The 80S

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V. Age,” he yelps about the destructive nature of remote controls with the manic energy of David Byrne, and on “Steppin’ Out”—Jackson’s biggest-ever hit—he makes synth-pop seem as sophisticated and sultry as Cole Porter. Released in 1988, the album caught the band at a point when they had the world at their feet – so willing to eschew cool and so prolific with a killer pop chorus that they strode across the charts like a bouffant-haired colossus, and with the grunge party-extinguisher three years away, they ruled the roost.

80s Albums: 20 Classics That Defined A Decade - Dig! Best 80s Albums: 20 Classics That Defined A Decade - Dig!

Hotter Than July broadened Stevie Wonder’s pop landscape, breaking from his organic soul of the ’70s and looking forward with modern synthesizers and drum programming.

Because Hi, How Are You is an album about loneliness and desolation, the feeling of sharing space with Johnston makes it ring with additional poignancy. Like their contemporaries in Gang of Four, Delta 5, and the Raincoats, UK quartet Au Pairs were political in the face of power inequalities; as the chorus of their biggest song, “It’s Obvious,” goes: “You’re equal but different. Soon after her 1964 debut in New York’s concert halls, the composer, singer, and pianist Meredith Monk revealed her theatrical talents in the realm of experimental song.

80s (Top 1980s Albums) - Music Grotto 51 Best Albums Of The 80s (Top 1980s Albums) - Music Grotto

Instead, there are songs that draw on the sophistication of American standards, yet ones twisted by so many quirks, they can’t be confined to that term. Pyromaniawas an attempt to be better suited to radio—a clearly successful attempt, as it produced a bevy of top hits, including Rock of Agesand Photograph. It’s impossible to resist such lachrymose blockbusters as Don’t Stop Believin’, Stone In Love, Who’s Crying Now and Open Arms. Australian band Midnight Oil’s 1987 album wasn’t just remarkable for its musical qualities; it was also one of the first albums to draw attention to the plight of indigenous Australians—or at least, one of the first commercially successful ones. There's real substance and power to the likes of The Sentinel, and an endearing frisson of censor-baiting sexuality to the menacing Eat Me Alive.On Don’t Break the Oath, the Copenhagen quintet were drawing power from the rollicking tempos of hard rock, the neo-classical techniques of prog, and the brutish heaviness of UK standard bearers Venom. Paul Simon’s 1986 album Graceland stood out from the crowd in many ways, most notably because of its use of South African street music. This is an almost perfect summer rock album, and a sheer joy to listen to, even if fans of Roth would never really take to Sammy Hagar as the new (infinitely better and more successful) singer. Tracks like “Ride” and “Going Thru Life” reach beyond the dancefloor, shimmering like mirages and glowing with an intimate warmth that would make most DJs blush. Night and Day revels in self-conscious sophistication as it plays upon shared fantasies of New York.

80s (The Ultimate Collection) (2020, CD) - Discogs

But despite the deliberate pace of “The Well-Tuned Piano”—this live recording from 1981 lasts five hours—sustained listening reveals that it isn’t all about slowness. Musicians may have marveled at Picciotto's sheer commitment to expression, but few dared to replicate it. Elvis Costello had developed a signature persona throughout the 1970s, but his 1980 album was a marked step away from that. Sometimes it’s about the (comparatively) swift transitions between themes—as with a section in the third hour that includes the “Hommage à Debussy Sequence” as well as “The Goddess of the Caverns Under the Pool” and “Sunshine in the Old Country.The band upped the keyboard and power ballad quota on this record – and immediately hit the jackpot. The album also had a sense of humor, found in the cover of Gershwin’s “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” where they stressed the song’s sly line of questioning about what’s written in the Bible. Born In The USA had come along right on the heels of a dark period in both Springsteen’s own life and for Americans in general.