Whoever said that I should have mentioned Computerwelt instead of Die Mensch-Maschine is absolutely right.
What I always found funny about the VH1 Classic program "One Hit Wonders" was the American-centric tilt of it. A lot of groups we consider one-hit wonders had great careers elsewhere. Falco had a #1 hit here in the U.S. with Rock Me Amadeus and a minor hit with Vienna Calling, but surprisingly not with Der Kommissar. Yet he had many, many songs chart in other countries, mostly European. I think Asia-Asia holds up very well for me. I have a really well re-mastered "Best Of" CD from Asia. Several songs from that first album are on it. The obvious two tracks, Heat Of The Moment & Only Time Will Tell are songs that defined the decade of the 80's, yet sound in no way dated. Same with the other songs, but those two were so huge, it would be easy to relegate them to 80's pop culture.
It's not that surprising given that "One Hit Wonders" is a U.S. show on a U.S. cable network that deals with how well various songs did in the U.S. Other countries likely have many otherwise successful American acts regarded as one-hit wonders on their charts.
Marillion's "Misplaced Childhood" and "Clutching at Straws" both hold up very well, IMHO... It helps to have a soft spot for prog/concept albums, of course, but I think both still work... And yes, I'm incredibly biased... So there..
Hysteria holds up in the sense that it is just as awful as it ever was. Honestly I think the older Def Leppard material like On Through The Night is less dated because it is not half as slick and obviously 80s hair era, and thus more likely to appeal to a new listener these days.
Yeah it seems like such a no-brainer when I mentioned it way back on post #39, but no one - no one - high fived my good tastes, so now I'm bitter and resentful.
I give another shout out to Paul Simon's Graceland. I'll list a few others that still hit me in the right spot. Uriah Heep - Abominog S.O.D. - Speak English or Die Danzig - Danzig Beastie Boys - Licened to Ill
The first time I played the Hysteria record, initially I thought I was playing the wrong record. At the time, I thought Hysteria sounded like a slightly heavier version of Duran Duran.
I think Def Leppard really hit their peak around the second half of the song "Let It Go". By the time Pyromania came along, everything was already sounding like "product".
I'm a little confused as to the intent of this thread. If it's not strictly to list the best albums of the decade but to distinguish ones that have the classic 80s "vibe" and mojo but still hold up under modern listening, then I have a few that I don't think have yet been listed yet--but apologies if they have. August -- Eric Clapton Blackout -- Scorpions Building the Perfect Beast -- Don Henley Eliminator -- ZZ Top Freedom -- Neil Young Full Moon Fever Tom Petty Georgia Satellites -- Georgia Satellites Heart -- Heart Heart Shaped World -- Chris Isaak In My Tribe -- 10,000 Maniacs Kick -- INXS Learning to Crawl -- The Pretenders Once Bitten... Great White So -- Peter Gabriel Songs from the Big Chair -- Tears for Fears Sports -- Huey Lewis and the News Synchronicity -- The Police Tuff Enuff -- Fabulous Thunderbirds Uh-Huh -- John Mellencamp