The 10 Albums That Made Me - The 80’s

Here’s a list, for anyone that’s interested, of the 10 albums that changed my life, from the 80’s. I’m a 70’s child, born in May 1970, so yes...here’s the records that still, to this day, mean so much to me. In no particular order....disclaimer : If I thought picking from the 70’s was bad, my 80’s Top 10 could easily pass 100! Lol!

Def Leppard - ‘Hysteria’ (1987)


Not gonna bore you - again! - with my meeting of them, in our hometown, when I was 7, but suffice to say that they’re always been my band. I could have easily have gone with ‘Pyromania’, but today...we’ll stick with this.

4 years in the making, you could say that it took a lot out of the band and producer - mumps for singer Joe Elliott, obviously drummer Rick Allen lost his arm in a car accident and, with producer Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange badly damaging his leg in his own car accident - and cost them the best part of $4.5 million to make.

The concept was a pre-’greatest hits’ greatest hits album. They succeeded, with 7 of the tracks released as singles. Reinvented rock music.

Dan Reed Network - ‘Slam’ (1989)


Dan Reed, the man, pretty much changed my life. That’s big. Songs of love, peace, unity from this multiracial band, commonly advertised as ‘Prince meets Bon Jovi’. They rocked...and they funked! Produced by Nile Rogers, the songs are huge.

I’ve met Dan, like, 8 or 9 times now - I think he goes “Oh, god..it’s that woman again!” when he sees me coming - and, for the life of me, I can never understood how they never blew up bigger. A complete great album...no filler.

Duran Duran - ‘Rio’ (1982)


Again, another complete album. Not so much a ‘guilty pleasure’, in my rock days, but a band - and album - I greatly admired. Made me realise pop music can be artistic and catchy.

Kate Bush - ‘The Hounds Of Love’ (1985)


In the old days, on vinyl, we had ‘Side 1’, which was effectively the hits, and ‘Side 2’, which was the mini concept ‘The Ninth Wave’, dealing with a woman, cast adrift in the North Sea, with her boat capsized. Just breathtaking, no pun intended. One of the very greatest albums ever made. Simple.

Madonna - ‘True Blue’ (1986)


I would get lynched by my other half - who I’ve had in my life for around 30 years now, off and on - if I didn’t choose this album. It’s her favourite, but y’know, looking back on the 80’s and the cultural explosion that Madonna did help create and where this album sits, critically from me, in it it has to be admired...

Or maybe I’ve heard it played a lot from Kaz for the last 30 years?!?

ABBA - ‘Super Trooper’ (1980)


It was a toss up between this or ‘The Visitors’ (1981), but today I’m going with this. ABBA were a huge part of my life, growing up - as was Blondie too - and these were their last 2 albums. A still fun, but slightly more mature output, chock full of hits - the title track, ‘The Winner Takes it All’, ‘Happy New Year’, ‘Lay All Your Love On Me’...and my fav from this album, ‘On And On'. Brilliant!

Iron Maiden - ‘Live After Death’ (1985)


If we had ‘Alive II’ as the 70’s live offering, let’s have ‘Live After...’ As the 80’s greatest live album. Mostly from Long Beach Arena - “Scream for me, Long Beach...” - and featuring some of metal/rocks greatest tunes - ‘Aces High’, ‘The Trooper’, ‘The Number Of The Beast’, ‘Revelations’, ‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’ etc - it’s just...epic!

Can I just state a big ‘Thank You!’ To Maiden as they were a audio history lesson? Learning about Alexander The Great, The Battle Of Britain (‘Aces High’), the bible (‘Revelations’), The Crimea War (‘The Trooper’) all started from my interest of Iron Maiden!

Marillion - ‘Misplaced Childhood’ (1985)


The concept album. One continuous piece of music - including hit singles ‘Kayleigh’ and ‘Lavender’ - spread over 42 minutes of music. Fantastic. Made me appreciate, or begin to appreciate, long form music.

Plus, with the lyrics exorcising the ghosts of lead singer Fish’s broken relationship with ex girlfriend, Kay (and her middle name, Leigh) created a new girl’s name that has become very popular over the years.

Heart - ‘Heart’ (1985)


My ‘other’ favourite band and an iconic album. More hits, reinvented, and showing off the vocal styling of THE greatest female vocalist, one Ann Wilson. Played a lot in my household.

Van Halen - ‘1984’ (1984)


Hard, really, to put into words about Van Halen. They had their own style and sound. Like, you thought you knew about rock music until you heard this album. Staggering. With the guitar god that was Eddie Van Halen and the unique vocals, and humour, of Dave Lee Roth they just blazed a trail. Ironic that the big hit was a keyboard heavy (as played by multi talented Ed) track called ‘Jump’!

So there's my list! Like I said, I could have put so many more down there...so, sorry Queensryche, Queen, Dokken, Motley Crue, Rick Springfield, Suzanne Vega, Deep Purple, SRV, Cyndi Lauper, Pat Benatar et al.

What's yours?

SJD x