As part of my Decades project, I counted down my own favorite albums of the year then explored other notable releases with which I was less familiar.

The year 1980 was very lean in terms of my own collection — I was lucky to come up with a personal top five. But it offered up a ton of fascinating new discoveries, including the emergence of New Wave and the debut of the greatest Irish rock band.

Originally published: 2016 | Song of the Day posts featured: 25

My top five albums of 1980:

#1. Get Happy!! – Elvis Costello

#2. Glass Houses – Billy Joel

#3. Remain in Light – Talking Heads

#4. Scary Monsters – David Bowie

#5. Tunnel of Love – Dire Straits

Other notable albums of 1980…

Back in Black – AC/DC

Wild Planet – The B-52’s

Bauhaus – Bauhaus

Sandinista! – The Clash

Seventeen Seconds – The Cure

Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables – Dead Kennedys

Crocodiles – Echo & the Bunnymen

Peter Gabriel (Melt) – Peter Gabriel

INXS – INXS

Closer – Joy Division

Zenyatta Mondatta – The Police

Pretenders – The Pretenders

Dirty Mind – Prince

Emotional Rescue – The Rolling Stones

Permanent Waves – Rush

Kaleidoscope – Siouxsie and the Banshees

The River – Bruce Springsteen

Argybargy – Squeeze

Boy – U2

Los Angeles – X