> All right, so I made a list. Why did I do this? Because, apparently, I am a
> complete fucking loser, and I actually find such exercises in tedium
> diverting. And because I am a self-absorbed sadist, I am going to inflict the
> list on the five of you who still read this newsgroup (actually there may be
> as many as ten, but I think I have five of you killfiled).
>
> Here are the criteria: To select one album from every year from 1964 to the
> present. Why 1964? No particular reason. I just thought that 1964 was when
> pop music started to get really interesting (which naturally explains why the
> first two albums on the list are jazz albums). One could also make a strong
> argument for 1963, what with Beatlemania and all, and if I was to pick an
> album for '63 it would be "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan". As is of course
> standard procedure with album lists, compilation albums are not allowed. Live
> albums _are_ allowed, but as it turns out there aren't any on my final list.
> I also tried to view the set of albums as a whole, so that there wouldn't be
> too many redundancies or similar works in there, although at the same time I
> wasn't trying to be eclectic for the sake of being eclectic, and only picked
> albums that I really thought held up as top-rank albums. In three cases I
> _did_ pick two albums by the same artist (and oddly enough, in every case they
> were consecutive albums), but in all of those cases the albums in question
> were just too good to not make it on there.
>
> Note of warning: I am an unrepentant rockist, so for instance pretty much
> every artist on this list is male (in fact I believe the only exceptions are
> Tina Weymouth and Teresa Taylor), and they are pretty much all by bands or
> performers writing their own compositions (exception: _Nothing Can Stop Us_).
> It is kind of interesting to see what did and didn't make it; a lot of bands I
> really enjoy and think are great didn't make the list at all (no Beatles!),
> and some genres I like are totally unrepresented (no Krautrock!). Also, this
> list is completely subjective, and does not try to list "greatest" albums,
> just the albums that I personally have the greatest preference for.
>
> Because I'm long-winded, I wrote brief notes about most of the albums. Some
> of the albums are so renowned and written about that I couldn't think of a
> single god-damned thing to say about them that hadn't been said a million
> times before, so in that case I refrained from commenting. Anyway, enjoy! Or
> don't. Whatever.
>
> 1964: Eric Dolphy - Out to Lunch: One of the most fascinating "what-ifs" in
> history is the notion that if Dolphy had lived, he might have made an album
> _better_ than this. Oh, it's unlikely; statistically, when a band puts out a
> really fantastic album like this one, anything that comes afterwards is bound
> to be a disappointment. Still, such a thing isn't unprecedented artistically,
> and Dolphy was very, very talented.
>
> 1965: Sun Ra - Heliocentric Worlds, Vol. 2: 1965 was Sun Ra's breakthrough
> year. Don't get me wrong, he had recorded a lot of great material before
> then, both in Chicago and in New York (the criminally unavailable "Secrets of
> the Sun" being a particular highlight), but 1965 was the year it all came
> together for Sunny with a set of three fantastic albums for the ESP label. I
> could easily pick any of the three as this year's album, and perhaps "The
> Magic City" is the most iconic, containing as it does the legendary "Shadow
> World", but I went with this one, simply because I'm a complete sucker for
> "The Sun Myth". (I also considered "A Love Supreme" as this year's pick, but
> although I love Trane, I've never considered "A Love Supreme" one of my
> favorites; I actually find it kind of overrated, although it is indisputably
> brilliant.)
>
> 1966: The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds: Kind of an obvious pick, but sometimes the
> most obvious choice is the right one. I also considered the Monks' "Black
> Monk Time", but although I admire the unique sound and incredible pogo-worthy
> energy they brought to their album, "Pet Sounds" just has better _songs_ on
> it, even if it is possibly a little fey. Oh, and the version I'd take is
> definitely the original mono mix.
>
> 1967: The Who - The Who Sell Out: 1967 is actually a problematic year in
> music, and there's one reason for it: Sgt. Pepper. Don't get me wrong, Sgt.
> Pepper was a landmark album and forced the world to completely re-evaluate the
> way they looked at rock albums and all, but unfortunately the actual _songs_
> on it were, for the most part, just not all that good, and just as
> unfortunately Sgt. Pepper unleashed a torrent of over-orchestrated fairy-dust
> crap on the world. Much of it is not without merit; in fact, a lot of it I
> rather like, but at the same time it all gets a bit precious after a while.
> Which is why I picked this album, which is a bit of an anomaly in the climate
> of 1967. Oh, it's not that it's unambitious; it does after all end with a
> six-minute excerpt from one of those dreaded "rock operas". But at the same
> time, "Sell Out" is unafraid to rock out, and does it on catchy, well-written
> songs, making it in my mind the embodiment of everything that was good about
> rock and roll in the '60s. If I was allowed, I'd take the expanded reissue,
> as I like pretty much every song on it. Yes, even the Keith Moon song.
> (Petra Haden's version of the album is also excellent.)
>
> 1968: The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat: No comment.
>
> 1969: The Mothers of Invention - Uncle Meat: I originally had "Weasels Ripped
> My Flesh" picked for this year, but then I realized although it was recorded
> in '69 for the most part, it wasn't actually released until 1970. Then I
> realized that Uncle Meat, which came out in '69, was actually a better album
> anyway. I tend to shy away from double albums for the purposes of this list,
> as they're generally padded and thus their impact is diluted, but this is
> actually one of the few double albums that (on LP, at least) isn't padded at
> all. Caveat: I definitely would pick the LP version of this, as the CD
> version is padded out with awful, _awful_ "bonus tracks".
>
> 1970: The Stooges - Fun House: All the Stooges albums are good, in terms of
> songwriting and playing, but unfortunately all of them except this one suffer
> from awful "celebrity" production that only served to make them sound worse.
> Unfortunately, I suspect this will apply to their upcoming album as well; I've
> only ever heard two albums produced by Steve Albini I didn't totally hate (one
> of them is on this list and the other didn't come out until like last month).
>
> 1971: Funkadelic - Maggot Brain: Other notable albums this year included "Tago
> Mago" and "Meddle", but neither Michael Karoli nor David Gilmour played the
> guitar as if their mother had just died on them. Advantage: Eddie Hazel.
>
> 1972: Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band - Clear Spot: I thought about
> putting "Pink Moon" in this spot, but then I thought about it, and realized my
> choice was between a set of low-key, morose folk songs and "Big Eyed Beans
> From Venus". Put on those terms, the choice was not very difficult. Who
> would have thought that getting the Doobie Brothers' producer to do a Captain
> Beefheart album would work out so well?
>
> 1973: Stevie Wonder - Innervisions: No comment.
>
> 1974: Magma - Wurdah Itah (AKA Christian Vander - Tristan et Yseult): Pretty
> radically different, at least in instrumentation, from the total overkill of
> "Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh", this presents Magma's music stripped to its
> core; piano, bass, drums, and the ever-present vocals. Kind of their
> "Basement Tapes", in a way. Anyway, it works fabulously well, and is one of
> my top albums ever, so was a shoo-in for this list, despite strong competition
> from King Crimson's "Red" and Robert Wyatt's "Rock Bottom".
>
> 1975: Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks: It took me a long time to actually get
> around to listening to this album- while it's considered a classic, you'll
> never hear, say, "Tangled Up in Blue" on the radio, or at least I never did,
> and as I wasn't a Dylan "fan" per se it passed me right by. I was surprised
> to discover that it was not just his best post-'60s album, the way people kept
> saying, but was, to my ears, his best album, full stop. If I was allowed to,
> I'd actually pick the original "New York" version of the album- both versions
> have their merits, but having been introduced to both versions at about the
> same time, I like the "New York" version better- but that's probably not
> allowed, not just because it wasn't actually released, but because the acetate
> in question actually dates to 197_4_.
>
> 1976: Van Der Graaf Generator - Still Life: 1976 was the first really tough
> year for me to pick due to a lack of suitable material. The bloom was really
> off the rose for "progressive rock", and punk hadn't really hit yet. The
> result is that there's not really that much to pick from. If National Health
> had managed to get an album out before Mont Campbell left, it would've been a
> shoo-in for this list, but unfortunately that didn't come to be. Anyway,
> Still Life is definitely in the top tier of VDGG albums, without any really
> weak songs and some songs I find totally incredible, like "La Rossa" and the
> title track, so it gets the nod for this year. (If "Over" had come out this
> year instead of '77, though, it might have been stiff competition.)
>
> 1977: Television - Marquee Moon: No comment.
>
> 1978: DEVO - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!: Again, it was a tough call
> between this and Pere Ubu's "Dub Housing", but while Dub Housing is an
> incredibly visionary album, it's just not as much fun to listen to as Q?/A!
> The insane catchiness of "Uncontrollable Urge" along gives this one the nod.
> The first of two albums on the list Eno was involved with, although frankly
> Eno didn't do all _that_ much for the album, compared to the other one on the
> list; basically he recorded them the way they sounded in concert and on demos
> without fucking it up horribly. Which is fine, because that's really all he
> needed to do.
>
> 1979: Public Image Ltd - Metal Box: Where John Lydon took all the bands he was
> name-dropping in the Pistols and started actually using elements of their
> sound. The results are far more interesting than the Sex Pistols, who are
> good in theory but in practice got their asses kicked by pretty much every
> other punk band out there. There are two different mixes of this album,
> "Metal Box" and "Second Edition". To be honest I don't know which one I
> prefer; I guess I'd be OK with either of them.
>
> 1980: Talking Heads - Remain in Light: The culmination of their Eno-era sound,
> and IMO their last good studio album. (The live album "The Name Of This Band
> Is..." was also extremely good, in fact much better than the overrated "Stop
> Making Sense"). Honestly I listen to "Fear of Music" more, but this album is
> totally brilliant. Odd footnote: When Phish played this album live, they did
> a really, really good job, and I say this despite the fact that I hate Phish
> and feel they completely butchered "Loaded".
>
> 1981: Robert Wyatt - Nothing Can Stop Us: Like "Birth of the Cool", compiled
> from singles. A wonderful "comeback" effort that established Wyatt as a
> premier interpreter of other people's songs. The only thing I can say for it
> is it'd be even better with a couple more tracks from around this time
> included, like "Shipbuilding" and his absolutely sublime Victor Jara cover.
>
> 1982: Wall of Voodoo - Call of the West: This is, again, possibly not my
> favorite album by them- "Lost Continent" has a hell of a lot going for it- but
> it is very, very good, and the title track is stunning.
>
> 1983: Negativland - A Big 10-8 Place: I am not a fan of the '80s. I
> personally feel that very few bands thrived musically in the climate of the
> '80s; in fact, I can only name three or four bands whose '80s work is their
> best stuff. They are all on this list, and Negativland is the first. Like
> Lenny Bruce, Negativland in my mind went downhill pretty steeply when they
> allowed politics to dominate what they were doing; it's perhaps inevitable,
> and I agree with them politically, but from an artistic perspective it's
> disenheartening (though Negativland is still up there with the best when it
> comes to pure sound collage; the CD of "Death Sentences of the Polished and
> Structurally Weak" is perhaps one of my favorite noise albums of all time, and
> I don't even generally go for pure noise music).
>
> 1984: Skeleton Crew - Learn To Talk: This was the hardest year for me to pick,
> and consequently the last one I did. Although I love avant-garde music, I
> really didn't give too much consideration to a lot of albums in that genre,
> because very few of them fit the criteria of "timeless classic" for me.
> Still, as avant-garde albums go, this is certainly one of the best, and there
> wasn't that much else to pick from. Not that there weren't good albums that
> came out this year- "Purple Rain", "Double Nickels On The Dime", and I think
> "New Day Rising" all came out this year, not to mention, of course, the
> "Spinal Tap" soundtrack- but none of them are albums I really enjoy listening
> to, so this got the nod. I also considered Univers Zero's "Uzed", but I think
> this one is more diverse and original, and hence to me more interesting.
>
> 1985: Tom Waits - Rain Dogs: Tom Waits is another one of those rare people who
> was around before the '80s, but actually got better in the '80s, thus bucking
> the trend set by people like David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, etc. A lot of
> this of course had to do with his wife Kathleen Brennan, who did things like
> introduce him to the music of Captain Beefheart (which I find pretty bizarre;
> the guy toured with Zappa in '74, and had never heard Beefheart?). Anyway his
> music since then has all been pretty much just as great as this, but if I was
> going to pick one, it'd be this one.
>
> 1986: Metallica - Master of Puppets: For some reason a lot of people seem to
> prefer Slayer's _Reign in Blood_ to this one, possibly because Slayer didn't
> turn into a bunch of sell-out, fan-suing pussies, but regardless Master of
> Puppets is, to my mind, clearly the better album. The songs are better, the
> playing is better, the production is better; it's just a superior album, and
> clearly Metallica's best.
>
> 1987: Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician: Nowadays it's pretty cool
> to slam the Butthole Surfers since they sued Touch and Go and to talk about
> how "overrated" they are, but fuck it, I don't care if Gibby Haynes sues me
> personally, they still made some of the best music of the '80s, and nothing is
> going to change that. Locust Abortion Technician is possibly their finest
> moment, the point in time where everything came together for the Butthole
> Surfers as a band, and we are better off for having it, whatever label it's
> on.
>
> 1988: Talk Talk - The Spirit of Eden: Not my favorite album of theirs, but
> close enough to being my favorite that it makes the list. I considered
> Bongwater's "Double Bummer" here, but it suffers from being a double album and
> I don't like it as much as 1991's "The Power of Pussy" (although Talk Talk
> beats out that album too, as it transpires), so no.
>
> 1989: Prince - Batman: Weirdly enough, the only Prince album I've really
> gotten into. The reason for this is of course "Batdance", perhaps the
> weirdest song ever to get widespread radio airplay. Anyway it's a brilliant
> mindfuck of a song, and even if the rest of the album sucked it might even
> manage to make it by on that song alone. The rest of the album, however,
> doesn't suck, so on it goes. Also considered: "Paul's Boutique". It didn't
> make it, but the Dust Brothers will appear later in the list...
>
> 1990: Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet: I almost left this off the list
> when I found out Branford Marsalis was on it. It's like going to see a Spike
> Lee movie and finding out the script was by Marlon Wayans. Still, this is an
> excellent, excellent album, even if it's not _quite_ up there with "It Takes A
> Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back" for me, it was easily the pick of 1990,
> which might well be the year modern music hit its nadir. I mean, seriously,
> people. Rick ASTLEY? WTF?
>
> 1991: Talk Talk - Laughing Stock: This is one of those rare albums where a
> band puts out an incredible, mindblowing, perfect album- and then comes out
> with the very next album and tops it. I love it when things like that happen,
> especially considering how rare it is. Of course nobody listened to it when
> it came out (I know I certainly didn't), but you can't have everything. One
> of my top albums ever.
>
> 1992: They Might Be Giants - Apollo 18: OK, stop sneering. This is actually a
> really good album. Yes, it's kind of college-geek-rock, and yes, I _did_
> first hear it in college, but as the last album before they actually hired a
> "real" band, it's interesting, weird, and engaging. And "Fingertips" is
> unbeatable.
>
> 1993: Nirvana - In Utero: The album I like despite its being produced by Steve
> Albini. Nirvana is kind of weird because not only was Kurt Cobain the
> ultimate Indie-Rock Pete, he was also capable of making really good music.
> Which was of course ultimately what killed him. Well, that and the heroin.
> And maybe Courtney Love, too, whatever. Yeah point being "Radio Friendly Unit
> Shifter" is an awesome, awesome song. If I got to choose, though, I would
> _not_ pick the version of the album that contains "Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol
> Flow Through The Strip". I mean, I like "Endless, Nameless" and all, but
> "Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol" is just crap.
>
> 1994: Jeff Buckley - Grace: No comment.
>
> 1995: Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante: I'll go on a limb and say this is their best
> album. _California_ was a really good album too, but the mastering on that
> was shit, and the tour for that album was _terrible_, whereas the Disco
> Volante tour was fucking incredible (not nearly enough bootlegs circulating of
> that tour, particularly of the European leg). It's a crying fucking shame
> that Mike Patton and Trey Spruance hate each other now; IMO, their partnership
> was up there with Lennon-McCartney in terms of sheer talent and complementary
> abilities.
>
> 1996: Beck - Odelay: Not a big Beck fan, but this album is really damn good.
> Probably a lot of that is down to the Dust Brothers, but then again Guero was
> totally underwhelming, so who knows. Adrian Belew's "Op Zop Too Wah" was a
> strong contender for this list, as I find it to be an absolutely fantastic and
> underrated album, but honestly Odelay covers a lot of the same stylistic
> ground and does it better, and in addition Adrian Belew's lyrics are, as
> usual, really, _really_ bad.
>
> 1997: Radiohead - OK Computer: No comment.
>
> 1998: Tortoise - TNT: The only thing that's better than a band putting out a
> great album and then beating it is if I'm actually a fan of the band at the
> time. I really liked "Millions Now Living Will Never Die", and I expected
> their follow-up to be _really_ great. Miraculously, I wasn't disappointed.
>
> 1999: Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage: The first "indie" album I got
> into, and the album that set me up for months of disappointment checking out
> really shitty albums by other "Elephant 6" bands. This album, however? Very,
> very good.
>
> 2000: Radiohead - Kid A: No comment.
>
> 2001: Broadway Project - Compassion: This was a hard one to call, because
> while it's an exceptionally brilliant album, it's also very, very dark, and
> like Pink Floyd's "The Final Cut", I really have to be in the right mood or I
> can't listen to it. Still, it blew my mind the first time I heard it, and for
> that it makes it.
>
> 2002: Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot: Apparently there are some Wilco fans who
> really, really hate Jim O'Rourke, and believe that he "ruined" YHF. I find
> this belief completely bizarre, particularly since if it weren't for YHF I
> probably wouldn't be listening to Wilco now, but I guess everybody has their
> own opinion.
>
> 2003: Ulrich Schnauss - A Strangely Isolated Place: 2001 and 2003 were pretty
> difficult years for me, which is pretty weird because I think I really like a
> lot of comparatively recent music, but for some reason odd-numbered years this
> decade have been "off years" and even-numbered years have been flooded with
> good stuff. It's really weird, and it kind of makes me depressed about next
> year. Anyway I'm not exactly a big Ulrich Schnauss "fan", but this is a good
> album and I like it a lot. Jaga Jazzist's _The Stix_ was also in the running,
> but I actually like _A Livingroom Hush_ better, so the Schnauss it was.
>
> 2004: Brian Wilson - Smile: A lot of competition this year, albums that any
> other year would've been pretty much shoo-ins, but I'm just really a
> fantastically huge fan of this album and have been since 1999, so I can't help
> but pick this one.
>
> 2005: Dalek - Absence: Another off year. If I was to pick a Dalek album, it
> would be his 2004 collaboration with Faust, _Derbe Respect, Alder_, but this
> album is pretty much as good as that one, despite not having Faust on it, so
> it gets the nod. I also considered Charming Hostess's _Punch_, which is an
> extremely good album, but in the end I thought the Dalek album was better.
>
> 2006: Scott Walker - The Drift: I honestly would not have believed an album
> this good could exist had I not heard it myself. Wow.
>
> For the record, the albums on this list that did _not_ get five star ratings
> from allmusic.com: Heliocentric Worlds, Vol. 2 (3), Uncle Meat (4.5), Clear
> Spot (4), Wurdah Itah (3), Still Life (4), Q?/A! (4.5), Nothing Can Stop Us
> (4.5), Call of the West (4.5), A Big 10-8 Place (4), Learn to Talk (4), Locust
> Abortion Technician (4.5), Batman (2.5), Apollo 18 (3.5), Grace (4.5), Disco
> Volante (4.5), TNT (4.5), Black Foliage (4), Kid A (4), Compassion (4.5),
> Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (4), A Strangely Isolated Place (4.5), Smile (4.5),
> Absence (4), and The Drift (4.5). What conclusions can we draw from this?
> Well, that allmusic.com are retards and they hate new music (most recent album
> on the list to get 5 stars: OK Computer. Seriously). But that's not really a
> surprise.
>
> --
> "Flames are discouraged, except for those which quote famous (or
> not-so- famous) Stooge lines. For example, it would be acceptable to
> threaten to 'tear out your tonsils' or to 'gouge your eyes out'."
> - alt.comedy.slapstick.3-stooges FAQ