Music: Best Albums of the Year series: 1982

[Saturated Fats]

1967: The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
1980: AC/DC - Back in Black
1994: Nirvana - MTV Unplugged in New York
2000: Radiohead - Kid A
1973: Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
1988: Metallica - ...And Justice for All
2004: (TIE) Madvillain - Madvillainy // The Killers - Hot Fuss // Green Day - American Idiot
1969: The Beatles - Abbey Road
1991: Nirvana - Nevermind
1977: Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
1985: Tears for Fears - Songs from the Big Chair
2007: Radiohead - In Rainbows
1965: The Beatles - Rubber Soul
1975: Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

1996: (TIE) Soundgarden - Down on the Upside // Rage Against the Machine - Evil Empire (9 votes)

3rd Place (TIE): Beck - Odelay (6 votes)
3rd Place (TIE): Tool - Ænima
5th Place: Pearl Jam - No Code (5 votes)

The rock zeitgeist bears out for this vote, and I'm not entirely surprised with the RATM pick - but definitely pleasantly surprised to see Soundgarden pull through. Always felt they were the best of the Seattle grunge foursome, and it's nice to see them get posthumous credit.

This year's poll should be fun. 1982 contains perhaps the biggest album ever released, as well as some outstanding releases from musical titans. I'm not sure it has quite the depth of some of the years we've covered recently, but we'll see.

8/28: 2010
8/30: 1970
9/2: 1998

Click to read more...

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Weak year for me. I guess I'm just not a fan of the early 80s... I had to invente new categories to include a few albums that I don't really like but still wanted to be listed somehow.

1. Diamanda Galas – The Litanies of Satan
2. The Work – Slow Crimes
3. Savage Republic – Tragic Figures
4. Univers Zéro – Ceux du Dehors
5. Fear – The Record
6. Bad Brains – Bad Brains
7. SPK – Leichenschrei
8. Bruce Springsteen – Nebraska
9. Yasuaki Shimizu – Kakashi
10. Fred Frith / Bob Ostertag / Phil Minton ‎– Voice Of America

HM:
Kronos Quartet – In Formation
Egoslavia - Egoslavia
Adrian Belew – Lone Rhino
Philip Glass – Glassworks
Brian Eno – Ambiant 4: On Land
David Lynch & Alan R. Splet – Eraserhead
Cabaret Voltaire – 2x45
Iggy Pop – Zombie Birdhouse
Psychic TV – Force the Hand of Chance
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band – Ice Cream For Crow
Sonic Youth – Sonic Youth
Elvis Costello and The Attractions – Imperial Bedroom
Discharge – Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing
Frank Zappa – Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch
Throbbing Gristle – Assume Power Focus

Almost good:
Laurie Anderson – Big Science
Killing Joke – Revelations
Lou Reed – The Blue Mask
Mission of Burma – VS
X – Under the Big Black Sun
Zero Boys – Vicious Circle
XTC – English Settlement
Artery – Oceans
George Thorogood & The Destroyers – Bad to the Bone
The Monochrome Set – Eligible Bachelors
Dead Kennedys – Plastic Surgery Disasters
The Birthday Party – Junkyard
The Clash – Combat Rock
Descendents – Milo Goes to College
Lydia Lunch – 13.13
The Waitresses – Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful?

Curiosity:
Michael Jackson – Thriller
Alice Cooper – Zipper Catches Skin
Material – One Down

 

[Mescaleroman]

John Otway - All Balls and No Willy
the Au Pairs - Sense and Sensuality
the Jam - The Gift
Yazoo - Upstairs at Erics
ABC - Lexicon of Love
Blancmange- Happy Families
Dexy's Midnight Runners - Too Rye Aye
Peter and the Test Tube Babies - Pissed and Proud
Nina Hagen - Nunsexmonkrock
the Angelic Upstarts - One From the Heart

HM

the Associates - Sulk
Fun Boy Three - s/t
the Stranglers - Feline

 

[kihei]

Pat Metheny Group: Offramp
Glenn Gould: The Goldberg Variations (the second time around)
Philip Glass: Glassworks
Richard and Linda Thompson: Shoot Out the Lights
Roxy Music: Avalon
Robert Plant: Pictures at Eleven
Duran Duran: Rio
The Clash: Combat Rock
King Sunny Ade: Juju Music
The Cure: Pornography

Given that this is mid-New Wave, sort of an unexpectedly quiet year for rock music.

 

[frisco]

Other than Nebraska:
Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet-Rick Springfield
The Blurred Crusade-The Church
All Four One-The Motels
Branigan-Laura Branigan
American Fool-John Cougar
Hot Space-Queen
Emotions In Motion-Billy Squier
Shabooh Shoobah-INXS
Vacation-Go Go's
Neil Diamond-Heartlight
H2O-Hall And Oates
Chronic Town (EP)-REM
Kim Carnes-Voyeur

My Best-Carey

 

[todeskultes]

The Cure - Pornography
The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour
Bad Brains- Bad Brains
Mission of Burma - Vs.

Other:
Discharge - Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing (spawned a sub-genre, essential listening if you like hardcore)
Flipper - Album: Generic Flipper
Nurse with Wound - Homotopy to Marie
Solid Space - Space Museum
The Faith/Void split (particularly the Void side)
Simple Minds - New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)

 

[Oxbow Lakes]

Discharge - Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing
Dead Kennedys - Plastic Surgery Disasters
Mission of Burma - Vs.
The Gun Club - Miami
Kate Bush - Dreaming
The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour
Lama - Lama
Prince - 1999
Michael Jackson - Thriller
Bad Brains

Really top heavy year, great EPs as well.

 

[Teemu]

Michael Jackson – Thriller
Warren Zevon - The Envoy

Not my deepest year but at least its not as bad as 1981

 

[Cas]

I like 1982:

Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance
Rush - Signals
Venom - Black Metal

Off the list, I have to mention:

Diamond Head - Living on... Borrowed Time
Discharge - Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing
Manilla Road - Metal
Mercyful Fate - Mercyful Fate EP
Motorhead - Iron Fist
Witchfinder General - Witchfinder General LP

The most important of these are probably Black Metal and Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing. My favorite is probably Mercyful Fate, but that's got tough competition.

 

[reckoning]

1. The Dreaming - Kate Bush
2. Under The Big Black Sun -X (not on poll)
3. 1999 - Prince
4. Night And Day - Joe Jackson (not on poll)
5. Shoot Out The Lights - Richard and Linda Thompson (not on poll)


I can't overstate how much I love The Dreaming. Kate decided to do a lot of experimenting in the studio with her Fairlight synthesizer and adopting various characters with her vocals. Every instinct she had was right.

Under The Big Black Sun is X's best album. Not a bad song on it.

1999 has a couple of songs that are longer than they need to be, but it's consistently catchy.

 

[Chili]

Love Over Gold
Rio
Combat Rock

Added:

Simple Minds-New Gold Dream (one of my all time favorites)

John Cougar-American Fool
The Fixx-Shuttered Room
Fleetwood Mac-Mirage
Billy Idol-Billy Idol
Joe Jackson-Night and Day
Alan Parsons Project-Eye in the Sky
Robert Plant-Pictures at Eleven
Toto-Toto IV

 

[WetcoastOrca]

1. MJ Thriller
2. Roxy Music Avalon
3. Kate Bush The Dreaming
4. Peter Gabriel
5. Other Billy Idol

 

[plank]

1. All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes - Pete Townshend
2. Long After Dark - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
3. Nebraska - Bruce Springsteen
4. Diver Down - Van Halen
5. It's Hard - The Who
6. No Control - Eddie Money
7. American Fool - John Cougar
8. Love Over Gold - Dire Straits
9. Beautiful Vision - Van Morrison
10. Winds of Change - Jefferson Starship
11. After the Snow - Modern English

 

[Stylizer1]

Thriller and it shouldn't be close.

 

[Perennial]

Thriller and it shouldn't be close.

Yeah, it's disappointing to see Iron Maiden currently in the lead...

Thriller is arguably the greatest album of all-time

From its Wikipedia page:
Thriller remains the best-selling album of all time, with sales of 66 million copies worldwide.
It won a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards at the 1984 Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year,

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Thriller is arguably the greatest album of all-time

My 7 y/o self thought so and would have make an amazing argument for that.

 

[MakeTheGoalsLarger]

The Number of The Beast and Thriller. Those 2 are probably in my top 5 all time.

They kinda have the same vibe. Both have a title song in which there's a dude talking with a creepy voice.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Venom - Black Metal

 

[Aladyyn]

The Dreaming, not close

 

[Saturated Fats]

This isn't a favourite year of mine, but there are a few releases that shine through

Kate Bush - The Dreaming
Bad Brains - Bad Brains
Hiroshi Yoshimura - Wave Notation 1: Music for Nine Postcards
The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour

Mission of Burma - Vs.
Pagan Altar - Pagan Altar
Bob Theil - So Far
Siouxsie and the Banshees - A Kiss in the Dreamhouse
Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance
Bauhaus - The Sky's Gone Out

All things aside, I was never a big MJ or Iron Maiden fan.

 

[Cas]

This isn't a favourite year of mine, but there are a few releases that shine through

Kate Bush - The Dreaming
Bad Brains - Bad Brains
Hiroshi Yoshimura - Wave Notation 1: Music for Nine Postcards
The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour

Mission of Burma - Vs.
Pagan Altar - Pagan Altar
Bob Theil - So Far
Siouxsie and the Banshees - A Kiss in the Dreamhouse
Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance
Bauhaus - The Sky's Gone Out

All things aside, I was never a big MJ or Iron Maiden fan.

You're counting Pagan Altar as a 1982 release?

 

[Eisen]

Yeah, it's disappointing to see Iron Maiden currently in the lead...

Thriller is arguably the greatest album of all-time

From its Wikipedia page:
Thriller remains the best-selling album of all time, with sales of 66 million copies worldwide.
It won a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards at the 1984 Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year,

Yeah, but Maiden is cool and Jackson isn't.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

No Diver Down?

For shame, thread. For shame.

 

[reckoning]

If somebody thinks Thriller was the best album of the year, that's perfectly fine and justifiable. But the idea that it should be considered the best because of how many units were sold is a weak argument. Can we expect Billy Ray Cyrus to win the 1992 poll because he had the best selling album of the year? Or the Backstreet Boys in 1999? I guess McDonald's is a lock to win the poll about which restaurant makes the best food.

 

[Roo Returns]

Thriller and it shouldn't be close.

Yeah I mean look, however you feel about Michael Jackson the man in 2020, Thriller is one of those generational albums up there with Abbey Road, Rumors, Straight Outta Compton, Nevermind, etc.

The cover photo of him is so well known. The songs are a part of world culture and still played to this day in department stores, weddings, etc.

Albums like combat Rock, Rio, Bad Brains mentioned above are all super well known, but they didn't/don't have the world impact of Thriller.