Best Albums Since Your Birth

by on July 17, 2008 · 33 comments

Sorry, this post has absolutely nothing to do with the tech policy issues we cover here at the TLF, but since I do not have a personal blog of my own, I just couldn’t help but post this silly list somewhere. Late last night, I was reading Nick Carr’s blog and saw that he had picked up on some sort of online music meme about listing your favorite album for every year of your life. Oh man, this is just the sort of worthless Internet distraction that keeps me up till 2:00 in the morning thinking about it for no reason. And, sure enough, I actually fell asleep at my keyboard typing out my favorites. Finally finished the stupid thing at lunch today. Anyway, here it goes (favs first and runners-up after):

1969: Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin II; Rolling Stones – Let it Bleed

1970: Miles Davis – Bitches Brew; Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin III, Van Morrison – Moondance

1971: The Who – Who’s Next; Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers; Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin IV, Pink Floyd – Meddle

1972: Rolling Stones – Exile on Main Street; David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust; Steely Dan – Can’t Buy a Thrill; Wings – Band on the Run

1973: Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon; The Who – Quadrophenia

1974: Van Morrison – It’s Too Late to Stop Now

1975: Led Zeppelin – Physical Graffiti; Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here; Kiss – Alive

1976: Eagles – Hotel California; Steve Miller – Fly Like an Eagle; Aerosmith – Rocks

1977: Pink Floyd – Animals; Steely Dan – Aja

1978: Van Halen – Van Halen; Styx – Pieces of Eight

1979: Pink Floyd – The Wall; Led Zeppelin – In Through the Out Door; Van Halen - Van Halen II; The Clash - London Calling

1980: AC/DC – Back in Black; Rolling Stones – Emotional Rescue

1981: Rush – Moving PicturesVan Halen – Fair Warning; Billy Squier – Don’t Say No

1982: Donald Fagan – The Nightfly; The Clash – Combat Rock; Rush – Signals

1983: U2 – Under a Blood Red Sky; Violent Femmes – Violent Femmes; REM – Murmur

1984: The Replacements – Let It Be; Naked Raygun – Throb Throb; Talking Heads – Stop Making Sense; INXS – The Swing, U2 – The Unforgettable Fire

1985: The Cult – Love; The Smiths – Meat is Murder; The Replacements -Tim; Sting – Dream of the Blue Turtles; Violent Femmes – Hallowed Ground; Red Hot Chili Peppers – Freaky Styley; INXS - Listen Like Thieves, Tears for Fears – Songs from the Big Chair

1986: The Smiths – The Queen is Dead; Peter Gabriel – So; Naked Raygun – All Rise; The Call – Reconciled

1987: Guns N Roses – Appetite for Destruction; U2 – The Joshua Tree; The Cult – Electric; New Order – Substance

1988: Jane’s Addiction – Nothing’s Shocking; Metallica – And Justice for All

1989: Faith No More – The Real Thing; The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses; Ministry – The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste; Nine Inch Nails – Pretty Hate Machine; Tin Machine – Tin Machine

1990: Depeche Mode – Violator; World Party – Goodbye Jumbo; Black Crows – Shake Your Money Maker

1991: U2 – Achtung Baby; Red Hot Chili Peppers – Blood Sugar Sex Magic; Metallica – Metallica; Nirvana – Nevermind; Guns N Roses – Use Your Illusion II

1992: Pavement – Slanted & Enchanted; Screaming Trees – Sweet Oblivion; Singles – Original Soundtrack; INXS – Welcome to Wherever You Are; Alice in Chains – Dirt

1993: Pearl Jam – Vs.; Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream

1994: Live – Throwing Copper; Bush – Sixteen Stone; Soundgarden – Superunknown; Peter Gabriel – Secret World Live; Offspring – Smash; Stone Temple Pilots – Stone Temple Pilots

1995: Soul Asylum – Let Your Dim Light Shine; Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness; Supergrass – I Should Coco

1996: Tool – AEnima; Dave Mathews Band – Crash

1997: The Verve, Urban Hymns; Foo Fighters – The Colour and the Shape, Supergrass – In It for the Money

1998: Pearl Jam – Yield; Velvet Goldmine – Original Soundtrack

1999: Filter – Title of Record; The Flaming Lips – The Soft Bulletin; Moby – Play; Supergrass – Supergrass; Stone Temple Pilots – No. 4

2000: A Perfect Circle – Mer de Noms; Queens Of The Stone Age – R; Linkin Park- Hybrid Theory; U2 – All That You Can’t Leave Behind

2001: Muse – Origin of Symmetry; The White Stripes – White Blood Cells; Audioslave – Audioslave

2002: The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots; Queens of The Stone Age – Songs for the Deaf; The Vines – Highly Evolved; Foo Fighters – One by One

2003: The White Stripes – Elephant; Muse – Absolution

2004: Secret Machines – Now Here is Nowhere; The Killers – Hot Fuss; Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand; Interpol – Antics

2005: Nine Inch Nails – With Teeth; Sufjan Stevens – Come on Feel the Illinoise; The New Pornographers – Twin Cinema; OK Go – Oh No

2006: Muse – Black Holes and Revelations; Wolfmother – Wolfmother; Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am…

2007: The White Stripes – Icky Thump; Modest Mouse – We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank; Operator – Soulcrusher

2008: Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend; The Raconteurs – Consolers of the Lonely; White Lies – White Lies; MGMT – Oracular Spectacular; The Killers – Day and Age; Metallica - Death Magnetic; Muse – HAARP

2009: Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures; Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, Silversun Pickups – Swoon; Manchester Orchestra – Mean Everything to Nothing; The Airborne Toxic Event – The Airborne Toxic Event

2010: Wolfmother – Cosmic Egg

2011: AWOLNation – Megalithic Symphony; Foo Fighters – Wasting Light

  • Ryan Radia

    I fully agree with your selection of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots for 2002. It’s an incredible album.

  • http://www.ikeelliott.com Ike Elliott

    Very cool list, Adam. Now you’ve got me going, and I’ll be up til 2 am some night in the near future completing my own list. Excellent choices, by the way, and a few I don’t know so now I know what I missed and need to check out.

  • Ryan Radia

    I fully agree with your selection of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots for 2002. It’s an incredible album.

  • http://www.ikeelliott.com Ike Elliott

    Very cool list, Adam. Now you’ve got me going, and I’ll be up til 2 am some night in the near future completing my own list. Excellent choices, by the way, and a few I don’t know so now I know what I missed and need to check out.

  • http://www.youtube.com/PressPlay2Go Andrew

    Super list – especially the first 10 (well 8 of them) as I don’t have any Pink Floyd in my top 10! Isn’t Let It Bleed some CLASS set of songs!

    Great to see Pearl Jam mentioned and the White Stripes.

  • http://www.youtube.com/PressPlay2Go Andrew

    Super list – especially the first 10 (well 8 of them) as I don’t have any Pink Floyd in my top 10! Isn’t Let It Bleed some CLASS set of songs!

    Great to see Pearl Jam mentioned and the White Stripes.

  • Johndolanvincent

    er, i fear you’re underestimating nirvana, but there’s a lotta grunge, i’ll admit. why no punk at all, except smash by the offspring? why isn’t ignition there? a matter of tastes, i guess. imho, anyway, great collection. gonna keep the list and DL some.

  • Johndolanvincent

    er, i fear you’re underestimating nirvana, but there’s a lotta grunge, i’ll admit. why no punk at all, except smash by the offspring? why isn’t ignition there? a matter of tastes, i guess. imho, anyway, great collection. gonna keep the list and DL some.

  • Adam Thierer

    John.. Like you say, it’s a matter of taste. If the list was instead entitled “The Most Influential Albums of Each Year,” then I would have had different picks on there, including some punk stuff (Ramones, Sex Pistols, Black Flag, etc) and Nirvana would have been #1 in 1991 instead of just a runner-up. And, from a different perspective, I am surprised no one has gotten on me for the lack of Dylan or Springsteen titles on the list. But, again, this little music meme thing–at least as I understand it–is suppose to be about the albums that had the most influence on your life when you were growing up. Thus, there is no Dylan or Springsteen on my list because, quite frankly, I was just never able to get into their work. Sure, that’s sacrilegious to some, but again, it’s a personal thing.

  • http://www.techliberation.com Adam Thierer

    John.. Like you say, it’s a matter of taste. If the list was instead entitled “The Most Influential Albums of Each Year,” then I would have had different picks on there, including some punk stuff (Ramones, Sex Pistols, Black Flag, etc) and Nirvana would have been #1 in 1991 instead of just a runner-up. And, from a different perspective, I am surprised no one has gotten on me for the lack of Dylan or Springsteen titles on the list. But, again, this little music meme thing–at least as I understand it–is suppose to be about the albums that had the most influence on your life when you were growing up. Thus, there is no Dylan or Springsteen on my list because, quite frankly, I was just never able to get into their work. Sure, that’s sacrilegious to some, but again, it’s a personal thing.

  • Mark Marich

    Hmmm… no Blow Monkeys or a-ha? I’m not sure how truthful this list is for some of those mid-80s years. But in all seriousness, good list… and this is the kind of thing that will keep my mind twisting for a few days while I develop my own.

  • Mark Marich

    Hmmm… no Blow Monkeys or a-ha? I’m not sure how truthful this list is for some of those mid-80s years. But in all seriousness, good list… and this is the kind of thing that will keep my mind twisting for a few days while I develop my own.

  • http://www.ikeelliott.com Ike Elliott

    Adam, I’ve done it. Inspired by your list, I posted mine here: http://ikeelliott.typepad.com/telecosm/2008/07/best-albums-eve.html

    We overlap on Led Zeppelin, Dark Side of the Moon, Achtung Baby, and Urban Hymns. I was glad to see Miles Davis on your list in 1970, but that year I went with a different jazz favorite, Stanley Turrentine’s Sugar. If I could go all the way back to 1959 I would definitely choos Davis’ Kind of Blue for that year.

    I was very tempted by Stop Making Sense in 1984, but honestly I played REM’s Reckoning a lot more often that year. I liked the Replacements back then, too, but not enough to top the list.

    I’m going to enjoy checking out some of your favorites that I haven’t explored yet. Thanks for the list.

  • http://www.ikeelliott.com Ike Elliott

    Adam, I’ve done it. Inspired by your list, I posted mine here: http://ikeelliott.typepad.com/telecosm/2008/07/

    We overlap on Led Zeppelin, Dark Side of the Moon, Achtung Baby, and Urban Hymns. I was glad to see Miles Davis on your list in 1970, but that year I went with a different jazz favorite, Stanley Turrentine’s Sugar. If I could go all the way back to 1959 I would definitely choos Davis’ Kind of Blue for that year.

    I was very tempted by Stop Making Sense in 1984, but honestly I played REM’s Reckoning a lot more often that year. I liked the Replacements back then, too, but not enough to top the list.

    I’m going to enjoy checking out some of your favorites that I haven’t explored yet. Thanks for the list.

  • Adam Thierer

    Solid list, Ike! I can’t believe I forgot to put Joe Jackson’s “Look Sharp” on my list. Huge oversight. Same goes for “Ghost in the Machine” by the Police. I completely spaced on that one. And I wish I could have found room for an XTC album on my list somewhere. They never got the credit they deserved and had a couple of solid albums.

    I’ll have to check out Pinback and Saint Germain. Those are new ones for me.

    Glad to see some jazz picks on the list. I also though about adding Freddie Hubbard’s “Red Clay” to my list as well as something from Weather Report. If I would have been alive from the late 50s onward, I probably would have had something from Miles Davis every other year with a lot of Coltrane in between. “Love Supreme” is probably my favorite jazz album of all time. (Oh God, I sense another list coming!)

  • Adam Thierer

    … And pay no attention to that Mark Marich guy in the comments above. He’s pretending to be someone who knew me quite well during my high school days and trying to make the world believe that I owned some really crappy music by the likes of A-Ha and The Blow Monkeys. Never!

    [And even if it was true, I had a solid collection of heavy metal in regular rotation at the time to balance it out!]

  • http://www.techliberation.com Adam Thierer

    Solid list, Ike! I can’t believe I forgot to put Joe Jackson’s “Look Sharp” on my list. Huge oversight. Same goes for “Ghost in the Machine” by the Police. I completely spaced on that one. And I wish I could have found room for an XTC album on my list somewhere. They never got the credit they deserved and had a couple of solid albums.

    I’ll have to check out Pinback and Saint Germain. Those are new ones for me.

    Glad to see some jazz picks on the list. I also though about adding Freddie Hubbard’s “Red Clay” to my list as well as something from Weather Report. If I would have been alive from the late 50s onward, I probably would have had something from Miles Davis every other year with a lot of Coltrane in between. “Love Supreme” is probably my favorite jazz album of all time. (Oh God, I sense another list coming!)

  • http://www.techliberation.com Adam Thierer

    … And pay no attention to that Mark Marich guy in the comments above. He’s pretending to be someone who knew me quite well during my high school days and trying to make the world believe that I owned some really crappy music by the likes of A-Ha and The Blow Monkeys. Never!

    [And even if it was true, I had a solid collection of heavy metal in regular rotation at the time to balance it out!]

  • http://www.websheriff.com WEB SHERIFF

    WEB SHERIFF Protecting Your Rights on the Internet Tel 44-(0)208-323 8013 Fax 44-(0)208-323 8080 websheriff@websheriff.com http://www.websheriff.com

    Hi Adam / TLF,

    On behalf of Exile Productions and Exile Publishing, many thanks for plugging Van Morrison and, for your readers’ info, up-to-the-minute news on Van’s latest album – Keep It Simple – and 2008 shows is, of course, available on http://www.vanmorrison.com and http://www.myspace.com/vanmorrison and, for a limited period, you can still see Van’s exclusive BBC sessions at http://www.bbc.co.uk/musictv/vanmorrison/video/. We’re also pleased to announce that an increasing archive of exclusive film footage of Van Morrison performances has now been made available for fans on Exile’s official YouTube channel at http://uk.youtube.com/user/OfficialExileFilms .

    Thanks again for your plug.

    Regards,

    WEB SHERIFF

  • http://www.websheriff.com WEB SHERIFF

    WEB SHERIFF
    Protecting Your Rights on the Internet
    Tel 44-(0)208-323 8013
    Fax 44-(0)208-323 8080
    websheriff@websheriff.com
    http://www.websheriff.com

    Hi Adam / TLF,

    On behalf of Exile Productions and Exile Publishing, many thanks for plugging Van Morrison and, for your readers’ info, up-to-the-minute news on Van’s latest album – Keep It Simple – and 2008 shows is, of course, available on http://www.vanmorrison.com and http://www.myspace.com/vanmorrison and, for a limited period, you can still see Van’s exclusive BBC sessions at http://www.bbc.co.uk/musictv/vanmorrison/video/. We’re also pleased to announce that an increasing archive of exclusive film footage of Van Morrison performances has now been made available for fans on Exile’s official YouTube channel at http://uk.youtube.com/user/OfficialExileFilms .

    Thanks again for your plug.

    Regards,

    WEB SHERIFF

  • Adam Thierer

    The aforementioned Mark Marich character who is spreading vicious lies about my music tastes above, has posted a list of his own choices here. It’s a pretty solid list, but I take him to task for a few choices.

  • http://www.techliberation.com Adam Thierer

    The aforementioned Mark Marich character who is spreading vicious lies about my music tastes above, has posted a list of his own choices here. It’s a pretty solid list, but I take him to task for a few choices.

  • Adam Thierer

    Over at the 463 Blog, Sean Garrett has posted his list with some really solid choices.

  • http://www.techliberation.com Adam Thierer

    Over at the 463 Blog, Sean Garrett has posted his list with some really solid choices.

  • http://www.techliberation.com Adam Thierer

    Two late 2008 additions for my list… Guns N' Roses – Chinese Democracy and Metallica's “Death Magnetic.” Both are solid albums by two old-timers. I'm particularly impressed by what Axl was able to pull off without his old mates.

  • http://www.techliberation.com Adam Thierer

    Made edit to change my vote for best album of 2008. Vampire Weekend's debut album is just a masterpiece.

  • http://www.techliberation.com Adam Thierer

    Made edit to change my vote for best album of 2008. Vampire Weekend's debut album is just a masterpiece. Wow, what a great year for music 2008 has been! White Lies is a great new band, too.

  • http://www.techliberation.com Adam Thierer

    Added my choice for best album of 2009: Them Crooked Vultures debut effort. Three seasoned rock veterans prove my wrong that old men can't make great rock music. I thought Silversun Pickups would be the easy choice for best album of the year. But then I heard TCV. Wow. “New Fang” packs a punch like nothing I've heard in years.

  • http://www.techliberation.com Adam Thierer

    Added my choice for best album of 2009: Them Crooked Vultures debut effort. Three seasoned rock veterans prove my wrong that old men can't make great rock music. I thought Silversun Pickups would be the easy choice for best album of the year. But then I heard TCV. Wow. “New Fang” packs a punch like nothing I've heard in years.

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