New music has lost a lot of hold on me over the last few years. And seven 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. 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.
1975
1. Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run
2. Bob Dylan – Blood on the Tracks
3. Fleetwood Mac – Fleetwood Mac
4. Bob Dylan and the Band – The Basement Tapes
5. Tom Waits – Nighthawks at the Diner
6. NEU! – NEU! ’75
7. Patti Smith – Horses
8. Toots and the Maytals – Funky Kingston
9. Parliament – Mothership Connection
10. Keith Jarrett – The Köln Concert
HONORABLE MENTIONS
• Gato Barbieri – Chapter Four: Alive in New York
• David Bowie – Young Americans
• Burning Spear – Marcus Garvey
• Clifton Chenier – Bogalusa Boogie
• J.D. Crowe & the New South – J.D. Crowe & the New South
• Brian Eno – Another Green World | Discreet Music
• Fania All Stars – Live at Yankee Stadium
• Al Green – Greatest Hits
• Thelma Houston & Pressure Cooker – I’ve Got the Music in Me
• Elton John – Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
• KISS – Alive!
• Fela Kuti – Expensive Shit
• Led Zeppelin – Physical Graffiti
• Joni Mitchell – The Hissing of Summer Lawns
• Willie Nelson – Red Headed Stranger
• Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
• Queen – A Night at the Opera
• Roxy Music – Siren
• Paul Simon – Still Crazy After All These Years
• Neil Young – Tonight’s the Night
• Various Artists – Nashville: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
• Various Artists – Rocky Horror Picture Show
1985
1. The Replacements – Tim
2. Sam Cooke – Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963
3. Kate Bush – Hounds of Love
4. The Pogues – Rum Sodomy & the Lash
5. Tom Waits – Rain Dogs
6. Wynton Marsalis – Black Codes (From the Underground)
7. Various Artists – The Indestructible Beat of Soweto
8. Barbra Streisand – The Broadway Album
9. Hüsker Dü – New Day Rising | Flip Your Wig
10. Prince – Around the World in a Day
HONORABLE MENTIONS
• The Cars – Greatest Hits
• Elvis Costello – The Best of Elvis Costello and the Attractions
• The Cure – The Head on the Door
• Dire Straits – Brothers in Arms
• The Jesus and Mary Chain – Psychocandy
• LL Cool J – Radio
• Mekons – Fear and Whiskey
• New Order – Low-Life
• Oingo Boingo – Dead Man’s Party
• Prefab Sprout – Steve McQueen
• R.E.M. – Fables of the Reconstruction
• Rites of Spring – Rites of Spring
• Sade – Promise
• Wham! – Make It Big
2005
1. Sufjan Stevens – Illinois
2. Kanye West – Late Registration
3. Kate Bush – Aerial
4. Electric Masada – At the Mountains of Madness
5. Death Cab for Cutie – Plans
6. Bloc Party – Silent Alarm
7. Bright Eyes – I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning | Digital Ash in a Digital Urn
8. My Morning Jacket – Z
9. Gorillaz – Demon Days
10. The Decemberists – Picaresque
HONORABLE MENTIONS
• The All-American Rejects – Move Along
• Animal Collective – Feels
• Antony and the Johnsons – I Am a Bird Now
• Fiona Apple – Extraordinary Machine
• Beck – Guero
• Boards of Canada – The Campfire Headphase
• Clipse – We Got It 4 Cheap Vol. 2
• Coldplay – X&Y
• Common – Be
• Depeche Mode – Playing the Angel
• Edan – Beauty and the Beat
• Fall Out Boy – From Under the Cork Tree
• Fountains of Wayne – Out-of-State Plates
• David Gray – Life in Slow Motion
• Kaiser Chiefs – Employment
• Kings of Leon – Aha Shake Heartbreak
• LCD Soundsystem – LCD Soundsystem
• M83 – Before the Dawn Heals Us
• Madonna – Confessions on a Dance Floor
• Nickel Creek – Why Should the Fire Die?
• Robyn – Robyn
• The Rocket Summer – Hello, Good Friend
• Sigur Rós – Takk…
• Bruce Springsteen – Devils & Dust
• Spoon – Gimme Fiction
• Wussy – Funeral Dress
2015
1. Original Broadway Cast – Hamilton
2. Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell
3. Kamasi Washington – The Epic
4. Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear
5. Tame Impala – Currents
6. Jason Isbell – Something More Than Free
7. Seryn – Shadow Shows
8. The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die – Harmlessness
9. Jamie xx – In Colour
10. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly
HONORABLE MENTIONS
• Adele – 25
• Alabama Shakes – Sound & Color
• Julien Baker – Sprained Ankle
• Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
• Beach House – Depression Cherry | Thank Your Lucky Stars
• Beach Slang – The Things We Do to Find People Who Feel Like Us
• Björk – Vulnicura
• The Decemberists – What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World
• Grimes – Art Angels
• Janet Jackson – Unbreakable
• Josh Ritter – Sermon on the Rocks
• Chris Stapleton – Traveller
• Titus Andronicus – The Most Lamentable Tragedy