Music: Best Albums of the Year Series: 1987

[Saturated Fats]

1965: The Beatles - Rubber Soul
1966: The Beatles - Revolver
1967: The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
1969: The Beatles - Abbey Road
1970: Black Sabbath - Paranoid
1971: Led Zeppelin - IV
1973: Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
1975: Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
1977: Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
1979: Pink Floyd - The Wall
1980: AC/DC - Back in Black
1982: Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
1984: Metallica - Ride the Lightning
1985: Tears for Fears - Songs from the Big Chair
1988: Metallica - ...And Justice for All
1989: Pixies - Doolittle
1991: Nirvana - Nevermind
1992: Alice in Chains - Dirt
1996: (TIE) Soundgarden - Down on the Upside // Rage Against the Machine - Evil Empire
1998: (TIE) Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill // System of a Down - System of a Down
1999: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
2000: Radiohead - Kid A
2001: The Strokes - Is This It
2002: Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
2004: (TIE) Madvillain - Madvillainy // The Killers - Hot Fuss // Green Day - American Idiot
2005: Coldplay - X & Y
2007: Radiohead - In Rainbows
2010: The National - High Violet
2011: No definitive winner
2014: Behemoth - The Satanist

1976: Eagles - Hotel California (12 votes)

2nd Place: Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life (8 votes)
3rd Place: AC/DC - Dirty Deeds Done Dirty Cheap (7 votes)
4th Place: TIE of 5 albums at 6 votes each

Eagles are... not the best, and I am disappointed that they beat Stevie Wonder's masterpiece. That's all I'm gonna say about that, because I appreciate that this is a democratic vote!

Speaking of which, 1987 is a weird year. A lot of high-end commercial successes, but not as much on the critical or music geek spectrum that I can see as popular or noteworthy. We'll see which direction this one goes, though, as there are two era-defining albums in the mix.

10/14: 2012
10/16: 1995
10/18: 1981

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[Roo Returns]

Earth, Sun, and Moon by Love and Rockets needs some love. Those guys are so underrated.

Kiss Me^3 is my favorite album by The Cure. It's the most diverse and has all kinds of styles, genres, and Smith's best guitar work. Disintegration gets all the love but that album is nowhere near as diverse as this one.

Unbiased it's probably Joshua Tree. I don't love that album but that and Bad were everywhere in 1987.

 

[Oxbow Lakes]

Sonic Youth - Sister
Eric B. & Rakim - Paid in Full
Big Black - Songs About f***ing
Melvins - Gluey Porch Treatmens
Dinosaur Jr. - You’re Living All Over Me

 

[Hockey Outsider]

Not a great year for music. Four albums jump out:

Guns N Roses - "Appetite for Destruction". Overplayed? Yes. Overrated? Probably. But it's still a fun, energetic album. Although there are some huge hits, it's pretty solid from start to finish. Given the demographics here, I suspect this will win.

Joe Satriani - "Surfing With The Alien". Generally I don't like instrumental guitar albums, but this one stands out on the strength of the title track alone - perhaps my all-time favourite guitar-dominated rock instrumental.

Eric B. and Rakim - "Paid in Full". It's hard to imagine an album that better reflects rap from the mid to late 80's. Rakim is a stellar lyricist and has a smooth, confident delivery. Eric B's production sounds pretty dated - lots of simple drum machines, synth lines, and funk samples - but it's a great representation of "mainstream" rap from the 1980's (without being overtly political like Public Enemy, or gangsta-themed like NWA).

Boogie Down Productions - "Criminal Minded". This was KRS-One's first album (his best friend and DJ Scott La Rock was killed shortly after its release). KRS has an energetic delivery. He spends most of the album talking about how great a rapper he is (a theme that permeates his lengthy catalogue), sometimes attacking rival groups. The lyrics are surprisingly non-political, given what he'd soon spend his career talking about. The production is also fairly dated on this one, but they sample AC/DC's "Back in Black" on one song, and reinterpret The Beatles' "Hey Jude" on another.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Not much to see here, but the top-end is pretty cool.

1. John Zorn – Spillane / John Zorn – Cobra (two of Zorn's most important albums, and Spillane is probably my second favorite from him)
2. Butthole Surfers – Locust Abortion Technician
3. Peter Brötzmann & Bill Laswell – Low Life
4. Last Exit – Cassette Recordings '87 (that's Brötzmann and Laswell again, this time with Ronald Shannon Jackson and freakin' Sonny Sharrock)
5. Big Black – Songs About f***ing
6. Tom Waits – Franks Wild Years
7. Blurt – Smoke Time
8. ИOИ – Blood & Flame
9. Fred Frith & René Lussier – Nous autres (I normally try to stay away from live albums, but this is one of the better collaborations between these two amazing guitarists)
10. Union Carbide Productions – In the Air Tonight

HMs:
Ramleh – Hole in the Heart
The Dukes of Stratosphear (XTC) – Psonic Psunspot
Hijokaidan – Unlimited Edition
Pop Dell'arte – Free Pop
U2 – The Joshua Tree
The Red Hot Chili Peppers – The Uplift Mofo Party Plan
Guns n' Roses – Appetite for Destruction
The Young Fresh Fellows – The Men Who Loved Music
Lounge Lizards – No Pain For Cakes
Swans – Children of God
Dinosaur Jr. – You're Living All Over Me
Faith No More – Introduce Yourself
Power Tools – Strange Meeting
Voivod – Killing Technology
Bérurier Noir – Abracadaboum!
Jazz Passenger – Broken Night, Red Light
Sacred Reich – Ignorance (production is pretty weak, but always had a soft spot for them)
Sonic – Youth Sister
Opal – Happy Nightmare Baby
Melvins – Gluey Porch Treatments
The Replacements – Pleased to Meet Me

Curiosities:
Mler Ife Dada – Coisas que fascinam
Various artists – Music of the Tundra & the Taiga
Slab! – Descension
James Blood Ulmer – America - Do You Remember the Love?
Steve Reich – Drumming
Game Theory – Lolita Nation
Cardiacs – Big Ship (very short album, all songs were re-released on the Songs for Ships and Irons album that's in my 1991 ranking)
Alice Cooper – Raise Your Fist and Yell (the 80s were really tough on Alice, especially the second half where he made the turn for easy-listening hard rock – three albums that are nearly impossible to take seriously, but damn did I listen to this a lot when I was a kid)
Peer Günt – Good Girls Don't...
Blind Idiot God – Blind Idiot God
David Sylvian – Secrets of the Beehive
George Harrison – Cloud Nine (When We Was Fab is amazing, feels like an 80s Beatles' song)
The Young Gods – The Young Gods

 

[Mescaleroman]

Two of my all time faves at the top of this year.

House of Freaks - Monkey on a Chain Gang
Guadalcanal Diary - 2 X 4
the Housemartins - The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death
Echo & the Bunnymen - s/t
Hoodoo Gurus - Blow Your Cool
Erasure - Circus
Midnight Oil - Diesel and Dust
Sinead O'Connor - The Lion and the Cobra
That Petrol Emotion - Babble
the Replacements - Please to Meet Me

HM's
10,000 Maniacs - In My Tribe
REM - Document
the Proclaimers - This is the Story
the Silencers - Letters From St Paul
the Screaming Blue Messiahs - Bikini Red

and a little bit of Western Canadiana

the Grapes of Wrath - Treehouse
54 - 40 - Show Me

 

[ItsFineImFine]

I listened to Darklands by The Jesus Mary. Fairly good album, takes a lot of listens because it's quite monotonous but the first five or six songs especially are solid. It's overrated like most music from the 80s and I'd like to think that there are far better albums than that from '87 but it's worth a listen.

 

[MoreOrr]

Contrary to some here, I'd say that it was a pretty damn good year. Four albums stand out for me:

Kick - INXS (really missing from the list)
Music for the Masses - Depeche Mode
Tango in the Night - Fleetwood Mac
The Joshua Tree - U2

The problem is deciding which I'd choose as the #1.

If I'm just choosing favorite songs among all the songs I like on those 4 albums, the other two have more songs at the top of that list, but Kick and Tango in the Night have the largest number of really good songs, almost double the other two. And then between those two, Tango in the Night has the better collection.

 

[reckoning]

I think I have more albums in my collection from this year than any other, and it was difficult to narrow it down to 10. Had to leave off albums from John Hiatt, Guns 'n' Roses, Sinead O'Connor, John Mellencamp, Fleetwood Mac, Grateful Dead, Roger Waters, Suzanne Vega, World Party and the Replacements that I enjoyed a lot.

Having said that though, there wasn't any album that year that I would call truly great, but lots that I would label as very very good:

1) Sign O' The Times - Prince
2) The Joshua Tree - U2
3) In My Tribe - 10,000 Maniacs
4) Robbie Robertson - Robbie Robertson
5) Tunnel Of Love - Bruce Springsteen
6) Diesel And Dust - Midnight Oil
7) Chris Isaak - Chris Isaak
8) Document - R.E.M.
9) Introducing The Hardline... - Terrance Trent D'arby
10) Sentimental Hygiene - Warren Zevon

 

[Cas]

Oh this year is massive.

Artillery - Terror Squad
Black Sabbath - The Eternal Idol
Candlemass - Nightfall
Celtic Frost - Into the Pandemonium
Death Angel - The Ultra-Violence
Helloween - Keeper of the Seven Keys, Part 1
Holy Moses - Finished With the Dogs
King Diamond - Abigail
Manilla Road - Mystification
Mayhem - Deathcrush
Overkill - Taking Over
Ozzy Osbourne - Tribute
Pentagram - Day of Reckoning
Running Wild - Under Jolly Roger
Sepultura - Schizophrenia
Sodom - Persecution Mania and Expurse of Sodomy EP

I also voted for Scream Bloody Gore, Among the Living, Under the Sign of the Black Mark, and Dream Evil and I'd consider Scream Bloody Gore to be the album of the year.

 

[Chili]

Bit of a lean year for me, these are top notch though

The Joshua Tree
Whitney

Added:

Sting-...Nothing Like The Sun
INXS-Kick

Edit: Sting's cover of Jimi Hendrix' Little Wing is awesome.

 

[Fixed to Ruin]

Blue Rodeo - Outskirts

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

It's Appetite for me.

Fast, aggressive hard rock and a hell of a record. No skippable songs on it.

Best songs on it aren't the hits.

Night Train
Out ta get me
Anything Goes

 

[Smelling Salt]

1. Def Leppard - Hysteria
2. Guns 'n Roses - Appetite for Destruction
3. George Michael - Faith
4. Richard Marx - Richard Marx
5. KISS - Crazy Nights
6. Michael Jackson - Bad
7. U2 - The Joshua Tree
8. Whitesnake - Whitesnake
9. Haywire - Don't Just Stand There
10. Fleetwood Mac - Tango in the Night

HM:
White Lion - Pride
Ozzy Osbourne - Tribute
Motley Crue - Girls Girls Girls
Aerosmith - Permanent Vacation

 

[Teemu]

R.E.M. - Document
Lyle Lovett - Pontiac
Warren Zevon - Sentimental Hygiene

 

[kihei]

U2: The Joshua Tree
Midnight Oil: Diesel and Dust
Bill Bruford: Earthworks
The Jesus and Mary Chain: Darklands
The Cure: Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
Sting:...Nothing Like the Sun
The Cult: Electric
REM: Document
George Harrison: Cloud Nine
Bryan Ferry: Bete Noire

 

[plank]

1. The Joshua Tree - U2
2. The Lonesome Jubilee - John Cougar Mellencamp
3. Document - REM
4. In the Dark - Grateful Dead
5. Cuba - The Silos
6. Pontiac - Lyle Lovett
7. Ghost on the Beach - The Insiders
8. Kick - INXS
9. Cloud Nine - George Harrison
10. The Lion and the Cobra - Sinead O'Connor
11. I'm No Angel - The Gregg Allman Band

 

[tacogeoff]

GnR very easily for me.

 

[frisco]

Other than Document, Hysteria, Tango In The Night, Tunnel Of Love:
Inside Information-Foreigner
Kick-INXS
ESP-Bee Gees
Diesel And Dust-Midnight Oil
Electric-The Cult
Ready Or Not-Lou Gramm

My Best-Carey

 

[Saturated Fats]

I enjoyed looking back on this year, as there are a lot of works that I am particularly fond of - but which I'd forgotten my fondness for. I went back and forth between a few for my favourite, but I am going with the second-best album from the Swans catalogue, Children of God. I am a huge fan of Swans, and much of Michael Gira's music, and I feel that this work (along with the work he did with The Angels of Light) goes underappreciated in a catalogue that, in and of itself, still goes underappreciated. Like all of the best Swans works, it is an album that aims for the heavens in its scope, and although it falls just short, it is still a titanic musical achievement.

My Top 10

Swans - Children of God
Zakir Hussain & Shivkumar Sharma - Rag Madhuvanti and Rag Misra Tilang (a random RYM find that I've fallen in love with)
Shelleyan Orphan - Helleborine
U2 - The Joshua Tree

Pet Shop Boys - Actually
Sinead O'Connor - The Lion and the Cobra
Dead Can Dance - Within the Realm of a Dying Sun
Eric B. & Rakim - Paid in Full
Napalm Death - Scum
For Against - Echelons

 

[Sleemans]

Added:

Sting-...Nothing Like The Sun
Midnight Oil. Diesel and Dust

 

[reckoning]

Given the board's preference for hard rock in previous polls, I thought Guns n' Roses would win this in a landslide. They still might win, but I'm surprised at how close it is.

 

[Eisen]

Strong year

Testament - The Legacy
Descendents - All
Overkill - Taking Over
Helloween - Keeper 1
Running Wild - Under Jolly Roger
Toy Dolls - Bare faced cheek

I'm sure I forgot a ton.

 

[Saturated Fats]

This one is gonna go right down to the wire.

 

[MoreOrr]

This one is gonna go right down to the wire.

I'm tempted to change my vote to give U2 another one. But no, I'll stick with my original decision; U2 would probably be my #3 anyway.