Granted, in 1987 I was too busy trying to earn a degree and not paying attention to music as much, but I don't really see much difference in popular sound between those two years. Right up to the early 1990s, when things like Four Non Blonde's What's Up and Sheryl Crow's Leaving Las Vegas hit the airwaves, gloss and overproduction remained king. And, really, REM's Document was hardly a standard bearer for the sound of the time.

OK. Let's make two versions of it.

To me, despite the idiotic lyrics, Family Man is still a hell of a fun song.

It's their "tinkly" album!

It was a wise thing Lindsey did, because Mick is a hell of a lot better than a Yamaha RX5 drum machine!

I don't even think she was that sick. She sounds great on "Tango" to me! "Welcome to the Room, Sara" is a boring tune without a decent hook, but that's not the fault of illness. "When I See You Again" is a delicate ballad sung by an angel. Two angels, in fact!

Christine's just a big shmuck.

Grunge was happening in 1987!? Best check your calendar. You said, and I quote, "the '1987 sound' was more akin to REM's Document and others like it. TITN was closer to something like Quarterflash."

What's grunge got to do with it? I maintain that in 1987, Tango sounded fresh and exciting. REM's Document was not the standard bearer for the sound of the time.

'Tango' definitely has an '80s sound... how can it not? But I don't think it's dated in a negative way. It's a document of a certain period in music, and it reflects that... but not in a crass, over-the-top way. It shimmers and sparkles, and employs only the best aspects of "that '80s sound."
At least in my opinion.

Personally, it's still one of my favorite Mac albums, and I love listening to it thru headphones. :)

Grunge wasn't happening in 1987 (that didn't come along until about 1991), but heavy metal was at the peak of its popularity.
Bon Jovi, Cinderella, Poison and the like, were all dominating the airwaves then. Not to mention capturing the fancy of millions of teenaged boys and girls... pretty much all of whom wouldn't have been caught dead listening to Fleetwood Mac.

And those teenagers who didn't listen to heavy metal, tended to prefer alt-rock bands like R.E.M. and 10,000 Maniacs.

Boy ~ talk about bringing back memories. I was just reading an email titled "You might be A Metal Head if:" my friends and I were so into all the 80's metal bands but we had much much love for the Tango cassette. Little Lies and Big Love were always on the radio for quite sometime then we had Rooms on Fire which got alot of airplay.

Ooops. My apologies.

Sorry I'm in a little late on this one--getting caught up on what's going on after not visiting in ages. However, I just had to say I laughed harder at this description than I've laughed at anything in a looooong time. Priceless. LMAO!!

Jessica

Hmmm...
 

I must've been in a very small minority because back in 1987 (Ah, The good ol' high school years...) I was listening to the above mentioned bands (Except Bon Jovi who I never cared for, Whom I have a rather negative name for which I wont print here...hehehehe) but more thrash metal than anything (Anthrax, Slayer, Testament, Megadeth & of course Metallica before Lars & Co. started to see the almighty $$$ in the mid-90's and thus sucked!) and yet I still listened to Fleetwood Mac because they were considered un-cool to like.