Best Albums Since the Year I Was Born

Let's debate the merits of listicles later. Here we have an honest depiction of my current favorite albums from each year since my birth. Let it be known that I have ommitted from this list any albums that I have not, at one point in my life, listened to frequently.

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  1983: R.E.M. - Murmur
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  1984: Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense
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  1985: Husker Du - New Day Rising
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  1986: The Smiths - The Queen is Dead
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  1987: Prince - Sign of the Times
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  1988: Journey - Greatest Hits
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  1989: The Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
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  1990: They Might Be Giants - Flood?
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  1991: Massive Attack - Blue Lines
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  1992: Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine?
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  1993: Yo La Tengo - Painful
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  1994: Weezer - The Selftitled Blue Album
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  1995: Tricky - Maxinquaye
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  1996: DJ Shadow - Endtroducing
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  1997: Radiohead - OK Computer
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  1998: Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children
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  1999: The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
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  2000: Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun (released in Europe in 1999...)
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  2001: Microphones - The Glow Pt. 2
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  2002: Mclusky - Do Dallas
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  2003: Lightning Bolt - Wonderful Rainbow
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  2004: Zazen Boys II
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  2005: Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree
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  2006: The Knife - Silent Shout
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  2007: Future of the Left - Curses
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  2008: Islands - Arm's Way / Robyn - Robyn

Obviously the two real standouts here are 1990 and 1992, which I now realize are somehow total dead spots on my radar. There exist, to my knowledge, no albums made during those years that I can definitively say that I really like. Sure, when I was in high school Flood and Rage Against the Machine were on all the time, and I still listen to them now and again. They're good records, but there's no way they would enter this conversation if they weren't released in those years. I guess I'd better step up my early 90's game.

Not like the late 80's were much better. If Journey's Greatest Hits looks like a stretch, it is. Not because I don't love the album, but it totally bales me out of another 1992 situation.

Notable snubs - The Hold Steady, Cornershop - who unfortunately can't compete with Radiohead in '97, The Notwist, and - the more I look at this list the more obvious it becomes - anyone who isn't a white male. A good start to a summer soul search.