I Love 1987: Randy Travis & Def Leppard

Don and Dude keep the “I Love the 80s” journey rolling into 1987’s country and rock lanes, where Nashville went back to basics even as rock bands turned studios into high-gloss laboratories. One of us drops the needle on a neotraditional country smash that helped reset the genre for a new generation, while the other cranks an arena-rock juggernaut whose stacked vocals and surgically polished guitars defined late 80s rock radio.

The Albums

Randy Travis – Always & Forever (1987)

Randy Travis doubles down on his rich baritone and back-to-basics storytelling on a second LP that helped cement the neotraditional country revival. Two-step shuffles and tear-stained ballads sit side by side, all framed by warm acoustic guitars, steel, and fiddle rather than synth gloss. “Too Gone Too Long” opens with an easy, bar-band groove and a quietly resolute goodbye, while “Forever and Ever, Amen” turns a simple melody and everyday images of aging into one of country’s most enduring love vows. Deep cuts like “Good Intentions” and “Tonight We’re Gonna Tear Down the Walls” dig into regret, moral slippage, and emotional distance, proving Travis could be both radio-friendly and emotionally grown-up without ever leaving the honky-tonk.

Def Leppard – Hysteria (1987)

Def Leppard spend years and a small fortune turning hard rock into studio-sculpted pop metal on a record where every chorus seems built for a stadium chant. Guitars are layered into a seamless wall of melody, vocals are stacked into huge gang-choir hooks, and Rick Allen’s hybrid drum sound hits with machine-like precision. Singles like “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” “Animal,” and “Love Bites” make the album feel like a greatest-hits set, while deeper cuts reveal just how carefully every riff, harmony, and drum hit was placed. By the time the title track and “Hysteria” fade out, the band has turned maximalist production into its own kind of songwriting, defining what late 80s rock excess could sound like without losing the tunes.

Diggin’ Albums

U2 – Days of Ash (2026)

A surprise six-track EP finds U2 returning with taut, reflective rock that grapples with grief, injustice, and persistence in the face of loss. The band leans on atmospheric guitars, steady grooves, and Bono’s searching vocals, treating each song like a vignette for lives cut short and the resilience that follows.

U2 – The Joshua Tree (1987)

U2’s fifth album turns American deserts and city streets into a spiritual and political song cycle built on chiming guitar and big, open-hearted melodies. “Where the Streets Have No Name,” “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” and “With or Without You” anchor a set that pushes from intimate doubt to widescreen protest.

The Charlatans – We Are Love (2025)

The long-running English indie band returns after a long studio break with a set that blends jangly guitars, warm keys, and a reflective late-career calm. Themes of memory, renewal, and, yes, love run through songs that feel both lived-in and quietly hopeful. It plays less like a reinvention and more like a confident, seasoned band stretching out with nothing left to prove.

Elvis Presley – EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert (2026 film)

A concert documentary built from restored late-60s and 70s performance footage drops viewers into peak-era Elvis onstage. It is designed as an immersive big-screen experience, somewhere between live album, biography, and time machine.

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“They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way!” – Jimmy Malone, played by Sean Connery in 1987’s The Untouchables.