My Favorite Album from Every Year I’ve Been Alive (Part Two: 1980–1989)
The greatest decade
In taking on the Herculean task of listing my favorite album from every year I’ve been alive, I knew that Part Two was going to be the most challenging. As an unrepentant and uncharacteristically vocal member of Generation X, the 1980s are my touchstone decade. This is true for films, books, and especially music. Picking my favorite for some of these years is like having to pick my favorite child: easy on some days and impossible on others.
Yet I will soldier on, if only because I’ve already started and can’t back out now. If there’s one thing that really surprised me, it’s that there is not a single New Wave album represented. Four decades on, I had forgotten that while there were a vast number of great New Wave songs, there were few solid New Wave albums, with The Go-Go’s Beauty and the Beat the only one that jumps immediately to mind. That one had the misfortune of releasing in 1981, and you will see from my favorite from that year that Beauty and the Beat was always going to come in a solid second.
I want to reiterate that this is a list of my personal favorite albums for each year of the ’80s. The question of “greatest” is better left up to those critics more knowledgeable than I am (except in the case of Born to Run, of course). Looking at the albums I have jotted down, I doubt many would make the so-called greatest list, which bothers me not one bit.
Now on to the albums.
1980: The River by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. This was a stacked year: the Clash’s London Calling came out in January 1980 in the U.S. (December 1979 in the U.K.), Judas Priest’s British Steel in April, and AC/DC’s Back in Black in July. None had a chance of overtaking The River, an album I love second only to Born to Run. I did a review of the album itself here, so I’ll just say this: it’s the one Springsteen album that almost comes close to what a live E Street Band show is like. Almost.
1981: Hard Promises by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. I don’t know why I don’t write about Tom Petty more often (the only artist I’ve seen live more times is Bruce), but for ’81 there was no way not to choose him and this album. Being an awkward 15-year-old, it was inevitable that “Woman in Love” would play almost continually, even more often than “The Waiting” and “Letting You Go.” The best track by far is the duet with Stevie Nicks, “Insider;” Petty wrote it for her solo album, simply could not part with it, and gave her “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” instead. It was a wise decision.
1982: Nebraska by Bruce Springsteen. In many ways, this was the album that solidified Springsteen’s place in the musical pantheon. We all knew he could rock with the greatest bar band in the world; until Nebraska we never saw what John Hammond of Columbia Records in 1972 called the second coming of Bob Dylan. This solo masterpiece, recorded on a four-track recorder in his kitchen, showed us that and more. This one is solidly in my Top 5 Springsteen albums of all time, and at concerts over the years since its release we’ve also been able to hear what songs like “Atlantic City,” “Johnny 99,” and “Open All Night” sound like with the full E Street Band. Pure magic, like this scorcher from Hyde Park in 2009:
1983: Eliminator by ZZ Top. If you asked me to name the album I most remember from my high school days, it would be this one. Our very own Little Ol’ Band from Texas had been rockin’ for more than a decade when the combination of a stellar album and the explosion of MTV made them megastars. “Sharp Dressed Man,” “Legs,” and “Gimme All Your Lovin’” got all the video airtime and are the best-known songs, but longtime fans loved “Got Me Under Pressure” and “I Got the Six” even more, as they contain the classic ZZ Top double entendres. One of my biggest regrets is that I never saw them live before Dusty Hill passed away last year.
1984: Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. I have written a fair amount bemoaning the fact that so many people seem to believe this is the only Springsteen record. I have also said it doesn’t even make my Top 5 Bruce albums. That does not mean, however, that it is not my favorite from the year I graduated high school; of course it is. The album is Bruce’s best-selling to date (over 30 million copies sold worldwide) and it produced seven Top 10 singles. I did a full review of this one here.
1985: Tim by The Replacements. This one is probably a surprise in several ways; many of you are saying “Who?” right now, while hardcore Replacements fans will say I should have put their album Let It Be in place of Born in the USA for 1984 and left this one off. But for me Tim is their best and my favorite of 1985. It’s solid start to finish, from the balls-to-the-wall “Left of the Dial” and “Little Mascara” to the melancholy “Swingin’ Party” and “Here Comes a Regular.” It’s so good it edges out The Smiths’ Meat is Murder and John Mellencamp’s Scarecrow for this spot.
1986: The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths. This album would win my 1986 (and beyond) simply for “There Is a Light that Never Goes Out.” When you add “Frankly Mr. Shankly,” “Bigmouth Strikes Again,” and “The Boy With the Thorn in His Side” there’s no contest at all. This is easily the best Smiths album, and as I have said before, it puts Morrissey & Marr on a par with Keith & Mick and Lennon & McCartney. Feel free to fight me on that, but imagine what they might have done if they’d stayed together for more than five years.
1987: In My Tribe by 10,000 Maniacs. Did I really pick this one as my favorite over Tunnel of Love, The Joshua Tree, Louder Than Bombs, and Appetite for Destruction? Based on how much I’ve played each one over the past decades, yes I did. Louder Than Bombs is a compilation album so I disqualified it, Tunnel of Love is a divorce album with a few songs that can be played at any time, and Appetite for Destruction is great when you want to rock; In My Tribe is excellent in any and all moods and situations. Natalie Merchant and the band take on issues ranging from illiteracy on “Cherry Tree” to child abuse on “What’s the Matter Here?” to corporate greed on “A Campfire Song” to the military on “Gun Shy,” and you can still dance to every one of them.
1988: Viva Hate by Morrissey. From the one year of the decade that I remember almost nothing at all about (I may have had a small drinking problem then), I remember this album. The Smiths had been split for less than a year when Moz released his first solo album, and I still wish we could have heard “Suedehead,” “Hairdresser on Fire,” and “Everyday is Like Sunday” as the Smiths songs they should have been.
1989: West Textures by Robert Earl Keen. This may be the biggest surprise on the list, but Robert Earl Keen is a Texas treasure and this is his best album. He has a true gift for telling compelling stories in his songs, and this is fully on display with tunes like “The Road Goes on Forever” and “Sonora’s Death Row.” My second favorite album from this year is The Cult’s Sonic Temple. Clearly the last year of the decade was not a normal one.
Before closing, let me preempt a question I received from Simon Dillon on Part One of this series: what would change on this list if I could not choose an artist more than once (obviously referring to Springsteen)? Had I put that constraint on myself, 1982 would have been Dire Straits’ Love Over Gold (for side one of the album alone) and 1984 would have been Prince’s Purple Rain (grudgingly, since “When Doves Cry” kept “Dancing in the Dark” from reaching #1 on the Billboard charts).
That’s my favorite album for each year of the 1980s. I am slightly distressed by what I was forced to leave off (especially from 1980 and 1987), but I brought it on myself. Below is a playlist with my current favorite song from each of the albums, as well as the link to Part One of the series. Next up, the 1990s. Until then, keep on rockin’.
Here is Part One (1966–1979):
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