Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 1986…

#5 – So – Peter Gabriel

My top five albums of 1986 are all-timers. Each one would be on the long list of my favorite records. It’s pretty crazy that they all came out the same year.

English singer-songwriter Peter Gabriel had modest U.S. success with his first four albums (all self-titled), but his fifth release — given the throwaway title So after the record label asked for something easier to market — was his breakthrough.

So went quintuple platinum and was nominated for multiple Grammys, including Album, Record, and Song of the Year. The album put four songs on the Hot 100 and, in lead single ‘Sledgehammer,’ gave Gabriel his first and only #1 hit.

Produced by Gabriel with Daniel Lanois, So blends evocative art pop with world music, the tracklist alternating between hooky modern rock songs and moody dreamscapes.

‘Sledgehammer’ was the biggest hit, buoyed by a trippily animated music video, and ‘Big Time’ also reached the top ten, but the achingly romantic ‘In Your Eyes’ is the standout track. Its classic status was cemented three years later when a heartbroken Lloyd Dobler plays it on a boom box suspended overhead in the Cameron Crowe film Say Anything….

Just as lovely and emotionally effective are ‘Don’t Give Up,’ a duet with Kate Bush, and ‘Mercy Street,’ an eerily gorgeous weepie based on the work of poet Anne Sexton.

I also love the haunting ‘We Do What We’re Told (Milgram’s 37),’ a largely instrumental track that floats by on a heartbeat drum line, staccato keyboards and Gabriel’s multi-tracked backing vocals.

I’ve already featured seven of the album’s nine tracks, but that’s no slight to ‘That Voice Again,’ one of the two remaining. This is a perfect example of this great album’s sound.