Your favourite albums by decade: the 80s

[thepoetinmyhear]

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)

[Moony]

Originally Posted by hayley

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
10. Pixies- Surfer Rosa

! I love you!

[dissention]

Originally Posted by vermicious knid

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.

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.

[estranged4life]

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

[xdreamsunwindx]

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

[xdreamsunwindx]

Originally Posted by vermicious knid

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.

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.

[Wild_Heart03]

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

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

[hayley]

Originally Posted by Moony

! I love you!

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.

[TheBlueLamp]

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

[trackaghost]

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

[face of glass]

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.

[BombaySapphire3]

originally posted by dissention Critics made the same sort of "pretentious" remarks about latter-day Emmylou Harris albums, so I take their opinions with a grain of salt.

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.

[ryan8472]

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.

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. AND, the bonus' on the new CD (Call Me, Suzy & Jeffrey, Rapture disco mix) are amazing too.

[irishgrl]

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.

[trackaghost]

Originally Posted by irishgrl

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
Gin Blossoms: New Miserable Experience
Counting Crows: August and Everything After
Big Head Todd and the Monsters: Sister Sweetly
Live: Throwing Copper
Spin Doctors: Pocket Full of Kryptonite
Scorpions: The Mercury Years (yes its an anthology)
Midnight Oil: Diesel and Dust
Metallica: Metallica
Meat Loaf: Bat out of Hell

ahhhh.....Im sure I missed some........

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