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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Year of Release:
1984
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,278
Rank in 1984:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Top rated album (85/100 - 1037 votes)  85 (1,037 votes)
Comments:
91.
Substance 
Compilation
"Let me try and put this into context: you have a band that changed the definition of what an indie rock/alternative band could be, pioneered the new wave genre, released a number of songs that become club classics and have since gone onto to define electronica and dance music. And then, you take ..." [More]
- DeusExMackia | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +11 votes (11 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:
2,884
Rank in 1987:
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Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
109.
Louder Than Bombs 
Compilation
"I typically don't like to consider compilations as proper albums and avoid putting them in my charts, but for this and Hatful of Hollow, I make an exception. Most of these tracks don't show up on any of the Smiths' studio releases, so might as well rate it as any other album."
- Onater | 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:
1987
Appears in:
Rank Score:
2,387
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Average Rating:
Comments:
183.
13 Songs 
Compilation
Year of Release:
1989
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,496
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Average Rating:
Comments:
214.
Substance 
Compilation
Year of Release:
1988
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,282
Rank in 1988:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
289.
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.."
- 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:
892
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Average Rating:
Comments:
"I can't rank Come on Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa separately, because that's not how I know them. I find that it doesn't sound like two separate works; there is a congruency between both, it's almost seamless. While most will speak of Where is My Mind (it is epic, after all), my favorite track is Cari..." [More]
- junodog4 | 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:
1988
Appears in:
Rank Score:
883
Rank in 1988:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Year of Release:
1989
Appears in:
Rank Score:
735
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Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
392.
VU 
Compilation
"Logged as a compilation but how can a previously unreleased album of studio recordings be a compilation? Really good anyways. Possibly better than loaded but not the first 3."
- Graeme2 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +6 votes (6 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:
607
Rank in 1985:
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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..." [More]
- HoldenM | 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:
1986
Appears in:
Rank Score:
601
Rank in 1986:
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Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 35. Page 1 of 4

Best Albums of the 1980s composition

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