Now that the corporate crappification of Television Without Pity has been fully effected, I've started getting my daily pop culture fix at The Onion A.V. Club. A recent post over there picks up on a meme that's apparently making the rounds: pick a favorite album for every year you've been alive.
As with most lists, making it was more troublesome than I initially thought. Some years offered an embarrassment of riches: for 1977 I could easily have chosen Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols (which I did not, despite the post title), Elvis Costello's My Aim Is True, or Bob Marley's Exodus. Had I been doing a Top Ten for each year I might also have thrown in Steely Dan's Aja and Thin Lizzy's Jailbreak. But I decided to show some self-discipline and limit myself to just one. (And honestly, '77 was pretty much a lock from the get-go: The Clash is one of a handful of records that I can say, without hyperbole, changed my life.)
Other years proved difficult for the opposite reason: there seemed to be few, or no, albums that I really deemed worthy of inclusion on the list. Take 2001: I like Pink and all, but is she an artist of the same magnitude as most of the others here? No. Nonetheless, I wanted my list to be complete.
I also wondered whether to pick artists and albums that I loved back then, during their own eras, or stuff that I appreciate now, with my (somewhat) more refined palate. I decided that both outlooks should play a part: for 1981 I originally had Stevie Nicks's Bella Donna, which I (and many others) played incessantly at the time, but which I can't really see myself listening to now (although I will crank up the radio if "Edge of Seventeen" comes on). I swapped it out for the Go-Go's Beauty and the Beat, which I still spin now and again. Indeed, everything that made the final version of my list is either in my current collection and still listened to, or is something that I had at one point (probably on vinyl) and mean to replace when I can.
So anyway, here's the list:
1965 Rubber Soul, The Beatles
1966 Revolver, The Beatles
1967 The Doors, The Doors
1968 Electric Ladyland, The Jimi Hendrix Experience
1969 Led Zeppelin II, Led Zeppelin
1970 Plastic Ono Band, John Lennon
1971 Sticky Fingers, The Rolling Stones
1972 The Harder They Come, Jimmy Cliff et al. (movie soundtrack)
1973 Dark Side Of The Moon, Pink Floyd
1974 I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight, Richard and Linda Thompson
1975 Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen
1976 Night Moves, Bob Seger
1977 The Clash, The Clash
1978 Parallel Lines, Blondie
1979 The Wall, Pink Floyd
1980
1981 Beauty and the Beat, The Go-Go’s
1982 Chronic Town, R.E.M.
1983 War, U2
1984 Let It Be, The Replacements
1985 The Wishing Chair, 10,000 Maniacs
1986 Licensed to
1987 Appetite for Destruction, Guns N’ Roses
1988 It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, Public Enemy
1989 Maria McKee, Maria McKee
1990 Facelift, Alice in Chains
1991 Nevermind, Nirvana
1992 Hey Babe, Juliana Hatfield
1993 Exile in Guyville, Liz Phair
1994 Live Through This, Hole
1995 University, Throwing Muses
1996 Sheryl Crow, Sheryl Crow
1997 Jet, Katell Keineg
1998 Got No Shadow, Mary Lou Lord
1999 Fly,
2000 Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, PJ
2001 M!ssundaztood, Pink
2002 Jennie Bomb,
2003 Streetcore, Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros
2004 Gold Medal, The Donnas
2005 Back to Me, Kathleen Edwards
2006 Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, Neko Case
2007 Magic, Bruce Springsteen
2008 Rockferry, Duffy
