Top 20 Albums Of 1989 (Nos. 16-20)

For this week's Ranked!, we completed our look back at the '80s with our our twenty favorite albums released in 1989. Did we get it right? Let us know in the comments!

Here are numbers 16-20:

20. Camper Van Beethoven, Key Lime Pie

This was Camper's last album before they broke up (until they reformed a decade later). But Camper fans were not sad for long: David Lowery formed (the superior, IMHO) Cracker two years later. Key Lime Pie's best tracks: "When I Win the Lottery," "Jack Ruby," and the band's biggest hit, a cover of Status Quo's "Pictures Of Matchstick Men."--Chris

Top 20 Albums Of 1988 (Nos. 16-20)

For this week's Ranked!, we compiled our twenty favorite albums released in 1988. Did we get it right? Let us know in the comments!

Here are numbers 16-20:

20. Cinderella, Long Cold Winter

Cinderella weren't like the other hair bands. Don't get me wrong: they were as glam as everyone else. But Long Cold Winter had more of a bluesy feel than, say, a Look What The Cat Dragged In or a Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich. But it still rocked, due in large part to Tom Keifer's gravelly vocals. The album boasted tracks like "Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)" and "Coming Home," both of which should've been featured in Rock Of Ages; near-hit "The Last Mile;" the upbeat "Gypsy Road;" and my favorite song on the album, "Bad Seamstress Blues/Fallin' Apart At The Seams."--Chris

Top 20 Albums Of 1986 (Nos. 16-20)

For this week's Ranked!, we compiled our twenty favorite albums released in 1986. Did we get it right? Let us know in the comments!

Here are numbers 16-20:

20. Depeche Mode, Black Celebration

It's 1986 and I'm 15. Which is reason enough for how I listened to this album over and over again. I had been introduced to Depeche Mode with Some Great Reward and I went right out and bought their follow up, Black Celebration. Super moody and full of concepts (like sexuality and (shocker) death) that felt new and subversive to a 15-year-old who couldn't yet drive, Black Celebration was one of the first full-length vinyl albums I owned. And I hearted it hard sitting in my room heavy with the scent of lit candles and melodrama. To be honest, I still like "Question Of Lust," "Stripped," and "Question of Time," all classic Depeche Mode. There is angst, there are synthesizers flying. In retrospect, I can't say it was the best Depeche Mode album over their career. I think both Some Great Reward and Music For The Masses were stronger, but I'm still fond of it and the time it represents. --The Weirdgirl

Top 20 Albums Of 1985 (Nos. 16-20)

For this week's Ranked!, we compiled our twenty favorite albums released in 1985. Did we get it right? Let us know in the comments!

Here are numbers 16-20:

20. John Cougar Mellencamp, Scarecrow

Scarecrow is the album that cemented Mellencamp as the Voice of Middle America. Every song feels like it's written for the kids in Footloose or Dazed & Confused, with a strident, rebellious voice that wears its love for small towns, fast cars, and kissing under the bleachers like a superhero's cape. It's also Mellencamp's strongest batch of songs overall, with highlights like "Lonely Ol' Night" and "Small Town" punctuated by minor but equally brilliant tunes like "Rumbleseat" and "Justic & Independence '85." You could easily see these songs playing at a political rally, a state fair, or out of the tinny speakers in a '69 Buick Skylark. Tremendous fun.--CroutonBoy

Top 20 Albums Of 1984 (Nos. 16-20)

For this week's Ranked!, we compiled our twenty favorite albums released in 1984. Did we get it right? Let us know in the comments!

Here are numbers 16-20:

20. Various Artists, Beverly Hills Cop Soundtrack

Beverly Hills Cop was a monster hit in 1984, and its soundtrack is also pretty damn good. Harold Faltermeyer, king of the '80s action movie score, wrote the instant classic "Axel F" for the film. The soundtrack also had "The Heat Is On" written by Faltermeyer and performed by Glenn Frey. It's a song that came to define the summer jam. Follow that up with "Neutron Dance" and "Stir It Up," and you've got an instantly awesome soundtrack.--Archphoenix

Top 20 Albums Of 1983 (Nos. 16-20)

For this week's Ranked!, we compiled our twenty favorite albums released in 1983. Did we get it right? Let us know in the comments!

Here are numbers 16-20:

20. Talking Heads, Speaking In Tongues

Let's skip the formalities: this is one of the most influential albums of all time. If you don't own it, your Music 101 education is woefully incomplete and full of holes. Go right that wrong this instant. You can't speak of the year in music without mentioning Speaking In Tongues. It has all the requisite quirky fun that you need and have come to expect from David Byrne and company and all the beautifully written classics that we all now know by heart.--Dufmanno

Top 20 Movies Of 1982 (Nos. 16-20)

For this week's Ranked!, we decided to Rank our Top 20 Movies of 1982. Can you guess what #1 is? Let us know if we got it right!

Here are Nos. 16-20:

20. Pink Floyd: The Wall

It seemed that every dorm room I ever walked into in college had a Pink Floyd poster on the wall. It was like they came pre-decorated. Floyd's combination of sonic experimentation and thematic complexity seems perfectly in synch with the identity struggles inherent in coming of age, and their Wagnerian tendencies certainly fed my own overblown self-importance at that age. So it's no surprise that Pink Floyd: The Wall has a special place in my heart; it's both a time capsule and a spectacular over-the-top exploration of narcissism and loneliness. Granted, the film isn't subtle with its metaphors--marching hammers right out of a Nazi propaganda film, and a couple of flowers that could make an appearance in a Sex Ed class if they didn't end up sprouting teeth at the end--but I love how the music and film sees no distinction between life's minor injustices and the grand failures of modern society. Pink Floyd; The Wall is trippy as shit, probably best enjoyed on hallucinogens, and marvelously gives visual form to one of the great musical experiences of our generation. And it's much easier than trying to watch The Wizard Of Oz on mute with Dark Side Of The Moon playing.--CroutonBoy

Top 20 Albums Of 1982 (Nos. 16-20)

For this week's Ranked!, we went back in time thirty years and ranked the twenty best albums released in 1982. Did we get it right? Let us know in the comments!

Here are Numbers 16-20:

20. Van Halen, Diver Down

Look, I get that most Van Halen fans feel Diver Down is one of the worst albums of the David Lee Roth Era. But it's one of my favorites, probably due to my love of cover songs. And Diver Down's got five of 'em: "Where Have All The Good Times Gone," "Dancing In The Street," "Happy Trails," "Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)," and the album's biggest hit, "(Oh) Pretty Woman."--Chris

Top 30 Ben Folds Songs (Nos. 26-30)

For this week's Ranked!, we decided to rank our favorite Ben Folds and Ben Folds Five tunes. Did we get it right? Let us know!

Here are numbers 26-30:

30. "You Don't Know Me"

Top 20 Movies Of 1981 (Nos. 16-20)

For this week's Ranked!, we compiled the twenty greatest movies from 1981. Tell us what you think when you get down to #1. And let us know if you would've ordered them differently.

Here are numbers 16-20:

20. Das Boot

The entire war movie genre was pretty much created as a propaganda tool. I'm not really faulting that. I can only imagine the level of justified fear that people felt during World War II. The idea of being able to go to the movies and see idealized versions of our men in uniform valiantly defeating the (equally one-dimensional) evil Axis and Japanese soldiers who were threatening our country had to be of great comfort.

In the years after the war ended, war movies went through a transformation that was (in my opinion) for the better. No longer were the lines so crisply drawn between black and white, good and evil. Audiences got to see shades of gray in the characters, and learn that there were motivations, both good and evil, on both sides.

Which brings me to Das Boot, which I consider one of the greatest war movies ever made. Not only is it realistic--the submarine that is the setting for the majority of the film is so claustrophobic and so gritty that you can almost smell it by the end of the movie--but it is also able to do something that, up until this movie was made, I had never seen. It made you feel sorry for the Germans in World War II. Not all of them, mind you, but the crew of the U-boat definitely. By the end of the movie, these guys--not painted as idealistic or nationalistic, just as sailors performing their duty--had gone through so much that you were pulling for them to make it through everything alive. And, when the ending of the movie comes... well, you'll just have to see it. It's heart wrenching.

It's a masterful film that just has to be seen to be believed.--Dave