Favorite 15 Albums Of 1980

[@keithbutler2222]

Empires and Dance from Simple Minds was a massive influence on me in this period...another band like U2 who sadly lost their way in the mid 80s

[@tomrobinson5776]

Indeed 😉

[@bullobca]

Great list! I'm not familiar with Code Blue, will have to check them out. I'd include these somewhere in my list: Pete Townshend - Empty Glass Kate Bush - Never For Ever Roxy Music - Flesh + Blood Genesis - Duke ( their last decent one imho )

[@senatorjimdracula1603]

YEAH! You have a bunch of my favorites in there. Personally I would have made Sandinista a double LP (side 6 is useless) but I couldn't remove enough songs to make it just a single. And The Jam!! Don't even get me started on their genius LOL. Setting Sons and Sound Affects are my favorites. Black Sea is my favorite XTC (Mine still has the green bag on it, too) followed by Skylarking I think. I remember buying a lot of these when they first came out! Love the Furs and X- both of these bands still deliver the goods in concert as well. Great episode!

[@ashrobinson4604]

The bottom of your list would be the top of mine: Remain in Light, Scary Monsters. I think I would include KB Never for Ever, the Police Zenyatta Mondatta, and Squeeze Argybargy. Love your list though, and it is such a deep year, capping at 15 means leaving off some other 5 star albums. Great video, cheers!

[@Peter-Burbank]

U2 at the Palladium? Too cool, My favorite theater! I’m actually a fan of Joshua Tree to Zooropa, a great run!

[@jimmycoleman5853]

Double fantasy- women & children first- heaven and hell- scary monsters- let the music do the talking- permanent waves-stand in the fire- no place to run-Ace of spades- Chinatown

[@davidmcmaster2083]

That Gabriel record I wore out in 80, along with Remain In Light. Intruder never gets old. Can't do U2, but I can do Songs The Lord Taught Us if for no other reason than the title.

[@jeffmccaskill9227]

Panorama by the cars is my favorite of 80

[@ashrobinson4604]

Sandinista is one helluva ride! It is so experimental, so many different sounds and styles! I actually love the creativity of the 3 LPs. It is true that there is a phenomenal single album in here, but I would hate to miss out on some of the more challenging songs. This triple album is joyous, and yes, I can listen to the whole thing start to finish, when I have time! Juicy, juicy album. Regarding your other choices: hell yeah, I’m on board! What time does the flight leave?

[@kevinfischer372]

Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth Tom Waits - Heart Attack & Vine Talking Heads - Remain in Light Suicide - 2nd Album Prince Far-I - Cry Tuff Dub Encounter 3 The Cure - Boys Don’t Cry The Cramps - Songs the Lord Taught Us Captain Beefheart - Doc at the Radar Station The Fall - Grotesque Boy - U2

[@jamesmanon3000]

It was the beginning of the end for many of my favorite artist.

[@peterjonas4971]

I love you list and your taste in music. U2 hasn't aged well for me, but I did love Boy through War. I am very sorry you did not list Closer by Joy Division!!!!

[@tomrobinson5776]

You are one of the few as well as myself regarding U2. I never liked anything past War. Thanks for watching. 😉

[@peterjonas4971]

@@tomrobinson5776 I do also like unforgettable fire, but it's really Brian Eno who works all the magic on that album. You don't like Joy D.?

[@tomrobinson5776]

It’s strange, I was never a huge fan.

[@peterjonas4971]

@@tomrobinson5776 The fact that you have X, Steely Dan, and DK on one list says a lot. I hope you do other years, too.

[@tomrobinson5776]

I’ve done 1965-1970, plus 1973. Just random years, but I’ll start digging more into the 80’s soon & beyond.

[@wowster-so8sx]

WoW, your right U2 was an awesome band back then they turned to dog shit, I saw them with the Pretenders and Crissy Hines totally kicked thier ass.

[@arisgretsistas8088]

too much post punk, there 's more than that in 1980

[@kevinstyles8696]

Pretenders, amazing album. Also loved Learning to Crawl

[@tomrobinson5776]

Yes a fine album. Great songs.

[@MrJeepsters]

Je crois que le 1er pretender date de 1979. Il est sorti la même année que the specials et one step beyond.

[@neurophile]

I have only one favorite : Parsons. Alan, Project - Turn Of A Friendly Card

[@jbelafonte]

Top ten: Queen- The Game. Pete Townsend - Empty Glass. Pretenders' first album. Stevie Wonder- Hotter Than July. U2- Boy. English Beat- I Just Can't Stop It. Talking Heads Remain In Light. Iron Maiden's first album. Rush- Permanent Waves. Bob Marley- Uprising.

[@rochdale33]

Sandinista is a Top 5 album of all time for me. I can listen to it all, it has so much variety. For me, 1980 is the best year for music. The others I love from that year (in no order): Pretenders - same Echo and the Bunnymen - Crocodiles U2 - Boy Elvis Costello - Get Happy!! Psychedelic Furs - same Rush - Permanent Waves Rolling Stones - Emotional Rescue Pete Townshend - Empty Glass The Jam - Sound Affects Adam & the Ants - Kings of the Wild Frontier Devo - Freedom of Choice Bruce Springsteen - The River Teardrop Explodes - Kilimanjaro Just an amazing year

[@tomrobinson5776]

You said it 😉

[@senatorjimdracula1603]

Get Happy!! is one of my all-time favorite records. Amazing from start to finish.

[@audionmusic2787]

Gaucho features the very first programmed sampled real drums on Hey Nineteen. The guys couldn’t find a drummer tight enough. So they paid their engineer $75,000 to build his new invention. Which was the very first computer drums playing real drum samples. About 5 years ahead of state of the art. That’s why the song sounds mechanical. The very first.

[@tomrobinson5776]

Well that explains it. 😉

[@davidbrett8525]

Great year for music and excellent list as always. A few others that are high on my list would be Heart attack and vine - Tom waits Underwater moonlight - soft boys Is this real - the wipers The river - Bruce springsteen Grace and danger - John martyn Bad luck streak in dancing school - Warren Zevon Get happy - Elvis Costello So many great ones this year!

[@tomrobinson5776]

Indeed! 😉

[@jackwezesa1081]

Love Steely Dan but didn’t care for the “sound” of Gaucho. The English Beat album is amazing!

[@tomrobinson5776]

I agree regarding Gaucho. Great songs, but so polished it sounds almost robotic.

[@jackwezesa1081]

@@tomrobinson5776 Steely Dan Gold in 82 had the same issue (imo) but they were remastered. Love Can’t buy a thrill, Royal scam & Aja in sound quality. Have a nice weekend!

[@robwalkerletthemusicplay]

Hi .. 1980 was such a great year for music and you showed many of my personal favourites particularly sound affects, I saw xtc on the Black Sea tour they were excellent live . I also like those earlier Peter Gabriel albums I need to revisit them .Pretenders debut came out in 79 in the uk .. I had in my 79 chart .. thanks for sharing 👍

[@tomrobinson5776]

Thanks Rob 😉

[@davidbennett2339]

That's a solid list for sure, and it's great to see the love for that incredible Pretenders album. One that I'm surprised nobody has mentioned is Shadows And Light, Joni Mitchell's gorgeous live album with Jaco, Pat Metheny, Michael Brecker, etc. And one that I doubt anyone else would include--nobody seems to like this record, but it's top five in a strong year for me: Iggy Pop's Soldier. The story if you don't know it is that Bowie, who produced it, supposedly got into a fist fight over a woman with the guitarist and, in revenge, basically deleted the lead guitar track from the album, leaving it with a stripped-down sort of sound. I still love that album, although I don't really enjoy any of Iggy's other work at this point.

[@tomrobinson5776]

Interesting story regarding Iggy’s Soldier. Never knew that about Bowie deleting the guitar track. I dig Joni’s Shadows and Light. Great live album.

[@kevtruth]

15. The Clash - Sandinista! 14. Pete Townshend - Empty Glass 13. E. Costello & the Attractions - Get Happy!! 12. English Beat - I Just Can't Stop It 11. X - Los Angeles 10. U2 - Boy 9. Devo - Freedom Of Choice 8. Talking Heads - Remain In Light 7. XTC - Black Sea 6. David Bowie - Scary Monsters 5. Squeeze - Argy Bargy 4. The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta 3. The Jam - Sound Affects 2. Peter Gabriel - 3rd 1. Split Enz - True Colours *According to Billboard Pretenders was released on December 27, 1979. Either way, it is a flawless record - stunning

[@ianwebb3496]

True Colours at #1 !!!!!! Aww, Kia ora kevthruth.

[@MrJeepsters]

Je suis d'accord avec beaucoup de vos choix.

[@chrisboerger465]

Your list includes many of my own favorites, but here are a few that I would add. The River by Bruce Springsteen, which could have been a triple album like Sandinista! and it would have been just as good as its present incarnation if not even better. If you listen to albums like Tracks and Ties That Bind, you realize just how many great songs were left off of this record, many of them adopting an Elvis Costello/Graham Parker type vibe. Speaking of those two, Get Happy! and The Up Escalator would make my list. Some others: Closer by Joy Division, Panorama by the Cars, Wild Planet by the B52s and Zenyatta Mondatta by the Police. Can't say I'm a Zevon fanatic, but Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School might be my favorite by him. And I want to give a shout out to the single Burn Rubber by the Gap Band, which used to make my rides to high school so entertaining! Regarding the debut by Pretenders, it's as great as you say it is, my second favorite album of all time, but I consider it a 1979 release. Anyway, great video!

[@tomrobinson5776]

Thanks Chris 😉

[@robwalkerletthemusicplay]

Great comment I’d have certainly found room for zenyatta mondatta .. 1980 was such a great year maybe the best ?

[@Fastnbulbous1969]

It's cool that Fear of Music has become the fan favorite lately. That was the second album I ever bought -- freaked the heck out of me at age 9, such a prickly, uncomfortable, paranoid album. Nevertheless I still maintain Remain in Light rules over all. Code Blue is a nice under the radar power pop pick. Black Sea is my fave XTC, but glad to hear Mummer get props! U2 were my fave for a minute in '83 too -- the Live at Red Rocks turned me on to the early songs before I picked up Boy. They do touch on that psychedelic post-punk hybrid that the Bunnymen, the Sound, Siouxsie, Comsat Angels, The Cure, Teardrop Explodes, Soft Boys and the Psychedelic Furs were all doing. As usual, too much great music to stick to 15. 1. Talking Heads - Remain In Light 2. The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms 3. Joy Division - Closer 4. XTC - Black Sea 5. Echo & the Bunnymen - Crocodiles 6. Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band - Doc At The Radar Station 7. The Sound - Jeopardy 8. Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden 9. X - Los Angeles 10. The Jam - Sound Affects 11. Magazine - The Correct Use of Soap 12. Siouxsie & the Banshees - Kaleidoscope 13. The Comsat Angels - Waiting For A Miracle 14. The Birthday Party - The Birthday Party 15. The Teardrop Explodes - Kilimanjaro 16. Killing Joke - Killing Joke 17. U2 - Boy 18. King Sunny Adé and His African Beats - Eje Nlogba 19. Black Sabbath - Heaven And Hell 20. Grace Jones - Warm Leatherette 21. Horace Andy - Showcase 22. Pretenders - Pretenders 23. The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight 24. David Bowie - Scary Monsters 25. Motörhead - Ace Of Spades 26. Stiff Little Fingers - Nobody’s Heroes 27. The Selecter - Too Much Pressure 28. Rush - Permanent Waves 29. Pablo Gad - Hard Times 30. Bauhaus - In the Flat Field 31. The Fall - Grotesque (After The Gramme) 32. Alton Ellis - The Many Moods Of Alton Ellis 33. Willi Williams - Messenger Man 34. Mikey Dread - World War III 35. Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel 3 36. AC/DC - Back In Black 37. Wipers - Is This Real? 38. The Damned - The Black Album 39. Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables 40. The Suburbs - In Combo Bubbling under: Misfits, Monochrome Set, Colin Newman, English Beat, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Hugh Mundell w/ Lacksley Castell & Augustus Pablo, The Cramps, The Cure, Kiddus I, MX-80 Sound.

[@tomrobinson5776]

Wow, what a list 😉

[@Billinois78]

I don't have a top 15, but my personal favorites of 1980 (in no particular order) are Iron Maiden's self-titled debut, Rush - Permanent Waves, Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell, and The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta.

[@widespoon650]

1980 ! . . what a year ! . . Today my top 5 would include . . Psychedelic Furs, Killing Joke, Associates, Simple Minds & Japan

[@tomrobinson5776]

A great year indeed!

[@kjejon1]

Hmm...Bob Marley's discography didn't start with "Catch a Fire". His earlier recordings produced by Lee Perry, "Soul Revolution" (1971) superior to all his later albums.

[@tomrobinson5776]

I was talking about the Island years starting with Catch A Fire. His earlier recordings are great.

[@skinzz2573]

Yes yes to the Pretenders!!! They are #1! It broke my heart when Pete Farndon and James Honeyman Scott passed away. Their music was never the same after losing them

[@tomrobinson5776]

You’re right. They lost that magic that Honeyman Scott brought. What a tasteful guitar player. He could have gone on to greater things. Farndon was crucial as well.

[@stevecowder4774]

Well, I’m a little late on this episode, but ‘80 is special for me, graduating from HS. Although I wasn’t into punk just yet, I did take a shine to post-punk, particularly U2’s Boy. And out of their entire discography, Boy was the most underrated. It had SO MUCH more to offer than just “ I Will Follow. “ A good one, but how some of the others were ignored is beyond me, especially The Electric Co. That ripper is likely my favorite U2 track ever. So I’m glad to see someone else making a case for that album. Totally deserves it.

[@tomrobinson5776]

That was the only album of theirs that I really liked. The Electric Co. was my fave. That was always a highlight of live shows during that early period.

[@stevecowder4774]

I can imagine ! It's extremely energetic.

[@elmoqbobo]

thanx for the the whats up

[@tomrobinson5776]

You got it.

[@peterschulze491]

Ms Hynde still gives it all she's got in live shows. Intelligent, soulful, honest woman.

[@lupcokotevski2907]

Wild Planet by the B52's True Colours by Split Enz (New Zealand charted 40 on Billboard) Icehouse/Flowers (Australia, charted about 80 on Billboard). Fantastic synth rock. The guitarist/ singer Iva Davies is a classically trained oboist. He wrote the music for probably the best movie of the last 20 years Master and Commander starring Russell Crowe. East by Cold Chisel (Australia also charted on Billboard). Superior rock songwriting, and contains Choir Girl, one of only two songs i know about abortion, the other being Gibsom Street (1969) by Laura Nyro. The girl from X is a big Nyro fan. 1980 was a good year for Australian bands, including AC/DC.

[@tomrobinson5776]

I’ll have to check out some of those titles.

[@lupcokotevski2907]

@@tomrobinson5776 AC/DC were Australia's most commercially successful band but Cold Chisel were the best songwriters. Chisel's song Khe San is loved by Vietnam Vets on both sides of the Pacific. One of the great anti war songs, anywhere.

[@Greg-io1ip]

Pete Townsend's Empty Glass is a nearly perfect album. Permanent Waves almost as good. Dio takes Black Sabbath into a rainbow in Heaven and Hell. Police, April Wine, Triumph. Pretenders? Average at best, especially in their era. To be real. Not to be mean.

[@tomrobinson5776]

I like Permanent Waves. Great tracks. Always thought Alex Lifeson was underrated. Love the guitar sound on this album.