Seven great but overlooked albums from the 1980s 

Let's go back to the 1980s again. It was another very musically diverse decade. New wave and electronic music led the way but many other genres had their share of the spotlight and charts. 

There were plenty of great musicians and songwriters building on their successes from earlier. But also lots of new bands and artists arriving on the scene. The decade was also well before the move to streaming and online music, so big hits typically meant huge album sales, often in multiples of millions.

Some artists and albums only shone briefly and perhaps not enough to attract the attention they deserved. They didn't reach anywhere near those high sales levels. As a result, several excellent records of that time were somewhat overlooked and may have been forgotten since. Here are seven such albums, which cover a range of styles and music but are all worth listening to.

Seven overlooked albums from the 1980s

Squeeze - Argybargy

Before Squeeze released their third album Argybargy they’d had several hit singles and classic tunes from their previous records. The band seemed to be at a performing and recording peak and the pressure was very much on for songwriters Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook. Difford had just got married and was living in New York with his wife. You could excuse a slip in production or quality as not unexpected.

Difford though wrote quickly and fluidly in the summer of 1979 providing over 40 songs for Tilbrook to put music to. Which he duly did for a top selection of the songs. The album was recorded late in 1979 and released relatively soon after in February 1980. The title is a typical British slang word for an argument and there was some argybargy with their manager who reckoned it would mean nothing to the US market. 

The quality of songs remained high, very much up to the band's standards. When you look back over the back catalogue of Squeeze, Tilbrook, and Difford are exceptional and prolific songwriters. Argybargy added more classics to the catalogue. 

“Pulling Mussels From A Shell” and “Another Nail In My Heart” are the two best-known, but the whole album is full of great songs. Despite the album name, it was their first to chart in the US, although only at number 71. In sales terms though it's quite modest at around 50k worldwide and overlooked for sure in comparison with their other records.