Talk Talk - Spirit Of Eden
Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones
Pink Floyd - The Final Cut

...there aren't many that have escaped that murky synthetic sound...what others are there?

Pixies, Jonathan Richman, Jayhawks- Blue Earth, Pogues, Big Dipper, Replacements, REM, Dead Kennedys, Metallica, Orange Juice, Mission of Burma, dBs....

That's just scraping the top.

But I like that 80s sound!

Neither The Replacements nor R.E.M. escaped for the entire decade.

me too moonbeam! i think it's beautiful

not to mention that the synthesizer is the instrument of the gods

Please tell me you're joking. They synth is what turned the 80s into the craphole that is was. It was as generic and predictable as emo is in the 00s. It's something that maybe a 12 year old would get into and than grow out of the next year. Everybody has love for the 80s for about 5 minutes than it just becomes the tired old dead horse that's been beaten over and over. You can't even tell the difference between these douchbags: Depeche Mode, New Order, Pet Shop Boys, Eraser, Talk Talk, the Human League, Oingo Boingo etc... all basically the same band with the same idiotic gimmick.

The exceptions would be the c-86, artrock and dreampop bands like Galaxie 500, Cocteau Twins, Jesus and Mary Chain, Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, the Housemartins, the Primitives, the Chameleons, Loop, Spacemen 3, the Blue Nile, the House of Love... All bands that synthpop can't hold a candle to.

I could not disagree more, Tim. I *can* tell a big difference between the likes of New Order, Depeche Mode and Human League, all of whom rank among my top 40 artists! Remember that taste is subjective, and that a synthesizer is just as legitimate an instrument as a guitar.

How as strange as it can be,I dislike the '80s sound created during the '80s but I like the '80s sound recreated in the '00s.
The last M83 is my fav '80s styled record. Stunning.

Mmm, Captain, I’m afraid but I can’t agree at all. If there is something that our (excellent) polls are proving is that there was a LOT of great albums during the 80s that can’t be filed under that “synthetic sound” (that I like too!!). Let’s see: according to the top 10 of every year poll there are no synthesizers AT ALL (or at least only some details, not being a prominent feature) in 6 albums of the Top 10 from 1985, 7/10 in 1984 poll, 7/10 in 1983, 6/10 in 1982, 6/10 in 1981 and 5/10 in 1980. So I must conclude that, contrary to everyone seems to think, the most acclaimed albums from the first half of the 80s were basically guitar-oriented rock. And the second half was even most rock-oriented!!
Moreover I think that we are not being fair with synth-pop in our polls. In MY opinion we are considering much better, say, Hüsker Dü for playing loud guitars and considering worse, say, Depeche Mode for playing synthesizers. And quite often in this (and other) forums the synth-pop bands are qualified directly as crap without much explanation, as if this was an obvious thing. For instance, Tim, I respect a lot your tastes and I like I lot some bands you mention (except the overrated Jesus & Mary Chain) but… can’t you tell the difference between Pet Shop Boys and Talk Talk? Really?
In fact, my opinion is maybe the opposite. I mean the 80s were not good for guitars (I mean inferior to other decades) while the most innovative and “interesting” sounds came from electronica. If you consider only the rock bands, yes, maybe the 80s were a bad decade. Anyway I don’t like to simplify that much. During the 80s (and during every decade in fact) there were a lot of excellent and different music. Just go (again) to our polls. In 1982 you can find folk (“Nebraska”), funk (“1999”), pop (“Imperial Bedroom”), goth-rock (“Pornography”), sophisti-pop (“The Nightfly”) or heavy metal (“The Number of the Beast”). And all that within the top 10! Just scroll down and you will find from minimalist classical (“Glassworks”) to world music (“Juju Music”) with almost all the styles you want in between…
No offence, please. We’re only celebrating music.

right on, honorio

Awesome post, Honorio! Synths rule!

Can't forget Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine

...have Duran Duran's The Wild Boys for breakfast, so I'll tell you later, mighty - carbon weezel - lord - -
-- no.really, what has turned Gremlins into Goonies and subsequently into Lost Boys like the ... ahmm.. FUCKING LOT OF YOU!!?!
((answer.. sisters with... ... mer.. see.. well, no,, Noel.. gull... b..))

...if only the Smashing Pumpkins would have happened in the 80's, lordlike Twin Pine Mall Robin throw off..

(by the way, hello everyone...)

how about the meat puppets? i've always thought that they sounded '90s