After two years of revisitation, it's time to go pencils down on the insane music year that was 1980.
Many worthy titles I didn't get enough full listens in to personally rank, but suffice it to say the top thirty titles of 1980, however one rates them, stand toe-to-toe with the best collective batch of album releases from any other year in the rock/hip-hop era save a few from that unbelievable '66-'72 stretch.
Highest Recommends
1. Pretenders2. Back In Black - AC/DC
3. Closer - Joy Division
4. Remain In Light - The Talking Heads
5. Dirty Mind - Prince
6. Peter Gabriel 3 (Melt)
7. Ace Of Spades - Motorhead
8. Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables - The Dead Kennedys
9. Jeopardy - The Sound
10. Crazy Rhythms - The Feelies
11. I Am What I Am - George Jones
13. Scary Monsters - David Bowie
Strong Recommends
12. The River - Bruce Springsteen13. Scary Monsters - David Bowie
14. Boy - U2
15. Los Angeles - X
16. I Just Can't Stop It - The English Beat
17. Underwater Moonlight - The Soft Boys
18. Kilimanjaro - The Teardrop Explodes
19. Irons In The Fire - Teena Marie
20. Searching For The Young Soul Rebels - Dexy's Midnight Runners
21. Get Happy - Elvis Costello
22. Songs The Lord Taught Us - The Cramps
23. Making Movies - Dire Straits
24. Argybargy - Squeeze
25. British Steel - Judas Priest
26. Heartattack And Vine - Tom Waits
27. Killing Joke
28. Hotter Than July - Stevie Wonder
29. Diana - Diana Ross
Solid Recommends
30. Crocodiles - Echo And The Bunnymen31. Monarchie Und Alltag - Fehlfarben
32. Kurtis Blow
33. The Psychedelic Furs
34. Empty Glass - Pete Townsend
35. In The Flat Field - Bauhaus
36. Flesh And Blood - Roxy Music
37. Zenyatta Mondatta - The Police
38. Iron Maiden
39. Colossal Youth - Young Marble Giants
40. Sound Affects - The Jam
41. Uprising - Bob Marley & The Wailers
42. Heaven and Hell - Black Sabbath
43. Double Fantasy - John Lennon & Yoko Ono
44. Warm Leatherette - Grace Jones
45. Bass Culture - Linton Kwesi Johnson
46. The Glow Of Love - Change
47. The Blues Brothers - Various Artists
48. Common One - Van Morrison
49. More Specials - The Specials
50. The Correct Use Of Soap - Magazine
51. Blizzard Of Ozz - Ozzy Osbourne
52. Against The Wind - Bob Seger
53. Black Sea - XTC
54. Love Stinks - The J. Geils Band
55. Catholic Boy - The Jim Carroll Band
56. Doc At The Radar Station - Captain Beefheart
57. Signing Off - UB40
58. Women And Children First - Van Halen
59. Permanent Waves - Rush
60. The Return Of The Duratti Column
61. Gaucho - Steely Dan
62. Thermonuclear Sweat - Defunkt
63. Emotional Rescue - The Rolling Stones
64. Hi Infidelity - REO Speedwagon
65. The Game - Queen
66. Hypnotised - The Undertones
67. East - Cold Chisel
68. Wild Planet - The B-52s
Mild Recommends
69. Something Better Change - D.O.A.
70. Seventeen Seconds - The Cure
71. Sandinista! - The Clash
72. Kings Of The Wild Frontier - Adam Ant
73. Ambient, Vol. 2: The Plateaux Of Mirror - Harold Budd and Brian Eno
74. End Of The Century - Ramones
75. Go To Heaven - The Grateful Dead
76. Le Chat Blue - Mink DeVille
77. Crimes Of Passion - Pat Benatar
Not Recommended
78. Growing Up In Public - Lou Reed
Other Worthy 1980 Albums Of Note I've Yet To Assess In Full
1/2 Gentleman / Not Beasts - Half Japanese80/81 - Pat Metheny
Absolutely - Madness
A-Z - Colin Newman
All Shook Up - Cheap Trick
Arc Of A Diver - Stevie Winwood
Autoamerican - Blondie
Bad Reputation - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
Beat Crazy - Joe Jackson
Celebrate - Kool & The Gang
Commercial Album - The Residents
Departure - Journey
Devils, Rats & Piggies: A Special Message From Godzilla - The Mekons
Drama - Yes
Duke - Genesis
Empires And Dance - Simple Minds
Freedom Of Choice - DEVO
Full Force - Art Ensemble Of Chicago
Gap Band 3
Garden Of Love - Rick James
Gentlemen Take Poloraoids - Japan
Glass Houses - Billy Joel
Grotesque (After The Gramme) - The Fall
Guilty - Barbra Streisand
Gyrate - Pylon
Half-Mute/Scream With A View - Tuxedo Moon
Hawks & Doves - Neil Young
Heroes - Commodores
Hold Out - Jackson Browne
I'm Wanted - George Thorogood
Is This Real - The Wipers
Jane From Occupied Europe - The Swell Maps
Kaleidoscope - Siouxee & The Banshees
McCartney II - Paul McCartney
Metamatic - John Foxx
Ming - David Murray Octet
Nacha Pop
Never For Ever - Kate Bush
On Through The Night - Def Leppard
One Step Closer - The Doobie Brothers
One Trick Pony - Paul Simon
Organisation - Orchestral Maneuvers In The Dark
Panorama - The Cars
Penguin Eggs - Nick Jones
Real People - Chic
Roses In The Snow - Emmylou Harris
Saved - Bob Dylan
Seconds Of Pleasure - Rockpile
Sinsemilla - Black Uhuru
Soldier - Iggy Pop
Solid Pleasure - Yello
Super Trouper - ABBA
The Birthday Party
The Commercial Album - The Residents
The Expanding Universe - Laurie Speigel
The Second Album - Suicide
The Turn Of A Friendly Card - Alan Parsons Project
The Wanderer - Donna Summer
Three For Love - Shalamar
TP - Teddy Pendergrass
Triumph - The Jacksons
Triumph - The Jacksons
True Colors - Split Enz
Two Bit Monsters - John Hiatt
Vienna - Ultravox
Vienna - Ultravox
Voices - Daryl Hall & John Oates
Warm Thoughts - Smokey Robinson
last updated 01.04.22
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