One favourite album per year and other list geekery

For some time I've been maintaining a list of my favourite album from each year. I'm curious if anyone else can come up with a list like this:

[rateyourmusic.com] https://rateyourmusic.com/list/Bloopy/my-favourite-albums-by-year/

I'm pretty damn picky and initially I could only get back as far as 1966 before the music I liked thinned right out. But in the past 2½ years I've searched extensively and found that there is a bit of older music I dig.

It's not the only list I've thrown together. I ranked my top favourite albums but haven't posted that anywhere yet. It takes a lot of listening to try and figure out whether the order is right, and I find the above list more intriguing. I also ranked my top 120 favourite songs, which was easier as I find the way to refine the order is to skip back and forth listening to snippets of each song: [bloopy.org] http://bloopy.org/favsongs.php

I was looking at your album list last night, wondering what I'm capable of.

I tried doing this going back to 1960.

60: Etta James, At Last
61: John Coltrane, My Favorite Things
62: Ray Charles, Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music
63: James Brown, Live At The Apollo
64: Bob Dylan, Another Side of Bob Dylan
65: The Beatles, Rubber Soul
66: Bob Dylan, Blonde on Blonde
67: Aretha Franklin, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
68: The Beatles, White Album
69: The Velvet Underground, s/t
70: The Stooges, Fun House
71: Sly & The Family Stone, There's A Riot Goin' On
72: Rolling Stones, Exile on Main Street
73: New York Dolls, s/t
74: Big Star, Radio City
75: Brian Eno, Another Green World
76: Ramones, s/t
77: Clash, s/t
78: Talking Heads, More Songs About Buildings And Food
79: Clash, London Calling
80: The Beat, I Just Can't Stop It
81: Elvis Costello, Trust
82: Richard & Linda Thompson, Shoot Out The Lights
83: Violent Femmes, s/t
84: Minutemen, Double Nickels On The Dime
85: Replacements, Tim
86: XTC, Skylarking
87: Prince, Sign 'O' The Times
88: Pixies, Surfer Rosa
89: De La Soul, 3 Feet High And Rising
90: Yo La Tengo, Fakebook
91: A Tribe Called Quest, Low End Theory
92: Freedy Johnston, Can You Fly
93: Liz Phair, Exile In Guyville
94: Nirvana, MTV Unplugged
95: Elastica, s/t
96: Belle & Sebastian, If You're Feeling Sinister
97: Pavement, Brighten The Corners
98: Lucinda Williams, Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
99: Magnetic Fields, 69 Love Songs
00: New Pornographers, Mass Romantic
01: Old 97s, Satellite Rides
02: Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
03: Fountains Of Wayne, Welcome Interstate Managers
04: DJ Danger Mouse, The Grey Album
05: Sufjan Stevens, Illinois
06: Bob Dylan, Modern Times
07: Amy Winehouse, Back to Black
08: Vampire Weekend, s/t
09: Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion
10: Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
11: Adele, 21
12: Kendrick Lamar, good kid m.A.A.d city
13: Daft Punk, Random Access Memories
14: St. Vincent, s/t
15: Hamilton cast recording
16: Beyoncé, Lemonade
17: Kendrick Lamar, Damn.
18: Car Seat Headrest, Twin Fantasy
19: Lizzo, Cuz I Love You
20: Sault, Untitled (Black Is)

I love stuff like this - reckon I'll try to come up with a list (not going back half as far as Bloopy's) over the Christmas break.

Bloopy, I own precisely none of those 76 albums! It used to be one but I got rid of Americana many moons ago...

bgz, there's a lot more on your list I know and like, and there might even be the odd match with my as yet non existent list (Tim, Surfer Rosa, possibly some of the Clash & Dylan).

I think I did this once back to 1980, but only including records that I own.

Americana is a bit of a nostalgic #1 for my 1998. The 'prog' song Pay the Man is quite high on my favourite songs list and really lifts it for me. From 2007 onwards my list gets rather weighted towards New Zealand music as I ramped up my gig attendance and started following the output of the bands closely.

My favourite from bgz's list is The Stooges - Fun House, but it's only my 4th favourite of 1970. ;)

... but I honestly dunno where I'd start.

It has made me realise that in fact I know very little about music in general -- I just know what I like and every so often I discover something else I missed first time round.

(Right now I'm listening to Aristaeus, a classical work by Hans Werner Henze, which is moderately challenging but for now it's just background music. Then I come to the realisation that my collection of classical music vastly outnumbers my pop, rock and jazz put together.)

But I will see what I can do. Can't promise anything.

OK, I've had a go now. Stopped at 1970 because earlier than that my knowledge gets increasingly limited and it basically becomes a question of 'did Dylan release anything that year'?

I started off trying to limit the number of duplicate artists, then decided to just embrace the fact that I love Nick Cave more than basically anything else.

1970 - Neil Young - After the Goldrush
1971 - The Doors - LA Woman
1972 - Neil Young - Harvest
1973 - Bruce Springsteen - The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle
1974 - Neil Young - On the Beach
1975 - Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
1976 - Eagles - Hotel California
1977 - The Clash - s/t
1978 - Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town
1979 - The Specials - s/t
1980 - Madness - Absolutely
1981 - Minor Threat - s/t & In My Eyes EPs (kind of cheating here as they didn't come out as a single combined release until 1984)
1982 - Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
1983 - Billy Bragg - Life's a Riot With Spy Vs Spy
1984 - Husker Du - Zen Arcade
1985 - The Replacements - Tim
1986 - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Your Funeral, My Trial
1987 - The Replacements - Pleased to Meet Me
1988 - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Tender Prey
1989 - Operation Ivy - Energy
1990 - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Good Son
1991 - Teenage Fanclub - Bandwagonesque
1992 - The Lemonheads - It's a Shame About Ray
1993 - Nirvana - In Utero
1994 - Green Day - Dookie
1995 - Rancid - And Out Come The Wolves
1996 - Bouncing Souls - Maniacal Laughter
1997 - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Boatman's Call
1998 - Dropkick Murphys - Do Or Die
1999 - The Get Up Kids - Something to Write Home About
2000 - The Weakerthans - Left and Leaving
2001 - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part
2002 - Idlewild - The Remote Part
2003 The Lawrence Arms - The Greatest Story Ever Told
2004 - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus
2005 - The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday
2006 - The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
2007 - The National - Boxer
2008 - The Gaslight Anthem - The 59 Sound
2009 - Dear Landlord - Dream Homes
2010 - Mixtapes - Maps
2011 - Frank Turner - England Keep My Bones
2012 - Masked Intruder - s/t
2013 - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Push the Sky Away
2014 - The Lawrence Arms - Metropole
2015 - Laura Stevenson - Cocksure
2016 - Jeff Rosenstock - Worry
2017 - Scorpios - One Week Record
2018 - Ogikubo Station - We Can Pretend Like
2019 - The National - I Am Easy to Find
2020 - Dave Hause - Patty/Paddy (again, technically 2 separate EPs)

Well done Mr Cave! I tend to like a couple of tracks on a Bad Seeds album and then find that the rest aren't quite my thing. Were The Firstborn Is Dead and Let Love In very far away from making it? Those and Tender Prey give it the best shot for me.

1960 - Miles Davis: Sketches of Spain
1961 - Joan Baez: Volume 2
1962 - Aretha Franklin: The Electrifying Aretha Franklin
1963 - Bob Dylan: Freewheelin'
1964 - Si & Garf: Wednesday Morning 3 a.m.
1965 - Beatles: Rubber Soul
1966 - Bob Dylan: Blonde on Blonde
1967 - Pink Floyd: Piper at the Gates of Dawn
1968 - Pretty Things: S.F. Sorrow
1969 - Pink Floyd: Ummagumma
1970 - Love: Out Here
1971 - Rod Stewart: Every Picture tells a Story
1972 - Deep Purple: Made In Japan
1973 - Hawkwind: Space Ritual
1974 - Peter Hammill: The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage
1975 - Tangerine Dream: Rubycon
1976 - David Bowie: Station to Station
1977 - Neil Young: American Stars 'n' Bars
1978 - Vangelis: Beaubourg
1979 - Frank Zappa: Sheik Yerbouti
1980 - Heart: Bebe le Strange
1981 - Girlschool: Hit and Run
1982 - Kate Bush: The Dreaming
1983 - Marillion: Script for a Jester's Tear
1984 - Dead Can Dance: s/t
1985 - Killing Joke: Night Time
1986 - Diamanda Galas: Divine Punishment
1987 - Fields of the Nephilim: Dawnrazor
1988 - Zodiac Mindwarp: Tattooed Beat Messiah
1989 - Cure: Disintegration
1990 - Galaxie 500: This is our Music
1991 - Legendary Pink Dots: The Maria Dimension
1992 - Melissa Etheridge: Never Enough
1993 - Nick Cave & Bad Seeds: Live Seeds
1994 - Hole: Live Through This
1995 - King Crimson: Thrak
1996 - Iggy Pop: Naughty Little Doggie
1997 - Godspeed you Black Emperor: F sharp A sharp
1998 - Swans: Swans Are Dead
1999 - Fish: Raingods with Zippos
2000 - Enigma: Screen Behind the Mirror

... and I'm afraid I have to stop there as I stopped paying attention to new music to the extent that I'd have difficulty naming an album released in that year.

Lots of stuff I've had to miss out. I tried to limit the number of releases per artist to 1 but not always successful there. Some of the entries are not the best of the given artist, but merely the best of a lacklustre year.

... and let me of course just add:

2015 - Motorhead: Bad Magic

There's so much music! There's 153 albums between those lists (I didn't check for duplicates) - and I have exactly 4 of them.

My best overlap is with pin_punk, of whose list I have (or have had) approximately 8 albums. No real surprise, we established early on in our b2b-ing that our tastes have quite a large intersection.

Hats off to bgz for his eclecticism, btw.

Anyone else care to have a go? Come on, Hhh, share your private passions!

Bloopy, Let Love In was close, Weezer's debut was also in the running for 94. To be honest I hardly listen to Dookie these days but it was a nostalgic pick as a sort of gateway punk album.

Firstborn not so much, other than Tupelo it's not one of my favourites - mostly I prefer sad piano Nick to bluesy post punk Old Testament preacher Nick. Boatman's Call is my favourite record ever.

Also it's testament to how much I love that Jeff Rosenstock album that it beat out Skeleton Tree (and a great John K. Samson record) in 2016.

Harry, I'm intrigued to know which 4 albums?

I did the 1980s. Honestly, I just searched my list of records, so I guess there could be something I like more than these but don't own.

1980: CIRCLE JERKS - “group sex”
1981: AGENT ORANGE - “living in darkness”
1982: MEN AT WORK - “business as usual”
1983: BIG COUNTRY - “the crossing”
1984: 7SECONDS - “the crew”
1985: RITES OF SPRING - s/t
1986: 7SECONDS - “new wind”
1987: “turn it around!” double 7” compilation
1988: FUGAZI - s/t EP
1989: [tie]
OPERATION IVY - “energy”
SOUL SIDE - “hot bodi-gram”

Harry, you failed to count the 76 on my list. But if you think that's a lot of music, wait till you hear how many albums there are not on these lists!

I could add Judy Garland - Second Souvenir Album for 1943 and maybe something from further back, but I haven't found any worth listing for 1944 and didn't want to leave any gaps.