My discoveries per year

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: )

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These are the albums of 2004 I listened to:

First an album I already own:

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Norfolk Coast by The Stranglers
There's two typical things about the Stranglers and never imitated by any other band: the organ and the thumping bass. And this is a true return to form on both levels and their best album since their first two classics. Also the singer Paul Roberts (not really new but here he really shines) s a worthy replacement for Hugh Cornwell. And the best examples are the first two tracks, the title track and Big Thing Coming which rock like hell. But the jazzy slow Dutch Moon is certainly also worth a listen. Which causes the album to rise from the 23rd to the 15th rank.

An album on my wishlist:

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Misery Is A Butterfly by Blonde Redhead
I'm doing my best to get into this band, both in their harder first albums as on their mellower follow ups. This is supposed to be the highlight of that second period and I can get that people like it but I can't really. It's not really the voices of the two singers which are weird but good, it's not the weirdness of the tracks (I like the weirdest tracks like Falling Man best). No, it just misses something for me so I won't include it in my top chart of 2004.

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Here are my two choices for 2005 albums:

An album I already own:

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Tourist by Athlete
This is already an old favorite of mine. You can call it a Coldplay rip-off, you can call it too mellow and sweet but I really like it. Chances and the long Wires are the standouts but nearly every song has something special that will catch your attention. The album rises from the 28th to the 15th rank.

And a comeback from The Wedding Present:

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Take Fountain by The Wedding Present
No sign of the heavy strumming of their beginning period, but they still know how to do a potent song (which is often soft/loud track) while there are still a lot reminiscences from David Gedge's period with Cinerama. Don't Touch That Dial and It's For You are the highlights. And the album immediately enters at the 16th rank.

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Two albums of 2006 I listened to:

One already in my collection:

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Stadium Arcadium by Red Hot Chili Peppers
I know this album fairly well but it's been a long time I listened to it completely just because it's such a long one. But I must say I supported the sheer length of the thing better than I thought. The album is fairly diverse and caters for both types of RCHP lovers: the funklovers (not really me) and the rock lovers (me) and it does contain a bit of filler but overall good with outlyers like Turn It Again (not many people quote this track as one of their favorites) and of course the absolute highlight Snow. And so it moves from the 10th to the 7th rank of the year.

One on my wishlist:

The Letting Go by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
I've always been a lukewarm lover of the man but mainly know him from I See A Darkness. Here he leaves out most of the vocal manierisms and replaces it with violins and of course the accompanying voice of Dawn McCarthy. The album starts of fairly strong but to me the second half is not really interesting so as a whole not interesting enough to include it in my year chart.

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These are the albums of 2007 I listened to:

An album I already own:

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Three Easy Pieces by Buffalo Tom
A gravely underrated album by me and I don't know why because there's nothing wrong with it and clearly still has all the qualities of most albums of this great band: a great guitar sound, great songs and excellent vocals. And it moves from the 31st to the 5th rank.

An album on my wishlist:

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Wooden Shjips by Wooden Shjips
The same can't be said from this first album of this psychedelic drone band. The first shorter tracks are good and really evoke a more trancey version of Jim Morrison. But than it becomes a bit boring and the last two songs are only partly saved by the endings which are a bit more lively. Ok for my top chart but not very high at the 30th rank.

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The albums of 2008 I listened to:

First an album I already own and again one of The Wedding Present:

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El Rey by The Wedding Present
And they still haven't lost it. Again one of their good ones with Boo Boo as a highlight. It goes from the 14th to the 12th rank.

And an album on my wishlist:

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The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending A Night In by Thee Oh Sees
One of their first albums and a bit too messy to be actually very good but they would get better. It's still ok but only for the lower parts of my year chart at rank 28.

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My choices for 2009 albums:

An album I already own:

The Planets Are Blasted by Boston Spaceships
One of the two albums released by Boston Spaceships this year and one of the many side projects of GBV frontman Robert Pollard. And as in most of his albums this one also contains many tracks, some filler but enough enjoyable tracks to make this one of his many good ones. And it moves from the 13th to the 11th rank.

An album on my wishlist:

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The Liberty Of Norton Folgate by Madness
Incredible how, after all these years, Madness still sounds like Madness with the very typical singing, the piano and the sax and their typical sound which is not really ska any more but still... This album is an ambitious project as it's kind of a concept album with many tracks and one even more ambitious one at the end and to it is a bit of a miss. The band still stands out in their simpler but groovy tracks like That Close, Idiot Child and NW5. Just enough to make it to my year chart but only just at rank 46.

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These are the two albums of 2010 I listened to:

An album I already owned:

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Pulled Apart By Horses by Pulled Apart By Horses
This is just rawdy punk and they would get better on latter albums but already not bad. Goes from the 41th to 24th rank.

And album on my wishlist:

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Nobody's Daughter by Hole
Not as bad as many want it to be but Courtney Love isn't at the top of her abilities anymore either. The energetic songs are overall ok but the slower ones are a bit pathetic. Nevertheless ok for the 34th rank.

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Two album of 2011 I listened to:

An album I already own

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David Comes To Life by Fucked Up
This is one of my favorite bands of the 2010's and this album is one of their best. It's a concept album and it's very long but that doesn't do it any bad because there is always something interesting to discover here. At a first listen you would mistake this for a hardcore album but in fact it's only the death metal voice of Damian Abraham (aka Pink Eyes); for the rest this is just a good rock album which happens to have a concept (although this isn't really import because the lyrics are barely recognisable). Queen Of Hearts, Under My Nose, Turn The Season, Ship Of Fools, A Little Death, I Was There and especially Serve Me Right: the highlights are many. And the album remains at the 3rd place of the year.

An album on my wishlist:

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Elegant Stealth by Wishbone Ash
This album hasn't made it to my year chart because of the great songs. Most are not really good but a lot of the OK tracks are saved by good guitar playing and solos so it's no wonder that it's mainly the longer tracks which stand out because of the elaborate and fine twin guitar attacks in the best tradition of the Allmans. So just good enough for the 47th rank.

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These are the albums of 2012 I listened to:

First an album I already own:

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I Bet On Sky by Dinosaur Jr.
After their third come-back; Dinosaur Jr released 4 albums and they were all spot-on and all are amongst the favorite albums of one of my favorite bands and so is this third album in that series. It is a bit special in the sense that it's a bit more calm then their others (a bit like Where You Been) and that is not a bad thing because J mascis's guitar still roars anyway of course especially on the absolute highlight Watch The Corners. And with that it remains on the first rank of the year.

And then the last album from The Wedding Present on my wishlist:

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Valentina by The Wedding Present
And certainly not their best and it seems they had lost it a bit. It's still an ok album and it still lands at the 25th rank of the year. But they certainly hadn't lost it at that point because another terrific album would follow: Going, Going, an album I already know very welL

So that concludes my listening session to all Wedding Present albums and this is the final ranking (I'm not gonna include the Cinerama albums here):

The OK albums:
13. Hit Parade 2 (1993)
12. Valentina (2012)
11. Watusi (1994)
10. Saturnalia (1996)
9. El Rey (2008)

The good albums:
8. Tommy (1988)
7. Going, Going... (2016)
6. Take Fountain (2005)

The very good albums:
5. Hit Parade 1 (1992)
4. Mini (1996)

The masterpieces:
3. George Best (1987)
2. Bizarro (1989)
1. Seamonsters (1991)

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Here are the two albums of 2013 I listened to:

First an album I already own:

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New Moon by The Men
This album is much mellower than their first albums and in fact they only recreate that old hardcore sound on The Brass, but they do that really good. Also I Saw her Face and Freaky are very good but for the rest I have to admit that this album pleased me less than when the album was released so it dropped from the 3rd the 6th rank which is still very good of course.

And an album on my wishlist:

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You're Nothing by Iceage
Not a bad album but their punk sound is a bit too unfocused in my view. So just good for the 46th rank of the year.

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