There is no single best synthwave album, and the published lists show it. Of the four we read side by side, only Kavinsky's OutRun appears as an album on more than one, and every other pick turns up once. So this page does two jobs. It shows what the lists share and where they split, then it gives you 20 records from the Frekvenci archive, grouped by strand, so you can choose by mood and not by rank.
How we chose the records
The lists are Dom Lawson's ten essentials for Louder (June 2020), the "Synthwave 101" countdown on musicbytheg (2019), Peter Clemens's ranking for Listverse (October 2020) and NewRetroWave's year-end list for 2018.[1][2][3][4] The Louder page loaded only its first three entries for us, so we count only those. A list is an opinion, and being on one is not proof of influence.
The 20 records further down come from the archive, which lists 8,105 synthwave releases. We took one album per artist, spread over 2008 to 2022 and over the labels that shaped the scene. Years, labels and tags are as the archive has them: the year is the date on file, which can be a reissue, and the tags are the community's.
Where the lists overlap
OutRun is the only album on two lists. It is the third entry on Louder's, and Listverse ends its countdown with it at No. 1.[1][3] The archive has it as a 2013 LP on Record Makers, tagged synthpop. The song that carried Kavinsky beyond the scene, "Nightcall", sat in the 2011 film Drive next to College and Electric Youth's "A Real Hero"; both are in the archive as Nightcall and A Real Hero.[6] Louder opens with the film's score by Cliff Martinez, so one movie anchors the first entry on that list.[1]
Artists overlap more than albums do. Timecop1983 is on three lists: the Lovers EPs at musicbytheg, and Night Drive at both Listverse (No. 8) and NewRetroWave (No. 3).[2][3][4] The Midnight is on two, with Endless Summer at Listverse (No. 3) and Kids at NewRetroWave (No. 10).[3][4] The archive tags Endless Summer, Kids and the first Lovers EP as synthpop. The records that travel across lists are the ones with songs and singers.
| List | Date | At the top, or the start | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| Louder (Dom Lawson) | Jun 2020 | Martinez's Drive score, then Perturbator's Terror 404 and Kavinsky's OutRun | First three entries only |
| musicbytheg | Sep 2019 | No. 1 is Makeup and Vanity Set's 88:88; also Lazerhawk, Mitch Murder, Le Matos, College | Ten, mostly 2008 to 2017 |
| Listverse (Peter Clemens) | Oct 2020 | No. 1 is OutRun; also M83, CHVRCHES and Daft Punk's Tron: Legacy | Ten, counting down |
| NewRetroWave (Andrew Zistler) | Dec 2018 | No. 1 is Robert Parker's End of The Night; Kids closes at No. 10 | 2018 releases only |
The audiences explain the gaps. Louder writes for metal readers and starts dark. Listverse is for general readers, so it pulls in M83 and CHVRCHES, acts most synthwave fans would call neighbours. NewRetroWave's list is a site's view of a single year. Nobody is wrong; they answer different questions.
Twenty records, by strand
| Strand | Album | Archive year | Label | Archive tag |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Origins | College, Teenage Color | 2008 | Believe | synthpop |
| Origins | College, Secret Diary | 2013 | Invada | synthpop |
| Origins | Kavinsky, OutRun | 2013 | Record Makers | synthpop |
| Road music | Miami Nights 1984, Turbulence | 2012 | Rosso Corsa Records | synthwave |
| Road music | Lazerhawk, Dreamrider | 2017 | Rosso Corsa Records | retrowave |
| Road music | Timecop1983, Reflections | 2015 | TimeSlaves | synthwave |
| Songs | The Midnight, Endless Summer | 2016 | Studio C4 | synthpop |
| Songs | FM-84, Atlas | 2016 | Electronic Purification Records | synthpop |
| Songs | GUNSHIP, GUNSHIP | 2015 | Horsie in the Hedge | retrowave |
| Songs | NINA, Sleepwalking | 2018 | Aztec Records | synthpop |
| Dark | Perturbator, Terror 404 | 2012 | Blood Music | retrowave |
| Dark | Carpenter Brut, Trilogy | 2015 | No Quarter Prod | horrorsynth |
| Dark | Alex, AKUMA II | 2019 | NewRetroWave | darkwave |
| Screen | Survive, RR7349 | 2016 | Relapse Records | synthwave |
| Screen | Power Glove, Trials of the Blood Dragon | 2016 | Ubisoft Music | synthwave |
| Screen | Le Matos, Turbo Kid soundtrack | 2015 | Fantôme Records | synthpop |
| Screen | Mitch Murder, Kung Fury (Lost Tapes) | 2015 | self-released | synthwave |
| Outliers | Com Truise, Iteration | 2017 | Ghostly International | synthwave |
| Outliers | Makeup and Vanity Set, 88:88 | 2014 | Telefuture | synthpop |
| Outliers | Macintosh Plus, Floral Shoppe | 2011 | Beer on the Rug | vaporwave |
Origins: a French start, 2008 to 2013
College's Teenage Color is the earliest record on any list we read (musicbytheg's tenth pick), and the archive dates it 2008.[2] Teenage Color sits beside Secret Diary, which the archive dates 2013 on Invada. That is a reissue date. David Grellier's Secret Diary first came out on 26 November 2008, and he had started the Valerie blog the year before.[7] It is the plainest case for the "date on file" caveat. The French story in full is in French synthwave: from French touch to darksynth.
Road music
This is the sound most people picture: arpeggios, drum machines, no singer required. Two of the three records here sit on one label, Rosso Corsa Records, which says where the early scene gathered. Start with Turbulence, musicbytheg's No. 5, or Dreamrider, its No. 2, which arrived later, in 2017. The label's own history, and the earlier Lazerhawk and Miami Nights records, are on its profile page. Reflections is the softer entry. Timecop1983 says he set out to make 1980s-style music after hearing Mitch Murder and the Drive soundtrack, and Reflections was the album he prepared for release in July 2015.[10] The wider sound is described in Retrowave: the name, the sound and where it overlaps synthwave, and the outrun tag, which the archive gives to some Mitch Murder and Miami Nights records, is explained in Outrun music: the racing-game sound of synthwave.
Songs
If you want choruses, begin here. Endless Summer is Listverse's No. 3, and the archive tags it synthpop, as it does Atlas and Sleepwalking (Listverse's No. 7). GUNSHIP, a 2015 LP, is the retrowave-tagged entry of the four. The overlap with pop is the subject of Synthpop and synthwave: where the 1980s sound meets the revival; If you like The Midnight: 10 artists to try next and If you like GUNSHIP: artists to try next go further.
Dark
TERROR 404, a 2012 LP on Blood Music, is Louder's second entry; the magazine calls it harsher and darker than its peers.[1] Perturbator later told the same magazine that he had moved from synthwave towards "electro-goth".[5] TRILOGY gathers three EPs, and the archive tags it horrorsynth. AKUMA II was Listverse's No. 10 and is tagged darkwave. Counts and context are in What is darksynth? The heavy, horror-lit side of synthwave; If you like Perturbator: artists to try next and If you like Carpenter Brut: artists to try next list neighbours.
Screen
Some of the best-known records were written for a picture. RR7349 is the Austin band's first album for Relapse, announced just as Stranger Things took off.[8] Power Glove wrote 25 original tracks for Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon; the archive dates Trials of the Blood Dragon (Original Game Soundtrack) to 2016, while Invada pressed the score as a 1,000-copy neon-pink double LP in 2014.[9] Chronicles of the Wasteland / Turbo Kid (original motion picture soundtrack) is the film score from musicbytheg's list. Kung Fury (Lost Tapes) is the Kung Fury set, self-released and dated 2015; Mitch Murder scored the short film and co-wrote its theme with David Hasselhoff.[11] More in Synthwave and 1980s film scores: Carpenter, Vangelis and the sound of the screen and Synthwave and video games: from Out Run to Hotline Miami.
Outliers
Com Truise's Galactic Melt was Listverse's No. 9, where the writer ties it to chillwave. That record is not listed on the site, so we point to Iteration, a 2017 LP on Ghostly International that the archive tags synthwave, and to the chillwave overlap in Chillwave explained: the hazy 2009 sound and what followed. 88:88, musicbytheg's No. 1, is dated 2014 in the archive and 2015 on the list, a gap we leave as it stands. Floral Shoppe is on none of the lists, but the archive tags it vaporwave, and it shows where the two genres part: see Synthwave vs vaporwave: same neon, different music.
How to use the lists
Treat each list as a recommendation from a particular listener. If you like metal, Louder's picks will map to your taste; if you came from the Drive soundtrack, the French records and the song-led strand are the closer fit. Begin with the strand that matches the last record you loved, play one album end to end, and only then move sideways. The Synthwave sub-genres explained: a map with real counts page maps the neighbouring styles when a strand starts to feel narrow.
Newer albums
We found no credible year-end list for 2025, and the four we read date from 2018 to 2020, so recent records go unranked. The archive's yearly synthwave count peaked at 963 releases in 2020, against 191 in the year OutRun came out. The list-makers were choosing from a far bigger pool than the first generation had. Two later records to try are The Midnight's Heroes (2022) and Perturbator's Lustful Sacraments (2021). Remember that 2026 is a part year in the archive.
Records to start with
- Kavinsky · 2013 · Record Makers · LPThe one album two lists share; French electro-pop under an arcade-game name.
- The Midnight · 2016 · Studio C4 · LPListverse's No. 3, and the clearest song-led entry.
- Lazerhawk · 2017 · Rosso Corsa Records · LPRoad music from 2017 on Rosso Corsa, musicbytheg's No. 2.
- Timecop1983 · 2015 · TimeSlaves · LPThe artist the lists return to most; tagged synthwave.
- Carpenter Brut · 2015 · No Quarter Prod · COMPThree EPs from the metal side, collected on one release.
- Le Matos · 2015 · Fantôme Records · LPA film score, for the cinematic route.
- Com Truise · 2017 · Ghostly International · LPA Com Truise LP from 2017, from Ghostly International.
Questions people ask
What is the best synthwave album to start with?
Pick by mood. For vocals and choruses, try The Midnight's Endless Summer. For instrumental driving music, Lazerhawk's Dreamrider. For something heavy, Perturbator's Terror 404. Only OutRun appears on more than one list we read.
Why are so many well-known synthwave albums tagged synthpop?
The tags come from the community on MusicBrainz and Discogs. Records with singers and verses tend to collect "synth-pop" there, even when fans call them synthwave. The boundary is covered in Synthpop and synthwave: where the 1980s sound meets the revival.
Is an album the right unit for a genre built on singles?
Only partly. Of the archive's 8,105 synthwave releases, 3,024 are LPs and 2,333 are singles. Treat an album as one route in, not the whole genre.
For the people behind these records, see 25 essential synthwave artists, and where to start with each. For a guided listen, tune the Night Drive station (92.0 FM).
Sources
- 10 essential Synthwave albums · Dom Lawson, Louder / Metal Hammer, 8 Jun 2020
- Top 10: Synthwave 101 Albums · musicbytheg, 4 Sep 2019
- Top 10 Synthwave Albums of All Time · Peter Clemens, Listverse, 9 Oct 2020
- Top Ten Retrowave Albums of 2018 · Andrew Zistler, NewRetroWave, 21 Dec 2018
- Synthwave is dead: how Perturbator embraced the dark side · Dannii Leivers, Louder / Metal Hammer, 17 Jun 2021
- Drive (2011 film) · Wikipedia
- Valerie Stories: 10 Years of College's Essential LP Secret Diary · Aaron Vehling, Vehlinggo, 26 Nov 2018
- S U R V I V E, Synths, and the Music of "Stranger Things" · Sean Maloney, Bandcamp Daily, 5 Aug 2016
- Invada to release Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon soundtrack for Record Store Day · FACT Magazine, 13 Mar 2014
- What Does the Future Hold for Timecop1983? · Aaron Vehling, Vehlinggo, 1 Jul 2015
- Catching Up With Mitch Murder, King of the 80s Revival · Aaron Vehling, Vehlinggo, 26 Jul 2015