New music has lost a lot of hold on me over the last few years. And three years ago I decided that instead of trying to keep up with it all, I’d look back at music history and listen to the albums celebrating milestones. Some of these I’d heard before, but many I had not. I ended up cutting out one year of the project (1996), which helped me feel like I wasn’t always behind. This made it much more enjoyable to discover and rediscover classics instead of just whatever was being dumped onto Spotify every Friday.
So below are my top 10s from each year I covered, along with some honorable mentions.
1971
- Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On
- Can – Tago Mago
- Lily Tomlin – This Is a Recording
- Miles Davis – Jack Johnson
- Fela Kuti – Live!
- The Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers
- David Bowie – Hunky Dory
- Led Zeppelin – Untitled
- Carole King – Tapestry
- Joni Mitchell – Blue
HONORABLE MENTIONS
• Bob Dylan – Greatest Hits Vol. II
• Elton John – Madman Across the Water
• Nilsson – Nilsson Schmilsson
• John Prine – John Prine
• Rodriguez – Coming from Reality
• The Rolling Stones – Hot Rocks 1964-1971
• Cat Stevens – Teaser and the Firecat
• Rod Stewart – Every Picture Tells a Story
• The Who – Who’s Next
1981
- Elvis Costello – Trust
- Rick James – Street Songs
- Kraftwerk – Computer World
- U2 – October
- X – Wild Gift
- The Rolling Stones – Tattoo You
- This Heat – Deceit
- The dB’s – Stands for Decibels
- Mission of Burma – Signals, Calls, and Marches
- Brian Eno & David Byrne – My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
HONORABLE MENTIONS
• Blondie – The Best of Blondie
• Funkadelic – The Electric Spanking of War Babies
• Gang of Four – Solid Gold
• Motörhead – No Sleep ’til Hammersmith
• Willie Nelson – Greatest Hits (& Some That Will Be)
• Pretenders – Pretenders II
• Queen – Greatest Hits
• Rush – Moving Pictures
