U2’s The Joshua Tree has been voted the best album of the Eighties by the readers of Rolling Stone magazine, according to a new poll released by the publication. The record, U2’s fifth studio set, edged out contenders like Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite For Destruction and Bruce Springsteen’s Born In The U.S.A., while the other finalists in the Top 10 included sets from AC/DC, The Clash, Metallica, The Cure, Michael Jackson, Prince and the Smiths.

The editors said it was a close race. They also noted that the Clash’s London Calling barely made the list because it was released in the U.S. in January 1980, although it came out in the U.K. in December 1979.

Regarding The Joshua Tree, the editors said, “It turned them into one of the biggest bands in the world . . . by the end of it they were playing stadiums.”

On the Number Two album, Appetite For Destruction, they wrote: “Their songs were gritty and menacing and they portrayed their city as a violent urban jungle populated by pornographers and drug-addicted thugs.”

Rolling Stone’s Top 10 albums of the Eighties:

1. U2 - The Joshua Tree
2. Guns N’ Roses - Appetite For Destruction
3. Michael Jackson - Thriller
4. Bruce Springsteen - Born In The U.S.A.
5. Prince - Purple Rain
6. AC/DC - Back In Black
7. The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
8. The Clash - London Calling
9. The Cure - Disintegration
10. Metallica - Master Of Puppets