Music: Best Albums of the Year series: 1980

[Saturated Fats]

Well, the mandate was strong enough from the 1967 round to encourage me to do at least a few more of these, as long as everyone keeps having fun with them

The best album of 1967, according to HFBoards, is:

The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (15 votes)

2nd Place (tie): The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour (11 votes)
2nd Place (tie): The Velvet Underground and Nico (11 votes)
4th Place: The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced? (9 votes)
5th Place: Cream - Disraeli Gears (8 votes)


Today's voting year is 1980. The next voting year will be 1994

Click to read more...

 

[Elvis P]

I voted for 5. My other 5 are

Steely Dan - Gaucho
Elvis Costello - Get Happy
Africa 70 Fela Kuti - I.T.T.
B-52s - Wild Planet
Police - Zenyatta Mondatta

Good luck on this project.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Closer and The Return of the Durutti Column for me.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

Closer: Joy Division
Bowie: Scary Monsters
Pretenders

 

[Saturated Fats]

I have the benefit of making the poll, so my favourites - no matter how obscure - will probably be options regardless :p

In that vein:

Joy Division - Closer
Judas Priest - British Steel
Bauhaus - In the Flat Field
XTC - Black Sea
Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables

Scary Monsters just misses out

 

[Mescaleroman]

My five from the poll were Dead Kennedy's, Joy Division, Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen and the Clash.

My personal top 10 are

Underwater Moonlight - the Soft Boys
Crocodiles - Echo and the Bunnymen
Nobody's Heroes - Stiff Little Fingers
Sound Affects - the Jam
1980 - The Choice is Yours - the Members
Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel
Going Deaf for a Living - Fischer Z
Kilimanjaro - the Teardrop Explodes
Argybargy - Squeeze
I Just Can't Stop It - the Beat

HM's to Siouxsie & the Banshees ( Kaleidoscope ) , Killing Joke ( s/t ) , Pete Townshend ( Empty Glass ) , Tonio K ( Amerika ) and Tom Waits ( Heart Attack and Vine )

 

[kihei]

Top Ten

The Clash--Sandinista
U2--Boy
Pretenders--Pretenders
Joy Division--Closer
John Lennon/Yoko Ono: Double Fantasy
Talking Heads--Remain in Light
Durutti Column--Return of the Durutti Column
David Bowie--Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)
Bob Marley and the Wailers--Uprising
Steely Dan--Gaucho

 

[Saturated Fats]

My five from the poll were Dead Kennedy's, Joy Division, Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen and the Clash.

My personal top 10 are

Underwater Moonlight - the Soft Boys
Crocodiles - Echo and the Bunnymen
Nobody's Heroes - Stiff Little Fingers
Sound Affects - the Jam
1980 - The Choice is Yours - the Members
Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel
Going Deaf for a Living - Fischer Z
Kilimanjaro - the Teardrop Explodes
Argybargy - Squeeze
I Just Can't Stop It - the Beat

HM's to Siouxsie & the Banshees ( Kaleidoscope ) , Killing Joke ( s/t ) , Pete Townshend ( Empty Glass ) , Tonio K ( Amerika ) and Tom Waits ( Heart Attack and Vine )

Great list. Had the Jam, Echo, and Killing Joke all in the preliminary list, but HF limits it to 30.

 

[NyQuil]

Steely Dan--Gaucho

Thank you.

 

[Teemu]

There's definitely some stuff on my hit list to check out, but by and large..... woof.

 

[Mescaleroman]

Great list. Had the Jam, Echo, and Killing Joke all in the preliminary list, but HF limits it to 30.

I forgot about Baby's Got a Gun by the Only Ones , not sure which album on my list it would replace , so in that case , my list goes to 11.
Starting to work on the 1994 list.
Thanks for doing these by the way.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Voted other and would propose this top 5:

1) Fred Frith - Gravity
2) The Pop Group - For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder?
-
3) Aksak Maboul - Un peu de l'âme des bandits
4) Captain Beefheart - Doc at the Radar Station
5) Tom Waits - Heartattack and Vine

HM:
6) John Zorn - Pool
7) Jacques Dutronc - Guerre et pets
8) Iggy Pop - Soldier
9) Cabaret Voltaire - Three Mantras
10) Jerry Lee Lewis - When Two Worlds Collide

Best live album: Magazine - Play
Easy listening: Oscar Peterson - The Personal Touch

Both Alice Cooper and Renaud had albums in 1980, but really weaker ones in their oeuvre.

 

[plank]

1. Empty Glass - Pete Townshend
2. Making Movies - Dire Straits
3. Pretenders - Pretenders
4. The River - Bruce Springsteen
5. Women And Children First - Van Halen
6. Boy - U2
7. Back in Black - AC/DC
8. American Son - Levon Helm
9. Crimes of Passion - Pat Benatar
10. Roses in the Snow - Emmylou Harris

 

[frisco]

U2-Boy
Blondie-Autoamerican
Queen-The Game
Neil Diamond-Jazz Singer Soundtrack
Hall And Oates-Voices
Journey-Departure
Cliff Richard-I'm No Hero

My Best-Carey

 

[ItsFineImFine]

I voted for other....Jeopardy which was the debut album by post-punk band The Sound. I always considered it better than Joy Division tbh. And I'm not just saying this cos of my bias for British music, that Black Sea XTC album up there for example I find extremely overrated.

https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/the_sound/jeopardy/

 

[Elvis P]

... And I'm not just saying this cos of my bias for British music, ...

This is a weird comment. How can your post reflect a British bias over non-British bands when all the bands mentioned in your post are British?

 

[Osprey]

10 votes? I needed only one:

Edit: A poster named angusyoung would like this post.

 

[Mescaleroman]

10 votes? I needed only one:

Edit: A poster named angusyoung would like this post.

Although I see he did , I suspect his top album may have been called Prisoner of the Night .

 

[angusyoung]

10 votes? I needed only one:

Edit: A poster named angusyoung would like this post.

Of course! solid album,every track. The best with Brian.

 

[angusyoung]

Although I see he did , I suspect his top album may have been called Prisoner of the Night .

uh no!

 

[reckoning]

I voted Dirty Mind, Remain In Light and Never For Ever, my top three of '80 in that order. Would've probably also picked Zenyetta Mondatta had it been an option.

My honourable mentions would be Closer, Los Angeles, The Pretenders, and Permanent Waves.

Springsteen's The River is a difficult album to rate. Some great songs on there, but way too many silly dumb tracks. Stuff like "Crush On You", "You Can Look...", "I'm A Rocker" or "Ramrod" are at best B-side quality material. It's a cliche to say it about a double album, but it would make a great album if it was whittled down to the 10 best songs.

Two "classic rock" albums that need to be mentioned: Bob Seger's Against The Wind and Rolling Stones Emotional Rescue. Both albums had great singles, but lots of half-hearted filler aside from those.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

From The Return of the Durutti Column...such a pretty performance.

 

[YoSoyLalo]

Closer might be my favorite album of all time, let alone this year.

 

[YoSoyLalo]

I voted for other....Jeopardy which was the debut album by post-punk band The Sound. I always considered it better than Joy Division tbh. And I'm not just saying this cos of my bias for British music, that Black Sea XTC album up there for example I find extremely overrated.

https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/the_sound/jeopardy/

Joy Division is British mate

 

[Elvis P]

Thank you.

This was the first album I mentioned in the first post after the OP.