An ongoing ranking and rating of my favorite albums of 1981. Items in bold are part of my personal CD collection.
THE TOP TEN
1. Rush ~ Moving Pictures (10.6)
2. Journey ~ Escape (10.3)
3. Rick Springfield ~ Working Class Dog (9.1)
4. Billy Joel ~ Songs In The Attic (9)
5. Shooting Star ~ Hang On For Your Life (9)
6. Iron Maiden ~ Killers (9)
7. Thin Lizzy ~ Renegade (8.8)
8. Black Sabbath ~ Mob Rules (8.8)
9. Men At Work ~ Business As Usual (8.8)
10. Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers ~ Hard Promises (8.6)
THE REST: ALPHABETICAL BY RATING*
Riot ~ Fire Down Under (8.6)
Def Leppard ~ High ‘N’ Dry (8.5)
Foreigner ~ 4 (8.5)
Van Halen ~ Fair Warning (8.3)
Triumph ~ Allied Forces (8.2)
AC/DC ~ For Those About To Rock We Salute You (8.2)
707 ~ The Second Album (8)
Billy Squier ~ Don’t Say No (8)
Go-Go’s ~ Beauty And The Beat (8)
The J. Geils Band ~ Freeze Frame (8)
Jefferson Starship ~ Modern Times (8)
Judas Priest ~ Point Of Entry (8)
Loverboy ~ Get Lucky (8)
Praying Mantis ~ Time Tells No Lies (8)
Rod Stewart ~ Tonight I’m Yours (8)
The Romantics ~ Strictly Personal (8)
Samson ~ Shock Tactics (8)
Silver Condor ~ Silver Condor (8)
Y&T ~ Earthshaker (7.9)
Stevie Nicks ~ Bella Donna (7.8)
Ozzy Osbourne ~ Diary Of A Madman (7.8)
UFO ~ The Wild, The Willing And The Innocent (7.5)
Sammy Hagar ~ Standing Hampton (7.5)
The Rolling Stones ~ Tattoo You (7.4)
The Police ~ Ghost In The Machine (7.3)
Phil Collins ~ Face Value (7.1)
38 Special ~ Wild-Eyed Southern Boys (7.1)
The Moody Blues ~ Long Distance Voyager (7.0)
April Wine ~ The Nature Of The Beast (7)
Blue Öyster Cult ~ Fire Of Unknow Origin (7)
Break Point ~ First Serving (7)
Cirith Ungol ~ Frost And Fire (7)
Duran Duran ~ Duran Duran (7)
Genesis ~ Abacab (7)
Gillan ~ Future Shock (7)
Grand Funk ~ Grand Funk Lives (7)
Holocaust ~ The Nightcomers (7)
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts ~ I Love Rock-N-Roll (7)
Mötley Crüe ~ Too Fast For Love (7)
Poco ~ Blue And Gray (7)
Rainbow ~ Difficult To Cure (7)
Saxon ~ Denim And Leather (7)
Slade ~ Till Deaf Do Us Part (7)
Steve Miller Band ~ Circle Of Love (7)
Styx ~ Paradise Theater (7)
Toto ~ Turn Back (7)
Tygers Of Pan Tang ~ Spellbound (7)
U2 ~ October (7)
The Who ~ Face Dances (7)
Wild Horses ~ Stand Your Ground (7)
Pat Benatar ~ Precious Time (6.9)
Pretenders ~ Pretenders II (6.8)
ZZ Top ~ El Loco (6.6)
Quarterflash ~ Quarterflash (6.2)
Survivor ~ Premonition (6.1)
The Allman Brothers Band ~ Brothers Of The Road (6)
Blackfoot ~ Marauder (6)
The Byron Band ~ On The Rocks (6)
Chilliwack ~ Wanna Be A Star (6)
City Boy ~ It’s Personal (6)
Elton John ~ The Fox (6)
Eurythmics ~ In The Garden (6)
Hall & Oates ~ Private Eyes (6)
INXS ~ Underneath The Colours (6)
The Michael Schenker Group ~ MSG (6)
Neil Young & Crazy Horse ~ Re-ac-tor (6)
Point Blank ~ American Exce$$ (6)
Red Rider ~ As Far As Siam (6)
The Rods ~ The Rods (6)
Saga ~ Worlds Apart (6)
Badfinger ~ Say No More (5)
Balance ~ Balance (5)
Billy Idol ~ Don’t Stop [EP] (5)
Bullet ~ Execution (5)
The Church ~ Of Skins And Heart (5)
Elvis Costello & The Attractions ~ Trust (5)
Foghat ~ Girls To Chat & Boys To Bounce (5)
Graham Bonnet ~ Line-Up (5)
The Greg Kihn Band ~ RocKihnRoll (5)
Hanoi Rocks ~ Bangkok Shocks Saigon Shakes (5)
The Joe Perry Project ~ I’ve Got The Rock’n’Rolls Again (5)
Joe Walsh ~ There Goes The Neighborhood (5)
Mass ~ Swiss Connection (5)
Mistreater ~ Hell’s* Fire (5)
Overdrive ~ Reflexions [EP] (5)
Picture ~ Heavy Metal Ears (5)
Santana ~ Zebop! (5)
Squeeze ~ East Side Story (5)
Status Quo ~ Never Too Late (5)
Whitesnake ~ Come An’ Get It (5)
A-II-Z ~ No Fun After Midnight [EP] (4)
Accept ~ Breaker (4)
Bryan Adams ~ You Want It You Got It (4)
Budgie ~ Nightflight (4)
Cacumen ~ Cacumen (4)
The Cars ~ Shake It Up (4)
The Dregs ~ Unsung Heroes (4)
Eric Clapton ~ Another Ticket (4)
Lindsey Buckingham ~ Law And Order (4)
Molly Hatchet ~ Take No Prisoners (4)
Rose Tattoo ~ Assault & Battery (4)
Savoy Brown ~ Rock ‘N’ Roll Warriors (4)
Venom ~ Welcome To Hell (4)
Anvil ~ Hard ‘n’ Heavy (3)
Grace Slick ~ Welcome To The Wrecking Ball! (3)
Krokus ~ Hardware (3)
Spider ~ Between The Lines (3)
Alice Cooper ~ Special Forces (2)
CURRENTLY UNRATED
Demon ~ Night Of The Demon
Electric Light Orchestra ~ Time
Frank Marino ~ The Power Of Rock ‘N’ Roll
Gillan ~ Double Trouble
The Good Rats ~ Great American Music
Greg Lake ~ Greg Lake
Helix ~ White Lace & Black Leather
Humble Pie ~ Go For The Throat
Keith Emerson ~ Nighthawks
The Kinks ~ Give The People What They Want
Kix ~ Kix
Level 42 ~ Level 42
Meat Loaf ~ Dead Ringer
Neal Schon & Jan Hammer ~ Untold Passion
Rage ~ Out Of Control
Raven ~ Rock Until You Drop
Simple Minds ~ Sons And Fascination
Simple Minds ~ Sister Feelings Call
Ted Nugent ~ Intensities In 10 Cities [Live]
The Tubes ~ The Completion Backwards Principle
Tygers Of Pan Tang ~ Crazy Nights
Wishbone Ash ~ Number The Brave
[Last updated: 2020.06.20]
ROCK IN A HARD PLACE 