After rolling out anniversary pieces celebrating 1993, 1998, and 2003, we thought we were done with these album release date look-back articles. But then this month, Topps included a 35th anniversary reboot of its beloved 1983 baseball card series, and we got to thinking about music from that year. Some heavyweight records immediately came to mind — Madonna’s debut, Power, Corruption & Lies by New Order, Dio’s Holy Diver — representing a real cross-section of pop and underground culture. The creative output of ’83 is criminally underrated; post-punk, new wave, and synth-pop offered essential classics, while metal and hard rock were planting seeds for the years to come. Below is a compilation of some of our favorite albums turning 35 in 2018, from vinyl bin favorites to straight-up classics that still influence music to this day. [Note: Release dates are pulled from a variety of online sources; some are approximate.]
January 20: Def Leppard, Pyromania
