As I approach the end of my thirty-fifth trip around the sun, I have the urge to mark the occasion with a little look back at my life so far. Towards that end, I am working on a series of little posts about silly (or not so silly) things about me and my life.
Here we have a sort of “life in music” list. One album for each year I have been alive, based on how much I still listen to the album now. This is not so much a “best of” as a “best loved”. There are most certainly more “important” or groundbreaking or representative albums for music in general, or your favorite genre for almost every year listed. These are my favorites, the albums I listen to most often.
This was a surprisingly hard list to make. While there were several years (1976-1979) where it was obvious what album I would choose since there were only one or two to choose from, there were many years (1989-1991, 1994, 1997, etc…) where to narrow down the releases to even a few I loved was pretty hard, and picking a favorite had me resorting to flipping coins.
1976 – Ramones – Ramones
1977 – Grateful Dead – Terrapin Station
1978 – Patti Smith Group – Easter
1979 – Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures
1980 – Dead Kennedys – Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
1981 – Brian Eno & David Byrne – My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
1982 – Misfits – Walk Among Us
1983 – Cocteau Twins – Head Over Heels
1984 – Minutemen – Double Nickels On the Dime
1985 – The Jesus and Mary Chain – Psychocandy
1986 – Chumbawamba – Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records
1987 – The Cure – Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me
1988 – The Pogues – If I Should Fall from Grace with God
1989 – Nirvana – Bleach
1990 – Fugazi – Repeater + 3 Songs
1991 – This Mortal Coil – Blood
1992 – Rollins Band – The End of Silence
1993 – Phish – Rift
1994 – Jeff Buckley – Grace
1995 – Radiohead – The Bends
1996 – Outcast – ATLiens
1997 – Roni Size & Reprazent – New Forms
1998 – Bad Boy Bill – Bangin’ the Box, Volume 3
1999 – Moby – Play
2000 – Apoptygma Berzerk – Welcome to Earth
2001 – Sinéad O’Connor – The Black Album
2002 – Ugly Casanova – Sharpen Your Teeth
2003 – Dropkick Murphys – Blackout
2004 – Rise Against – Siren Song of the Counter Culture
2005 – Elbow – Leaders of the Free World
2006 – My Morning Jacket – Okonokos
2007 – Band of Horses – Cease to Begin
2008 – Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip – Angles
2009 – Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More
2010 – Brandon Flowers – Flamingo
2011 – Adele – 21
2012 – Ben Howard – Every Kingdom
