"One of the most underrated albums ever; A Secret Wish is simply a masterpiece. Highlights of the album are "The Murder Of Love", "Duel", "P-Machinery", and "Dr Mabuse"." Reply
Year of Release:
1985
Appears in:
Rank Score:
610
Rank in 1985:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"Very dark and atmospheric, sounds ahead of its time with its thrilling experimentation. My favourite release from the duo." Reply
Year of Release:
1986
Appears in:
Rank Score:
607
Rank in 1986:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"Nothing groundbreaking but undeniably likeable..." Reply
Year of Release:
1988
Appears in:
Rank Score:
599
Rank in 1988:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"A phenomenal compilation on par with Hatful of Hollow and Substance 1987. If you want to distill the first half of The Cure's career into one collection of songs, this is about as good as it gets, both as a review of their first six albums and as a collection of perhaps their best non-album singl..." [+] Reply
- 
HoldenM | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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:
1986
Appears in:
Rank Score:
596
Rank in 1986:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
396.
Safe Mode: On Certain images on this site may contain sensitive content and are flagged as 'unsafe'. BestEverAlbums.com does not display these images by default, but you may choose to show or hide these images from your profile page. If you choose to hide these images, you'll see an image with a warning message instead of the actual image. If you choose to show them, you'll see these images no differently than regular (safe) images.
"A somewhat underrated gem. The first 3 songs are great Eye No Alphabet Street and Glam Slam. Alphabet Street is one of my favorites. Anna Stesia and Dance On keeps things moving before the ballad When 2 are in love which is lovely along with I Wish U Heaven and Positivity." Reply
- 
Brandon8 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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:
1988
Appears in:
Rank Score:
593
Rank in 1988:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"An absolutely bonkers metal album. The German group Helloween give us an extremely enjoyable record with spectacularly over the top performances. Obviously, heavily influenced by Queen and Iron Maiden, seven keys, is a lot of fun. A tale that wasn't right, future world, and the epic, Halloween, a..." [+] Reply
Year of Release:
1987
Appears in:
Rank Score:
591
Rank in 1987:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"Heard what I thought was the full original album, turned out it was a special edition with extra tracks so I found it rather repetitive. Will edit my rating when I get round to listening to the actual tracklist! Stuck between The Smiths and The Stone Roses." Reply
- 
sethzzzzz | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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:
1987
Appears in:
Rank Score:
586
Rank in 1987:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"'Grace Under Pressure' moved the band out of the progressive arena and into a much more synth based eighties sound which absolutely worked for Rush. A number of excellent synth based albums followed and I sometimes forget how good this one is. 'Manhattan Project' and 'Mystic Rhythms' are personal..." [+] Reply
Year of Release:
1985
Appears in:
Rank Score:
583
Rank in 1985:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"The songwriting of Difford and Tillbrook was at an apex when they made this album. A comment on this album said that "Labled with Love" was "oviously" the most famous track on it, I have personally never heard it except on this album. Maybe it was big in the UK or Australia. "Tempted" was the clo..." [+] Reply
Year of Release:
1981
Appears in:
Rank Score:
583
Rank in 1981:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 1,000. Page 40 of 100
Best Albums of the 1980s composition
| Year | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 121 | 12% | |
| 1981 | 123 | 12% | |
| 1982 | 107 | 11% | |
| 1983 | 98 | 10% | |
| 1984 | 102 | 10% | |
| 1985 | 88 | 9% | |
| 1986 | 93 | 9% | |
| 1987 | 89 | 9% | |
| 1988 | 97 | 10% | |
| 1989 | 91 | 9% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
| The Cure | 10 | 1% | |
| Rush | 8 | 1% | |
| Iron Maiden | 8 | 1% | |
| The Smiths | 8 | 1% | |
| Talking Heads | 7 | 1% | |
| U2 | 7 | 1% | |
| The Fall | 7 | 1% | |
| Show all | |||
| Country | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
 |
416 | 41% | |
 |
392 | 39% | |
 |
40 | 4% | |
 |
30 | 3% | |
 |
22 | 2% | |
 |
20 | 2% | |
 |
12 | 1% | |
| Show all | |||
| Best Artists of the 1980s | |
|---|---|
| 1. The Smiths | |
| 2. Prince | |
| 3. The Cure | |
| 4. Pixies | |
| 5. Talking Heads | |
| 6. U2 | |
| 7. Metallica | |
| 8. Kate Bush | |
| 9. R.E.M. | |
| 10. The Stone Roses |
