Same idea as the top 50 of the 90's list I worked with before, but I don't have as comprehensive a collection of 80's albums as I do with the former decade, so there's not as really as many awesome records on this list as there are in the other one, so this list is probably the most subject to change out of all of them as I continue to prove that the 80's, as dumb as they could be, were not a totally awful decade for music making. Again, if the overall ratings of an album don't correspond to its' rank on the list, that means a rewrite of the review is still in order. Anyway, here it goes:
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COMMENTS
[Note: This comment is a continuation of a previous E-mail concerning suggested additions to the 70's list:]
1) Laurie Anderson -- one of the most original artists of the 80's. United States -- Live, has a (very) inconsistant level of musical quality, but it clearly one of the most important things to come out of the 80's
2) Sinead O'Connor (The Lion and the Cobra) -- simply one of the best albums to capture what was good about 80's pop. Perhaps not a classic album in it's own right but darn close.
Those are the only 2 I can say for sure which is either a sign that 80'smusic suffered a significant fall off, or that it splintered into various sub-genres which each have their appeal but don't produce as many albums that are universally classic. I would select they latter interpretation and offer the following artists as worthy of consideration:
Paul Simon, Prince, Warren Zevon, Devo, Eurythmics, Joe Jackson, The English Beat, and Parliment (unless they belong to the 80's)
BTW if you would listen to them I'd be happy to burn you a copy of the mixes that I did -- but I'm not sure how much our tastes overlap :).
Yours,
Nick