Best Album on My Favourite Albums of......1987!!

Sign O’ the Times, yep.

Not on the list: Keith Sweat’s debut Make It Last Forever. Indestructible classic.

prince

I would've went for Redd Kross - Neurotica if it had been there.

I guess those first Chicago House compilations deserve an extremely honourable mention as well.

Thinking especially of The House Sound of Chicago, Volume 2 - Chicago Trax on Trax/London Records (Volume 1 was released in 1986) and Jackmaster Volume 1 on Westside Records.

Pleased To Meet Me over Sign O' the Times, mainly for sentimental reasons; the former was my intro to the 'Mats and still my fave of their records. I didn't get either until the mid-90s (ditto Tunnel of Love) though.

Otherwise, we're finally at a time where I actually would have heard some of these when they were new-ish: Bad, Faith, Kick and The Joshua Tree are monster albums that also got a lot of play on my parents' stereo, in my dad's car and on my bulky, yellow Sports walkman. My mom wouldn't let me have Appetite for Destruction.

I want to run

prince, the bats, or eric b and rakim

hearsay no question

Tempted to vote for Document even though it's one of the weaker IRS albums. First REM album I ever owned.

The hardest choice for me so far...Brave Words or The Walking. Went with the former but only just!

not the best of all years. i'd have gone for the world won't listen but as it isn't here i take their last album strangeways. it is quite an amazing and mysterious album, not their best but better than their first.

Ooh I'd love to hear those Chicago House comps

i would like to protest that picture

1987 was a shit year but it deserves better than that

locust abortion technician

apocrypha time

the apostles - equinox screams
candle tribe - nothing but a feelin'
the chemistry set - s/t
chin-chin - stop! your crying
the chrysanthemums - is that a fish on your shoulder or are you just pleased to see me?
Cappella Musicale di San Petronio di Bologna - l'orfeo
danny thompson - whatever
doctor nerve - armed observation
eric lou root - don't worry
game theory - lolita nation (critical omission)
the gibson bros. - big pine boogie
h.e.x. - the power house tapes
hanan bulubulu - '87 concert
hugo largo - drum
katsumi horii project - hot is cool
kazue sawai - eye to eye
lenny pickett with the borneo horns - s/t
mahlathini - the lion of soweto
na-mi - vol. 08
negativland - escape from noise
poison - into the abyss
sein chit tl - new arrangements for hsaing ensemble
shelleyan orphan - helleborine
sort sol - the violent bear it away
squirrel bait - skag heaven (another critical omission)
sri maharani ghazal muar - tudung periuk
the steppes - drop of the creature
steve fisk - 448 deathless days
unseen terror - human error
ut - early life live
valentin clastrier - grands maitres de la vielle a roue
yasuaki shimizu - music for commercials
yvonne chaka chaka - i'm burning up
zag and the coloured beads - sawtooth gripmaster

i am as usual extremely weak on '80s albums

Finally, a poll where the absolute best option I had was David Sylvian. I do love the INXS and Depeche Mode albums listed, though.

David Sylvian. That is all.

I don’t think any of these albums is above 8/10 for me... kind of a transitional year. Probably David Sylvian, Tom Waits or J&MC

1987 is my least favorite year of the decade, music-wise.

Isn’t TheWalking ’88?

There are plenty of sources that state either 87 or 88

Yo! Bum Rush the Show seemed shockingly avant garde at the time, it was an amazing debut album.

Sister also felt like something from another world and it is still one of my favorite albums of all time

would like to protest that picture

1987 was a shit year but it deserves better than that

1987 is the peak of the yuppie boom. "Wall Street" is released that year too.

Great list, but it’s Pet Shop Boys for me by a country mile

Lots of solid-if-not-necessarily-their-best sort of records by lifelong favourites, but Paid In Full was where my juvenile brain all of sudden 'got' rap, and it sounded like the future. So that, despite a couple of meh tracks.

Didn't think this was the Young Gods album I'd be voting for but there it is.

Ooh I'd love to hear those Chicago House comps

None of these comps (i.e. the first three volumes of The House Sound of Chicago, Jackmaster 1 and the first three editions of the Jack Trax series, when we’re talking ‘87) have survived in this form into the streaming age as far as I can tell. You’d have to check Discogs for the track listings. Lots (the majority I’d guess) of the individual tracks are on Spotify of course, but there’s plenty that aren’t.

These compilations were everything to/for me in 1987, quite literally, cause I wouldn’t hear this music in the wild until the next year (bar “Love Can’t Turn Around” and “Jack Your Body”, as these were bonafide pop hits).

Basically, 1987 was one of those Ground Zero years for me, when a new type of music blows your mind and all but takes over your life. (Last seen in these parts in 2012, when I encountered Ghanaian azonto and then discovered all kinds of other African pop in its wake).

surprised at how easily this is "the walking" for me, which i hadn't heard until last year but is incredible

Sometimes you kick, sometimes you get kicked.

(Also love Darklands, Tallulah, Sister, Actually and Sign "☮︎" the Times)

Document is my favorite REM album-I just think it's the most consistent and I'm a huge fan of side 2.
Still tempted to vote for Kick anyway

relatively sure the walking is ‘87

i should’ve voted for it bc it’s perfect but my mind locked right onto the best alexander o’neal album

also this is the year i was born, diss its music at your own peril

i will sternly correct you!!!

I dont know why I included "Warehouse songs and stories", not even Du fans like that one. I was never a fan of it apart from 4 or 5 songs tbh.

glad you said that-this album is unloved retrospectively, I remember it being widely loved at the time.
at least among the contingent that stuck with them through WB

easy : age of chance - 1000 years of trouble.

oh, bugger, cant vote for it.
umm has to be prince then I guess.

My opinion is the opposite of Tarfumes's: I generally really like the Mould songs and skip a lot of the Hart songs. "Ice Cold Ice" and "Friend You've Got to Fall" are up there with their best imo.

“Ice Cold Ice” is definitely a highlight, but for me “She Floated Away” (the tension/timing of which was amplified to near-unbearable levels live), “She’s A Woman (And Now He Is A Man),” and “You Can Live At Home” are peak Grant...which is to say, peak Hüsker Dü.

she floated away is one of my favourite songs as is ice cold ice.

1987 is the peak of the yuppie boom. "Wall Street" is released that year too.

― . (Michael B)

so put a picture of michael douglas or some shit on there, there's yuppies and then there's eternal fucking evil, it's like putting a picture of hitler on your poll of the best songs of 1923 (yeah i went there EDGY)

lol

spacemen 3 or melvins or depeche mode

I'm legit shocked you left out Hugo Largo but still found room for Come on Pilgrim

Anyways voting Sign O' the Times just over Blind Idiot God & Pilgrim (as a stand-in for The Purple Tape, which I've actually just realized is prob my legit favourite album of 1987)

'm legit shocked you left out Hugo Largo but still found room for Come on Pilgrim

― think the toledo mud hens but for twitter (Drugs A. Money), Sunday, June 2, 2019 1:13 AM (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"Drum" by Hugo Largo is '88 according to Wikipedia!

I like a few more on here, but it will be one of these:

Dinosaur Jr – Youre Living All Over Me
Eric B & Rakim – Paid In Full
Pixies – Come on Pilgrim
Prince – Sign O’ the Times
Public Enemy –Yo! Bum Rush The Show
Sonic Youth – Sister
The Cure – Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me

No “Savage” by Eurythmics?

I voted Sylvian (obv), but 2nd place would be them.

No “Savage” by Eurythmics?

I voted Sylvian (obv), but 2nd place would be them.

on the face of it 1986 seemed lots better than 1987 but yeah house, and it’s also the last of the italo disco peak years, neither of which feel at home in an album poll.

Going with Bathory because Sonic Youth will do well regardless.

wait wasnt Poison Into The Abyss already in the 1986 poll?

xxp along those lines '87 was perhaps the best ever year for freestyle; I would happily listen to Expose's first album all the way through, but more generally it's all about the singles

Ha, I love that Expose to bits. My little sister had that stuff. But big yawn, I'm voting Prince.

wait wasnt Poison Into The Abyss already in the 1986 poll?

― Siegbran

nabozo mentioned it - with lower-profile releases sometimes it's a matter of assigning a year more or less at random - i'm going by rym, which has it as an '87 release recorded on dec 20-21, 1986

Other albums I would have considered for only to eventually choose Prince:

Erasure - The Circus
Eurythmics - Savage
Guided by Voices - Devil Between My Toes
Suzanne Vega - Solitude Standing
The Dukes of Stratosphear - Psonic Psunspot

*voting for

Thin White Rope

Lotsa love for the Pixies, Sinead, Swans, and Tom Waits, but this goes to Songs About Fucking, the industrial rock album that surpasses any of its imitators.

David Sylvian. That is all.

FUCK YES. Secrets of the Beehive is a fucking masterpiece and a half. So was Brilliant Trees but I found another album on the 1984 list I ended up preferring over that one.

Voted Celtic Frost. Into the Pandemonium is actually my favorite Celtic Frost album which puts me in a minority - I think Chuck Eddy agrees with me.

I went on a road trip to one of the first three lollapaloozas and the discman adapter broke which meant we spent four days and hundreds of miles listening to the two tapes in the car - document and appetite for destruction. I’d probably pick one of those

U2, INXS, The Cure, The Smiths, The Replacements were my over-played ones. My 1.5-years younger sister had the Prince, MJ & Def Leppard albums in heavy rotation.

The Replacements slightly over The Cure. "The Ledge", "Can't Hardly Wait", "Never Mind", "Skyway" (!!), "Nightclub Jitters"...

"The words I thought I brought I left behind, so never mind..."

Voted for Actually just ahead of Secrets Of The Beehive and Sign O’ The Times.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I find myself still playing 'Sister' more than anything else from '87 I guess.
Schizophrenia, Tuff Gnarl, Pacific Coast Highway, and Kotton Krown are among my favorite Sonic Youth's

I think the CURE is a close second. As great as the Prince album is, and I love it when I hear it, I don't
seem to reach for it as much nowadays. I'll play 1999 and Purple Rain more.

Looking at this list I can tell my interest in pop music was waning by 1987. I didn't/don't own many of these. Think I'm opting for Thin White Rope.

Impossible to POO but voted Swans.

The opposite is true for me. After the disaster area that was the 1986 list, this is a breath of fresh air.

yeah it's Lolita Nation

Man this year sucked. That said, went with Eric B and Rakim

A quick glance at the list suggested a weaker year but when I counted it turned out I own 25 of these on vinyl. Go figure.

“And the sun comes
Like a god into our room
All perfect light and promises”

yeesh no way this is not one of the hardest things i've voted for on here.

went with the mondays because they were unimpeachable at that point. what a record!

Hearsay obv

1987 is better represented by its pop hits than its critically acclaimed albums.

Paid in Full over Sign o' the Times. Paid in Full is my favourite rap album.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

results are not bad, and there were a lot of votes!

I knew before even clicking on this that it was gonna be Prince.

― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Friday, May 31, 2019 4:29 PM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Man, I even love half the albums that got no votes.

yes, all of these were left out

Pixies - Come on Pilgrim
Husker Du - Warehouse Songs and Stories
The Jesus and Mary Chain - Darklands
Bruce Springsteen - Tunnel of Love
The Go-Betweens - Tallulah

Not entirely unhappy with the number of people who went for Secrets of the Beehive; compared to how the rest of the voting went, that was a rousing endorsement of the album. <3

Voting for the stunning Beehive was a very obvious choice for me here, although not even half as obvious as my vote for Gone To Earth in the preceding poll.

Meanwhile, Pazz & Jop!.

Why did no-one vote for "Tunnel of Love" in this poll? SHAME ON YOU ILM

WTF is Blind Idiot God?

Missed this poll at the time, but would have voted for The Young Gods without a second's hesitation.

i love blind idiot god! would've voted for dinosaur jr, thin white rope or the go-betweens though