Greatest albums of the 1980s year by year: The 10 best vinyl deals available on Amazon this week
Welcome back to Far Out’s weekly vinyl corner feature, where we look to bring you a tempting selection of records from some of our favourite artists, bargain vinyl deals to look out for, and unmissable limited-edition releases. This week, we’re going back to the 1980s to pick out the greatest album from each year of the decade.
Last year, the vinyl comeback enjoyed another milestone year as record sales surpassed that of CDs for the first time in three decades. The return to plastic has steadily climbed since the invasion of streaming services in the late 2000s. While the weightless, highly accessible and practical format is great for discovering and consuming swathes of new music while you’re out and about, there’s nothing like coming home to a bit of vinyl.
Fellow collectors out there will agree if there’s an artist or album you love, there’s always a good reason to have the turntable at the ready and a 12” slot reserved on the shelf for inevitable expansion. The sound quality of vinyl brings something more hearty and vibrant with its analogue warmth and crisp definition that there really isn’t a substitute for.
So if, like me, you have a soft spot for these groovy discs of plastic, allow me to walk you through ten hot picks for this week. We have some alt-rock essentials from New Order and Talking Heads, alongside some pioneering classics from Talk Talk and Spacemen 3.
The following selections have been handpicked by Far Out Magazine, and as a result, we may earn from qualifying purchases.
The 10 best vinyl deals available on Amazon
Talking Heads – Remain in Light (1980)
In 1978, Talking Heads became well acquainted with master artist and producer Brian Eno. With the former synth-man of Roxy Music, the New York new-wave icons created a trilogy of flawless albums. Following More Songs about Buildings and Food and Fear of Music, Talking Heads dropped their magnum opus, Remain In Light.
In a recent interview with Far Out, Talking Heads bassist Tina Weymouth picked the album out as one of her favourites. “I didn’t listen to our albums for a long time because I was just too busy getting my head into other people’s music. But I would say my favourite albums were Remain In Light and, even before that, Fear of Music.
Available for purchase here from £20.91.
Siouxsie and the Banshees – Juju (1981)
With 1981’s Juju, Siouxsie and the Banshees reached their pinnacle. Siouxsie Sioux’s captivating vocals meet John McGeoch’s innovative guitar style in this post-punk masterclass. The album is home to such treats as ‘Spellbound’, ‘Into the Light’, ‘Monitor’ and ‘Arabian Knights’.
Bassist Steven Severin said of the album: “Juju was the first time we’d made a ‘concept’ album that drew on darker elements. It wasn’t pre-planned, but as we were writing, we saw a definite thread running through the songs, almost a narrative to the album as a whole,” via Siouxsie & the Banshees – The Authorised Biography by Mark Paytress.
Available for purchase here from £22.99.
Roxy Music – Avalon [Half Speed Master] (1982)
This final studio effort from Roxy Music from 1982 came ten years after their eponymous debut. The release showed just how far they had come in that time. Avalon mastered Roxy’s later, more pop-orientated period with that trademark Bryan Ferry style.
Avalon is home to a bounty of highlights, including the lead singles ‘Avalon’ and ‘More Than This’, but also holds so much to be explored in its underbelly, with the wonderfully textured ‘True To Life’ always raising the neck hairs. The fantastic production and mastering on the album make it a must-have for any budding record collectors out there, especially with this half-speed cut.
Available for purchase here from £29.99.
New Order – Power, Corruption & Lies (1983)
After Ian Curtis’ death and Joy Division’s end, the remaining members reunited as New Order. After dabbling with synthesisers for their very enjoyable yet unbalanced Joy Division hangover album, Movement, in 1981, they returned with a seminal classic and quite possibly their masterpiece in 1983’s Power Corruption & Lies.
The album boasts some of New Order’s most memorable early hits, including ‘Age of Consent’, ‘Leave Me Alone’, ‘The Village’, ‘Your Silent Face’ and ‘Ultraviolence’. This new reissue available on Amazon is cut on high-quality 180g vinyl.
Available for purchase here from £19.77.
Echo and the Bunnymen – Ocean Rain (1984)
Echo and the Bunnymen formed from the ashes of The Crucial Three, a band consisting of Julian Cope, Pete Wylie and Ian McCulloch. They were only together for around six weeks, but the members’ each set off on a path of their own that brought reverence to the name.
Of the three, the Echo and the Bunnymen frontman McCulloch was the most successful, with Julian Cope’s blinding solo run in the 1990s giving him a run for his money. Echo and the Bunnymen released a run of four albums over the early 1980s, which showed the band strengthening their sound to reach a pinnacle with the 1984 masterpiece, Ocean Rain. The mid-80s essential contains hits like ‘My Kingdom’, ‘Seven Seas’, ‘The Killing Moon’ and ‘Ocean Rain’.
Available for purchase here for £25.30.
Kate Bush – Hounds of Love (1985)
Kate Bush has recently launched back into the charts after her 1985 Hounds of Love hit, ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’ was used extensively in the fourth season of the Netflix original series Stranger Things. Today I bring your attention to the rest of that seminal album.
Hounds of Love was something of a pop masterclass. As Fleetwood Mac did in 1977 with their masterpiece Rumours, Bush managed to deftly bridge the gap between commercial accessibility and artistic originality. The album is home to classics like ‘Cloudbusting’, ‘Hounds of Love’, ‘The Big Sky’ and a breathtaking suite of songs on side two.
Available for purchase here from £24.68.
The Smiths – The Queen is Dead (1986)
With four albums released in just five years over the mid-1980s, The Smiths changed rock music forever. As well as drawing attention to Manchester ready for the likes of The Stone Roses and Oasis, Johnny Marr’s jangly guitar stylings and Morrissey’s insightful lyrics laid out the blueprint for indie music as we know it today.
The Smiths’ four studio albums are difficult to fault. All four former band members apparently favour 1987’s final release Strangeways, Here We Come, but The Queen is Dead, released a year before, seems to be a firm fan favourite. The classic LP is home to timeless hits like ‘Cemetry Gates’, ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’, ‘The Boy with the Thorn in His Side’ and ‘There Is a Light That Never Goes Out’.
Available for purchase here for £21.04.
Spacemen 3 – The Perfect Prescription (1987)
The lesser-known formative project of Spiritualized mastermind Jason Pierce (aka Jason Spaceman) was Spacemen 3. Alongside Rugby-based buddy Peter Kember, Pierce brought some of his greatest work under the Spacemen 3 banner. The band’s scope was extremely broad, but the music was always delightfully psychedelic.
The band hit a peak in 1987 with The Perfect Prescription, a collection of hypnotising neo-psychedelic blues tracks that have been described as The Velvet Underground after a hefty dose of LSD. They were certainly following in Lou Reed’s footprints with ‘Ode to Street Hassle’.
Available for purchase here from £21.39.
Talk Talk – Spirit of Eden (1988)
By the late 1980s, frontman Mark Hollis brought Talk Talk a long way from their synth-pop roots. By the time they released their 1988 album, Spirit of Eden, they had stripped away the pop element of their music and left behind a post-rock sound of unbound beauty.
This late Talk Talk sound was more ambient, consisting of protracted jazz, blues, classical, and dub excursions strung together with meticulous production. Spirit of Eden is an essential for any alt-rock collector and most comfortable when accompanied by its 1991 follow-up, Laughing Stock.
Available for purchase here for £17.15.
The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses (1989)
The Stone Roses released their eponymous debut LP in 1989 to a chorus of critical praise. The unprecedented rock sound was given its stamp of DNA from John Squire’s funky, shimmering guitar riffs and Ian Brown’s swaggering lyrical delivery. Famously, this album gave Oasis license to take the Britpop throne in the 1990s; Noel Gallagher once said of The Stone Roses: “Without that band, there would not have been an Oasis”.
The Stone Roses is full to the brim with classics and almost doubles up as a greatest-hits collection. With ‘I Wanna Be Adored’, ‘I Am the Resurrection’, ‘This Is the One’, ‘Waterfall’ and ‘She Bangs the Drums’, you can’t go far wrong with this stocking filler.
Available for purchase here from £25.85.
