One album per year
There's this blog post on the avclub where you're supposed to pick an album for every year you've been alive, and huge music geek that I am, I had no choice but to participate. There were a few tough calls, but I'm generally happy with the results. I will stand behind every last choice as a stone-cold classic, and I think overall the list stands as a pretty good representation of my range of musical tastes (there would be more folk music had I been born earlier in the seventies). Apologies to Reverend Glasseye: it was a tough call, but Johnny Dowd was the sentimental favorite. Also to Manic Street Preachers: if it makes you feel any better, there's no way you would have been supplanted by the Handsome Family had I written this five years ago.
1979: Elvis Costello & the Attractions, Armed Forces
1980: Tom Waits, Heartattack and Vine
1981: Ultravox, Rage in Eden
1982: Joe Jackson, Night and Day
1983: Heaven 17, The Luxury Gap
1984: Soft Cell, This Last Night in Sodom
1985: The Pogues, Rum, Sodomy & the Lash
1986: Stan Ridgway, The Big Heat
1987: Depeche Mode, Music for the Masses
1988: Leonard Cohen, I'm Your Man
1989: The Cure, Disintegration
1990: Marc Almond, Enchanted
1991: Ray Fisher, Traditional Songs of Scotland
1992: Oysterband, Deserters
1993: James, Laid
1994: Suede, Dog Man Star
1995: Blur, The Great Escape
1996: Steeleye Span, Time
1997: Jim White, (Mysterious tale of how I shouted) "Wrong-Eyed Jesus!"
1998: The Handsome Family, Through the Trees
1999: Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros, Rock Art and the X-Ray Style
2000: 16 Horsepower, Secret South
2001: Johnny Dowd, Temporary Shelter
2002: Mary Gauthier, Filth & Fire
2003: Calexico, Feast of Wire
2004: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Abattoir Blues
2005: Decemberists, Picaresque
2006: Legendary Shack Shakers, Pandelirium
2007: Strawfoot, Chasing Locusts
2008: Slim Cessna's Auto Club, Cipher
2009: Sparks, The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman
2010: Munly & the Lupercalians, Petr & the Wulf
1979: Elvis Costello & the Attractions, Armed Forces
1980: Tom Waits, Heartattack and Vine
1981: Ultravox, Rage in Eden
1982: Joe Jackson, Night and Day
1983: Heaven 17, The Luxury Gap
1984: Soft Cell, This Last Night in Sodom
1985: The Pogues, Rum, Sodomy & the Lash
1986: Stan Ridgway, The Big Heat
1987: Depeche Mode, Music for the Masses
1988: Leonard Cohen, I'm Your Man
1989: The Cure, Disintegration
1990: Marc Almond, Enchanted
1991: Ray Fisher, Traditional Songs of Scotland
1992: Oysterband, Deserters
1993: James, Laid
1994: Suede, Dog Man Star
1995: Blur, The Great Escape
1996: Steeleye Span, Time
1997: Jim White, (Mysterious tale of how I shouted) "Wrong-Eyed Jesus!"
1998: The Handsome Family, Through the Trees
1999: Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros, Rock Art and the X-Ray Style
2000: 16 Horsepower, Secret South
2001: Johnny Dowd, Temporary Shelter
2002: Mary Gauthier, Filth & Fire
2003: Calexico, Feast of Wire
2004: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Abattoir Blues
2005: Decemberists, Picaresque
2006: Legendary Shack Shakers, Pandelirium
2007: Strawfoot, Chasing Locusts
2008: Slim Cessna's Auto Club, Cipher
2009: Sparks, The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman
2010: Munly & the Lupercalians, Petr & the Wulf
posted by GeoX, one of the GeoX boys. at 11:33 PM
The problem with this is that a lot of my favourite albums are grouped around the years 1989 and 1993-1994. For instance, The Cure's Disintegration, The The's Mind Bomb, and New Order's Technique all came out in 1989. Suede, Blur and Massive Attack all compete for the 1994 title, and there's no way I can choose between Underworld and James for 1993...
- SK
Yeah, some years definitely had more candidates than others. I had a policy of only including one album per artist so as to make the list more interesting, which made some decisions a little easier. But sometimes, one had to simply CHOOSE! Be heartless! For the greater glory of the Republic!
...I'm still not altogether happy about 1984, though. Ultravox? Really? Not The Smiths? Not Echo and the Bunnymen? I don't know, man. I just don't know.
Fun post, good albums. I'm going to have to protest Blur's Great Escape in 1995 and select Pulp's Different Class instead - I think, at the time and even now, it was a better quality and more relevant album. And how could you skip Oasis' Definitely Maybe for 94? Come on now :P
G
'95 was more or less a toss-up; it really could've gone either way. I must maintain, however, that your assessment of The Great Escape is dead wrong. Blur never recorded anything better.
'94 was an easy choice, however. Oasis is great in their own way, but at their best, they would never have been able to do anything as thrillingly romantic as "The Wild Ones," as elegantly sordid as "The Asphalt World," or as simply sublime as "Still Life." It's simply not in their DNA. And Liam Gallagher's bellowing sounds awfully crude compared to Brett Anderson's tortured crooning. It's all just an aesthetic preference, I suppose, but for my money, there's no comparison.
EUREKA. I now have the perfect 1984 album. How could I forget about Soft Cell?
Updated for 2009!
Updated for 2010. Also, rejiggered so as not to violate the one-artist-only rule. Also feeling bummed out that Gabrielle (the anonymous "G," above) decided for some reason to decisively cut ties with all her old friends.