Best Albums of 1987

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1.

The Joshua Tree 

 U2

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"The Joshua Tree is often a very controversial chart pick because of the sheer amount of hate it receives from our forum regulars. And yes, I can see where the hate is coming from. But every time I listen to this album, I completely forget the constant lashings that the members here give this albu...""The Joshua Tree is often a very controversial chart pick because of the sheer amount of hate it receives from our forum regulars. And yes, I can see where the hate is coming from. But every time I listen to this album, I completely forget the constant lashings that the members here give this album. For one, the production work of Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno is absolutely stellar. This record just sounds fantastic. Not only that, the album is filled to the brim with a staggering amount of emotion. Tracks like "Running to Stand Still" make me just want to sit down and cry. Bono puts so much emotion into his vocals, it is amazing the emotion he can convey at times. The Edge's guitar work is fantastic, too. It sounds dreamy, and his riffs really add a lot to the album. U2 are very tight playing wise. Every one of these tracks are just great, not a single bad one. I love this album, and I feel that no one here can change that."  [+]  Reply

- | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +8 votes (8 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

1987

Appears in:

1,879 charts

Rank Score:

18,300

Rank in 1987:

1

Rank in 1980s:

6

Overall Rank:

51

Average Rating:

 83 (2,475 votes)

Comments:

231

2.

Appetite For Destruction 

 Guns N' Roses

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"I get that there are reasons people dislike Guns n Roses and that Axl is an ass, but I do not understand people who listen to this and say it's boring or a ripoff. In a way I find criticisms of GnR similar to criticisms of Aerosmith (7os era Aerosmith that is) - it's blues based rock music, of co...""I get that there are reasons people dislike Guns n Roses and that Axl is an ass, but I do not understand people who listen to this and say it's boring or a ripoff. In a way I find criticisms of GnR similar to criticisms of Aerosmith (7os era Aerosmith that is) - it's blues based rock music, of course it doesn't sound entirely new or original. But like Aerosmith, GnR simply did it better than anyone else around. Both bands had a very distinctive lead singer with a huge stage presence (and personally I think both Steven Tyler and Axl were good lyricists for what they were trying to accomplish). Both bands had solid rhythm sections. And both bands had excellent dual guitar work. In a way these bands are the progression of bands like the Rolling Stones, who also had the five piece, two guitar setup, and a very distinctive lead singer. Apart from that, I think it's important when rating music to try and judge it as if it wasn't totally played out. Yes, I'm not necessarily going to search out Welcome to the Jungle or Sweet Child to hear them for the millionth time, but the fact I've heard them so often is entirely separate from whether the songs are actually good. And I defy any fan of rock music to tell me with a straight face that they don't understand why Welcome to the Jungle is played at every sporting event - it's because it's an incredibly exciting song that gets you amped, with one of the most memorable intros of any song I can think of. That said, this isn't a perfect album. In particular, I think the second (roses) side is noticeably weaker than the first (guns) side. But I think the first side contains, at worst, high energy rock songs (It's So Easy and Out Ta Get Me) and at best, two of the most anthemic rock songs ever. Lyrically, these songs do a great job of capturing where GnR and Axl specifically were at while they were recording. Mr. Brownstone and Nighttrain capture the essence of an active drug addiction very well. Mr. Brownstone specifically I think is one of GnR's absolute best tracks, and grievously underrated. I suppose there are some who simply dislike GnR's sound - for me, the first six tracks on this album sound like rock music is supposed to sound like. A real shame that the band was already fracturing (for a multitude of reasons) by the time this album was released, but for this one album, they sound like the greatest rock band in the world."  [+]  Reply

- Caesar01 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +6 votes (6 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

1987

Appears in:

1,401 charts

Rank Score:

10,949

Rank in 1987:

2

Rank in 1980s:

15

Overall Rank:

117

Average Rating:

 79 (1,964 votes)

Comments:

169

3.

Sign "O" The Times 

 Prince

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"Prince's first album after abandoning The Revolution and in my opinion his best. The 80s weren't a great time for music from my perspective but this is definitely an outlier and my favorite album from that decade"  Reply

- lanadeleswift | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +7 votes (8 helpful | 1 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

1987

Appears in:

891 charts

Rank Score:

8,591

Rank in 1987:

3

Rank in 1980s:

22

Overall Rank:

168

Average Rating:

 81 (956 votes)

Comments:

58

4.

Strangeways, Here We Come 

 The Smiths

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"Strangwayss is a real mix. While it's sound is complicated, experimental and lacking a bit of structure, it is also exceptional in terms of its quality. This is by far and away the best produced Smiths album, a far cry from the rougher sound created at Strawberry Studios on their debut. But in mu...""Strangwayss is a real mix. While it's sound is complicated, experimental and lacking a bit of structure, it is also exceptional in terms of its quality. This is by far and away the best produced Smiths album, a far cry from the rougher sound created at Strawberry Studios on their debut. But in much the same way that Meat is Murder was a transitional album, this is too. Lots of new instruments were employed here, including lots of piano, saxophones, stings and even sound effects. Marr was really on to something with the dirtier, overdrive guitar found on "I Started Something" and "Stop Me", while Morrissey adjusted his mopey tone that defines The Smiths for a more pessimistic and disgruntled feel. This is transitional without a doubt. But while that is all well and good, there are signs of issues here; Joyce and Rourke get very little time in the limelight, and it seems that Morrissey was perhaps taking over the band. You can hear the imminent demise of this band in this record, despite how little the lyrics refer to this. And it begs the question, what would have come after Strangeways? Considering the quality of the production and the new sounds being tried out here, I reckon it would have been their absolute best. But that will never occur now sadly. Yet perhaps ending the band in almost unfinished state with a transitional album is a blessing in disguise. It only adds to the romanticised mythos of The Smiths, and it leaves a brilliant legacy. Even when they weren't absolutely decided on they were going for with an album, The Smiths were still fucking brilliant. And let's not forget that some of their best moments can be found here. "Girlfriend In A Coma" is borderline timeless in its comedic, totally inappropriate tone that is so brilliantly matched with its Bubbly, jangly melody; "Stop Me" is the song I recommended that anyone wanting to get into The Smiths starts off with, as it has a good mix of classic Morrissey lyrics and an easy-going sound; "Paint a Vulgar Picture", however ironic, is a sure-footed statement of what the band stood for, not being the typical Top Of The Pops act that was controlled by their label. There's very little to say about Strangeways that is negative, even if it is rough in some patches. As far as final albums go, this for me does the job. An end to the band that creates the strongest of opinions as to whether they're bloody awful or whether they're the best band of the last 50 years. The band that has one of the most instantly recognisable sounds, and some of the best lyrics ever written. A band that had influenced all aspects of modern Alt Rock and defined British music in the 1980s. That's a hard thing to bring to an end, and yet they did it without leaving on a bad note, instead finishing with the prospect of what have might been. "  [+]  Reply

- DeusExMackia | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +5 votes (6 helpful | 1 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

1987

Appears in:

749 charts

Rank Score:

5,668

Rank in 1987:

4

Rank in 1980s:

38

Overall Rank:

288

Average Rating:

 81 (1,135 votes)

Comments:

64

5.

You're Living All Over Me 

 Dinosaur

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"The psychotic, psychedelic sound is still fresh and the songwriting is perfect. The band achieved a sound and sensibility that was soaked in neurosis and melancholy but rushed madly forward with the noise and chaos of a derailed driverless train or an acid trip gone wrong. There was a mix of nost...""The psychotic, psychedelic sound is still fresh and the songwriting is perfect. The band achieved a sound and sensibility that was soaked in neurosis and melancholy but rushed madly forward with the noise and chaos of a derailed driverless train or an acid trip gone wrong. There was a mix of nostalgia, resignation, anxiety and barely controlled manic energy in the music that maybe had no precedent except for the Meat Puppets or Pere Ubu. I can't think of any earlier band that came close to this sound, as most gritty guitar bands up to this point were not exploring vulnerability or internal states to this degree. J. Mascis' fantastically unambitious vocals were the first I had ever heard to come close to approximating my own state of mind. When the music press and marketing started using the word "grunge" in the 90s to refer to bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam, I immediately thought of this album -- maybe the song title "sludgefeast" inspired the "grunge" term -- but of course they weren't referring to Dinosaur Jr., whose outsider style of madness wasn't marketable. Nirvana, Pearl Jam and many others that were far worse offered a marketable brand of disaffection that kids could pick up at Target and make out to after the friday night football game. The mainstream "grunge" bands were borrowing some stylistic qualities from more authentic and artistic predecessors and contemporaries like Dinosaur Jr. and Meat Puppets, who in turn were inspired by earlier artists like the Stooges, Neil Young and MC5. While the SST bands were inspired by their predecessors to explore new sounds, the mainstream grunge bands were mostly ripping off some elements of the SST bands' guitar sound and disaffected sensibilities, while steering clear of the emotional honesty and challenging artistry that could make their records a hard sell to less committed listeners. "Grunge" bands opted for themes and messages that would appeal to bored, horny adolescents and could be played in the free weight room of the gym without dampening the testosterone. You're not going to hear Dinosaur Jr. at Powerhouse Gym because the energy in their sound comes from anxiety, yearning and creative restlessness rather than testosterone and sexual boredom. Dinosaur Jr., Meat Puppets and Husker Du all belonged to the SST label, and they had some things in common that you would not find in the mainstream "grunge" bands they inspired -- mainly their ability to write fantastic songs grounded in compassion for the human experience and to create original, riveting sounds. It's unfortunate, but not surprising, that the mindblowing music of the Stooges, Meat Puppets and Dinosaur Jr. would lead eventually to the cheapened, inauthentic and incredibly dull adolescent marketing brand called "grunge," which might have come close to killing guitar-based rock altogether. "  [+]  Reply

- larryrrr | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +8 votes (8 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

1987

Appears in:

657 charts

Rank Score:

5,389

Rank in 1987:

5

Rank in 1980s:

43

Overall Rank:

312

Average Rating:

 82 (740 votes)

Comments:

45

6.

Document 

 R.E.M.

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"REM's fifth album, sees the band starting to lean towards the mainstream, at least in terms of commercial success. Document, is similar to predecessor, life's rich pageant, in that it's predominately a rock album, but this record has a bigger, fuller sound. It kicks off with an REM classic, fines...""REM's fifth album, sees the band starting to lean towards the mainstream, at least in terms of commercial success. Document, is similar to predecessor, life's rich pageant, in that it's predominately a rock album, but this record has a bigger, fuller sound. It kicks off with an REM classic, finest worksong, is one of the band's great opening tracks. The album also contains two other gems, it's the End of the world as we know it, is Michael Stipe's, subterranean homesick blues, a waterfall of nonsensical words, which would become one of REM's most enjoyable songs. The one I love, is another important song, and the band's first hit, an excellent track. Other standouts are fireplace, welcome to the occupation, and the brilliant, exhuming McCarthy. There's a cover of Wire's, strange, and, the record ends with the slight eastern drone of, king of birds, and then finally, oddfellows local 151. It's a very good LP, though the band were swiftly moving away from their independent roots. This would be the last album on the IRS label, Warner Bros. lie in wait, as does superstardom. "  [+]  Reply

- garycottier | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (4 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

1987

Appears in:

707 charts

Rank Score:

4,574

Rank in 1987:

6

Rank in 1980s:

49

Overall Rank:

364

Average Rating:

 80 (932 votes)

Comments:

48

7.

Bad 

 Michael Jackson

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"Another Part of Me is his best song."  Reply

- joannajewsom | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +5 votes (6 helpful | 1 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

1987

Appears in:

609 charts

Rank Score:

4,267

Rank in 1987:

7

Rank in 1980s:

54

Overall Rank:

390

Average Rating:

 76 (941 votes)

Comments:

62

8.

Music For The Masses 

 Depeche Mode

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"DM's best album and the one that saw them finally enter stadium land. Tough and uncompromising, Masses was a further evolution of their sound - revisiting some of their favourite themes i.e. love, sex, death, and religion."  Reply

- johnner | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (4 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

1987

Appears in:

497 charts

Rank Score:

3,638

Rank in 1987:

8

Rank in 1980s:

69

Overall Rank:

465

Average Rating:

 80 (618 votes)

Comments:

33

9.

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Sister 

 Sonic Youth

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"I would recommend listening to this before Daydream Nation, or you might be a bit underwhelmed. I listened to Daydream and found this a little lacking at first, but it eventually clicked. I still like Daydream a tad more, but this is still a masterpiece and Schizophrenia is better than everything...""I would recommend listening to this before Daydream Nation, or you might be a bit underwhelmed. I listened to Daydream and found this a little lacking at first, but it eventually clicked. I still like Daydream a tad more, but this is still a masterpiece and Schizophrenia is better than everything on Daydream in my opinion."  [+]  Reply

- Cojo7 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +7 votes (7 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

1987

Appears in:

520 charts

Rank Score:

3,203

Rank in 1987:

9

Rank in 1980s:

84

Overall Rank:

543

Average Rating:

 80 (652 votes)

Comments:

43

10.

Substance 
Compilation

 New Order

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"Let me try and put this into context: you have a band that changed the definition of what an indie rock/alternative band could be, pioneered the new wave genre, released a number of songs that become club classics and have since gone onto to define electronica and dance music. And then, you take ...""Let me try and put this into context: you have a band that changed the definition of what an indie rock/alternative band could be, pioneered the new wave genre, released a number of songs that become club classics and have since gone onto to define electronica and dance music. And then, you take all of their best work, their biggest hits, a couple of remixes and some previously unheard work, and put into a double album which has one of the best names for an album ever. The result is Substance. This isn't just some compilation or 'best of' album; it's the New Order bible."  [+]  Reply

- DeusExMackia | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +11 votes (11 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

1987

Appears in:

342 charts

Rank Score:

2,880

Rank in 1987:

10

Rank in 1980s:

91

Overall Rank:

585

Average Rating:

 84 (489 votes)

Comments:

37

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Total albums: 1,000. Page 1 of 100

Best Albums of 1987 composition

Top 1,000 Top 500 Top 250 Top 100

Artist	Albums	%
Various Artists	17	2%
Blaine L. Reininger	3	0%
Big Black	3	0%
Leonard Bernstein / New York Philharmonic	3	0%
Elvis Presley	3	0%
The Smiths	3	0%
Loop	2	0%
Show all

Country	Albums	%
	396	40%
	238	24%
	41	4%
	31	3%
	30	3%
	27	3%
	26	3%
Show all

Compilation?	Albums	%
No	911	91%
Yes	89	9%

Live?	Albums	%
No	976	98%
Yes	24	2%

Soundtrack?	Albums	%
No	989	99%
Yes	11	1%