This is an interesting excercise that has been making the blog circles. Pick the best album from every year you have been alive. The 2000s and '90s were easy.
But my '80s music knowledge is pretty spotty. I know the albums by my favorite groups and the pop and new wave singles, but as for what was then called "College rock" I don't know more than few songs by The Jesus and Mary Chain, Cure, Smiths, Pogues, Nick Cave, Pixies, Husker Du, etc. Same goes with some of the critically acclaimed pop artists like Prince and Paul Simon, who supposedly have solid albums to back up the singles. I only have two ears, and it takes plenty of energy keeping up with all the new stuff, let alone continue to educate my self on the '80s.
If only I could write this list going back to the 70s and 60s, I could have a more informed selection.
The next installment will be an album for every year before I was born.
1985 Talking Heads - Little Creatures
1986 Beastie Boys - License to Ill
1987 REM - Document
1988 N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton
1989 Black Crowes - Shake your money Maker
Close Second - Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
Honorable Mention - Red Hot Chili Peppers - Mother's Milk
1990 A Tribe Called Quest - People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm
1991 Nirvana - Nevermind
Close Second - Pearl Jam - Ten (of course)
1992 R.E.M. - Automatic for the People
Close Second - Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
Honorable Mention - Eric Clapton - Unplugged
1993 Wu Tang Clan - Enter the 36 Chambers
Close Second - Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Honorable Mentions - Nirvana - In Utero
Pearl Jam - Vs.
Snoop Doggy Dog - Doggystyle
1994 Weezer - (Blue Album)
Close Second - Pearl Jam - Vitalogy
Honorable Mention - Beck - Mellow Gold
1995 Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Close Second - Radiohead - the Bends
Honorable Mention - Ben Folds Five - Ben Folds Five
1996 Beck - Odeley
Close Second - Eels - Beautiful Freak
Honorable Mentions - Cake - Fashion Nugget
Wilco - Being There
Weezer - Pinkerton
Rage Against The Machine - Evil Empire
1997 Radiohead - OK Computer
1998 Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Honorable Mentions - Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Beck - Mutations
1999 Wilco - Summerteeth
2000 Deltron - Deltron 3030
Honorable Mention - Radiohead - Kid A
2001 Spoon - Girls Can Tell
Honorable Mention - Ryan Adams - Gold
2002 Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Close Second - People under the Stairs - O.S.T.
Honorable Mention - White Stripes - White Blood Cells
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Black Keys - Big Come Up
Blackalicious - Blazing Arrow
2003 White Stripes - Elephant
Close Second - The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
Honorable Mention - Kings of Leon - Youth & Young Manhood
2004 Black Keys - Rubber Factory
Close Second - Wilco - A Ghost is Born
2005 My Morning Jacket - Z
Honorable Mentions - Kings of leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak
2006 Bob Dylan - Modern Times
Honorable Mentions - The Black Angels - Passover
Tapes n Tapes - The Loon
Decemberists - The Crane Wife
2007 Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Honorable Mentions - Radiohead - In Rainbows
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Okkervil River - The Stage Names
Band of Horses - Cease to Begin
Panda Bear - Person Pitch
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
2008 Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
5 comments:
I enjoy this ... and really heart the '90s. How did you go about finding your fave albums? Do you organize your own by year (if they aren't mp3s), or sort it on your computer? I want a High Fidelity: the Ed McMenamin version one day on this blog!
i did a lot of amazon listmania searches for "best albums of 1988"
or whatever, for the years where things did't just pop into my head.
And you can sort your itunes by year, which is only slightly helpful because it lists what year the CD was manufactured, or in some cases the year the mp3 was ripped.
I organize my CDs sort of autobiographically... Beck is near Cake and Ben Folds cause that's what I was listening to all during the same time.... all the grunge is together cause that was grade school and middle school, etc.
some years were really obvious, when i think of 1996, i think of "Odelay" because I am a huge dork.
I have been meaning to organize my CDs chronologically for some time, I think I will
I am turning into Nick Hornby
yes you are.
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