One Hundred Favorite Albums of the 1980s

(I made this list in reply to a now 33-year-old end-of-the-eighties list from Little Rock’s defunct alternative newspaper Spectrum Weekly—see below, and my thanks to Philip Martin. My own list would've looked much different on December 31, 1989, than it does today, but here's my best current attempt at a top 100 albums of the decade. I'm going to follow what appear to be Spectrum’s house rules and (1) rank these in something like my order of preference; (2) mark the beginning of the decade as January 1, 1980, and the end as December 31, 1989; and (3) allow myself multiple albums per artist when I think it's warranted. I also excised compilations from the list unless the material was mostly unavailable on earlier albums, as with #72 and #76.)

 

  1. Tin Drum by Japan

  2. Miss America by Mary Margaret O'Hara

  3. A Fierce Pancake by Stump

  4. Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk

  5. Secrets of the Beehive by David Sylvian

  6. Architecture and Morality by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

  7. Thunder and Consolation by New Model Army

  8. Searching for the Young Soul Rebels by Dexys Midnight Runners

  9. Hats by The Blue Nile

  10. Disintegration by The Cure

  11. Hounds of Love by Kate Bush

  12. Bird-Dog by The Verlaines

  13. One Man Clapping by James

  14. The Size of Food by The Jean-Paul Sartre Experience

  15. Workers Playtime by Billy Bragg

  16. Sleep No More by The Comsat Angels

  17. Avalon by Roxy Music

  18. Rain Dogs by Tom Waits

  19. Strange Angels by Laurie Anderson

  20. The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths

  21. Boomerang by The Creatures

  22. Fisherman's Blues by The Waterboys

  23. Purple Rain by Prince & the Revolution

  24. Lincoln by They Might Be Giants

  25. Upstairs at Eric's by Yaz

  26. Quiet Life by Japan

  27. Black Celebration by Depeche Mode

  28. The Great American Bootleg Tape by David Massengill

  29. Clocks by Clocks

  30. Steve McQueen by Prefab Sprout

  31. The Iowa Waltz by Greg Brown

  32. The Bureau by The Bureau

  33. Faith by George Michael

  34. Greed by Ambitious Lovers

  35. A Walk Across the Rooftops by The Blue Nile

  36. The Ghost of Cain by New Model Army

  37. I'm Your Man by Leonard Cohen

  38. Burning Bridges by Naked Eyes

  39. The Head on the Door by The Cure

  40. Sign o' the Times by Prince

  41. Who's Afraid of the Art of Noise by The Art of Noise

  42. Hot Paradox by Martin Dupont

  43. Brewing Up With Billy Bragg by Billy Bragg

  44. People by Hothouse Flowers

  45. Gentlemen Take Polaroids by Japan

  46. March by Michael Penn

  47. Too-Rye-Ay by Dexys Midnight Runners

  48. Symphonic Suite Akira by Geinoh Yamashirogumi

  49. Vengeance by New Model Army

  50. Bill Morrissey by Bill Morrissey

  51. Most of the Girls Like to Dance But Only Some of the Boys Like To by Don Dixon

  52. The Colour of Spring by Talk Talk

  53. The Lion and the Cobra by Sinead O'Connor

  54. Treasure by Cocteau Twins

  55. On the Boardwalk: The Venice Beach Tapes by Ted Hawkins

  56. How Did You Find Me Here by David Wilcox

  57. Waiting for a Miracle by The Comsat Angels

  58. English Settlement by XTC

  59. I Am Sitting in a Room by Alvin Lucier

  60. LC by The Durutti Column

  61. Pontiac by Lyle Lovett

  62. Rio by Duran Duran

  63. One Fair Summer Evening by Nanci Griffith

  64. Juju by Siouxsie and the Banshees

  65. Kings of the Wild Frontier by Adam and the Ants

  66. Fine Young Cannibals by Fine Young Cannibals

  67. Unanswerable Lust by Luxuria

  68. Horse Rotorvator by Coil

  69. Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) by Eurythmics

  70. If I Should Fall from Grace With God by The Pogues

  71. You and Me Both by Yaz

  72. Louder Than Bombs by The Smiths

  73. This Last Night in Sodom by Soft Cell

  74. It Happened One Night by John Wesley Harding

  75. She's So Unusual by Cyndi Lauper

  76. Overview by Violet Eves

  77. World of Echo by Arthur Russell

  78. Klaus Nomi by Klaus Nomi

  79. Music for the Masses by Depeche Mode

  80. Swordfishtrombones by Tom Waits

  81. Thriller by Michael Jackson

  82. The Innocents by Erasure

  83. Envy by Arto Lindsay and the Ambitious Lovers

  84. Working Class Dog by Rick Springfield

  85. This Is the Sea by The Waterboys

  86. Organisation by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

  87. Love Junk by The Pursuit of Happiness

  88. Holy Wars by Tuxedomoon

  89. Big Science by Laurie Anderson

  90. Talking to the Taxman About Poetry by Billy Bragg

  91. Blue Bell Knoll by Cocteau Twins

  92. Skylarking by XTC

  93. Just Because... by Martin Dupont

  94. Sleep Convention by Trees

  95. Sleep It Off by Cristina

  96. From the Lions Mouth by The Sound

  97. Multiple Choice by Metronomes

  98. They Might Be Giants by They Might Be Giants

  99. I Often Dream of Trains by Robyn Hitchcock

  100. An Innocent Man by Billy Joel

— April 30, 2023


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