Your favourite albums by decade: the 80s
 

Onto the plastic 80s, the era of new romantics, Phil Collins, big hair metal bands and shiny pop music.

Remember no Mac! And don't sneakily put Go Insane or Bella Donna in there either.

I'm keeping to a top 10 - it's the ranking that's key people!

Here's my favourite albums of the 80s:

1. Guns N Roses - Appetite For Destruction
2. Dinosaur Jr - You're Living All Over Me
3. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
4. The Pixies - Surfer Rosa/Doolittle
5. Prince - Sign O' The Times/Parade
6. Faith No More - The Real Thing
7. Mary Margaret O'Hara - Miss America
8. The Replacements - Pleased To Meet Me
9. Kate Bush - Hounds Of Love
10. Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska/The Smiths - Hatful Of Hollow

I've left out some awesome albums, but I make no apologies for putting Guns at number one. I totally loved that album back in the day.

10,000 Maniacs "In My Tribe" - perfection

Go Go's "Beauty and the Beat" and "Vacation"

The Police "Ghost in the Machine" and "Synchronicity"

Prince - all of his stuff.

Sugar Hill Gang "Rapper Delight"

The Tom Tom Club

I also loved The Human League, Thomas Dolby, ABC, Whitney Houston (such a tragic waste) and many others. I never really got into The Clash, but owned Combat Rock.

Paul Simon - Graceland

They're so fuuuuuuuuuun, but they're so baaaaaaaaaaad. :laugh: And I can't get over how they practically stole songs from Adrian Belew.

Lots of albums.

Talking Heads - Remain In Light, Speaking In Tounges, Stop Making Sense, Little Creatures

Blondie - Autoamerican

U2 - Boy, October, War, The Unforgetable Fire, The Joshua Tree, Rattle & Hum

Fleetwood Mac - Live, Tango In The Night

Michael Jackson - Thriller, Bad

R.E.M. - Murmur

The Pretenders - Pretenders :p

Dire Straits - Making Movies, Brothers In Arms

Madonna - Madonna, Like A Virgin, Like A Prayer


I could be here forever! Red = Best album EVER.

He's the Genius of love - he's sooooo sweet

...

James Brown - James Brown

:laugh:

They had cool harmonies.

Also, at one point in my life and maybe even now - I could sing all the words to Wordy Rappinghood - which simultaneously is glorious and sooo bad :laugh:

How can anyone not love them? :D

1. Autoamerican - Blondie
2. Speaking In Tongues - Talking Heads ("Girlfriend Is Better"!!!)
3. Coming Around Again - Carly Simon
4. Pretenders II - The Pretenders
5. Heart Shaped World - Chris Isaak
6. Voices Carry - 'Til Tuesday
7. The Catherine Wheel - David Byrne
8. Scary Monsters - David Bowie
9. Doolittle - Pixies
10. Hard Promises - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Honorable mentions:

The Hunter - Blondie
KooKoo - Debbie Harry
Remain In Light - Talking Heads
Nick of Time - Bonnie Raitt
Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 - Traveling Wilburys
The Ballad of Sally Rose - Emmylou Harris
Beauty Stab - ABC
Here's To Future Days - Thompson Twins
Fine Young Cannibals - Fine Young Cannibals
Something Wild soundtrack
Notorious - Duran Duran
Careful - The Motels
No Frills - Bette Midler

I still can and do on a regular basis. :lol:

"Genius of Love" is really fantastic in Stop Making Sense. A lot of people don't seem to like it, but I LOVE it.

Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet

Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA

Soundtrack - Eddie and the Cruisers

Hank Williams, Jr. - (The one with Born to Boogie)

Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Tina Turner - What's Love Got To Do With It

Van Halen - Fair Warning

Reo Speedwagon

Guns-n-Roses

Marvin Gaye - Sexual Healing

Hall & Oates

Culture Club

Rod Stewart -( Oh, help me here I can't remember the names of the albums!...Old feeble mind)

1.The Police-Synchronicity
2.U2 the Joshua Tree
3Michael Jackson Thriller--can;t deny the talent
4Prince Purple Rain
5The Smiths the Queen is Dead
6Aerosmith Permant Vacation
7Cyndi Lauper Shes so Unusual
8Pat Benatar Crimes of Passion
9Heart..Heart
10b52s---Cosmic thing
11Diver Dowon Van Halen
12Madonna-Like a prayer

ughhhhhhh sorry couldnt break it down to 10...and I left out sooooooooo many

In no order..

Madonna - Like A Prayer

U2 - Joshua Tree, Boy

Boston - Third Stage

Fleetwood Mac - Mirage, Tango In The Night

Motley Crue - Girls Girls Girls

Bruce Springsteen - Born In The USA

Stevie Nicks - Bella Donna, Wild Heart

Van Halen - 1984

No order!

1. REM- Murmur
2. My Bloody Valentine- Isn't Anything
3. Jesus and Mary Chain- Psychocandy
4. The Smiths- The Queen is Dead
5. Kate Bush- Hounds of Love
6. XTC- Skylarking
7. Roxy Music- Avalon
8. Rickie Lee Jones- Flying Cowboys
9. Husker Du- Flip Your Wig/New Day Rising
10. Pixies- Surfer Rosa
11. Lucinda Williams- Lucinda Williams

Oh why not - if I screw them up it is because it is a little ahrd to understand what they are saying :laugh:

What are words worth?
What are words worth? - words

Words in papers, words in books
Words on tv, words for crooks
Words of comfort, words of peace
Words to make the fighting cease
Words to tell you what to do
Words are working hard for you
Eat your words but don’t go hungry
Words have always nearly hung me

What are words worth?
What are words worth? - words

Words of nuance, words of skill
And words of romance are a thrill
Words are stupid, words are fun
Words can put you on the run

Mots pressix, mots sensix,
Mots qui disent la vâýit? mots maudits, mots mentis,
Mots qui manquent le fruit d’esprit

What are words worth?
What are words worth? - words

Its a rap race, with a fast pace
Concrete words, abstract words
Crazy words and lying words
Hazy words and dying words
Words of faith and tell me straight
Rare words and swear words
Good words and bad words

What are words worth?
What are words worth? - words

Words can make you pay and pay
Four-letter words I cannot say
Panty, toilet, dirty devil
Words are trouble, words are subtle
Words of anger, words of hate
Words over here, words out there
In the air and everywhere
Words of wisdom, words of strife
Words that write the book I like
Words won’t find no right solution
To the planet earth’s pollution
Say the right word, make a million
Words are like a certain person
Who can’t say what they mean
Don’t mean what they say
With a rap rap here and a rap rap there
Here a rap, there a rap
Everywhere a rap rap

Rap it up for the common good
Let us enlist the neighbourhood
It’s okay, I’ve overstood
This is a wordy rappinghood, okay, bye.

What are words worth?
What are words worth? - words

What are words worth?
What are words worth? - words

He’ll stop ... don’t stop ... stop.

____________________________

and let's not forget ra ha ha ra ha ha doey doey doey ra ha ha :laugh:

Ryan and Dissention both say Autoamerican by Blondie is good? This is interesting to me. I have never heard it, (aside from the two singles) but the allmusic.com review says it is "memorable only for its hits", and Rolling Stone called it "a terrible album" and gave it one star. I was never planning on getting it, but you say otherwise, so things could change.

This of course does not include any Stevie, Mac or other solo (regardless I don't think my top two would change)

1. Carly Simon - Coming Around Again (I've worn out this CD, TWICE)

2. Peter Gabriel - So (How can you not love this album? IN your eyes!)

3. U2 - War (better IMO than Joshua Tree)

4. Don Henley - End of the Innocence (like with the previous three albums, every track is great!)

5. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Hard Promises (my first Petty album)

6. Bonnie Raitt - Nick of Time (not as good as Luck of the Draw, but still a great album)

7. Starship - Knee Deep in the Hoopla (Between the ages of 5 and 7, their Sara was my favorite song)

8. Pat Benatar - Get Nervous (I love Anxiety, Fight it Out, little too late - just a fun and very crazy Pat album)

9. Bruce Hornsby & the Range - The Way It Is (Mandolin Rain is one of my all time perfect songs)

10. Belinda Carlisle - Heaven on Earth (Circle in the Sand)

! I love you!

It gets derided because it was their most experimental and diverse album at that time, so most critics labeled it "pretentious." The thing that actually surprises me about it being labeled such is that Blondie was never a serious band, it was always about fun and their songs were, for the most part, tongue-in-cheek, kitschy, and some even came across as the musical equivalents of stories from Weekly World News. It's as if the critics forgot that. The fact that they can write songs about armed robberies, the bermuda triangle, boom booming in the zoom zoom room, or being a spy for the CIA and make it work, all while giving the listener a wink of the eye, is a testament to how great a band they are. Critics made the same sort of "pretentious" remarks about latter-day Emmylou Harris albums, so I take their opinions with a grain of salt.

It's a real grower of an album and you have to warm up to it, but it's a good showcase for how ahead of their time they were as a band. It works as a map for what would essentially become popular music over the next 20 years, and to me, it's rather unfortunate that it isn't treated as such. Yeah, their output is now regarded as being innovative and pioneering, but it's Autoamerican that did it moreso than any other. It goes from Europop to rap to dance to jazz to saloon-style crooning to reggae to urban, and the end result is something that you would never believe was released in 1980. Not to mention that the production is fantastic and the band sounds incredibly good.

A few random picks
 

A Kind of Magic-Queen
The Miracle-Queen
Powerslave-Iron Maiden
Live After Death-Iron Maiden
Somewhere in Time-Iron Maiden
The Number of the Beast-Iron Maiden
Appetite for Destruction-Guns N Roses
Ride the Lightning-Metallica
Master of Puppets-Metallica
Couldnt Stand the Weather-Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble
Whitesnake-Whitesnake
Blue Murder-Blue Murder
Perfect Strangers-Deep Purple
A Show of Hands-Rush
The Joshua Tree-U2
The Unforgettable Fire-U2
Mechanical Resonance-Tesla
Corridors of Power-Gary Moore
Victims of the Future-Gary Moore
Run For Cover-Gary Moore
Wild Frontier-Gary Moore
Diary of a Madman-Ozzy Osbourne
Tribute-Ozzy Osbourne
Fatal Portrait-King Diamond
Them-King Diamond
Abigail-King Diamond

1) The Pretenders - Pretenders
2) X - Los Angeles
3) U2 - The Unforgettable Fire
4) Blondie - Autoamerican
5) The Cure - Disintegration
6) Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
7) 10,000 Maniacs - In My Tribe
8) Siouxsie & The Banshees - Peepshow
9) Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Hard Promises
10) Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine

Consider the sources. Allmusic.com? Lame. And Rolling Stone is a disgrace to music journalism. It's disgusting how insanely run-of-the-mill their articles have gotten.

But yeah. Autoamerican? Awesome.

Wow, I think I might be here for an hour or so.... :laugh:

Duran Duran, Rio, Seven And The Ragged Tiger, Notorious - Duran Duran

Out Of The Blue, Electric Youth - Debbie Gibson

Crimes Of Passion, Precious Time - Pat Benatar

Beauty And The Beat - The Go-Go's

All Over The Place, Different Light - The Bangles

Madonna, Like A Virgin, True Blue, You Can Dance - Madonna

Martika - Martika

Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Disintegration - The Cure

Speak And Spell, Some Great Reward, Music For The Masses - Depeche Mode

Knee Deep In The Hoopla - Starship

:) Where's your list, Moony? You always have impeccable taste.

I like your new avatar, too. It's so small I can't tell what it is, but it looks like the cover of Loveless.

1. Tina Turner - Private Dancer (best album of the 80s)
2. Blondie - The Hunter (my favourite Blondie album)
3. Eurythmics - Be Yourself Tonight
4. Madonna - Like A Virgin
5. Carly Simon - Come Upstairs
6. Kate Bush - Never For Ever (Hounds of Love has a great side 1, but side 2 disappoints me)
7. Debbie Harry - Koo Koo
8. Cher - Cher (1987)
9. Eurythmics - Savage
10. Blondie - Autoamerican (some of their best, but a couple of weaker songs on it puts it lower on my list)
11. Carly Simon - Coming Around Again

God, I can't believe I forgot Bowie's Scary Monsters, Jesus & Mary Chain and Husker Du!! D'oh!

Laurie Anderson: Mr. Heartbreak
The Birthday Party: Junkyard
Arthur Brown: Requiem
Kate Bush: The Dreaming
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds: The First Born Is Dead
Cocteau Twins: Treasure
Coil: Horse Rotorvator
The Fall: Perverted By Language
Peter Gabriel: Peter Gabriel (III)
The Jam: Sound Affects
Joy Division: Closer
King Crimson: Discipline
John Lennon/Yoko Ono: Double Fantasy (in spite of Yoko's contributions)
New Order: Power, Corruption & Lies
New Order: Technique
Pixies: Doolittle
Prefab Sprout: Steve McQueen
Public Enemy: Fear Of A Black Planet
Lou Reed: The Blue Mask
The Smiths: Strangeways Here We Come
Talk Talk: Colour Of Spring
Talk Talk: Spirit Of Eden
Talking Heads: Remain In Light
Van Halen: 1984
Tom Waits: Rain Dogs
Brian Wilson: Brian Wilson

After this it gets tougher. Maybe mentally I'm an old fart of a muso.

hmmmm I'm a huge Emmylou fan and if you're referring to Wrecking Ball and Red Dirt Girl I really have seen nothing but near universal critical praise for these albums .It seems that Stumble into Grace was not quite as rhapsodized over by the critics but IMO it was the least left field of the three.I know she is supposed to be working on a new one that is even more experimental than the others so I'm dying to hear it as well when it surfaces.

Thought of more...

Stevie - Bella Donna, The Wild Heart, Rock A Little

Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction

Talking Heads - True Stories

Berlin - Pleasure Victim <3

Duran Duran - Rio

And of course....The Flashdance soundstrack. :nod: :laugh:

As for Autoamerican ~ There is not one bad song on that album. I wouldn't trust anything that those critics say. If you like Blondie, you'll like that album. It's perfection. :nod: AND, the bonus' on the new CD (Call Me, Suzy & Jeffrey, Rapture disco mix) are amazing too. :)

no particular order (its too hard to rank them):

Mr. Mister: Welcome to the Real World
Stevie Winwood: (Album with Higher Love--dont have my albums any more, forgot the title)
Stevie Ray Vaughn: Couldnt Stand the Weather, Texas Flood
Europe: Final Countdown
Phil Collins: Face Value
The Cure: Wish
Scorpions: The Mercury Years (yes its an anthology)
Midnight Oil: Diesel and Dust


EDIT: I was notified that certain of my original picks were in the WRONG (gasp) decade, and therefore, they will wait until tomorrow's 90's thread.
My apologies to one and all.

Some of these are from the 1990s (sorry!)
Live - Throwing Copper is 1994
Crowing Crows - August And Everything After is 1993
Big Head Todd and the Monsters: Sister Sweetly is 1993
Gin Blossoms - New Miserable Experience is 1992
Spin Doctors - Pocket Full Of Kryptonite is 1991
The self-titled Metallica album is also 1991

Oh and Meat Loaf's Bat Out Of Hell is 1977 (the follow-up was in 1993)

The Steve Winwood album with Higher Love was Back In The Highlife. That's 1986, so that's okay

Sorry bout that :)

thanks for exposing my mistake :eek: geez, what a way to start a monday...

Sorry Mary, but this is also from 1992. :)

Isn't this album just perfect? There isn't a bad song on it and Carly just belts 'em out (not really a rockin' album, but certainly heartfelt and with some amazing lyrics)!

I read some vicious reviews for Red Dirt Girl (again, I think it is one of the greatest albums ever recorded), and almost all of those bad reviews savaged "Bang the Drum Slowly," saying that she got too caught up in self-conscious artiness and veered towards being pretentious with such a dramatic shift in her music. There were some unkind reviews of Wrecking Ball where they essentially said the same thing. I, of course, wholly disagree with those opinions, but I rarely agree with critics, anyway.

Personally, I think critics confuse growth as an artist with pretentiousness.

The 80's...I don't recall that being a very big era in music for me...but, we'll how it goes with the list (omitting the obvious FMac related ones):

1) Roxy Music - Avalon
2) (tie) Concrete Blonde - Concrete Blonde (1st album) & ZZ Top - Eliminator
3) The Motels - All Four One
4) Rolling Stones - Steel Wheels
5) Eric Clapton - August
6) George Harrison - Cloud Nine
7) Sting - Dream Of The Blue Turtles
8 ) U2 - The Joshua Tree
9) David Bowie - Let's Dance
10) Paul McCartney - Flowers In The Dirt

MORE-than-honorable mentions:

XTC - Oranges & Lemons
Genesis - ABACAB
Warren Zevon - Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School
John & Yoko - Double Fantasy
Jackson Browne - Lawyers In Love (w/Rick Vito on lead guitar)
Bryan Ferry - Boys & Girls
Pete Townshend - All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes
Stevie Ray Vaughan - Soul To Soul
Dukes Of Stratosphear (aka XTC) - Chips From The Chocolate Fireball
Kate Bush - Hounds Of Love
Roger Daltrey - Under The Raging Moon
ZZ Top - Afterburner
Little Feat - Let It Roll
Pretenders - Pretenders
Pretenders - Pretenders II
Pretenders - Learning To Crawl
Concrete Blonde - Free


Well, in retrospect, I guess it was better than I thought. :shrug:

Two of my fav.'s ever :nod: Martha Davis' voice haunts me to this day.

Did you get her solo album from last year? Damn, it's amazing. :shocked:

I need to look for it as I have been meaning to get it - Actually, there is a record store near the gym - so, I may go tonight!