Strangeways vs. 1987's Other Great Alt-Rock Albums

[Bike Tragedy]

How would you rate Strangeways against U2's The Joshua Tree? The Cure's Disintegration? REM's Document?

This is not a debate about what band is best overall, or who you love the most, but strictly an album vs. album debate.

I'd go with Disintegration, then Joshua Tree, then Document, then Strangeways...having said that, my two favorite groups of all time are REM and The Smiths, and aside from the late 80s I don't care about U2, and these days I'd take or leave The Cure. So that rating has nothing to do with my appreciation of the bands themselves.

But, yeah, just pitting the albums against each other, that's my vote.

 

[PregnantForTheLastTime]

Disintegration was 1989. Trust me, I'll never forget it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1987_albums

How would you rate Strangeways against U2's The Joshua Tree? The Cure's Disintegration? REM's Document?

This is not a debate about what band is best overall, or who you love the most, but strictly an album vs. album debate.

I'd go with Disintegration, then Joshua Tree, then Document, then Strangeways...having said that, my two favorite groups of all time are REM and The Smiths, and aside from the late 80s I don't care about U2, and these days I'd take or leave The Cure. So that rating has nothing to do with my appreciation of the bands themselves.

But, yeah, just pitting the albums against each other, that's my vote.

 

[Buzzetta]

How would you rate Strangeways against U2's The Joshua Tree? The Cure's Disintegration? REM's Document?

This is not a debate about what band is best overall, or who you love the most, but strictly an album vs. album debate.

I'd go with Disintegration, then Joshua Tree, then Document, then Strangeways...having said that, my two favorite groups of all time are REM and The Smiths, and aside from the late 80s I don't care about U2, and these days I'd take or leave The Cure. So that rating has nothing to do with my appreciation of the bands themselves.

But, yeah, just pitting the albums against each other, that's my vote.

If I had to rank them from top to bottom?

The Joshua Tree
XXXXXXXXX
Strangeways Here We Come
Document

While The Smiths put together a LOT of great songs on Strangeways, I feel that the The Joshua Tree and Disintegration work far better as a cohesive album that one can listen to from start to finish. It was actually hard to choose between Joshua Tree and Disintegration though. Either one could easily take the first spot.

Strangeways does not work that way. It does not seem to "fit" together as a whole.

 

[Kewpie]

NME critics' choice 1987

1. Yo Bum Rush The Show - Public Enemy
2. Sign 'O' The Times - Prince
3. Strangeways Here We Come - The Smiths
4. Sister - Sonic youth
5. Frank's Wild Years - Tom Waits
6. The Joshua Tree - U2
7. Criminal Mind - Scott La Rock
8. Paid In Full - Eric B & Rakim
9. The People Who Grinned Themselves.. - The Housemartins
10. Actually - The Pet Shop Boys
11. In My Tribe - 10,000 Maniacs
12. Songs About f***ing - Big Black
13. This Is The Story - The Proclaimers
14. George Best - The Wedding Present
15. Darklands - The Jesus & Mary Chain
16. Licensed To Ill - Beastie Coys
17. Document - REM
18. Hot, Cool & Vicious - Salt 'n' Pepper
19. Children of God - Swans
20. Saturday Night - Schoolly D
21. Hearsay - Alexander O' Neal
22. Bigger and deffer - LL cool J
23. Soro - Salif Keita
24. Babble - That Petrol Emotion
25. Rhythm Killers - Sly & Robbie
26. Mother Juno - The Gun Club
27. Voice of Reason - The Sect
28. Mainstream - Lloyd Cole & the Commotions
29. Warehouse: songs and stories - Husker Du
30. Locust Abortion Technician - Butthole Surfers
31. Kool and Deadly - Just Ice
32. Paul Johnson - Paul Johnson
33. In All Languages - Ornette Coleman
34. Time Boom X be Devil Dead - Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry
35. St Julian - Julian Cope
36. Up For A Bit - The Pastels
37. Tacky Souvenirs of Pre-Revolutionary America - Culturcide
38. Ragin’ Full On - Firehose
39. The Poison Boyfriend - Momus
40. Qareeb - Najma
41. Calenture - The Triffids
42. No More Cocoons - Jello Biafra
43. Wicked Women, Wicked Men & Wicket Keepers - Blyth Power
44. An Attitude Hits - Dan
45. Good Music - Joan Jett
46. Famous Blue Raincoat - Jennifer Warnes
47. Crooked Mile - Microdisney
48. Pleased to Meet Me - The Replacements
49. Box Frenzy - Pop Will Eat Itself
50. The Girl Who Runs The Beat Hotel - Biff Bang Pow!
51. Rooms of the Magnificent - Ed Keupper
52. Sentimental Hygiene - Warren Zevon
53. Babylon and On - Squeeze
54. Tunnel of Love - Bruce Springsteen
55. Trouble Over Here, Trouble Over There - Trouble Funk
56. Foxheads Stalk This Land - Close Lobsters
57. Tallulah - Go-Betweens
58. Heaven’s End - Loop
59. You’re Living All Over Me - Dinosaur Jr.
60. Squirrel & G-man, etc. - Happy Mondays


My top 5 was

Poison Boy Friend - Momus
Strangeways, Here We Come - The Smiths
In My Tribe - 10,000 Maniacs
Document - REM
Up For A Bit - The Pastels

 

[Bike Tragedy]

Disintegration was 1989. Trust me, I'll never forget it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1987_albums

You are totally right, the Cure's was Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me for '87. I just realized that as I started to do the dishes. I ran back to the PC to edit my blunder but alas, I'd already been found out! I'm an idiot!

So to amend my vote it would be...


The Joshua Tree
Strangeways
Document
Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me

 

[billybu69]

from Kewpies list.

Strangeways - The Smiths
George Best - The Wedding Present
People Who Grind Themselves To Death - the Housemartins
Darklands - Jesus And Mary Chain

Disintegration would have knocked out Darklands if it would have existed favourite Cure album.

 

[Bike Tragedy]

Shit. Just saw Kewpie's list, I'd forgotten about 10, 000 Maniacs' In My Tribe. I'm actually gonna put that as number 1. How the f*** did I forget that? Shit.

 

[Bike Tragedy]

When Public Enemy trumps U2 and The Smiths and REM, you know there's some major affirmative action bullshit afoot in the NME.

 

[yesitis]

5 from kewpie's list in no puhtikulah order

licensed to ill - beastie boys
songs about f***ing - big black
yo! bum rush the show - public enemy
sentimental hygiene - warren zevon
strangeways here we come - the smiths

don't really like the cure album, really don't like u2.

 

[yesitis]

When Public Enemy trumps U2 and The Smiths and REM, you know there's some major affirmative action bullshit afoot in the NME.

either that or they could recognize a good album.

 

[houseofmayors]

sign o the times is a worthy opponent for strangeways.

 

[Bike Tragedy]

either that or they could recognize a good album.

Yeah, but it's Public Enemy, so...no. And certainly not in the number one spot, over those truly great artists who actually had art to offer. But you just go right ahead on believing...

 

[9 x Fined]

Ever heard it? As in from beginning to end?

 

[Worm]

1987 was a great year. New Order, R.E.M., The Smiths, U2, Echo & The Bunnymen, Jesus & Mary Chain, Depeche Mode, Love & Rockets, Midnight Oil, INXS, The Go-Betweens, Sinead O'Connor, The Wedding Present, Pet Shop Boys, The Housemartins, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Style Council, 10,000 Maniacs, The Replacements...and yes Eric B. & Rakim, Beastie Boys and Public Enemy (Yo! Bum Rush The Show was a bad choice for #1 not because of "affirmative action" but because it was only a good, though promising, debut; 1988's It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back showed how good they could really be). Seems like there was even more great music than that.

U2's The Joshua Tree was hands-down the album of the year, and one of the five or six best of the decade. So was Tallulah by The Go-Betweens.

1. The Joshua Tree
2. Tallulah
3. Strangeways, Here We Come
4. Document*

*I'd knock R.E.M. off the list and put The World Won't Listen in its place, but I know it's a compilation. Also, in that case, Substance would check in at #1.

In some ways 1987 was the beginning of the end of post-punk. But of course The Smiths killed pop music anyway, so it didn't matter.

1987 was so good even the shit music was almost OK. The Cure, Guns 'N' Roses, Def Leppard, Aerosmith, George Michael, Prince, Erasure, Suzanne Vega, Whitesnake, Whitney Houston, Ice T, Metallica, Michael Jackson...my God, it's the Prom of Proms. Never again such innocence.

 

[9 x Fined]

Call me crazy, but I've always considered "Stop Me" to be the maternal twin of be "The One I Love".

 

[Worm]

Call me crazy, but I've always considered "Stop Me" to be the maternal twin of be "The One I Love".

I'd say distant cousins, but nice connection! I'll buy that.

"The One I Love" is certainly closer to "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" than Ronson's "Stop Me" is.

 

[kissmyshadestoo]

Call me crazy, but I've always considered "Stop Me" to be the maternal twin of be "The One I Love".

Funny, I always think of "The One I Love" as a twin to "Every Breath You Take".

 

[kissmyshadestoo]

I remember 10,000 Maniacs opening for REM when I saw them. I went to get the CD the next day and the record store didn't even have it

What an incredibly fertile time for music.

 

[Bike Tragedy]

Ever heard it? As in from beginning to end?

No but I've never been infected with herpes either, and I'm pretty sure that would suck too.

 

[yesitis]

No but I've never been infected with herpes either, and I'm pretty sure that would suck too.

how frightfully witty.