Best Albums of the 1980s

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

Listed below are the best albums of the 1980s as calculated from their overall rankings in over 54,000 greatest album charts.

Best albums by year or decade

Decade:

Year:

1980s decade summary

Year	Albums The number of albums from each year featuring in the greatest album charts.	Score Total rank score for each year (made up of the total rank score from all albums in that year)	Top Ranked Album The top ranked album from each year and where it ranks in the overall chart.
1980	2,212	193,199	Remain In Light (26th)by Talking Heads
1981	2,255	120,783	Moving Pictures (156th)by Rush
1982	2,219	147,900	Thriller (73rd)by Michael Jackson
1983	2,234	135,138	Murmur (140th)by R.E.M.
1984	2,211	169,383	Purple Rain (79th)by Prince And The Revolution
1985	2,234	143,634	Hounds Of Love (55th)by Kate Bush
1986	2,349	168,797	The Queen Is Dead (16th)by The Smiths
1987	2,564	160,603	The Joshua Tree (53rd)by U2
1988	2,673	151,746	Daydream Nation (72nd)by Sonic Youth
1989	2,696	195,946	Doolittle (19th)by Pixies
Total	23,647	1,587,130

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

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65.

Isn't Anything

My Bloody Valentine

Year of Release:

1988

Appears in:

517 charts

Rank Score:

3,825

Rank in 1988:

Rank in 1980s:

Overall Rank:

460

Average Rating:

80 (687 votes)

Comments:

89.

Pretenders

Year of Release:

1980

Appears in:

495 charts

Rank Score:

3,010

Rank in 1980:

Rank in 1980s:

Overall Rank:

583

Average Rating:

78 (580 votes)

Comments:

99.

My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts

Brian Eno & David Byrne

Year of Release:

1981

Appears in:

379 charts

Rank Score:

2,755

Rank in 1981:

Rank in 1980s:

Overall Rank:

644

Average Rating:

77 (425 votes)

Comments:

120.

The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1

The Traveling Wilburys

Year of Release:

1988

Appears in:

314 charts

Rank Score:

2,212

Rank in 1988:

Rank in 1980s:

120

Overall Rank:

798

Average Rating:

76 (383 votes)

Comments:

168.

Tango In The Night

Fleetwood Mac

Year of Release:

1987

Appears in:

292 charts

Rank Score:

1,643

Rank in 1987:

Rank in 1980s:

168

Overall Rank:

1,069

Average Rating:

75 (403 votes)

Comments:

206.

Double Fantasy

John Lennon & Yoko Ono

Year of Release:

1980

Appears in:

303 charts

Rank Score:

1,383

Rank in 1980:

Rank in 1980s:

206

Overall Rank:

1,273

Average Rating:

73 (402 votes)

Comments:

218.

Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks

Brian Eno With Daniel Lanois & Roger Eno

Year of Release:

1983

Appears in:

200 charts

Rank Score:

1,278

Rank in 1983:

Rank in 1980s:

218

Overall Rank:

1,364

Average Rating:

80 (239 votes)

Comments:

224.

Arvo Pärt: Tabula Rasa

Keith Jarrett / Gidon Kremer; Dennis Russell Davies / Staatsorchester Stuttgart; The 12 Cellists Of The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra; Saulius Sondeckis / Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra / Alfred Schnittke

Year of Release:

1984

Appears in:

152 charts

Rank Score:

1,254

Rank in 1984:

Rank in 1980s:

224

Overall Rank:

1,391

Average Rating:

80 (172 votes)

Comments:

260.

Learning To Crawl

Pretenders

Year of Release:

1984

Appears in:

208 charts

Rank Score:

1,016

Rank in 1984:

Rank in 1980s:

260

Overall Rank:

1,674

Average Rating:

76 (220 votes)

Comments:

286.

You Made Me Realise

My Bloody Valentine

Year of Release:

1988

Appears in:

146 charts

Rank Score:

924

Rank in 1988:

Rank in 1980s:

286

Overall Rank:

1,824

Average Rating:

83 (272 votes)

Comments:

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Total albums: 27. Page 1 of 3

Best Albums of the 1980s composition

Year	Albums	%

1980	118	12%
1981	121	12%
1982	108	11%
1983	98	10%
1984	103	10%
1985	80	8%
1986	95	10%
1987	88	9%
1988	93	9%
1989	96	10%

Artist	Albums	%

The Cure	10	1%
The Smiths	8	1%
Rush	8	1%
Iron Maiden	8	1%
Depeche Mode	8	1%
R.E.M.	7	1%
Talking Heads	7	1%
Show all

Country	Albums	%

	417	42%
	393	39%
	39	4%
	27	3%
	23	2%
	22	2%
	12	1%
Show all

Compilation?	Albums	%
No	968	97%
Yes	32	3%

Live?	Albums	%
No	977	98%
Yes	23	2%

Soundtrack?	Albums	%
No	988	99%
Yes	12	1%

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