Top Ten Lists of Eighties Albums

What are your top ten favorite albums from the 80s?

This page currently edited by: stingr22. Past editor: Junior

By: diego
  • 10. Lords Of The New Church by Lords Of The New Church
    1982, stiv bators (dead Boys) and Briam James (first guiterist of the damned)and a excelletn mix beetwen new wave, punk, gothic and rough rock īnīroll
  • 9. Strawberries by The Damned
    1982, the las albun with captai sensible before grave disorder, very pop
  • 8. Hurt Me by Johnny Thunders
    1983, by the legend of rock īnī roll, 19 acustic songs
  • 7. Kortatu by Kortatu
    1986, ska-punk from euskadi and lyrics wich refers to the revolution and etc
  • 6. One Step Beyond by Madness
    198?, the first album of a very "mad" band of ska
  • 5. Salve by La Polla Records
    1985, the firs album of the band which has the best lyrics of the world, from euskadi(spain)
  • 4. Ein Kleines Bisschen Horrorschau by Die Toten Hosen
    1989, from germany the best punk band of the world at moment, the album wich made them the most popular band in germany
  • 3. Los Violadores by Fuera De Sektor
    1986, from argentina, the first argentinian punk band and their most pop album
  • 2. Sandinista by The Clash
    1981, the most challenging album ever, 36 songs
  • 1. Pleasant Dreams by Ramones
    1981, the ramones are the best, their most pop album
By: Patricio Cordoba
By: NSD
  • 10. Dr. Feelgood by Motley Crue
    Better than POison
  • 9. 1984 by Van Halen
    it makes me wanna JUMP
  • 8. Purple Rain by Prince
    good movie-great album
  • 7. Slippery When Wet by Bon Jovi
  • 6. South Of Heaven by Slayer
    I couldn't remember the name of the other really good one
  • 5. ...And Justice for All by Metallica
    Their Best Album- still very heavy
  • 4. No Rest for The Wicked by Ozzy Osbourne
    THe Prince of Darkness makes quite possibly his greatest album ever
  • 3. Pyromania by Def Leppard
    Mutt Lang is a good producer
  • 2. Back In Black by AC/DC
  • 1. Appetite For Destruction by Guns 'N' Roses
By: Colin McMillin
  • 10. To Mega Therion by Celtic Frost
    The Frost remain strong on this one. The makeup's not really what I'd call cool, but I'm not hear to judge. "The Usurper" is killer.
  • 9. Powerslave by Iron Maiden
    Second album from the Dickinson/Murray/Smith/Harris/McBrain lineup. "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is Maiden's essential epic.
  • 8. Kill 'Em All by Metallica
    Metallica's fastest. "The Four Horsemen" remains perhaps their greatest song.
  • 7. Operation: Mindcrime by Queensryche
    Iron Maiden meets Pink Floyd. Iron Floyd. Pink Maiden. You'll be humming the choruses to this one all day.
  • 6. Abigail by King Diamond
    Godfather of gothic metal does no worse for having excluded satan from his solo career. Unearthly guitar work.
  • 5. Epicus Doomicus Metallicus by Candlemass
    Black Sabbath meets Judas Priest. Anyone who dedicates a song to himself is a winner.
  • 4. Morbid Tales by Celtic Frost
    The album that began the trend toward the death metal we know today. Dark, dissonant, abrasive, and heavy as hell.
  • 3. Reign In Blood by Slayer
    Worlds of brilliant music fast-forwarded and crammed into one thirty minute album. The marriage of thrash and death metal and its most glorious.
  • 2. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son by Iron Maiden
    Only contender for #1 next to Master. Iron Maiden remains one of the most consistently great bands of all time, and this is their best.
  • 1. Master Of Puppets by Metallica
    Not just the best of the eighties...MoP is the best ever, anywhere.
Heavy Metal: the only reason I can forgive the 80s for existing.
By: Julien Peter Benney
  • 10. Greatest Hits by INXS
    A great album by Australia's most famous band. Andy's and John's dense rhythm section is the key, and "New Sensation" the most essential track.
  • 9. Reading, Writing And Arithmetic by The Sundays
    Ever heard a purer voice that Harriet Wheeler? Hardly ever. Though this is borderline '80s (1989/1990), and barely reached the Australian Top 40, it is something quite special.
  • 8. Back In The High Life by Steve Winwood
    A superbly sophisticated and sober album that makes much modern radio pop sound childishly playful. Listen to this, and you will doubt that the problem with mainstream music is "overproduction".
  • 7. Jump - The Best of The Pointer Sisters by The Pointer Sisters
    A great compilation by the most impressive singles act of the early 1980s. "Automatic" is the epitomy of Richard Perry's skill, which paved the way for David A. Stewart.
  • 6. Avalon by Roxy Music
    An incredibly beautiful and sparse album that could have become the '80s greatest ever if had not only reached #53(!) in the US. (It went triple platinum in Australia). The songs are incredibly melodic and utterly exquisite yet catchy and captivating.
  • 5. Hounds Of Love by Kate Bush
    "Sophia dancing in the chaos." That sums up this captivating concept album.
  • 4. Tears Rolls Down - Greatest Hits 1982-1992 by Tears For Fears
    Though TFF were often seen as a pop band, their lyrics were so socially conscious and their music so spohisticated that one can only reject this. Orzabal has more tenderness and compassion than just about anyone.
  • 3. Little Creatures by Talking Heads
    A perfect pop album if ever there was one, with Byrne's acute observations of society at their best. And it sold over 400,000 copies in Australia.
  • 2. From Langley Park To Memphis by Prefab Sprout
    Though Prefab Sprout's American following never numbered more than a handful of devotees, Paddy McAloon's remarkably literate (though often unfashionable) observations about society have never been equalled.
  • 1. Ghost In The Machine by The Police
    Always my all-time favourite. Contains not only the brilliant, catchy hits "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" and "Spirits In The Material World", but such overlooked gems as "Too Much Information", "Demolition Man" and "One World (Not Three).
this is by no means a definitive list as my main interest is collecting rare records. also, i have excluded records that are not well-known outside australia.
By: WIlly
  • 10. Scarecrow by John Cougar Mellencamp
    Songs with meaning, speaking to the loss of a way of life. Too many people only think of American Fool when they think of JCM, this album is a gem.
  • 9. Please by Pet Shop Boys
    I was never into dance music, but when I first the opening footsteps in "West End Girls", I was hooked.
  • 8. New Gold Dream 81,82,83,84 by Simple MInds
    There are songs/albums that change you the moment you hear them. You remember where you were the first time you heard the song, the first time you heard of the group. Freshman year of college, far away from home-and depressed and lonely. Out of the radio tuned to the campus station comes "Someone, Somewhere in Summertime". Hello alternative music. This album makes it into the top 10 as much for the lifeline it provided me as for the great music found thereon.
  • 7. Hunting High & Low by A-ha
    Everyone knows the video-one of the coolest ever done. Now listen to the title track-one of the first songs I played for my future wife. Unfortunately a-ha received the dreaded novelty/funny foreign group label. And a whole bunch of shallow, dim-witted fools missed out on some great music.
  • 6. Long Distance Voyager by The Moody Blues
    When I heard "The Voice" I told my parents that I wanted this album by this new group. I wondered why they looked at me like I had rocks in my head. This album provided me with the door to more special music than I knew what to do with. I still put 8 or 9 Moodies album's in the CD player and let it run all day. This album holds a special place for me because no one I knew listened to the Moodies, they were mine & I could retreat into my room and become the "Veteran Cosmic Rocker".
  • 5. Welcome To The Pleasuredome by Frankie Goes To Hollywood
    From the pornographic, raunchy connotations on "Relax" to the fitting depiction of Reagen and Brehznev in "Two Tribes", this album was my guilty pleasure. The title track is just so not like anything I'd ever heard before, still after 18 years-nothing comes close. And yes I had the Relax t-shirt and the buttons.
  • 4. London Calling by The Clash
    The annoyance level of my parents went through the ceiling when I brought this home. I played "London Calling" over and over until I wore out the groove (back when we had LP's) Then I discovered "Clampdown" & "The Guns of Brixton". I had never heard music like this-particularly the ska elements-this album was the jumping off point for me to groups like Madness, Smiths, Cure, Housemartins, Jam-in other words, the British New Wave Movement.
  • 3. Making Movies by Dire Straits
    A little album tucked in between their well-known debut and Brothers in Arms. A great album to put on while in the back seat with the one you love. "Romeo & Juliet", "Tunnel of Love"-great guitar listen to the words about a young man who meets a girl at a carnival and "gets a keepsake and a kiss". The images the song conjures of the poignant moment ... And for a little rock n' roll "Solid Rock"
  • 2. Asia by Asia
    I can honestly say that the geek that I was in high school, I did have one first. I was the first kid in my school to discover Asia. I was working a wedding for a catering company and while on break went to the bar and found a juke box. I saw this group with a song I'd never heard before "Heat of the Moment"-I bought the record the next day. Top to bottom, every song I loved and played over and over through three LP's, several tapes, and now on CD. It was just so different from other hard rock that was out there. Four virtuosos playing together, just awesome.
  • 1. Steeltown by Big Country
    I've never understood how this album got lost in the shuffle. Maybe because its not about Ireland, or Irish history. But what it is is a Scot perspective on war "Lay Me Where the Rose is Sown", the loss of the center of life in a "Steeltown", the cold war "Flame of the West, East of Eden" and maybe the best song on the album "Just a Shadow" . And those damn guitars with the bagpipe sound-Big Country never got their due, especially for this album. Stuart Adamson-rest in peace ....
Throw-ins: Hi Infidelity-REO Speedwagon, Rock Island-Jethro Tull, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)-Eurythmics
By: VP
By: Huw
  • 10. Cher by Cher
    Cher??? Well, yes Cher. The ageless on began hanging out with Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Michael Bolton etc and was converted into a rock chick! This eponymous album contains some excellent tunes such as I Found Someone, We All Sleep Alone and Dangerous Times. And she has one hell of a voice to boot.
  • 9. Reckless by Bryan Adams
    This is Big Bry's best effort. Run To You, Heaven, It's Only Love....the list goes on. Essential stuff.
  • 8. Frontiers by Journey
    Perry, Schon, Valory, Cain & Smith toughen it up with some blistering melodic rock.
  • 7. Everybody's Crazy by Michael Bolton
    Before the dodgy mullet, Bolton kicked ass with this phenomenal slice of first rate AOR, joined by a shed-load of special guests including keysman Mark Mangold.
  • 6. Building The Perfect Beast by Don Henley
    The Boys Of Summer is, without a shadow of a doubt, the greatest song of all time.
  • 5. IV by Foreigner
    Messrs Gramm & Jones turn out their best recorded work, including hits such as Waiting For A Girl Like You, Juke Box Hero and Urgent.
  • 4. Slippery When Wet by Bon Jovi
    The band have performed Living On A Prayer in many different arrangements, and it holds up as one of the greatest songs ever no matter what.
  • 3. IV by Toto
    Toto hit overdrive with this, their strongest album to date. Rosanna, Africa, I Won't Hold You Back, simply brilliant.
  • 2. Hi Fidelity by REO Speedwagon
    Keep On Loving You, Take It On The Run, In Your Letter. All classics.
  • 1. Escape by Journey
    The best album by the best AOR band in the world.
I know my list is totally biased to Melodic Rock, but looking back at this period & having been an Eighties teen, this was the most popular music of the decade as a whole.
By: Ander
  • 10. Faith No More by The Real Thing
    ĄEpics!
  • 9. R.E.M. by Life's Reach Pageant
    Their best album before becoming a mainstream band.
  • 8. Tom Waits by Rain Dogs
    Don't loose the Downtown train
  • 7. New York by Lou Reed
    Only Lou Reed can tittle an album with the name of his city. The Scorsese of the rock.
  • 6. Pump by Aerosmith
    The Toxic Twins got back in the saddle!!
  • 5. Doolittle by Pixies
    Hey! became in the best pop song of this decade
  • 4. Appetite For Destruction by Guns N' Roses
    The nasty boys from L.A. were the kings of America until the glory confuse their minds.
  • 3. Nothing's Shcoking by Jane's Addiction
    The meant a new revolution like the Stooges at their time. Mixing spirituality, energy and keeping themselves always outside frome the clampdown.
  • 2. The Lonesome Jubilee by John Mellencamp
    I'm not american but from Europe I think that this album reflects the authentic american life in a lot of sides.
  • 1. London Calling by The Clash
    I heard it for the first time when I was about 15 and it change my life. This album showed me the real life on a lyrical, political, and authentic musci knowledge.
By: GEORGE E

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