My Top 50 Albums of 1987





I started really seriously listening to music in the early '90s and kind of eventually started working my way back into the past and picking up older albums, and 1987 was the first year that I kind of took notice of, like "wow, a lot of great stuff came out that year." Here's my Spotify playlist with a song from each album. 

1. Prince - Sign O' The Times
2. Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction
3. Sonic Youth - Sister
4. Dinosaur Jr. - You're Living All Over Me
5. INXS - Kick
6. George Michael - Faith
7. U2 - The Joshua Tree
8. Eric B & Rakim - Paid In Full
9. Pixies - Come On Pilgrim EP
10. The Replacements - Pleased To Meet Me
11. LL Cool J - Bigger And Deffer
12. Def Leppard - Hysteria
13. The Meat Puppets - Huevos
14. The Cure - Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
15. Pet Shop Boys - Actually
16. Tom Waits - Franks Wild Years
17. Alexander O'Neal - Hearsay
18. Dwight Yoakam - Hillbilly Deluxe
19. Lyle Lovett - Pontiac
20. Bruce Springsteen - Tunnel Of Love
21. John Mellencamp - The Lonesome Jubilee
22. Public Enemy - Yo! Bum Rush The Show
23. Whitney Houston - Whitney
24. Big Black - Songs About Fucking
25. R.E.M. - Document
26. fIREHOSE - If'n
27. Husker Du - Warehouse: Songs And Stories
28. Suzanne Vega - Solitude Standing
29. Ice-T - Rhyme Pays
30. Prince - The Black Album
31. Squeeze - Babylon And On
32. Expose - Exposure
33. The Smiths - Louder Than Bombs
34. Warren Zevon - Sentimental Hygiene
35. Steve Earle & The Dukes - Exit 0
36. Aerosmith - Permanent Vacation
37. Boogie Down Productions - Criminal Minded
38. Michael Jackson - Bad
39. Depeche Mode - Music For The Masses
40. Kool Moe Dee - How Ya Like Me Now
41. The Meat Puppets - Mirage
42. Fleetwood Mac - Tango In The Night
43. Lemonheads - Hate Your Friends
44. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)
45. Red Hot Chili Peppers - The Uplift Mofo Party Plan
46. Motley Crue - Girls, Girls, Girls
47. Whodini - Open Sesame
48. REM - Dead Letter Office
49. David Bowie - Never Let Me Down
50. Sting - ...Nothing Like The Sun

1984 is rightfully often held up as the peak year of '80s pop, but I would argue that 1987 is a firm runner-up. Most of the same major players from 1984 except Madonna dropped albums in '87, plus monster albums by Guns N' Roses, George Michael, U2, Def Leppard, INXS, and Whitney Houston. 1987 also feels like a growth spurt year for alternative rock, essentially the year that spurred Billboard to finally start publishing a Modern Rock chart in 1988. R.E.M. and The Cure were stepping into the spotlight, and the SST bands were on fire. Come On Pilgrim ranks much higher here than any of the Pixies' proper full-lengths did on my other year lists, a friend lent me a cassette of it in high school and I've just never quite clicked with other Pixies records in the same way, it's my one big indie snob "their first EP was the best one" opinion. 

Previously:
My Top 50 Albums and Top 100 Singles of 1988
My Top 50 Albums and Top 100 Singles of 1989
My Top 50 Albums and Top 100 Singles of 1990
My Top 50 Albums and Top 100 Singles of 1991
My Top 50 Albums and Top 100 Singles of 1992
My Top 50 Albums and Top 100 Singles of 1993
My Top 50 Albums and Top 100 Singles of 1994
My Top 50 Albums and Top 100 Singles of 1995
My Top 50 Albums and Top 100 Singles of 1996
My Top 50 Albums and Top 100 Singles of 1997
My Top 50 Albums and Top 100 Singles of 1998
My Top 50 Albums and Top 100 Singles of 1999
My Top 25 Albums and Top 50 Singles of 2000
My Top 25 Albums and Top 50 Singles of 2001
My Top 25 Albums and Top 50 Singles of 2002
My Top 25 Albums and Top 50 Singles of 2003
My Top 25 Albums and Top 50 Singles of 2004
My Top 25 Albums and Top 50 Singles of 2005
My Top 25 Albums and Top 100 Singles of 2006
My Top 50 Albums and Top 100 Singles of 2007
My Top 50 Albums and Top 100 Singles of 2008
My Top 50 Albums and Top 50 Singles of 2009
My Top 50 Albums and Top 50 Singles of 2010
My Top 50 Albums and Top 50 Singles of 2011
My Top 50 Albums and Top 100 Singles of 2012
My Top 50 Albums and Top 100 Singles of 2013
My Top 50 Albums and Top 100 Singles of 2014
My Top 50 Albums and Top 100 Singles of 2015
My Top 50 Albums and Top 100 Singles of 2016
My Top 50 Albums and Top 100 Singles of 2017
My Top 50 Albums and Top 100 Singles of 2018
My Top 50 Albums and Top 100 Singles of 2019
My Top 50 Albums and Top 100 Singles of 2020
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