1980s
The Petty Archives

The top 10 albums of 1982
By Don McLeese
The Courier - December 28, 1982

Ranking records has long been a subjective exercise. One man's "cross-cultural breakthrough" is another's "it's got a good beat and it's fun to dance to."

Even so, I have a hunch that there'll be even less of a consensus within 1982's year-end lists than in any year since I've been compiling them. As the scene has become increasingly fragmented, different listeners are listening for different things in different records.

Here, then, are the albums that made one listener feel most alive in 1982:

2. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, "Long After Dark": Petty and band do little that is new here, but they do everything more powerfully than before. A mainstream masterpiece that plays for keeps, from a classic rocker who has finally outgrown his influences.