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: 1 hour 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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"A classic album in the style of David Bowie and Roxy Music. The vocals are wonderfully over the top and the songs bring on air of theatricality which is a perfect fit for the style of the songs. Sulk, is a great album which should be more widely known."  Reply
- garycottier | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 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:
1982
Appears in:
Rank Score:
461
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"The album where the Cult reached the big time, but with some sacrifice to the originality of the sound they had created. The first side is much better than the second and contains the four hits."  Reply
- Highhopes | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 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:
1989
Appears in:
Rank Score:
461
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"While this is still an artist finding his groove, there is a ton of ambition in a few tracks, notably Red Army Blues, which begins with layered acoustic guitar and moves through a seven minute epic lyric. The title track closer is a beauty that completely prefigures everything he accomplished on ..."  [+]  Reply
- jhuik | 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:
1984
Appears in:
Rank Score:
458
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Year of Release:
1980
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Rank Score:
455
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"This is a great album and very underated, once you hear it you say "oh that song" and so on, it's kinda strange how it doesn't get the same kind of ratings or fame as kick, the album is good in the regard that it has some very well known tracks, you could say it's a hidden gem of Inxs albums."  Reply
- gaz665 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 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:
1984
Appears in:
Rank Score:
454
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Year of Release:
1981
Appears in:
Rank Score:
451
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497.
90 
Year of Release:
1989
Appears in:
Rank Score:
449
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"This is my fav. It has it all, love, pain, strife, anger, joy and hope. It's been a great pleasure to listen to Pete's best and rediscover this periodically throughout my adulthood"  Reply
- saintjames | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 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:
448
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"The best was yet to come, but this isn’t a bad metal record by any means. All the Rob Halford style screeching that Tom was doing felt a little forced and awkward, but the tunes are fun head banging, genre pushing heart pounders."  Reply
- Droophus | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 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:
1983
Appears in:
Rank Score:
446
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"Crazy Rhythms gets all the props but as far as I'm concerned, this is the ultimate Feelies album. It's kind of like the positive version of WL/WH (dig all the healthy positive vibes coming through the insistent massive jamming) and almost as good."  Reply
- Amirkhosro | 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:
1986
Appears in:
Rank Score:
446
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Total albums: 1,000. Page 50 of 100

Best Albums of the 1980s composition

Best Artists of 1984
1. Prince
2. Prince And The Revolution
3. The Smiths
4. Metallica
5. Bruce Springsteen
6. The Replacements
7. Minutemen
8. Talking Heads
9. Hüsker Dü
10. Cocteau Twins