1987
Noah’s Barks pages covering things relating to the year 1987.
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Full Metal Jacket
The first half of the movie that takes place in boot camp goes on a bit too long for its own good, being almost entirely carried by R. Lee Ermey’s witty (but eventually tedious) one-liners, but Full Metal Jacket is a powerful depiction of war in its unbiased simplicity. There are no larger-than-life heroes, important… (read more)
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Evil Dead II
The Evil Dead movies are better at being funny than they are at being scary, so I’m pleased to see the burgeoning sense of parody in Evil Dead II. Still, there are many slow moments in the movie due to it still partly trying to be a genuinely tense and spooky horror movie, and I… (read more)
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The Cult – “Electric”
With Electric, The Cult reveal their true allegiance: none other than AC/DC. 11 times that same song. The only thing The Cult have over their idols is that their lyrics are written about things other than balls and beers, and Ian Astbury sounds like a dork trying to look cool, which is better than sounding… (read more)
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Siouxsie & The Banshees – “Through the Looking Glass” (1987)
Through the Looking Glass is one of the best albums by Siouxsie & The Banshees. Yeah, it’s a covers album, and those are often mediocre as hell, but this is the exact opposite. These covers are phenomenal and integrate perfectly into the Banshees’s distinctive style, yet there’s still a lot of structural variety on the… (read more)
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Big Black – “Songs About Fucking”
If someone told me there was such a thing as “industrial rock” before I had ever heard of any, I would assume the genre would sound like Big Black’s 1987 album, Songs About Fucking. A graceful introduction to an album with nothing graceful about it—this is pure punk. Lead by the now famous Steve Albini,… (read more)
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The Sisters of Mercy – “Floodland” (1987)
Floodland has the same dark atmosphere as First and Last and Always, except bigger and badder. And all that bombast in an attempt to be more powerful actually makes it, well, less oppressive and bleak than its predecessor. In a way, it works for the better. Eldritch is still an awful vocalist that the band would be better… (read more)
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10,000 Maniacs – “In My Tribe”
‘In My Tribe’ is 10,000 Maniacs’ most popular album, and it’s far more than its reputation as "mom pop" would suggest. (read more)
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The Smiths – “Strangeways, Here We Come” (1987)
Strangeways, Here We Come is an admirable attempt by The Smiths to explore new sonic territory, understandably so with the limited structure and format of the jangle pop genre. Here, the jangle is all but gone. Without a doubt, the highlight of Strangeways, Here We Come is the synthesized string arrangements by Johnny Marr. They… (read more)
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Pixies – “Come On Pilgrim” (1987)
Come On Pilgrim kind of sucks, in my opinion. It’s like Surfer Rosa without any riffs or hooks. It’s skeletal, but it ain’t no “Bone Machine.” Just unbridled counterculture energy that’s dime a dozen in ’80s alternative rock. But what made the Pixies distinct, if anything, was when they decided to tether that energy around… (read more)
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My Bloody Valentine – “Sunny Sundae Smile” (1987)
Early My Bloody Valentine’s cheeky noise pop has its appeal. Every track on Sunny Sundae Smile has a nice undercurrent of guitar distortion hinting at the band’s future shoegaze works. Only four-tracks long and clocking in at under 10 minutes, this is an excellent release despite not being a good representation of the sound My… (read more)