 | Ace of Spades by Motörhead
Buy new: $9.99 / Used from: $7.70 MOTORHEAD! YEAH! LOVE ME LIKE A REPTILE BABY! THE ONLY CARD I NEED IS THE ACE OF SPADES BANG BANG BANG WHACK ARRRGGGHHHHHHGHLGHLIGHSHLSHGLGGGG.!.!.!.!.....
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 | Never for Ever by Kate Bush
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $3.99 Want a good rush/crash combo? Listen to the previous album then listen to this one. It's like taking an amped up ride with a motorcycle gang then crashing in a field of pretty flowers while a pretty lady sings pretty songs about ...lusting after little kids. And brides killing wedding parties. And fetuses dying from radiation poisoning. Okay, disturbing. But Pretty!
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 | Black Sea by XTC
Buy new: $15.98 / Used from: $5.76 XTC's greatest album! It's the one with the rockin' energy of the first few albums with the pop tuneage of the later ones. This album only proves that Andy Partridge (and, let's be fair to the dude, Colin Moulding) is capable of writing songs that can match -or surpass, there I said it- the best of the Beatles.
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 | Vienna by Ultravox
Buy new: $11.98 / Used from: $6.51 Speaking of balance, Ultravox is back! And this time they have a high-tenor voiced weedy-mustachioed Scotsman singing for them! Hooray! ...Until the eighties drag on and their output becomes more and more schmaltzy. Thank you Midge Ure! Oh well. At least this album carries over some of the energy from their last album, the magnum opus "Systems of Romance."
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 | Metamatic by John Foxx
Buy new: $21.98 / Used from: $8.95 But what was John Foxx, that visitor to our world who had left Ultravox doing this year, you might be asking yourself. Answer: he was putting out this album. And a creepy, cold and robotic album it is too. Think about cities of doomed humanoid robots while you listen to this one. And the fact that this album and "Vienna" share the same tune between two of their songs. Hmm...
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 | Telekon by Gary Numan
Buy new: $10.99 / Used from: $7.43 Speaking of cold and robotic albums....
Almost as good as the last one, although he might be taking the "cold-synth" thing a little too far by this point.
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 | Remain in Light by Talking Heads
Buy new: $6.99 / Used from: $2.77 This is where the 'Heads start to get funky. And where they start to hire a back-up band. No one makes music like this anymore, though some try. I'm thinking that the best way to describe this album is this: it sounds like what would happen if you took Norman Bates, gave him a cassette recorder and a synthesizer and sent him on a trip to Africa and South America.
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 | Freedom of Choice by Devo
Buy new: $13.96 / Used from: $4.55 I'm not going to go into this one. You know this. This is the one with "Whip It." And what would happen if you took Erich Fromm and put him in front of a Yamaha keyboard.
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 | Commercial Album: 25th Anniversary Special Edition by The Residents
Buy used from: $29.95 From weirdness-lite we go to real weirdness. The concept is rather pretentious: pop songs as commercial jingle "art" (I think someone or someones spent too much time in art school) - but it's great. Oh, and creepy as the 50th level of Hell, of course. Because everything the Residents do is creepy. Even the beautiful stuff. ESPECIALLY the beautiful stuff.
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 | Kaleidoscope by Siouxsie and the Banshees
Buy new: $10.99 / Used from: $6.09 Speaking of creepy and beautiful, this is where we start to get those very traits from Siouxsie and the Banshees. This is also the first Banshees album with Budgie, one of the world's most underrated drummers who also has one of the dumbest names ever.
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 | Seventeen Seconds by The Cure
Buy new: $13.96 / Used from: $3.29 Remember what I said about 1980 being the year bands branched out and changed their sounds? This album is a case in point. The Cure here went from dry pop-punk to bone-dry, chilling gothic post-punk. This album is possibly my favorite Cure album: sparse, tight and depressing.
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 | Closer by Joy Division
Buy used from: $6.44 ....But not as depressing as this sepulchral bit of joy (division). By this time everything is awash in keyboards. And it has a song that is both danceable and depressing! Even more depressing though is the fact that this album isn't available commercially for a decent price anymore. I included this version so you can try to get it cheap.
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 | Uprising by Bob Marley & the Wailers
Buy new: $12.99 / Used from: $6.93 Okay, to counteract all that doom and gloom the next album is reggae great Bob Marley's album "Uprising," with positive, uplifting hit songs like "Could You Be Loved", "Redemption Song" and... what? Marley died after making this? Damn!
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 | Zenyatta Mondatta by The Police
Buy new: $14.98 / Used from: $7.15 This is where the Police begin to conquer the world. And where we hear an Andy Summers song for the first time. Some really, really hate it but I like "Behind My Camel." So there. Thptt.
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 | Underwater Moonlight by The Soft Boys
Buy used from: $34.99 Unfortunately this album isn't in print anymore. If you ever see a copy, snap it up because this is one of the greatest pop albums out there. There are some great, great tunes on this gem, with some great jangly guitar and vocal harmonizing. It's kinda like a gentler version of Syd Barrett.
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 | The Black Album (Deluxe Version) by The Damned
Buy new: $23.99 / Used from: $11.22 Let us end this list of the second greatest year in Rock History with the second-greatest album in Damned History. This one expanded musically on their last but also lost just a bit of the energy. It's still great though. Too often the word "gothic" is used as shorthand for gloomy or depressing. This album proves that "gothic" can also mean "romantic" or "inviting" or, most importantly, "fun."
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