A local FM station here in Brisbane were playing off the top 100 songs from the 80's on friday. I had pretty much brushed the 80's off as a decade of pretty average synthesesied music. Listening to a lot of the count down reminded me that there was quite a few good bands and I remember thinking, yeah, that was a good album!

I'd be interested to here of everyones favorite 80's albums/cd's
Here's a few of mine:

Dire Staights - Brothers In Arms
New York - Lou Reed
Tears For Fears - Songs From The Big Chair
The Breakfast Club Soundtrack (Shhh about this)
Tattoo You - Rolling Stones
ELO - Out Of The Blue
Spandau Ballet - True (very romantic album)
Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
Graceland - Paul Simon
ABC - Lexicon Of Love

Well there's a sample of my thoughts. Each of these albums for me offered something new and fresh in a decade od MTV and duplicates. From the classic rock guitar of mark Knopfler to the Romance of the voice and lyrics from Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet. 'Lest We Forget'

'In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.' Douglas Adams

Slippery When Wet Bon Jovi....ummm that's all I can remember! I know I also like Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Whitesnake, Def Leppard...that's all I can remember! Not a good day for challenging my memory, I'm afraid.

I loved "Upstairs at Eric's" by Yazoo. How cool where they? I also love early Depeche Mode. In my single days "Just Can't Get Enough" by them was my "pulling song" - I think because I couldn't help but smile when I danced to it!

Aahhhh, the 80's! I loved the hair bands, Duran Duran, all the great dance songs, etc. Prince and the Revolution - always to be counted on for a great album! There would be no way to pick just a few favorites!

Musically, I want to go back to the 80's!

Phil Collins - No Jacket Required
Dire Straits - Brother in Arms
Duran Duran - Arena

too many to name.....

I'm pretty sure these came out in the 80's, just off the top of my head....

Leaps & Bounds - Paul Kelly
Crowded House - Crowded House
Violent Femmes - The Violent Femmes
Doolittle - The Pixies
Staring at the Sea - The Cure
Mystery Girl - Roy Orbison

And how many Elvis Costello ones am I allowed to put?
Get Happy!!
Trust
King Of America
Blood And Chocolate

(man the 80s were beautiful!)

....I'll come back when I can think of some more....

My favourite is "Steve McQueen" by Prefab Sprout (known as "Two Wheels Good" in some parts of the world). They were an excellent band, who unfortunately became famous for doing a song about hot dogs.

Donald Fagen's "The Nightfly", and.... and...

Did I mention "The Nightfly?"

I've actually been recently getting into Prefab Sprout. I was turned onto them by the song 'Life of Surprises'.
I thnk they could be described as 'the thinking man's synthetic music'.

I loved everything by Howard Jones and Crowded House. Also, David & David's "Boomtown".

Queen-- The Works, A kind of magic,
ELO-- Time, Secret Messages
Journey--Escape
REO Speedwagon--Hi Infidelity
Asia-- Asia, Alpha, Aqua

I am so glad someone finally ask this question! My favourite '80s albums are:
Van Halen- 1984
Skid Row- self-titled album
Cinderella- Long Cold Winter
Bon Jovi- Slippery When Wet (and practically any Bon Jovi album)
Billy Idol- Rebel Yell
Poison- Look What the Cat Dragged In
Guns 'N Roses- Appetite For Destruction
Motley Crue- Dr. Feelgood
Ozzy Osbourne- Blizzard of Ozz
Twisted Sister- Stay Hungry
David Lee Roth- Eat 'Em and Smile

London Calling The Clash
no contest

Buttt if you not happy with that i'll throw in other not nearly as good albums.
Brothers in Arms Dire Straits, ok middle of the road fm music but they were bloody good at it.
The Big Heat Stan Ridgeway, who? do yourself a favour a find out for yourself
Any Talking Heads album of the 80s
Geez im struggling here, my memorys shot!!
Oh yeah East and Circus Animals by Cold Chisel Aussie beer barn rock at it's best (enjoy and then be grateful you too old for that now)

While many fine albums have been mentioned here (the finest of which, without doubt being London Calling), I thought I should remind you of what inspired Bertho to commence the thread i.e. how bad the 80’s actually was. I couldn’t sleep last night because of the heat and came upon an episode of Countdown from 15/9/1985 being televised.
For those of you not aware, Countdown was a bit like American Bandstand and/or Top of the Pops on bad drugs. Some of the following will not mean a lot to non-Aussies, but you’ll understand what I’m saying. The line-up was:

Molly was elsewhere and the hosts were Brian Mannix (Uncanny X-Men) and Gavin Wood.
First up we had a song from LAURA BRANNIGAN’S fourth album. How did they ever allow her to make that many??
“Date With Destiny” by Mental As Anything. A great band but this song is unfortunate.
“Dress You Up”, the fourth single from Madonna’s “Like A Virgin” album. They should have stopped at one.
“And We Danced”, THE HOOTERS’ second single, thank God they stopped there.
STYLE COUNCIL’S second single (I’m not sure of the name). Now I was a fan of The Jam and Paul Weller was a good song writer, but they shouldn’t have released this one.
A Brit Band called THE ROARING BOYS with a song called “House Of Stone”. I’m glad I missed that one the first time around!!
KIDS IN THE KITCHEN with Current Stand. Now I actually liked this song at the time, but if I’d seen the dolts that sang it, I probably would have been turned off the music.
Next was “I’m A Gambler”, apparently the FIFTH single of Madonna’s album. Just goes to show how hard up they were to fill the program.
“Goodbye Girl” by GO WEST?????
There was mention made of The Thompson Twins, Jennifer Holliday?? and the number one single in the US was “St Elmo’s Fire” by John Parr.
Last and least was a live version of “Too Young For Promises” by Koo-De-Tah. If anybody remembers that one, I think it embodies all that was bad about the eighties.

Just think, this was just ONE WEEK in the eighties, not just the worst of the bad!!!!!

My favorite albums of the '80s-

Green On Red- "Gas Food Lodging"
'80s country-punk meets Neil Young's "On The Beach"

Bruce Springsteen- "The River" & "Born in the USA"

REM- "Reckoning", "Fables of the Reconstruction", "Life's Rich Pageant", "Document"
Honorable mentions to their "Murmur" & "Green" albums.

U2- "War", "Unforgettable Fire", "Rattle & Hum", "The Joshua Tree"

Bevis Frond- "Triptych", "Miasma", "Inner Marshland"
Obscure UK rural-psych, well worth hunting the cd's down.

Tom Petty- "Hard Promises", "Southern Accents", "Full Moon Fever"

Also-

Linda Ronstadt "Mad Love"
Joan Jett "I Love Rock N Roll", "Album"
Richard & Linda Thompson "Shoot Out the Lights"
Carlene Carter "Musical Shapes"
Stray Cats "Built for Speed"
John Fogerty "Centerfield"
Bangles "All Over the Place"
Guadalcanal Diary "Jamboree"
Smithereens "Especially for You"
Paul Simon "Graceland"
George Harrison "Cloud Nine"
Travelling Wilburys "Vol.1"
Stevie Ray Vaughn "Texas Flood"
Tracy Chapman "s/t"
Georgia Satellites "s/t"
Eric Clapton "Journeyman"
Lyres "On Fyre"
Rubber Rodeo "Scenic Views"

How did I leave out the Travelling Wilburys??

I've been trying to educate a young American friend of mine in the ways of the Wilburys....which is made a little more difficult by the fact that he has no idea who Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty or Bob Dlyan are (who doesn't know BOB DYLAN!?!)...and only knows the George because he knows a few of the standard Beatles songs...it's very disturbing...