[JOSweetHeart]

In a way, for me, 2016 couldn't have been better and its because of my newest favorite singer. What makes it so bad is his not being here anymore, I love my late beautiful precious Billy Joe Royal SO much!!!

God bless you and his family always!!!

Holly
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Me & my favorite singer James Otto

Check him out here when you can!

[SleepDealer]

I think Norman makes an excellent point here. I tend to look out for artists I already like, so I'm not always good at tracking new things down. That said, I do have the feeling that some years have been much more of an effort to find good music than others.

Looking at the number of albums in my collection, from 2000 onwards, I have the most from 2004, and the least from 2014. While 2014 was a struggle, and my top 10 from that year isn't amazing, I don't recall 2004 being particularly special... In recent years I've enjoyed 2012 and 2015 a lot, although I think it is also fair to say that these were particularly happy periods in my life as well. So not an entirely pointless exercise, but one that is essentially personal - I would be suspicious of any arbitrary statements stating one year is better than another in more general terms.
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http://distranscontinuum.blogspot.co.uk/

[revolver94]

2012 for best year ------- followed by 2015

2000 for worst, old music SUX
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My top songs of the 2010s
and
Spotify link

Last.fm

[hereforashortime]

For Best, probably 2005 or 2012, as for worst, hmmmm... probably 2009 or 2016

[JOSweetHeart]

Another thing that made this year a good one for me was my getting to see my most favorite singer James Otto again for the third time on October 14th, just five years and eight and a half months after the second time.

God bless you and him always!!!

Holly

P.S. January 31, 2011 was my second time. June 11, 2008 was my first. May there be many more times for me to see him in the future of course!
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Me & my favorite singer James Otto

Check him out here when you can!

[murmur]

I'm gonna shorten the time to 2009-2016 because those are the years I've been actively listening to music. I can only identify three albums from 2001 that I really, really fuck with, but I'm sure if I had lived through it, there would be more. I've listened to a lot of new music in each of those years and was probably most engaged in 2010, 2013, and last year and this year. The year that produced the most music I still hold in high regard is 2015, which saw a huge florescence of confrontational experimental electronic that synthesized diverse elements of the musical landscape from spectral music to rarefied global folk and classical traditions with hip hop, dance, and noise elements. 2013 and 2014 were probably the most barren years for me, as I had discovered this kind of music in late 2013 and my love of EAI went into recession. There were enough releases in these two years to maybe cover both hands as far as things that really pushed the envelope in either of those two directions. Another way to consider it might be what year's listening was the most disposable, but that might just be 2009 and 2010 by nature of the fact that they're farthest in the past so the largest volume of music would have been lowered in my estimation over time. I think 2016 has been a good year for music, but nothing particularly special, and I hope that things ramp up a bit in 2017. A lot of major artists seem to have gone into dormancy after last year, like Lotic and Arca, despite being on the cusp of big album releases. Hopefully some of that will pan out in 2017. I also hope that 2017 shifts the more mainstream focus away from these revival and reunion projects that took up way too much space in the conversation in 2016.

[Komorebi-D]

I don't know about ya'll but if I had to pick one for worst, it would be 2006. I feel like we didn't have much going on that year. Sure we got Ys, The Crane Wife, Band of Horses' debut, Jay Reatard's Blood Visions & that Brand New record, all great albums but other than that (and a few other good ones) it was a pretty dreary turnout. Then came the next year, 2007. That's when albums like In Rainbows, Person Pitch, Boxer, Strawberry Jam, Sound of Silver, Neon Bible and Ga Ga Ga (just to name a few) hit the scene. A vast improvement.

As for best, I can't - for the life of me - decide. I guess I'm not that big of a fan of Arctic Monkey's or Thom Yorke's debuts.
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Some RYM paraphernalia:

2019: The 25 [RYM]
2020: The 25 [RYM]