Favourite Album For Each Year Of The 80s

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Another week has gone by and so now it’s time for you all to nominate your favourite album from each year of the 80’s

As before, if you’re not sure or don’t have one for a particular year, just leave it blank.

And no fence sitting allowed…no double/triple entries…make a decision!!! :wink:

1980 Making Movies- Dire Straits

1981 Of Skins And Heart - The Church

1982 The Lexicon Of Love - ABC

1983 Synchronicity - The Police

1984 The Unforgettable Fire - U2

1985 The Head On The Door - The Cure

1986 Heyday - The Church

1987 The Joshua Tree - U2

1988 Rattle And Hum - U2

1989 Disintegration - The Cure

Wow…what a change in my music tastes during that decade…nothing from the US at all and three bands produced 7 of my 10 choices

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I seem to have had particular favourites too:

80 Back In Black - ACDC
81 Sunnyboys
82 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 - M. Oil
83 Eliminator - ZZ Top
84 The Swing - INXS
85 Listen Like Thieves - INXS
86 Crowded House
87 Kick - INXS
88 Diesel and Dust - M. Oil
89 Full Moon Fever - Tom Petty

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The 80’s was pretty meh IMO, but here goes -

1980 A-Z, Colin Newman / Crocodiles, Echo & The Bunnymen
1981 Grace Jones, Nightclubbing
1982 Junkyard, The Birthday Party
1983 Swordfish Trombones, Tom Waits
1984 Ocean Rain, Echo & The Bunnymen
1985 Rum, Sodomy & The Lash, The Pogues / Whack It All Down EP, Bird Nest Roys
1986 ??
1987 Rhythm Killers, Sly & Robbie
1988 16 Lovers Lane, The Go-Betweens
1989 Doolittle, The Pixies / Stone Roses, The Stone Roses.

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A lot I can’t split…
1980: Black Sea - XTC / Self-titled - Pretenders
1981: Place Without A Postcard - Oils
1982: English Settlement - XTC / 10…1 - Oils
1983: Soul Mining - The The / You & Me Both - Yazoo
1984: Stoneage Romeos - Hoodoo Gurus
1985: Cupid & Psyche 85 - Scritti Politti
1986: Skylarking - XTC / Sleepless - Ups & Downs / Colour Of Spring - Talk Talk
1987: Psonic Psunspot - Dukes Of The Stratosphear
1988: Spirit Of Eden - Talk Talk
1989: Doolittle - Pixies / March - MIchael Penn

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I dunno.

1980 Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables - Dead Kennedys

1981 Damaged - Black Flag

1982 Millions of Dead Cops - MDC

1983 Suicidal Tendencies - Suicidal Tendencies

1984 Zen Arcade - Husker Du

1985 Rites of Spring - Rites of Spring

1986 Master of Puppets - Metallica

1987 Embrace - Embrace

1988 Suffer - Bad Religion

1989 Energy - Operation Ivy / Complete Discography - Minor Threat

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1980 - Ace Of Spades by Motörhead
1981 - Killers by Iron Maiden
1982 - Number Of The Beast by Iron Maiden
1983 - Holy Diver by Dio
1984 - Warning by Queensryche
1985 - honestly haven’t found an non-live album from this year I can remember listening to
1986 - Master Of Puppets by Metallica
1987 - Appetite For Destruction by Guns N Roses
1988 - Operation Mindcrime by Queensryche
1989 - same as 1985 edit missed Alice In Hell by Annihilator

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I’m excited for the noughties and teens when I can finally contribute

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I have an insane amount of culling to do.
Only '80 and '89 are anything like…possible.

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This decade’s going to be hard. I mixed it up in the 70’s thread as people went for the obvious Zepplin etc stuff.

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1980 Back in Black – AC/DC
1981 Business as Usual – Men at Work
1982 Big Science – Laurie Anderson
1983 Synchronicity – The Police
1984 Red Sails in the Sunset – Midnight Oil
1985 Brothers in Arms – Dire Straits
1986 Gossip – Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls
1987 Strangeways Here We Come – The Smiths
1988 Green- R.E.M.
1989 New York – Lou Reed

You’re cut:
Glass Houses – Billy Joel, Kings of the Wild Frontier – Adam and the Ants, Till Deaf Do Us Part - Slade, 10-1 Midnight Oil, Violent Femmes – Violent Femmes, Purple Rain – Prince, Born in the U.S.A. – Bruce Springsteen, The Swing – INXS, Two Minute Warning - Angels, Suzanne Vega – Suzanne Vega, Around the World in a Day – Prince, Songs From the Big Chair – Tears for Fears, Dream of the Blue Turtles – Sting, Listen Like Thieves – INXS, So – Peter Gabriel, Graceland – Paul Simon, Crowded House – Crowded House, The Bridge – Billy Joel, Raising Hell – Run-DMC, Appetite for Destruction – Guns ‘n’ Roses, Bad – Michael Jackson, Temple of Low Men – Crowded House, Rattle ‘n’ Hum – U2, Tracy Chapman – Tracy Chapman, Copperhead Road – Steve Earl

If I actually went back and checked some charts I’m sure it would be even more difficult.

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Agree with most comments - very hard. I’ve tried to get just one per year, but it’s like choosing between children. These were the releases that meant the most to me at the time.

1980 REO Speedwagon - Hi Infidelity
1981 Human League - Dare
1982 Icehouse - Primitive Man
1983 Cyndi Lauper- She’s So Unusual
1984 The Cars - Heartbeat City
1985 Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
1986 Peter Gabriel - So
1987 Midnight Oil - Diesel and Dust
1988 Tracey Chapman - Tracey Chapman
1989 Del Amitri - Waking Hours

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Forgot 1987 - Whitesnake, too.

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I decided that I could start to think about it here. So I went and had a look and started to find myself equivocating. Do I list the albums that I first heard some years later and came to love, or do I go with the albums that define the period of my life for me. The period when I wouldn’t have understood anything that wasn’t on mainstream charts? I’ll need to think about this more, as I don’t think “the Breakers 83” is really going to cut it!

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Very hard…90s will be freaking tough

1980 AC/DC - Back in Black
(Fav Track)

1981 Echo and the Bunnymen - Heaven Up Here

1982 Yazoo - Upstairs at Eric’s

1983 Violent Themes - Violent Themes

1984 Van Halen - 1984

1985 Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms

1986 Ennio Morricone - The Mission

1987 Dead Can Dance - Summoning Of The Muse

1988 U2 - Rattle and Hum

1989 Fugazi - 13 Songs

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Don’t be knockin’ Breakers '83!
Although I was more an 1982 With A Bullet man.

Edit: And I’m going to throw this link in again. For about the fifth time.
Because it always deserves it.

http://www.oz-compilation-albums.com/80s/80index.htm

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1980 Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for rotting vegetables
1981 Black Flag - Damaged
1982 Bad Brains - Bad Brains
1983 Suicidal Tendencies - Suicidal Tendencies
1984 Run DMC - Run DMC
1985
1986 Bad Brains - i against i
1987 Cosmic Psychos - Go the hack
1988 Bad Religion - Suffer

Hmmm…too close to call for now
1989 Bad Religion - No Control
1989 Nirvana - Bleach
1989 Mudhoney - Mudhoney
1989 Red Hot Chili Peppers - Mother’s Milk
1989 Fugazi - 13 Songs

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Ok, now we’re talking. People love to hang it on the 80s, but I friggin loved the music from every year.

1980 - Talking Heads - Remain In Light
1981 - This Heat - Deceit
1982 - Midnight Oil - 10-1
1983 - Violent Femmes - s/t
1984 - Cocteau Twins - Treasure
1985 - Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
1986 - The Triffids - Born Sandy Devotional
1987 - REM - Document
1988 - Pixies - Surfer Rosa
1989 - Pixies - Doolittle

Interestingly, I couldn’t get my two fave bands of the decade (and all time) New Order and The Cure in there. The Cure were always just pipped, if it were a 3-2-1 voting system they’d win my 80s album Brownlow for sure.

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1980 London Calling - The Clash

1981 Of Skins and Heart - The Church

1982 Monkey Grip - Divinyls

1983 Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes

1984 Age of Consent - Bronski Beat

1985 Rum, Sodomy and the Lash - The Pogues

1986 Gossip - Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls

1987 Joshua Tree - U2

1988 Workers Playtime - Billy Bragg

1989 Cosmic Thing - The B-52’s

This was hard, apologies to the Oils, in particular for not squeezing you in amongst many others.

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I’ve still got about half a dozen of those vinyl compilatiions from between 1980 and 1982. And yes With A Bullet is one of 'em! Some excellent stuff in that era esp the Aus music…

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Nothing tops those Ripper compilations. I have a couple V/A LP’s I bought from some op shop in the burbs for 50c probably just to sample a drum break in one song but don’t really go for them. Those easy to find Rippers are actually worth owning alone for the covers.

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