My Favourite Album From Each Year (1980's Edition)

My friend’s music blog inspired me to more about music again. This is part one and four to my list favourite albums from each year starting with the 80’s all the way onto the present year.

Making this list makes me feel ancient. I thought this would be an easy list to make, but I was wrong. A lot of my favourite albums coincidently fall into the same year, so it was hard to make a choice. A lot of them have personal connections as to why I’ve chosen them. Then I also had to do some research to make sure that I was putting them into the right year with the help of my old iTunes library and Wikipedia. This was a fun list to make and it brought back some lovely memories of routing record shops and going to concerts and gigs.

1980: Iron Maiden – Iron Maiden

Favourite song: Phantom of the Opera

My late nan bought me a cassette player Christmas. It no longer works, but I’ve kept it. My sacrificed a lot to keep me safe and happy. I didn’t have any tapes to play the cassette player, but I did pick some up in thrift shops. The cassette I played the most is Iron Maiden’s debut. I always feel pumped listening to this album. It’s a great debut from one of the world’s best bands.

1981: Klaus Nomi – Klaus Nomi

Favourite song: The Cold Song

I discovered Klaus Nomi by sheer chance. My landlord who is a David Bowie fan is still amazed that I discovered him years after his death. I remember searching high and low for this record having found it on Germany’s Amazon website. Still one of my favourite records to this day. His version of Cold Song gives me the chills.

1982: Number of a Beast - Iron Maiden

Favourite song: Run To The Hills

A classic album from a classic band. I love a lot of the songs on this album and I would say that it’s one of my favourites from Iron Maiden. I still hope to see them live before they retire for good.

1983: Construction Time Again – Depeche Mode

Favourite song: Pipeline

I ranked all of Depeche Mode’s albums and remember ranking some of the earlier albums low cause I found some of them forgettable. When I relistened to a lot of them, all the memories of the lyrics and beats came flooding back. I realised that a lot of the early Depeche albums were my favourite albums from the 80s. Construction Time Again is one of those albums. I started watching album reviews about Depeche Mode albums and I got really captivated by the ones about the earlier albums and how they were produced and the history behind them all. If I made a list of top 100 albums, I’d probally put most of Depeche Mode albums there.

1984: Some Great Reward – Depeche Mode

Favourite song: Somebody

I do try to keep some variety in my lists. Sometimes I like to keep it as one artist per entry, but with artists like Depeche Mode, I can’t resist. I do love a lot of music from the 80’s like Queen, Erasure, Pet Shop Boys and David Bowie to name a few. But there’s something about David’s voice, Martin’s lyrics, Alan’s compositions that really makes my ears go pop.

1985: Hounds of Love – Kate Bush

Favourite song: Jig of Life

Kate Bush is a wonderful singer and her songs are timeless. Hounds of Love has her famous song, Running Up That Hill that has been covered so many times. My favourite covers of Running Up That Hill has to be Placebo’s version of it, but this album is beautiful and atmospheric and it includes my favourite song from Kate Bush, Jig of life.

1986: Black Celebration – Depeche Mode

Favourite song: Dressed in Black

Black Celebration is one of the first albums I listened to Depeche Mode in full and I quickly fell in love with songs like Dressed in Black, Question of Lust, Stripped and Black Celebration. And Music for the Masses follows it up perfectly. It’s still one of my favourite Depeche Mode albums. Its sounds are gorgeous.

1987: Music for The Masses – Depeche Mode

Favourite song: I Want You Now

Music for the Masses is the kind of album that’s a grower on me. The more I listen to it the more I love it. I appreciate the metaphors in Behind the Wheel, the tenderness in Martin’s ballad: I Want You Now. Strangelove is catchy and atmospheric.

1988: Tracy Chapman – Tracy Chapman

Favourite song: Fast Car

This is a brilliant album that I like to listen to from time to time. It hasn’t aged one bit and it’s still very relevant and the beauty behind it is Tracy’s raw vocals and lyrics and it feels like a self-penned album.

1989: The Sensual World – Kate Bush

Favourite song – The Sensual World

What I love about this album is how delicate and fragile it sounds. I try to avoid listening to this album in public because songs like This Woman’s Work makes me cry.