My Favourite Albums of the 1980s

I bought "Still" by Joy Division in 1981 and it changed my life.  I'd heard a whole side played on Peel - one of the live sides - and didn't know a thing about this band but was intrigued. The album, in its stark industrial packaging gave no clues. I had to wait for friends to tell me that they were the same band as New Order when that band released its debut shortly afterwards, or that the lead singer had killed himself. Seems odd now, with all the biopics etc. but there was no "heritage music" industry at that point so all you had was the record racks and the occasional rock A-Z, most of which had only just been updated to include punk and new wave. The previous record I'd bought was novelty Beatles medley "Stars on 45", so it was quite a change. I soon got given my dad's old music centre as it was either that or they'd have to listen to this new unpalatable music downstairs. That's why "Still" is so high in this list though its not really a "proper" album. Better than the first 2 LPs I bought with my own money, B.A.Robertson and Boomtown Rats, neither of which have stood the test of time. Whereas my fave records of the 60s and 70s owe a lot to "best of" lists this was the first time I was making my own decisions - which is why Marc and the Mambas, Virgin Prunes, "Autoamerican" by Blondie and "Pornography" by the Cure are so prominent. I was so engaged with music during this period (at least until I started work in 1989) that its rare for me to find something from the 80s that I didn't know about - there's a few of course, and some bands that I overlooked then, I can see how good their records were. Later, but not too much later - maybe 1984 or 1985 I started listening to hip hop, dance, soul, funk - and though black music rarely makes "best of" album charts, I found plenty of stunning albums along the way. Again, I've had to be quite cruel to my favourite artists - time was when this would have consisted of Cocteau Twins, Cure, New Order, the Fall and not a lot else.

1	Psychocandy	Jesus and Mary Chain
2	Treasure	Cocteau Twins
3	Pornography	The Cure
4	Parade	Prince and the Revolution
5	3ft High and Rising	De La Soul
6	Surfer Rosa	Pixies
7	Songs about Fucking	Big Black
8	Still	Joy Division
9	The Smiths	The Smiths
10	Youth of America	Wipers
11	Sign o the Times	Prince and the Revolution
12	Torment and Toreros	Marc and the Mambas
13	Perverted by Language	The Fall
14	Pirates	Rickie Lee Jones
15	Daydream Nation	Sonic Youth
16	Medicine Show	Dream Syndicate
17	Low Life	New Order
18	Paul's Boutique	Beastie Boys
19	Violent Femmes	Violent Femmes
20	Control	Janet Jackson
21	Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables	Dead Kennedys
22	Swordfishtrombones	Tom Waits
23	Sulk	Associates
24	New Gold Dream	Simple Minds
25	Autoamerican	Blondie
26	See Jungle! See Jungle!	Bow Wow Wow
27	Appetite for Destruction	Guns n' Roses
28	Ocean Rain	Echo and the Bunnyman
29	High Priority	Cherelle
30	Sextet	A Certain Ratio
31	The Queen is Dead	The Smiths
32	Foundation Steppers	New Age Steppers
33	Power	Ice T
34	Scary Monsters	David Bowie
35	It will take a nation of millions	Public Enemy
36	The Stone Roses	The Stone Roses
37	Famous Blue Raincoat	Jennifer Warnes
38	If I Die, I Die	Virgin Prunes
39	Red Mecca	Cabaret Voltaire
40	High Land Hard Rain	Aztec Camera
41	Doolittle	Big Black
42	Fishermans Blues	Waterboys
43	Blood and Chocolate	Elvis Costello
44	Music for a New Society	John Cale
45	Travelogue	Human League
46	Suicide	Suicide
47	Songs to Remember	Scritti Politti
48	Closer	Joy Division
49	Music Madness	Mantronix
50	Hot Cool and Vicious	Salt n Pepa
51	Diana	Diana Ross
52	Computer Games	George Clinton
53	My Life in the Bush of Ghosts	Eno and Byrne
54	Penthouse and Pavement	Heaven 17
55	Spring Hill Fair	Go Betweens
56	Heaven or Las Vegas	Cocteau Twins
57	Radio	LL Cool J
58	Tom Tom Club	Tom Tom Club
59	Bizarro	Wedding Present
60	Paid in Full	Eric B and Rakim
61	First and Last and Always	Sisters of Mercy
62	Micro Phonies	Cabaret Voltaire
63	New York	Lou Reed
64	Big Science	Laurie Anderson
65	Playing with a different sex	Au Pairs
66	Dare	Human League
67	This Nations Saving Grace	The Fall
68	Nebraska	Bruce Springsteen
69	Hallowed Ground	Violent Femmes
70	Soul Mining	The The
71	Days of  Wine and Roses	Dream Syndicate
72	Warehouse Song and Stories	Husker Du
73	Whos gonna save the world	Cindy Lee Berryhill
74	Just The Way You Like It	SOS Band
75	Le Mystere De Voix Bulgares	Various
76	Clan of Xymox	Clan of Xymox
77	The Sky's Gone Out	Bauhaus
78	The Scream	Siouxsie and the Banshees
79	Junkyard	Birthday Party
80	The Jaws of Life	Hunters and Collectors
81	Straight out the Jungle	Jungle Brothers
82	Like a Prayer	Madonna
83	Hole	Scraping Foetus off the Wheel
84	Plastic Surgery Disasters	Dead Kennedys
85	Disintegration	The Cure
86	Kilimanjaro	Teardrop Explodes
87	Itll end in tears	This Mortal Coil
88	The Art of falling apart	Soft Cell
89	All over the place	Bangles
90	The Hurting	Tears for Fears
91	Club Classics vol 1	Soul II Soul
92	Nightclubbing	Grace Jones
93	New York	Lou Reed
94	Smell of Female	Cramps
95	IV	Zapp
96	The Clock Comes Down the Stairs	Microdisney
97	Tin Drum	Japan
98	Children of God	Swans
99	Sister	Sonic Youth
100	This is the Sea	Waterbooys