Best Albums of the 1980s

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: 3 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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"A comparably 'tame' album from NYCs resident performance artist extraordinaire - this features Anderson's latent attempt at creating a 'pop' album. Although unwritten in the accompanying booklet what a listener will find here are some of this left field artist's most mainstream work."  Reply
- TheDude85 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 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:
187
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"The band’s first album in the 1980’s after being dormant for many years. They jump right into electronic music and synthesizers that they had begun to use in the late 70s but take it another step. The sound is comparable to New Order but less commercial. It does not reach the heights of the trilo..."  [+]  Reply
- Brandon8 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 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:
1987
Appears in:
Rank Score:
187
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"Great first half with three killer tracks like Flower, All Your Lies and Beyond the Wheel, the rest is quite good. Generally, they have done much better, but you can already hear the power of this band."  Reply
- | 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:
1988
Appears in:
Rank Score:
187
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Year of Release:
1985
Appears in:
Rank Score:
186
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"This isn't Miami nor Fire Of Love , its more lush and produced . Breaking Hands is the best thing here and almost unrecognizable as a Gun Club track. Not as good as the 2 previous mentioned albums but good enough none the less"  Reply
- Brad1770 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 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:
1987
Appears in:
Rank Score:
186
Rank in 1987:
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Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Year of Release:
1988
Appears in:
Rank Score:
186
Rank in 1988:
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Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
997.
101 
Live
Year of Release:
1989
Appears in:
Rank Score:
186
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Average Rating:
Comments:
"Compare this to Hotter than July. Which is better? July. But they aren't much different. This has great vibes throughout, not a bad/unlistenable song. You can absolutely listen to this as an album. Overjoyed could be in his top 3 of sweet songs not falling over into sappiness, and Wonder has a lo..."  [+]  Reply
- iamsparticus | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 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:
1985
Appears in:
Rank Score:
186
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Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
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Year of Release:
1983
Appears in:
Rank Score:
186
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"The Cardiacs most fluent album. Every song flows nicely from the previous and the classic line-up were probably at their best live around this time. No real week songs and a number of live favourites such as Roger the Horse and Arnald. However, the real stand out moments are Buds and Spawn and th..."  [+]  Reply
- FieryGunHand | 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:
186
Rank in 1989:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 1,000. Page 100 of 100

Best Albums of the 1980s composition

Recognised  Year Charts (2025)
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