1987 was quite the year of all things large - "Greed is Good", cell phones that were so big they came with a personal assistant to carry them, big hair. Looking at the music scene , 1987 was the year of super-sized successes. There weren't just your typical big sellers, this was the year of the jumbo-seller such as the Joshua Tree, Slippery When Wet, Bad, et al. While 1987 may have been the year of the uber-seller, it was a year that saw an impressive number of classic, wildly influential albums that didn't quite sell as many copies as the overachievers. Let's turn on the wayback machine and look at some of the best of the best.
Guns and Roses - Appetite for Destruction
As the first wave of hair metal bands became very stale very quickly, a second generation of bands not-so-quietly ascended from the Sunset Strip. These bands were looser, louder, and nastier than their predecessors. The leader of this new wave was Guns n' Rose and in 1987 they dropped a bomb on the world called Appetite for Destruction. Appetite was the guidebook to the seamy underworld of mid-80's Hollywood. Songs like "Welcome To the Jungle" and "Paradise City" embraced the grit, grime, and despair of life in the city while "Mr. Brownstone" put a big spotlight into the creeping effects of heroin. While Axl still carries on as GNR with hired hands, it never got any better than Appetite.
The Replacements - Pleased To Meet Me
One of the great things about the Replacements was that you never knew what to expect. They could look like the greatest band in the world one night and crawl out on the stage rip-roaring drunk and barely make it through a song the next. Their albums however, were the stuff that legends are made of and very few bands had a roll like the 'Mats did between 1983 and 1987. The conclusion of this cycle of legendary albums, Pleased To Meet Me, saw them polish their sound but without sacrificing the quality of their songs. Recorded in Memphis with legendary Big Star producer Jim Dickinson, this album has some barn burning rockers like "IOU", typical smart-ass Mats tunes "I Don't Know", and, oh by the way, the greatest rock and roll song of all time "Alex Chilton" - Westerberg's homage to the leader of the one and only Big Star. While the Replacements would make a couple more decent albums before their surreal break-up on stage in 1991 (I was there), Pleased To Meet Me represents the end of one of the great runs in rock history.
Anthrax - Among The Living
By the time Anthrax was ready to release their 3rd album in the Spring of 1987, their fellow members of the "Big 4", Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer, had all released their masterworks (Master of Puppets, Peace Sells but who's Buying, and Reign in Blood) within the last year. With the standard level raised to insane highs, Anthrax responded with an album that seamlessly crossed their East Coast hardcore infused thrash metal with song topics that ranged from their fondness for Stephen King books "Among The Living" and "A Skeleton In the Closet", comic book characters "I Am The Law", and the dangers of drug abuse "NFL". All of the time, the band managed to keep it's sense of humor intact as proven their legendary B Side "I'm the Man" which served as the catalyst for that little thing called Rap Rock. Nearly 25 years after Among, Anthrax is still going strong with their latest Worship Music.
The Cure - Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
Robert Smith will never be confused for someone with an upbeat view of life. Over their three plus decade long existence have been the long-running champions of "mope rock". Following their legendarily bummer classic Pornography in 1983, Smith and the Cure made an abrupt 180 degree turn and switched to a somewhat more upbeat, poppier approach. Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me was a double LP that surprisingly had no filler songs among it's 18 tracks. Since this is a Cure album, it does contain a couple of typical dark dense tracks "The Kiss", "Torture". But, for the most part, this is an album of great new wave tracks with almost playful lyrics on tracks such as "Why Can't I Be You" and "Hot Hot Hot". The highlight of Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, "Just Like Heaven", is arguably the Cure's finest moment. Not surprisingly, Smith took the downward road after Kiss Me and followed it up with the Mother of all Mope Rock albums Disintegration.
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