The A Lists: 1983 (67)

• DeBarge: In a Special Way (Gordy)
• Marshall Crenshaw: Field Day (Warner Bros.)
• African Music (Vertigo import)
• The Blasters: Non Fiction (Slash)
• James Blood Ulmer: Odyssey (Columbia)
• DFX2: Emotion (MCA)
• Lou Reed: Legendary Hearts (RCA Victor)
• Hüsker Dü: Metal Circus (SST)
• George Clinton: You Shouldn't-Nuf Bit Fish (Capitol)
• Cyndi Lauper: She's So Unusual (Portrait)
• Pablo Moses: In the Future (Alligator)
• Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers: Jonathan Sings! (Sire)
• Pamelo Mounk'a: Propulsion! (Sonics import)
• UB40: 1980-1983 (A&M)
• Talking Heads: Speaking in Tongues (Sire)
• Womack & Womack: Love Wars (Elektra)
• King Sunny Adé and His African Beats: Synchro System (Mango)
• True West: True West (Bring Out Your Dead)
• Oh-OK: Furthermore What (DB)
• X: More Fun in the New World (Elektra)
• UB40: Labour of Love (A&M)
• Ronald Shannon Jackson and the Decoding Society: Barbecue Dog (Antilles)
• The Cucumbers: The Cucumbers (Fake Doom)
• Aztec Camera: High Land, Hard Rain (Sire)
• The Kinsasha Sound (Original Music)
• Kid Creole and the Coconuts: Doppelganger (Sire)
• Joan Armatrading: Track Record (A&M)
• Kate & Anna McGarrigle: Love Over and Over (Polydor)
• The B-52's: Whammy! (Warner Bros.)
• Divinyls: Desperate (Chrysalis)
• R.E.M.: Murmur (I.R.S.)
• U2: Under a Blood Red Sky (Island)
• Local Boys: Moments of Madness (Island)
• Eek-a-Mouse: The Mouse and the Man (Greensleeves)
• ABC: Beauty Stab (Mercury)
• This are Two Tone (Chrysalis)
• Tom Waits: Swordfishtrombones (Island)
• P-Funk All-Stars: Urban Dancefloor Guerillas (Uncle Jam/CBS Associated)
• MC 5: Babes in Arms (ROIR cassette)
• Charlie Haden: The Ballad of the Fallen (ECM)
• Richard Thompson: Hand of Kindness (Hannibal)
• Pylon: Chomp (DB)
• Ramones: Subterranean Jungle (Sire)
• Los Lobos: ". . . and a Time to Dance" (Slash)
• Knotty Vision (Nighthawk)
• Minutemen: Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat (SST)
• Viva Zimbabwe! (Earthworks import)
• Yolocamba Ita: Revolutionary Songs of El Salvador (Flying Fish)
• Madonna: Madonna (Sire)
• Indeep: Last Night a D.J. Saved My Life (Sound of New York)
• Butthole Surfers: Butthole Surfers (Alternative Tentacles)
• Jamaaladeen Tacuma: Show Stopper (Gramavision)
• Nile Rodgers: Adventures in the Land of the Good Groove (Mirage)
• John Hiatt: Riding with the King (Geffen)
• Philip Glass: The Photographer (CBS)
• Al Green: I'll Rise Again (Myrrh)
• Winston Hussey: The Girl I Adore (Live & Learn)
• King Sunny Adé and His African Beats: Ajoo (Makossa)
• Bad Religion: Into the Future (Epitaph)
• Public Image Ltd.: PiL (Virgin import)
• John Anderson: All the People Are Talkin' (Warner Bros.)
• Hilary: Kinetic (Backstreet)
• The Golden Palominos: The Golden Palominos (Celluloid/OAO)
• Kurtis Blow: Party Time? (Mercury)
• Earth, Wind & Fire: Powerlight (Columbia)
• The Plastic People of the Universe: Leading Horses (Bozi Mlyn import)
• Swingrass '83: Swingrass '83 (Antilles)

Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s, 1990

The A Lists: 1982

The A Lists: 1984