My discoveries per year - Music Diaries - Forums : Best Ever Albums

dihansse · 2016-04-10T12:28:28-04:00

Well! Here I would like to start with my own long term project taking advantage of the best BEA has to offer: overall charts from people who are as interested in music as I am. I already have year charts which are based on the albums I already own or know, but there are a lot of them which I haven't listened to yet and which might be worth discovering. I'd like to do this by going through the overall BEA top lists per year starting in 1963 which is both my year of birth and the year in which I personally think rock music started to become interesting. To keep it a bit varied I will skip through the years in five year periods, ie starting in 1963 then 1968 then 1973 all the way to 2013 and then back to 1964 and so on. Every year I will start with some stats of my personal chart in comparison to the overall year charts, both top 20 an top 50 and will start to listen to at least the top 20 albums I don't know and I'll hope to give some comments sometimes very short, sometimes a bit longer. I will also update my personal year charts accordingly. In principle I will use Apple Music to listen to the albums, which I suppose will cover most of the field. If a certain album isn't present in Apple Music, I'll have to skip it. I will try to listen to all the albums at least once and sometimes twice if I doubt, but I'll skip the really stupid ones (ex a Xmas compilation in 1963) and also other compilations, classical music, jazz and easy listening. This will be a long term project which means there might be times in which I will stop a bit of course because I don't want be stuck listining to albums of the same year all the time. However I suppose this will take at least a month per year. I will try to keep it up but please don't be mad if I give up (maybe already after the first year :lol: )

dihansse dihansse Profile

My next venture into 2009 albums:
- Only Revolutions by Biffy Clyro (nr 21 in the overall BEA top chart of 2009): at their best they sound like Foo Fighters, but only succeed in that on a few tracks.
- The Fame Monster by Lady Gaga (nr 24): completely not my thing
- Manners by Passion Pit (nr 28 ): comparisons with Arcade Fire are a bit of an insult to Arcade Fire.
- Fantasies by Metric (nr 29): I was a bit in doubt with this one as there a few songs which were relatively good like Sick Muse and Satellite Mind, but after all there are too many mediocre tracks to make this a good album
- Two Dancers by Wild Beasts (nr 30): I only found one good track on this album: This is Our Lot, which has a captivating rhythm. That's not really enough to make this is worthwile album.

The next album I'll listen to is Aim and Ignite by fun.

dihansse dihansse Profile

And some more albums of 2009:
- Aim And Ignite by fun. (nr 31 on the overall BEA top chart of 2009): this album is really ELO-light and some of the tracks which are trying to sound like ELO are not bad: examples are I Wanna Be The One and Take Your Time (Coming Home). But sometimes their sound is really cabaret-esque in the bad sense and overall the songs are not always of great quality. It was a near miss but I chose however not to include it in my personal top chart
- Journal For Plague Lovers by Manic Street Preachers (nr 34): although they try to expand their horizons into new territories like on the first two tracks and on She Bathed herself in a Bath of Bleach (what a title), they still sound very much like the classic Manics which is not a good for me: they sound to much like stadion rock with not enough quality in their songs
- Post-Nothing by Japandroids (nr 35): I already listened to 16 albums in this 2009 listening sessions and it's only at the 17th album that I discovered an album worth including in my personal top chart of 2009 which doesn't say a lot of good on this year. But this is a very fine punkrock album from a band I only knew via their albums issued after 2010 (including their very good new album of 2017).
- I And Love And You by The Avett Brothers (nr 37): this album sounds very country and very grassroots. Some of the tracks have a bit more spirit especially in the second half especially where they try to sound like Wilco or a mellow Drive-By Truckers but overall not really the kind of music I like. Strange kind of déjà vu: Kick Drum Heart has the same feel as Jungle Drum by Emiliana Torriani but I suppose that's just me.

The next album to listen to is Daisy by Brand New.

dihansse dihansse Profile

More 2009 albums:
- Daisy by Brand New (nr 38 on the overall BEA top chart of 2009): overall not very convincing, the Devil and God.. is much better.
- The Ecstatic by Mos Def (nr 40): rap
- This Is War by 30 Seconds To Mars (nr 41): crap
- I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose by Bombay Bicycle Club (42): Cancel On Me and some of the other tracks are fine material but overall not completely convincing album of this very young band.

The next album to listen to is Tarot Sport by Fuck Buttons.

dihansse dihansse Profile

More 2009 albums:
- Tarot Sport by Fuck Buttons (nr 43 on the overall BEA top chart of 2009): apart from Lisbon Maru which is not too bad, this didn't really catch on
- Horehound by The Dead Weather (nr 44): very bluesy album and a bit of a mixture between the Kills and typically Jack White as can be expected. Overall not bad as far as atmospere is concerned but a bit less on songs
- The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart by The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart (nr 45): this debut album is better than their latter ones I already knew: without being fantastic overall a very decent postpunk/rock album
- Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle by Bill Callahan (nr 46): unfortunately this album isn't album is not available on Apple Music or Spotify so I had to listen to it on Youtube. The beginning of the album didn't convince me completely but after while the singing style of Billy Callahan and the way the songs are orchestrated got under my skin and I'm sure this could be a grower as well and that's the reason that I will put this in my personal top chart although at this moment it won't be high in rank.
- It's Not Me, It's You by Lily Allen (nr 47): of course I already had my opinion ready before I listened to this album but in fact it's not bad as far as pop albums go. It's varied and I must admit I quite like her voice and of course there's the hits with Fear as the best one while Fuck You I heard too many times already. Overall not really my taste but a decent album anyway.

The next album to listen to is Hymn to the Immortal Wind by Mono.

dihansse dihansse Profile

Nearly at the end of my listening session of 2009 albums:
- Hymn To The Immortal Wind by Mono (nr 48 on the overall BEA top chart of 2009): this must be one of the most typical postrock albums: it goes from pastoral to absolutely seering musical landscapes, it's instrumental and on top of that they use a complete classical ensemble: enough to make me run away as far as possible from this album but no: it's absolutely wonderful: when the music is pastoral it's so sweet it wants to make you cry and when it's reaching those heights, or via guitar storms or via orchestral storms they also make you want to cry: good album.
- Sound Awake by Karnivool (nr 49): absolute rubbish
- Up From Below by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros (nr 50): this album is as dangerous as male mosquito: you think it might sting but it's completely harmless. I didn't even realize I know them from Home also one of those "radio hits" that are just on the radio because nobody really hates it.

The next album to listen to is Black Gives Way to Blue by Alice In Chains.

dihansse dihansse Profile

And this is the last listening session of 2009:
- Black Gives Way To Blue by Alice In Chains (nr 51 on the overall BEA top chart of 2009): the new singer sounds exactly as the old one and the music sounds exactly as the older albums and it's not really what I like
- Two Suns by Bat For Lashes (nr 52): there are no real highlights on this album, so no not really for my personal top chart.
- Wall Of Arms by The Maccabees (nr 53 and the last album with an overall BEA rank of 2500 or better): it's incredible how much this album sounds like Arcade Fire but not so good. Some tracks like Love You Better and Young Lions are not bad but overall not enough good songs.

And this ends my journey through 2009 albums I didn't know yet. I only discovered 6 albums which were worth including in my personal top chart of the year so that's not really a lot. Here is the final list with at the start the overall BEA rank and after the BEA year rank and my personal rank before and after this listening session:

BEA Rank Title By Band BEA YearRank - My Rank before To My Rank after
2550 Farm By Dinosaur Jr. 57 - 1 To 1
5280 There Is No Enemy By Built To Spill 137 - 2 To 2
3272 The Eternal By Sonic Youth 78 - 3 To 3
863 Them Crooked Vultures By Them Crooked Vultures 15 - 4 To 4
1691 21st Century Breakdown By Green Day 33 - 5 To 5
28932 4 By Johan 855 - 6 To 6
3750 Cosmic Egg By Wolfmother 93 - 7 To 7
9312 Working On A Dream By Bruce Springsteen 251 - 11 To 8
29891 Zero To 99 By Boston Spaceships 904 - 8 To 9
32262 The Planets Are Blasted By Boston Spaceships 969 - 9 To 10
4400 Wilco (The Album) By Wilco 107 - 10 To 11
37723 Chase Park By Magnapop 1090 - 12 To 12
5470 Battle For The Sun By Placebo 143 - 13 To 13
15276 Yours Truly, The Commuter By Jason Lytle 472 - 14 To 14
30691 Touchdown By The Brakes 922 - 15 To 15
1591 Mean Everything To Nothing By Manchester Orchestra 32 - 16 To 16
27908 There Are No Goodbyes By Sophia 852 - 19 To 17
30960 Life And Times By Bob Mould 901 - 17 To 18
43602 The Fountain By Echo & The Bunnymen 1274 - 18 To 19
2266 The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart By The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart 45 - To listen To 20
43950 Hot Wax By Grant Hart 1291 - 20 To 21
1745 Post-Nothing By Japandroids 35 - To listen To 22
683 Primary Colours By The Horrors 11 - To listen To 23
2649 Kingdom Of Rust By Doves 61 - 21 To 24
39787 Is And Always Was By Daniel Johnston 1150 - 23 To 25
11676 Years Of Refusal By Morrissey 340 - 22 To 26
43461 Goodnight Unknown By Lou Barlow 1270 - 24 To 27
21756 Watch Me Fall By Jay Reatard 680 - 25 To 28
361 The Resistance By Muse 6 - 26 To 29
17878 Mirror Mirror By Ghinzu 560 - 27 To 30
35915 Joy By Phish 1039 - 28 To 31
17611 Untitled #23 By The Church 549 - 29 To 32
7992 In And Out Of Control By The Raveonettes 215 - 31 To 33
1442 Backspacer By Pearl Jam 27 - 30 To 34
44983 My Old, Familiar Friend By Brendan Benson 1330 - 32 To 35
51881 How Did It Get To Is By We Rock Like Girls Don't 1557 - 33 To 36
9746 Truelove's Gutter By Richard Hawley 260 - 34 To 37
29977 Fork In The Road By Neil Young 906 - 35 To 38
3054 Hombre Lobo By Eels 71 - 36 To 39
2874 Dragonslayer By Sunset Rubdown 64 - 37 To 40
1241 No Line On The Horizon By U2 23 - 38 To 41
10053 World Painted Blood By Slayer 278 - 40 To 42
13032 Liebe Ist Für Alle Da By Rammstein 369 - 39 To 43
49251 Enter The Characters By Customs 1476 - 41 To 44
1444 To Lose My Life By White Lies 28 - 42 To 45
57116 The Hickey Underworld By The Hickey Underworld 1722 - 43 To 46
2312 Hymn To The Immortal Wind By Mono 48 - To listen To 47
7185 Popular Songs By Yo La Tengo 192 - 44 To 48
7837 Union By The Boxer Rebellion 213 - 45 To 49
3490 In This Light And On This Evening By Editors 85 - 46 To 50
6439 Absynthe Minded By Absynthe Minded 171 - 48 To 51
1412 Tonight: Franz Ferdinand By Franz Ferdinand 26 - 47 To 52
58752 Sweethead By Sweethead 1785 - 49 To 53
60876 Team William By Team William 1842 - 50 To 54
2902 The Empyrean By John Frusciante 66 - 51 To 55
541 Lungs By Florence And The Machine 9 - 52 To 56
1224 Album By Girls 22 - 53 To 57
5004 And So I Watch You From Afar By And So I Watch You From Afar 129 - 54 To 58
63654 Listen To The Thunder By The Maldives 1926 - 55 To 59
64211 Upside Down Inside Out By The Love Me Nots 1943 - 56 To 60
4550 Monsters Of Folk By Monsters Of Folk 110 - 57 To 61
54002 We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River By Richmond Fontaine 1617 - 58 To 62
1982 Conditions By The Temper Trap 39 - 59 To 63
2285 Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle By Bill Callahan 46 - To listen To 64
40070 Das Pop By Das Pop 1160 - 62 To 65
9956 Manhay By Daan 269 - 61 To 66
718 Crack The Skye By Mastodon 12 - 60 To 67
23412 Sun Gangs By The Veils 733 - 64 To 68
55374 Crooked Timber By Therapy? 1663 - 63 To 69
3396 Blue Record By Baroness 83 - 65 To 70
191 Hospice By The Antlers 2 - 66 To 71
18385 Elvis Perkins In Dearland By Elvis Perkins 579 - 67 To 72
367 Sigh No More By Mumford & Sons 7 - To listen To A No
620 West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum By Kasabian 10 - To listen To A No
719 Bitte Orca By Dirty Projectors 13 - To listen To A No
743 It's Blitz! By Yeah Yeah Yeahs 14 - To listen To A No
926 Fever Ray By Fever Ray 16 - To listen To A No
1003 The Hazards Of Love By The Decemberists 17 - To listen To A No
1014 Actor By St. Vincent 18 - To listen To A No
1114 Man On The Moon: The End Of Day By Kid Cudi 19 - To listen To A No
1190 Only Revolutions By Biffy Clyro 21 - To listen To A No
1311 The Fame Monster By Lady Gaga 24 - To listen To A No
1367 Manners By Passion Pit 25 - To listen To A No
1470 Fantasies By Metric 29 - To listen To A No
1550 Two Dancers By Wild Beasts 30 - To listen To A No
1580 Aim And Ignite By fun. 31 - To listen To A No
1697 Journal For Plague Lovers By Manic Street Preachers 34 - To listen To A No
1819 I And Love And You By The Avett Brothers 37 - To listen To A No
1846 Daisy By Brand New 38 - To listen To A No
2069 The Ecstatic By Mos Def 40 - To listen To A No
2098 This Is War By 30 Seconds To Mars 41 - To listen To A No
2176 I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose By Bombay Bicycle Club 42 - To listen To A No
2186 Tarot Sport By Fuck Buttons 43 - To listen To A No
2232 Horehound By The Dead Weather 44 - To listen To A No
2310 It's Not Me, It's You By Lily Allen 47 - To listen To A No
2333 Sound Awake By Karnivool 49 - To listen To A No
2344 Up From Below By Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros 50 - To listen To A No
2401 Black Gives Way To Blue By Alice In Chains 51 - To listen To A No
2437 Two Suns By Bat For Lashes 52 - To listen To A No
2459 Wall Of Arms By The Maccabees 53 - To listen To A No

Alltough I already listened to 2013 albums, I still have to listen to some with an overall BEA rank of better than 2500.

dihansse dihansse Profile

As I said in my last post I still had a number of albums of 2013 to listen to before I start on 2014:
- Melophobia by Cage The Elephant (nr 29 on the overall BEA top chart of 2013): some tracks are not bad (ex the first and the last one of the album) but overall not really my thing
- Evil Friends by Portugal. The Man (nr 31): not very good album
- Run The Jewels by Run The Jewels (nr 32) and rap is still not for me even in the RTJ version.

The next album to listen to is Same Trailer Different Park by Kacey Musgraves.

dihansse dihansse Profile

More 2013 albums I listened to:
- Same Trailer Different Park by Kacey Musgraves (nr 34 on the overall BEA top chart of 2013): I'm not a big country fan but in some of the tracks Kacey is going in the singer-songwriter direction these songs are actually quite good combined with her more than nice voice. But where she goes twangy country or uptempo this album is less good so overall a no
- II by Unknown Mortal Orchestra (nr 35): a couple of very good songs although the singer's voice is sometimes a bit tedious but overall good enough to include in my personal top chart of 2013
- Once I Was An Eagle by Laura Marling (nr 36): Laura Marling sounds very good on this album and in many case the tracks are very nicely orchestrated but overall not enough highlights to make this an album I really like
- Shaking The Habitual by The Knife (nr 37): completely unlistenable
- Nothing Was The Same by Drake (nr 38 ): rap/hip hop is already not really my genre but if also combined with a bad R&B sound and autotune singing it is really bad
- Holy Fire by Foals (nr 39): My Number was a big hit and also one of those songs that I wanted to turn off if it was played for the xth time on the radio. The rest of the album is not much better

The next album to listen to is Tomorrow's Harvest by Boards Of Canada.

dihansse dihansse Profile

And the last batch of albums of 2013 I have listened to:
- Tomorrow's Harvest by Boards Of Canada (nr 41 on the overall BEA top chart of 2013): Electronic morose stuff just like one the other albums I've already heard of them.
- Settle by Disclosure (nr 42): also not really my taste
- Days Are Gone by Haim (nr 43): Forever and The Wire are not bad but the rest is just plain uninteresting
- Bankrupt! by Phoenix (nr 44): worse album than the former ones.
- The Marshall Mathers LP 2 by Eminem (nr 45 and the last album with an overall BEA rank of less than 2500): just bad rap.

Unlike many other years the lower parts of the top 2500 albums represented in 2013 were not really interesting.

This is my final list (with the BEA overall rank at the start and after that the BEA year rank and after that my personal year rank before and after my listening session:

Title By Band BEA YearRank - My Rank before To My Rank after
New Moon By The Men 480 - 1 To 1
Last Night on Earth By Lee Ranaldo and the Dust 909 - 13 To 2
Water on Mars By Purling Hiss 921 - 15 To 3
...Like Clockwork By Queens Of The Stone Age 4 - 12 To 4
Reflection By Hooverphonic 343 - 8 To 5
Purgatory / Paradise By Throwing Muses 384 - 6 To 6
The Argument By Grant Hart 709 - 7 To 7
Aftershock By Motörhead 843 - 4 To 8
Defend Yourself By Sebadoh 1099 - 2 To 9
Honey Locust Honky Tonk By Robert Pollard 1206 - 5 To 10
Round The Bend By Bent Van Looy 1216 - 3 To 11
Cerulean Salt By Waxahatchee 137 - 10 To 12
Surfing Strange By Swearin' 390 - 9 To 13
We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors Of Peace And Magic By Foxygen 11 - To listen To 14
Back To Land By Wooden Shjips 774 - 27 To 15
Mensen Zijn Gemaakt van Dun Papier By Jonas Winterland 1723 - 11 To 16
Fade By Yo La Tengo 171 - 14 To 17
Dissed And Dismissed By Tony Molina 159 - 22 To 18
Sky Hits Ground By Mintzkov 1709 - 20 To 19
Major Arcana By Speedy Ortiz 129 - 17 To 20
MCII By Mikal Cronin 177 - 24 To 21
13 By Black Sabbath 88 - 21 To 22
Dawning By Mouth of the Architect 1867 - 34 To 23
Waiting For Something To Happen By Veronica Falls 433 - 16 To 24
Monomania By Deerhunter 27 - To listen To 25
Wakin On A Pretty Daze By Kurt Vile 19 - 23 To 26
Everest By Girls in Hawaii 2001 - 31 To 27
The Next Day By David Bowie 15 - 19 To 28
Stabat Mater By Madensuyu 2086 - 30 To 29
Chelsea Light Moving By Chelsea Light Moving 705 - 32 To 30
II By Unknown Mortal Orchestra 35 - To listen To 31
Trouble Will Find Me By The National 7 - To listen To 32
Ores & Minerals By Mazes 762 - 18 To 33
Silence Yourself By Savages 37 - 26 To 34
Scorpion Child By Scorpion Child 1345 - 28 To 35
Push The Sky Away By Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds 17 - 35 To 36
An Object By No Age 833 - 25 To 37
Wise Up Ghost And Other Songs By Elvis Costello And The Roots 219 - 33 To 38
Sunbather By Deafheaven 8 - 38 To 39
Tally All the Things That You Broke By Parquet Courts 1231 - 39 To 40
Loud City Song By Julia Holter 14 - To listen To 41
Wonderful, Glorious By Eels 191 - 36 To 42
Oh, Mayhem! By Bettie Serveert 2466 - 29 To 43
The Weight Of Your Love By Editors 74 - 37 To 44

And this leads me to back to the last year in this cycle which is 2014.

dihansse dihansse Profile

This is the start of another year I will listen to the albums I haven't heard yet of the overall BEA top chart. There are not many and indeed apart from the War on Drugs I don't think there are many albums in the list hereunder that I will really like but we'll see of course.
Most of the albums I do like of 2014 are not in the top 2500.

Here is the list of albums I will listen to (or have already listened to with in this case the rank in my personal chart before this listening session):
BEA Rank Title By Band BEA YearRank - My Rank before
295 Lost In The Dream By The War On Drugs 1 - 12
513 Run The Jewels 2 By Run The Jewels 2 - To listen
522 Benji By Sun Kil Moon 3 - To listen
532 To Be Kind By Swans 4 - To listen
628 St. Vincent By St. Vincent 5 - To listen
640 Salad Days By Mac DeMarco 6 - 32
860 Black Messiah By D'Angelo And The Vanguard 7 - To listen
921 LP1 By FKA Twigs 8 - To listen
1019 Royal Blood By Royal Blood 9 - To listen
1135 This Is All Yours By (alt-j) 10 - To listen
1258 Alvvays By Alvvays 11 - To listen
1279 They Want My Soul By Spoon 12 - To listen
1284 You're Dead! By Flying Lotus 13 - To listen
1317 Sun Structures By Temples 14 - To listen
1335 Pinata By Freddie Gibbs & Madlib 15 - To listen
1368 Morning Phase By Beck 16 - To listen
1544 Pom Pom By Ariel Pink 17 - To listen
1634 Syro By Aphex Twin 18 - To listen
1655 Ultraviolence By Lana Del Rey 19 - To listen
1919 Plowing Into The Field Of Love By Iceage 20 - 26
1941 2014 Forest Hills Drive By J. Cole 21 - To listen
1988 El Pintor By Interpol 22 - 23
2042 Turn Blue By The Black Keys 23 - To listen
2132 1989 By Taylor Swift 24 - To listen
2277 Are We There By Sharon Van Etten 25 - To listen
2297 It's Album Time By Todd Terje 26 - To listen
2332 Here And Nowhere Else By Cloud Nothings 27 - 19
2349 Too Bright By Perfume Genius 28 - To listen
2363 Everyday Robots By Damon Albarn 29 - To listen
2386 Singles By Future Islands 30 - To listen
2442 Lazaretto By Jack White 31 - To listen
2453 Ghost Stories By Coldplay 32 - Already listened

And I have already listened to the first two:
- Run The Jewels 2 by Run The Jewels (nr 2 on the overall BEA top chart of 2014): it's not better than their first album I have also recently listened to.
- Benji by Sun Kil Moon (nr 3): I like some albums of Red House Painters/Sun Kil Moon but this one is very verbal and in this sense musically not very interesting (with the very long I Watched The Film The Song Remains The Same as both a highlight as a deep point) so I will give this one a miss

The next album I will listen to is To Be Kind by The Swans.