What are some of your favourite albums of the 80s?  I love to collect vinyl records and to me there's nothing better than putting an 80s album on the turntable and just sitting back and listening to it!

I do the same thing! Only my records are from the 90s of songs that I collected back when I was a teen.

On topic: My favorite album of the 80s is definitely Lisa Stansfield "Affection"(1989).

Here is Rio by Duran Duran from 1982.  I love this album so much, it is my favourite of all time.  I own it on several formats in several different editions!

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ac/DuranRio.jpg

Fisherman's Blues
The Waterboys
1988
brilliant album

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4UQJwd3awQ

"I'm Your Man"
Leonard Cohen
1988

This album was brilliant. Highly influential too. And it turned out to be prophetic in many ways. This song predicts a terrorist attack on New York by terrorists on an extremist religious mission. (It predicts one on Berlin too, but I think that was for poetic effect).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rhM1i43NK8

"I'm Your Man"
Leonard Cohen
1988


What's interesting about this album is the songs First We Take Manhattan and Ain't No Cure For Love were written by Cohen for Jennifer Warnes for a Cohen tribute album she recorded in 1986 called Famous Blue Raincoat.  Both songs ended up becoming hits in Canada, but Cohen's versions went almost unnoticed.  Warnes also sang backup on Cohen's versions 

What's interesting about this album is the songs First We Take Manhattan and Ain't No Cure For Love were written by Cohen for Jennifer Warnes for a Cohen tribute album she recorded in 1986 called Famous Blue Raincoat.  Both songs ended up becoming hits in Canada, but Cohen's versions went almost unnoticed.  Warnes also sang backup on Cohen's versions


Well now you've said a mouthful. Need I remind that Leonard Cohen  wrote "Hallelujah" one of the most covered and most misunderstood songs ever written? An entire book has been written about the long, winding, convoluted road this song took from an unnoticed album track on his 1984 album "Various Positions" which couldn't even get released in the USA and came out in Canada on a small label (I bought mine at the time as an import here in the US). And the book covers how this highly erotically charged spiritual song, in some strange way, became some kind of standard to be played at solemn occasions like funerals and memorials. People bend this song to their own will, it seems.

The book is called "The Holy or The Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley and the unlikely ascent of 'Hallelujah'" by Alan Light. It's a good read and I highly recommend it.

"Well, maybe there's a God above
But, as for me, all I've ever learned from love
Is how to shoot at someone who outdrew ya
But it's not a complaint that you hear tonight
It's not the bitter laughter of someone who claims to have seen the light, no
It's a cold and it's a very broken hallelujah..."
-Leonard Cohen

https://img.discogs.com/eQPe8Zif9I79ISHD_zYTOWUVBTg=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(40)/discogs-images/R-152946-1552811215-1076.jpeg.jpg
I was always a fan of Michael Jackson and this album was one of my favorites because it contained some of his greatest hits that I enjoyed listening to.

Propaganda - A Secret Wish (1985)

One of the best synth pop albums ever

https://img.discogs.com/x_5cyANvoQUtKgYE2ZSLHxT7eac=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-26297-1210075961.jpeg.jpg

Features the hit single Duel
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Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beFo9WgmwXg

Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits



Good one!

Here's another:

Bob Dylan
"Oh Mercy"
1989
Produced by Daniel Lanois. Very atmospheric.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/01/Bob_Dylan_-_Oh_Mercy.jpg

-Pat Benatar, Crimes of Passion (1980)
-U2, War (1983)
-The Police, Synchronicity (1983)
-J. Geils, Love Stinks (1980)
-Cyndi Lauper, She's So Unusual (1983)
-Soundtrack to the Broadway play Phantom of the Opera (1986)
-Soundtrack to the Broadway play Les Misérables (1987)


There are more but that is what I can think of right now.


Cat

Some good ones have been mentioned already!  Not mentioned yet, one that I love:

The Pretenders - Learning To Crawl (1984)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b8/The_Pretenders_-_Learning_to_Crawl.png/220px-The_Pretenders_-_Learning_to_Crawl.png

https://www.justfortherecord.co.nz/assets/Images/Albums/Eddy_Grant_______558a150abe114.jpg
Eddy Grant's 1983 album Killer On The Rampage

https://www.justfortherecord.co.nz/assets/Images/Albums/Eddy_Grant_______558a150abe114.jpg
Eddy Grant's 1983 album Killer On The Rampage


Another example of the short shorts men wore in the 70s and especially through the 80s.

https://i.redd.it/x3cjyqsckcj21.jpg
Weird Al Yankovic In 3-D (1984)

This world-flavored album was an instant favorite for me:

Paul Simon - Graceland (1986)
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81H8QpGDlZL._SX450_.jpg

https://i.redd.it/x3cjyqsckcj21.jpg
Weird Al Yankovic In 3-D (1984)



Good one.


Cat

I only own this on CD, not vinyl - but I really like it, I love its "down home" feel:

John Mellencamp - The Lonesome Jubilee (1987)
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51DwKehKc7L.jpg

^ Love Lonesome Jubilee.  Check it Out and Cherry Bomb are fantastic songs!

Another favorite 80's album of mine (this one's on vinyl):

Steve Winwood - Back In The High Life (1986)
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2231/7305/products/3520208_540x.jpg?v=1600801628

Forever your Girl by Paula Abdul (1988)

https://i.ibb.co/vP5bFTZ/20210623-203330.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/97/Fleetwood_Mac_-_Tango_in_the_Night.png
Fleetwood Mac, Tango In The Night, 1987

Love this album! From the only woman, thus far, to be twice-inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Stevie Nicks
"Bella Donna"
1981

http://target.scene7.com/is/image/Target/GUEST_2407621d-750d-441a-a646-0263204879a0?wid=488&hei=488&fmt=pjpeg

Here is the 1982 album In the Heat of the Night by British R&B group Imagination.  Sadly, this album was not a big success in North America, but it did reach the UK Top 10 and produced 4 UK Top 40 hits including Just An Illusion, their highest charting UK single, which also made the Top 20 on the US Dance Chart.  For anyone who loves R&B of the 80s, this album is a must!

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/65/Imagheatnight.jpg


Imagination - Just An Illusion (1982)
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Here is the 1983 album You and Me Both by British synth pop duo Yazoo (known as Yaz in the US/Canada).  This was a bit of a strange one as shortly before the release of the album, the duo called it quits, so only 1 single from the album was released:  Nobody's Diary.  In the US, the single was released as a double AA side with the album track State Farm (which does not appear on the UK version of the album), but there are so many other songs on this album that could (should) have been singles had the band stuck together longer

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cd/Yazoo_You_and_Me_Both.jpg


Yaz - Nobody's Diary (1983)
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I was talking about Big Country in another thread and realized I never talked about their fantastic 1984 album Steeltown

While this album did chart in the US/Canada, it never made the Top 40 and no singles from it were hits.  In their native UK however, the album peaked at #1, and sent 3 singles into the Top 40, including Where the Rose is Sown which to me was their greatest hit!  This is one of those albums where I thought every song was a winner and even one of the album tracks called Flame of the West should have been a single.  I thought this song had hit written all over it, but I guess they did not.  I sill play that one like it was a hit though!

Where the Rose is Sown
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Flame of the West
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Here is the 1983 album Working With Fire and Steel: Possible Pop Songs Volume Two by British band China Crisis.  I own this on vinyl, cassette, standard CD and a deluxe edition 3-CD Set

https://img.discogs.com/U6nFe_SvAdzlgPnAyYp9eOyuPR8=/fit-in/597x600/filters:strip_icc():format(webp):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1480139-1282587799.jpeg.jpg

This album made the UK Top 20 and sent 4 singles into the UK chart, including Wishful Thinking which became their highest charting single and is my favourite song of the 80s!

While this album failed to chart in the US, it peaked at #36 in Canada, but failed to produce any hits here, though not like they didn't try:  I have Canadian releases of Wishful Thinking on 45rpm and the 12" single of Working With Fire and Steel

Wishful Thinking
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One more for now.  Here is the 1983 album In Heat by The Romantics. 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8c/In_Heat_%28The_Romantics_album_-_cover_art%29.jpg

Ever single song on his album is 100% a winner and 2 of them reached the US Top 40:  Talking in Your Sleep and One in A Million;  A 3rd single titled Rock You Up was a Top 50 hit on the US Rock chart.

One of the album tracks titled Open Up Your Door I thought should have been a single and it really disappoints me that it wasn't, so much that if we were in 1983 and had the modern technologies we have now, I would be spamming social media every day to suggest it become a single.  They even performed it on American Bandstand which maybe at one time it was gonna be a single, but then cancelled, who knows. 
Put this one on repeat, it's so good ...

Open Up Your Door
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Here is the 1983 album You and Me Both by British synth pop duo Yazoo (known as Yaz in the US/Canada).  This was a bit of a strange one as shortly before the release of the album, the duo called it quits, so only 1 single from the album was released:  Nobody's Diary.  In the US, the single was released as a double AA side with the album track State Farm (which does not appear on the UK version of the album), but there are so many other songs on this album that could (should) have been singles had the band stuck together longer

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cd/Yazoo_You_and_Me_Both.jpg


Yaz - Nobody's Diary (1983)
1qq7jTPkjVg

So what was the difference in the name of the group Yaz and Yazoo? ???

So what was the difference in the name of the group Yaz and Yazoo? ???


There was a record label in the US called Yazoo