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.