Pazz & Jop is/was a survey of critical response to a given album or song. SOTT was the winner (the single won too) which means it was the best-reviewed album of 1987. and Prince was still hot shit in 1987 - 3 top 10 Pop singles, i think. the SOTT album wasn't lighting the stores or charts on fire but it was doing well enough. of course, the Grammy award for Album of the Year doesn't reward sales or popularity - it's about artistic merit. so all of that sales stuff aside and getting back to the critics - i dunno what the Grammy voters were on. the critics preferred SOTT over Joshua Tree but those old fogey Rockist NARAS ppl weren't as impressed i guess. or, hell, they didn't HEAR the album. LOL