The Great Album Showdown - 1986
I came upon a dilemma recently when putting together my list of top ten favorite albums of 1986. Which of these two wonderful albums do I like better? I ended up favoring R.E.M. over the Smiths, but had I reversed them I still wouldn't ever be sure I made the right choice. So now I let the people of Listology decide.
The combatants:
Life's Rich Pageant - R.E.M.
IRS-5783
Released July 1986
Begin The Begin
These Days
Fall On Me
Cuyahoga
Hyena
Underneath The Bunker
The Flowers Of Guatemala
I Believe
What If We Give It Away?
Just A Touch
Swan Swan H
Superman
The Queen Is Dead - The Smiths
ROUGH96/Sire 9 25426
Released June 1986
The Queen Is Dead (Take Me Back To Dear Old Blighty)
Frankly, Mr. Shankly
I Know It's Over
Never Had No One Ever
Cemetry Gates
Bigmouth Strikes Again
The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
Vicar In A Tutu
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others
I'm in the minority, it seems, but this one is a no-brainer for me. Putting the best Smiths album up against an REM album that is hardly the band's best loads the deck. Throw in the fact that The Queen Is Dead is one of my favorite 100 albums or so, and I gotta go with the Brits (even if the album technically isn't 'Britpop').
Nice match-up from the bands that kickstarted the alternative scene in their home countries.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Lifes Rich Pageant was R.E.M.'s best until New Adventures.
Pageant is the best album not just of 1986, but of the entire 80s.
R.E.M. better get its next album out next year, since the two best albums were 1996 and 1986 respectively.