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 53,000 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	2,161	193,877	Remain In Light (28th)by Talking Heads
1981	2,195	120,573	Moving Pictures (154th)by Rush
1982	2,156	148,428	Thriller (71st)by Michael Jackson
1983	2,174	135,388	Murmur (142nd)by R.E.M.
1984	2,167	170,558	Purple Rain (78th)by Prince And The Revolution
1985	2,184	143,880	Hounds Of Love (57th)by Kate Bush
1986	2,311	169,365	The Queen Is Dead (17th)by The Smiths
1987	2,516	162,091	The Joshua Tree (53rd)by U2
1988	2,597	151,786	Daydream Nation (70th)by Sonic Youth
1989	2,638	196,989	Doolittle (19th)by Pixies
Total	23,099	1,592,934

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.

View chart at point in time

Share this chart

Collector's summary (top 110) (filtered)Log in or register to discover the great albums that are missing from your music collection!

This chart is currently filtered to only show albums from 1982. (Remove this filter)

Sort by

Thriller

Michael Jackson

Year of Release:

1982

Appears in:

1,588 charts

Rank Score:

17,226

Rank in 1982:

Rank in 1980s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

82 (2,114 votes)

Comments:

160

34.

The Dreaming

Kate Bush

Year of Release:

1982

Appears in:

633 charts

Rank Score:

6,614

Rank in 1982:

Rank in 1980s:

Overall Rank:

264

Average Rating:

81 (763 votes)

Comments:

35.

The Number Of The Beast

Iron Maiden

Year of Release:

1982

Appears in:

698 charts

Rank Score:

6,464

Rank in 1982:

Rank in 1980s:

Overall Rank:

269

Average Rating:

81 (991 votes)

Comments:

37.

Pornography

The Cure

Year of Release:

1982

Appears in:

676 charts

Rank Score:

6,036

Rank in 1982:

Rank in 1980s:

Overall Rank:

293

Average Rating:

80 (952 votes)

Comments:

41.

Nebraska

Bruce Springsteen

Year of Release:

1982

Appears in:

709 charts

Rank Score:

5,787

Rank in 1982:

Rank in 1980s:

Overall Rank:

312

Average Rating:

80 (965 votes)

Comments:

71.

1999

Prince

Year of Release:

1982

Appears in:

549 charts

Rank Score:

3,648

Rank in 1982:

Rank in 1980s:

Overall Rank:

491

Average Rating:

79 (715 votes)

Comments:

72.

Avalon

Roxy Music

Year of Release:

1982

Appears in:

474 charts

Rank Score:

3,629

Rank in 1982:

Rank in 1980s:

Overall Rank:

495

Average Rating:

79 (614 votes)

Comments:

87.

Rio

Duran Duran

Year of Release:

1982

Appears in:

450 charts

Rank Score:

3,122

Rank in 1982:

Rank in 1980s:

Overall Rank:

566

Average Rating:

76 (552 votes)

Comments:

95.

Love Over Gold

Dire Straits

Year of Release:

1982

Appears in:

382 charts

Rank Score:

2,890

Rank in 1982:

Rank in 1980s:

Overall Rank:

614

Average Rating:

79 (524 votes)

Comments:

97.

The Nightfly

Donald Fagen

Year of Release:

1982

Appears in:

327 charts

Rank Score:

2,835

Rank in 1982:

Rank in 1980s:

Overall Rank:

625

Average Rating:

77 (366 votes)

Comments:

« prev
1
2
3
4
...
10
11
next »
Goto Page:

Total albums: 110. Page 1 of 11

Best Albums of the 1980s composition

Year	Albums	%

1980	118	12%
1981	123	12%
1982	110	11%
1983	97	10%
1984	102	10%
1985	80	8%
1986	93	9%
1987	87	9%
1988	92	9%
1989	98	10%

Artist	Albums	%

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

Country	Albums	%

	417	42%
	387	39%
	41	4%
	27	3%
	23	2%
	22	2%
	12	1%
Show all

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

Live?	Albums	%
No	978	98%
Yes	22	2%

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

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

If you enjoy our site, please consider supporting us by sparing a few seconds to disable your ad blocker.

A lot of hard work happens in the background to keep BEA running, and it's especially difficult to do this when we can't pay our hosting fees :(

We work very hard to ensure our site is as fast (and FREE!) as possible, and we respect your privacy.

Email Address
Forgotten passwords and other site notifications are sent to the email address saved on your profile. If you've changed your email address recently, please remember to update it on your profile page. (If you can't remember your password, and your email address is out of date, please contact us for assistance getting back into your account).