Going back to the thread topic, I will add a couple of things about my top 2 picks:
Hysteria: The turn even more sharply toward commercialism and overall softening of their sound were surprising to me. As a result, it took me a bit longer to really get into the album. But their approach of, basically, "Let's use the Thriller model and create an album that is fully loaded with so many top 10 hits that you can't deny its greatness" worked for me. While dialing down the hard rock and raw sound of their earlier albums was a step in the wrong direction for me, the songs were all just so strong that I didn't mind. And, again, there were just so many good songs. I thought all the singles were pretty great, and every single deep cut felt like it was close to being on par with the singles. There was nothing that felt like a "throwaway" on the album. And for an album that, at the time, was considered a pretty long album, it was quite an achievement. I had been eagerly anticipating this album from my then-favorite band for years. And once I got over my initial misgivings, it didn't disappoint. It was in play on my cassette player in my room, in the car, and my walkman constantly, and I have tons of good time associated with it. And the cool "in the round" presentation on the tour really cemented it for me. I may like some of the individual songs on the first three albums more. But this is still easily an "all time great" album for me.
Whitesnake s/t: To me, if you like this type of music, it is hard to not consider side 1 to be "perfect." That onslaught of Crying in the Rain, Bad Boys, Still of the Night, and Here I Go Again (and I stress--the album version of Here I Go Again, NOT the radio version) is probably the best single side of music this subgenre has ever produced, or VERY close to it. And Still of the Night has probably got to be in my top 3 '80s hard rock songs ever made (along with, off the top of my head, Forever by Y&T and Bringin' on the Heartbreak by Def Lep). The two singles on side 2 were good as well, although they felt like a bit of a step down. The only knock on the album is that the last three songs, while solid enough for deep cuts, just aren't very memorable to me and just feel kind of "by the numbers" tracks to fill space. It's not that they aren't good. But they just never really stood out to me. Granted, that may be just because the first six tracks are so strong that these suffer by comparison, but still. But in any case, really strong album that is another "all time great."
Going back to my personal 87/88 album list a few pages back, although '88 had more great albums, the strength of these two alone from '87 really makes '87 a standout year in music history for me.
Poll
Topic: Favorite of these hard rock albums from 1987/1988 (Read 2792 times)