Over what will likely be the next few years I’m going to be ranking and reviewing the top 5 albums - plus a fair few extras - according to users on rateyourmusic.com (think IMDB for music) from every year from 1960 to the present. If you want to know more, I wrote an introduction to the ‘challenge’ here. You can also read all the other entries I’ve written so far by heading to the lovely index page here.

1983, what a fabulous year, the Nintendo Entertainment System was released. Other stuff happened too though: Sally K. Ride became the first US woman astronaut in space, as a crew member aboard the space shuttle Challenger and in less good news, ‘crack’ cocaine was developed in the Bahamas, and was soon to appear in the US. We’re here for the music though, and so here’s rateyourmisuc.com users’ top 5 albums of 1983:

#1 Metallica - Kill ‘Em All
#2 New Order - Power, Corruption and Lies
#3 R.E.M. - Murmur
#4 Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones
#5 Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues

As usual I’m grabbing a few from further down the list too, namely:

#6 Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes
#8 The Chameleons - Script of the Bridge
#9 Swans - Filth
#11 Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Roger Eno - Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks
#12 U2 - War

and finally, to make sure we have some female artists on the list, I’ve gone to NPR’s and NPR readers’ top 150 albums by female artist and plucked out a couple of 1984 releases:

Madonna - Madonna (which Pitchfork also has as their #16 of the 80s)
Cyndi Lauper - She’s So Unusual

That’s a dozen albums vying for 1983’s top spot - so off we go - and let me tell you this is another superb year.

Madonna’s debut was a commercial success, putting her firmly on the disco map. It features a whole host of funky, danceable productions with infectious melodies and physically provocative lyrics. The birth of a style that would make her famous for her erotic performances is very much evident here on tracks like Burning Up and Physical Attraction, and particularly the spoken word part of the closing track Everybody, even if they are a little more tame than what was to come.

Madonna is a great, fun listen, with a sound as characteristically 80s as anything you’re going to hear led by the Linn Drum and the Oberheim OB-X synthesizer. It’s lyrical and melodic simplicity mean I’ve not found it as engaging as the other stuff this year, but I’d still very much recommend checking out the birth of one of pop’s biggest superstars.

Song Picks: Borderline, Holiday

7/10

U2’s third album was their first overtly political, it was also their most successful album to date, being their first UK number 1 album, and their first gold certified album in the US.

If you’ve only listened to U2’s more modern stuff the most obvious difference is the rawer sound. There’s no ‘wall of sound’ as they’d become famous for later on, and guitarist ‘The Edge’ doesn’t seem to have found the 374 delay pedals he’d later use. The end result is it all sounds a bit more underground. Things open with Sunday Bloody Sunday, a song the band still plays regularly to this day. Of course, about the Bloody Sunday incident in Northern Ireland, the atmospherics the band were to become famous for are beginning to form through the fantastic soaring chorus melody, generally sung by the Edge. The rest of the band are playing with limited effects on their instruments, creating something that sounds almost juxtapositional to Bono’s vocal considering how they'd have accompanied such a performance later in their career. If anything, it makes the melody and message hit all the harder, and is one of the album’s best tracks. New Year’s Day sounds cleaner on the production front, and the Edge’s delay heavy guitar is starting to form, with a great intro ditty and a solo that sounds every bit as stadium ready as his later offerings.

War definitely lacks the accomplishment of later productions that would complement their skills much more, but the album’s raw energy and melodic draw are to be praised, and Bono’s dramatic, powerful vocals (his performance on Like a Song is particularly fantastic) almost seem to telegraph the band’s stadium drenched future. War is proof that U2 were not just a well produced band, but a bloody good band in their own right.

Song Picks: Sunday Bloody Sunday, New Year’s Day, Like a Song

8.5/10

Swans’ debut album didn’t receive much attention at the time of its release, but with the band’s growing stature, people have gone back to it more and realised how different it sounded to anything else coming out in 1983, and how it laid a path for much of the heavy music that came after it.

Filth very much lives up to its name. Musically, it’s completely filthy, with the monstrous two bass player and two drummer rhythm section providing a cataclysm of noise that makes the likes of Metallica and Iron Maiden sound like a bunch of kids singing nursery rhymes. Michael Gira’s roars are repetitive, growling, and mad. Gira lived in illegal housing when the album was recorded, and says it was his harsh surroundings that inspired the nature of the album. His utterances have few words, he’s not trying to be poet here, he’s trying to drive home an anger, or in his own words, to ‘obliterate’.

Filth does obliterate, and because of that it’s a memorable listen as opposed to a particularly easy one. It’s been a while since an album has hit me with this much force, and I think it’s remarkable how much influence the album has had on today’s heavier music. Filth was a figurative battering ram for the genre, so far ahead of its time that it went unnoticed until time caught up with it.

Song Picks: Blackout, Stay Here

9/10

Cyndi Lauper's debut album landed with a bang, spawning no less than 6 singles (four of which made it into the top 5) and featuring a whole host of songs that are still very prominent in today's musical landscape, whether in their original iterations here, or as covers.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun is a joyous classic of course, and needs no description or introduction here. We've also got the bouncy When You Were Mine, the dreamy - and famously covered by Eva Cassidy - Time After Time as well as All Through the Night with that perfect sparkly synth arpeggio and melodically triumphant chorus. I could go on, but essentially Lauper's debut is packed with great pop songs, performed with real power. The opener Money Changes Everything features full and bombastic instrumentation in its chorus, but Lauper's vocals soar above it all like those of a woman on an absolute mission. There's an admirable confidence to all Lauper's performances here as she holds nothing back and you get the feeling she wasn't going to let this album be anything but massive.

She's So Unusual is encapsulated brilliantly by its cover. A bright, lively affair powering its way into the future, while never forgetting the past. Lauper's dress in the photo was bought from the vintage shop she used to work at. She’s So Unusual practically demands your attention, and I’d urge you to give in to it.

Song Picks: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, When You Were Mine, Money Changes Everything, Time After Time

9/10

Metallica’s debut album - although selling fairly well - didn’t make the billboard 200 until the band’s massive success with Master of Puppets in 1986. It’s revered as a massively influential album, and appears regularly on best of lists nowadays, it’s also generally credited with starting the thrash-metal genre, a genre that combines heavy metal riffs with punk-like tempos.

Kill ‘Em All’s impact is lessened by the overly polished, slightly anaemic mix which means Hatfield’s barnstorming riffs don’t hit quite as hard as they could. Once you acclimatise to its production though, the album hits like a truck - and a very fast one at that - from start to finish. Lyrically, the band takes a turn away from tropes of the time such as endless songs about hell and Satan - though Jump in the Fire does dabble with those - and leans more towards songs about crowds thrashing around at their gigs (Hit the Lights, Whiplash and Phantom Lord all cover this for example). Kirk Hammett’s solos are as quick as any I’ve heard so far in this challenge, and rather than sounding like he’s showing off, they very much fit in with the absurd pace of this album. It all sounds like a glorious, perfectly performed frenzy.

I’m always biased towards genre inventing albums like this one (don’t get me wrong, there was plenty of fast metal music about at the time, but this is the first time it was compiled into an album package), but it’s when the album is still thoroughly thrilling to listen to in the 2020s, as this one is, that I’m particularly impressed. Kill ‘Em All is a frenetic, bombastic album, that briefly makes earlier metal seem a bit tame.

Song Picks: Hit the Lights, Phantom Lord, Seek and Destroy

9/10

American band R.E.M’s first album was received with critical acclaim when released due to its unique sound. The great thing about this challenge is I am - to some extent - able to hear things in the context of music that has come before, and I have to say we’ve not had anything like this so far. Murmur sounds well ahead of its time.

I remember borrowing this off my step-dad as a kid and not really getting it. On re-listening 20 odd years later though I can now appreciate what this album does. Stipe's instantly recognisable vocals - with lyrics that are evocatively cryptic - soar above a murky soundtrack punctuated by Mike Mills’ melodic bass lines. Mills carries the instrumentation in these songs in a way you rarely find in a bass player and he’s become an instant favourite. The guitars jangle left and right, but it’s Mills’ trusty bass laying down the song’s structure and melody most of the time, and the way it combines with Stipe’s own vocal timbre is perfect.

Murmur is an album that creates such a sense of atmosphere, and yet also has tracks that work out of context, and that’s no mean feat. There still aren’t many bands you could compare to R.E.M even today, and that’s quite the achievement.

Song Picks: Radio Free Europe, Pilgrimage, Moral Kiosk, Perfect Circle, Sitting Still

9/10

I’ve never heard of the Chameleons and I rather heavily dislike the cover of this album, so it’s unlikely I’d ever have heard it without this challenge. This, it turns out, would have been a big shame. Script of the Bridge was the English post-punk’s debut, and coming in with a run-time of nearly an hour, it was respectably ambitious.

Many reviewers at the time talked of how the album was packed with great tracks, to such an extent that it felt like a greatest hits - impressive for a band’s debut album! I’d have to agree, the album feels cohesive due to the band’s heavily reverbed guitarscapes and vocals, combined with vocalist Mark Burgess’ rumbling basslines. Each track very much fits a mould, and it’s testament to the brilliance of each track that this never gets old. From Don’t Fall’s epic cries from the bottom of a well where Burgess is drowning ‘in this fucking mess’, to the slower ‘let’s use a tom rather than a snare drum on the beat here’ introspection of the closing track View from a Hill, this record had me transfixed. It hinges on Burgess’ uncanny ability to craft atmospheric melodies, and Dave Fielding and Reg Smithies’ even more uncanny ability to accompany those melodies with ethereal guitar parts that never fail to whisk you away. Script of the Bridge is an unforgettable journey, one where the highs - such as the massive Monkeyland and Thursday’s Child - really do feel like flying.

Song Picks: Don’t Fall, Here Today, Monkeyland, Thursday’s Child

9/10

Waits’ 1985 album Rain Dogs is generally seen as his masterpiece, but it’s Swordfishtrombones that paved the way for it. Waits’ albums, as with those we’ve previously reviewed on this challenge, were piano led and this - his eigth - is his first album to step away from that. Swordfishtrombones sees Waits turn to a more scattered, ramshackle and varied instrumental approach, with a heavy emphasis on acoustic instruments. Waits’ vocals are as cigarette burned as ever, and combined with the backdrop of raw, live instruments they create an atmosphere entirely his own.

Lyrically, there’s the voice of the downtrodden here, with Waits showing his knack for an evocative lyric on visually vibrant tracks like the melodic In the Neighbourhood, where he describes the daily goings on of a town wistfully, complete with a simple and very effective chorus, and on the poetic title track about someone returning from the war, which Waits speaks out with a reserved, growled anger. There’s even a love song in Johnsburg, Illinois - a gentle piano ballad that harkens back to his previous albums, with a touching melody and performance.

Sowrdfishtrombones contains lyrical stories to get lost in, but it’s the way Waits embodies his protagonists through his performances, and the way the instrumental backdrop accompanies his rusty vocal with such ragged perfection that makes this a wonderful record. Swordfishtrombones sounds like a pile of hope left on the sidewalk in a slum, blown around on a blustery day.

Song Picks: Johnsburg, Illinois; In the Neighbourhood, Underground, Swordfishtrombones

9/10

Violent Femmes’ debut is a delightfully immature, raw and raucous acoustic based album, that really sticks out as something unique for the time.

Opening with the classic Blister in the Sun, the album is full of ramshackle songs featuring rowdy bass lines from Brian Ritchie and drumming that’s just out of time enough to help create the raw feel I’ve already referenced. Gordon Gano wrote most of these songs while in college aged 18 and there’s a refreshing immediacy to the lyrics. He’s on the nose in a way that makes these songs relatable, and sounds ‘unprofessional’ enough that almost anyone could kid themselves into the thinking that they could have written it. Of course they couldn’t have, this album exhibits a relatability that is rarely achieved, and has led to the Violent Femmes being that edgy band that pretty much everyone likes, and that will always stand out as part of any playlist. What’s great though is that the band’s significant novelty factor doesn’t wear off at all during the album’s 36 minute running length.

Violent Femmes’ energetic and punky feel with very little sign of overly distorted guitars is so damn refreshing you could almost call it cleansing. Gano’s vocals are drenched with confidence and personality and his knack for melody is remarkable, he sounds like we all wanted to sound in high school bands, but never did.

Song Picks: Blister in the Sun, Please Do Not Go, Gone Daddy Gone, Good Feeling

9.5/10

3. Apollo: Soundtracks and Atmospheres

Brian Eno, Roger Eno & Daniel Lanois

Brian Eno’s ninth album was performed by him, his brother Roger and Daniel Lanois, one of my favourite producers. The music was originally written for For All Mankind, a documentary film by Al Reinert about the Apollo program, though the film was not released until 1989.

Apollo is anchored around Daniel Lanois’ wistful pedal steel playing, which was meant to represent the fact astronauts took a lot of country music on their voyages. Lanois is a master of using the instrument to flesh out a track’s instrumental bedding (see Dylan’s Time Out of Mind album for endless examples), but here it’s much more than that, it’s the human soul of the album, the heart of this musical expedition to the moon. The album rides on the waves of the magic of An Ending (Ascent), Morning, Deep Blue Day and Always Returning which are all ‘stop whatever you’re doing and listen to this majestic piece of beauty’ type tracks, but it’s the more ambient pieces that fill the gaps between them that lull you into the gentle adventure. You’re out of control, sliding past the black sky, the stars sparkling in formation, and occasionally you get hit with the enormity of what you’re doing, and your whole body tingles with the weight.

Most of us won’t get to fly through space, but Apollo comes pretty close.

Song Picks: An Ending (Ascent), Deep Blue Day, Always Returning, Morning

9.5/10

With Ian Curtis’ suicide came the death of Joy Division, and the birth of New Order. Power, Corruption and Lies, New Order’s second album, is generally seen as them stepping out of their previous incarnation’s shadow.

This album contains some major key material that sounds positively happy when compared to Joy Division’s bleak (but excellent) output. Age of Consent and The Village display a the Cure-like skill for creating a jolly, plodding melody. Bernand Sumner’s vocals are much higher than Ian Curtis’, and there’s a sense of playfulness to them that gives some of these songs, such as the aforementioned The Village a brilliantly bouncy feel.

Power, Corruption and Lies also sees the band leaning heavily into the electronic side of music, with heavy uses of synth and electronic drums. I think it’s this that’s most impressive, creating some truly timeless, gorgeous soundscapes such as that on Your Silent Face, where Sumner’s vocal is melancholy and melodic, but never without hope.

I think Power, Corruption, Lies sits up there as one of the best early electronic albums, with masterpieces like Kraftwerk’s Computerworld. Like Computerworld, there’s a wonderful sense of humanity to these songs, the melodies whisk you away, fill you with warmth, dare I say they make me happy.

Song Picks: Age of Consent, The Village, Your Silent Face, Leave Me Alone

9.5/10

Talking Heads’ 5th album sees them return after a 3 year break, Brian Eno having moved on to produce U2 (though not the War album from this year). The album’s tour was documented Jonathan Demme and became his 1984 film Stop Making Sense, my favourite concert film of all time.

Talking Heads are now undoubtedly one of my favourite bands, and this is another masterpiece of a record from them. In splitting with Eno we get a slightly rawer, perhaps more industrial sound, but it’s one that complements the band perfectly. Tina Weymouth’s bass lines are once again the star of the show, and the album simply wouldn’t be what it is without them. Her elegant flutters on Girlfriend is Better, that superb riff on Making Flippy Floppy, that bouncy bass riff that announces the arrival of that explosively fun piece, and the group’s biggest hit - Burning Down the House - and the way she accentuates pretty much everything Byrne sings perfectly. This album cements her place as my favourite bassist. Byrne is on fine vocal form again, with a scattered and free style that’s both mesmerising and completely fun. He says that he originally sung nonsense during all the songs, and then came up with the lyrics afterwards, which undoubtedly led to the percussiveness of his singing that blends in so perfectly with what the band are doing. Speaking in Tongues sees the addition of a whole host of other musicians sourced from outside the band for various songs. These are all tastefully added, never taking away from the band’s almost industrially robotic sound, but adding a bit of extra punch and power where required. It’s that punch and power that makes this album among my favourites from the band.

The closing track, Naive Melody (This Must Be the Place) is my favourite love song of all time, and quite probably just my favourite song full stop. The same sliding bass riff and 4/4 drum beat repeat throughout the whole song as the synths dance over the top like birdsong. As Byrne himself states, the lyrics are made up of “non sequiturs, phrases that may have a strong emotional resonance but don't have any narrative qualities”, something he does regularly, but that fits this song particularly well. To me, it encapsulates the delights of living in a loving relationship better than any song before or since. Cohabiting isn’t really about the narrative, it’s about those moments of joy, a completely pleasant present, it’s about finally finding ‘home’ again once your childhood one has gone.

Speaking in Tongues is infectiously robotic and yet completely fun and bursting with personality, all finishing with a moving piece of perfection. I’ll never tire of it.

Song Picks: Naive Melody (This Must Be the Place), Making Flippy Floppy, Swamp, Burning Down the House

9.5/10