[StratocasterMan]

X - Los Angeles
 
Any better ideas?
 

 

[StratocasterMan]

I can think of a very much more popular album that wasn't really better, except it had couple good tracks. But that's all it had, it wasn't really a better listen all the-way-through.

 

[Brooko]

Hey Strato - these are good threads - really gets you thinking about your collection
 
 
From my collection there is one standout that is miles above anything else I have for 1980 (and that includes Dire Straits "Making Movies" & Icehouse' original album) ........
 
IMO it was their best release from a superlative career .....
 

 
Steely Dan - "Gaucho"

 

[Azathoth]

Three-way tie for me.
 

 

 

 
Ace of Spades is a sleazy good time (though not Motorhead's best album IMO), Maiden's debut is awesome punkish NWOBHM, and the virtuoso performances on Di Meola's most indulgent album, nothing short of brilliant.
 
@OP, care to post more info on why you think that album is the best of 1980? Just an album cover doesn't entice me to check it out all.

 

[StratocasterMan]

Quote:

 
@OP, care to post more info on why you think that album is the best of 1980? Just an album cover doesn't entice me to check it out all.

 
Well, just a few things to begin with:
 
X - Los Angeles was an album about heroin in L.A.
 
It virtually predicted the descent of the L.A. scene into heroin that would much later destroy bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Guns and Roses, yet "Los Angeles" appeared way before their time.
 
In 1980, that was just a prediction.
 
However, I'm still waiting for comments on some much more popular records from 1980.

 

[RUMAY408]

"Making Movies"  Dire Straits
"Gaucho" Steely Dan
"The River" Bruce Springsteen
 "Pretenders" The Pretenders

 

[TexasBuck]

#1
Van Halen - Women And Children First
It probably isn't the best VH album but it's not far from it.

 
#2
Joy Division - Closer
Might be the most depressing album I own.  An album that grows on me more and more every year.

 

[Rip N' Burn]

AC/DC's Back In Black. I thinks it's either the second or third best selling album of all time.

 

[RUMAY408]

"Women and Children First"  Van Halen I totally forgot that one and I just saw them in Nashville.  Man Eddy Van Halen can play that guitar.

 

[LugBug1]

Fresh fruit for rotting vegetables

 

[ferday]

heaven and hell - black sabbath
 
well recorded and the album that distanced sabbath from ozzy.  interestingly, ozzy released blizzard of ozz in 1980, i also liked that album a lot
 
i really dig the pretenders - the pretenders as well.

 

[killerweed]

Heartattack And Vine, Tom Waits. Superb. Not his best, but he has do many great ones.

 

[Jupiterknight]

Hard to pick one, so..
 
"Crazy Rhythm" -The Feellies
"Scary Monsters" - David Bowie
"Boy" - U2
"Remain In The Light" - Talking Heads
"Black Sea" - XTC
"Metamatic" - John Foxx

 

[Vuroth]

Zenyatta Mondata probably deserves mention.
 
The two I've probably listened to the most from 1980 (excepting my pick below, for best album) are Duke (Genesis), and Women and Children First (VH).
 
Overall, though, it has to be Back in Black by a landslide.  Monumental, historic album.

 

[KneelJung]

Quote:

However, I'm still waiting for comments on some much more popular records from 1980.

 
You mean like Back in Black. I was 16 when that record came out. The Clash released London Calling in 1980 too. Those two records were pretty popular as I recall, one might even say they are iconic at this point. I never saw AC/ DC but I saw the Clash in 1982. Something a little more obscure perhaps from that year was Pete Townsend's solo album, Empty Glass.