[xhitmanx]

So what is your favorite album from each year? You can go as far back as you want.

1963 - The Beatles - Please Please Me
1964 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Live at the Star Club (Hamburg)
1965 - The Sonics - Here Are the Sonics!!!
1966 - The Beatles - Revolver
1967 - The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
1968 - The Beatles - The White Album
1969 - Led Zeppelin I
1970 - The Stooges - Fun House
1971 - Led Zeppelin IV
1972 - David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
1973 - Iggy and the Stooges - Raw Power
1974 - King Crimson - Red
1975 - Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
1976 - Ramones (s/t)
1977 - Ramones - Leave Home
1978 - Ramones - Road to Ruin
1979 - The Clash - London Calling
1980 - Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
1981 - Black Flag - Damaged
1982 - Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
1983 - Social Distortion - Mommy's Little Monster
1984 - Metallica - Ride the Lightning
1985 - Dead Kennedys - Frankenchrist
1986 - Metallica - Master of Puppets
1987 - Dinosaur Jr. - You're Living All Over Me
1988 - Pixies - Surfer Rosa
1989 - Pixies - Doolittle
1990 - Social Distortion (s/t)
1991 - Nirvana - Nevermind
1992 - Pavement - Slanted & Enchanted
1993 - Nirvana - In Utero
1994 - Soundgarden - Superunknown
1995 - Radiohead - The Bends
1996 - Weezer - Pinkerton
1997 - Radiohead - OK Computer
1998 - Rancid - Life Won't Wait
1999 - Built to Spill - Keep it Like a Secret
2000 - Radiohead - Kid A
2001 - Muse - Origin of Symmetry
2002 - Johnny Cash - American IV: The Man Comes Around
2003 - Muse - Absolution
2004 - Green Day - American Idiot
2005 - Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
2006 - Muse - Black Holes and Revelations
2007 - Radiohead - In Rainbows
2008 - Metallica - Death Magnetic
2009 - Them Crooked Vultures (s/t)
2010 - Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
2011 - Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
2012 - Jack White - Blunderbuss
2013 - Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
2014 - BABYMETAL (s/t)
2015 - Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell

[Satie]

Gonna write up my '60s ones now.

1960: Odilio Gonzales - El jibarito de Lares
A wonderful little slice of Puerto Rican jibaro music, Odilio Gonzales's opus now appears to have just sort of been released out of nowhere. This was the first album of this style that I heard after transcribing an interview for my boss about this kind of music. It's infectious and lovely.

1961: The Ornette Coleman Double Quartet - Free Jazz
This year saw the release of Fournier's immortal recordings of Bach's cello suites, as well, but it seemed more appropriate to hand the title over to what I see as one of the most impressive new sounds from 1961, Coleman's immortal Free Jazz. I have a feeling this will be the only time he appears on this list despite having made oodles and oodles of incredible music, and this is probably one of his most instantly recognizable. Taking off into a very self-consciously avant-garde direction with jazz music, Coleman split jazz critics and audiences right down the middle, taking the modernist project of the '50s into overdrive and turning it into... well, the modernist project of the '60s. Daring, electric, it was quintessentially jazz while quintessentialy against everything it had stood for previously. Coleman's trail blazed white hot.

1962: Art Blakey and the Afro-Drum Ensemble - The African Beat
If 1961's peak achievement was sending jazz centuries into the future, 1962's peak achievement saw it (clumsily, perhaps orientalist-ly, but amazingly) thrown back to its ultimate roots. Though the handling of African folk music in the general might have been a bit ham-fisted and lacked musicological exactness, such considerations are honestly distractions from the real heart of this record: reasserting the African rhythmic idioms that made jazz possible in the first place in the dawning days of black nationalism and reconnections of black Americans to their motherland. These overtones melt away as soon as the record starts and Blakey's huffing, puffing, monstrous drumming rattles your head off your spinal cord. This is manic, leaping, shouting music that can't be missed.

1963: Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
Much ink has been spilled in service of broadcasting this high modern masterpiece to jazz fans and soon-to-be jazz fans. I can't do it service writing anything more than what you've already read about it. If you haven't heard it, this is yet another reminder to get on that.

1964: Grachan Moncur III - Evolution
As the jazz rocket's engines started firing on all cylinders and pushed it closer and closer to liftoff into outer space (more on that in a bit), the styles on the ground became more and more alien - the already borderline anti-social, confrontational, angular bebop had grown louder, heavier over the past few years, and it was just about to shatter. For a few years, though, a great transitional moment occurred: within the frame of bebop, prophetic figures looking ahead to completely free improvisatory music were beginning to have their first twitches of full flexibility, with solos that hinted to apocalypse ahead of time. Evolution is exactly what the title suggests - an indelible moment in the continuing mutation of the jazz idiom.

1965: Albert Ayler Trio - Spiritual Unity
And one of those pioneers, slaughtering form and disposing of the body, was Albert Ayler. A polarizing figure, Ayler used his saxophone less like a surgical knife and more like a chainsaw in his approach to dissecting jazz. This wasn't secular, secluded frustration, but an attempt at channeling God. The God of Coltrane, the God of the motherland, a pan-spiritual entity that had blessed the world with its children since time immemorial and was coming to forge a new Heaven on Earth. If Coltrane was a priest, Ayler was a rabid street preacher. Spiritual Unity is an indelible leap forward in a decade full of indelible leaps forward.

1966: The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
While Coltrane Ascended, Sun Ra went to Other Planes and Magic Cities, and the rumbling powers of Latin America continued to attract the ears of curious westerners (clued in by 1959's Black Orpheus as the narrative commonly goes), another art form came into its own. Building on a heated rivalry with a couple gifted song crafters from across the pond, Brian Wilson entered the studio to construct rock's first masterpiece. Sure, Rubber Soul had coherence, but Pet Sounds had transcendence. Never before had a rock band so thoroughly captured the joys, exuberance, and folly of youth and the wisdom, feeling, and delicacy of old age. Of course, we all know what price Wilson paid for attempting to capture lightning twice, but in 1966, all that mattered was that it had struck. Sales fizzled, but the critics had an early call that this would mean something big. The past fifty years have been a testament to just how right they were.

1967: The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico
While Pet Sounds elevated rock to art form, The Velvet Underground & Nico allowed it to reliably dialogue with other art forms. Much has been said of the influence of this album, and it's surely all true and then some, but listen to it again - every terrifying atmosphere of clashing guitar and viola, the expanse that is covered in songs so intimate, the stoic and imposing Nico, the small moments of relief and straight-ahead rock energy is as complete a testament to the power of rock music as was ever recorded. All that we can hope to do is gawk, point, ponder, and hope that someday someone will make a rock album as good as The Velvet Underground & Nico.

1968: The Peter Brotzmann Octet - Machine Gun
So, by this time, many of free jazz's major voices had found their audience in Europe. Much arguing has been done over the potentially fatal blow that trying to turn free jazz into academic practice was, but to hear the initial recordings of the European free canon, it's not very apparent where exactly the books were drowning out the sound. Was it in Brotzmann's nuclear bomb saxophone that somehow managed to make even Ayler sound like Mickey Mouse? Or in Han Bennink's untouchable, manic style, blowing apart the very foundations of whatever venue was so unfortunate as to have these people in it? Revolution was happening in the U.S., but it was much further along in Europe, and these people had seen it tantalizingly close and ripped away years prior. These were no appropriators, these were people who offered musicians like Coleman a home away from home and offered free jazz music another place to thrive.

1969: Sun-Ra and His Astro Infinity Arkestra - Atlantis
While Captain Beefheart proved just how magic his band was and once again defied all expectations of what rock music could be, another cosmic journeyman made his masterpiece. Sun Ra, an alien composer from Saturn, had touched down on Earth years prior, releasing a steady stream of uniquely radical music, aligned with incredible visual displays at performances and an extensive spiritualist philosophy of the stars. While his contemporaries fled to Europe or into their lofts, Sun Ra knew he had simply to go to his spaceship. Atlantis is notable for many reasons, but the main one is that it shows both sides of the Sun Ra genius - on the one, his knack for intelligent composition and high expectations of his performers are showcased across the disc. Tight, succinct works that showcase his latest acquisition, one of if not the first synthesizers on a jazz record, cover the first side. But the real magic is in the extended jam of the second. While the Velvet Underground had tried to channel free-form freakout into their world with "Sister Ray," Sun Ra, as if in open response, turned it up to 11 and showed them how it's really done on the title track ode to a city crashing into the sea.

Greats of this era not mentioned: Joao Gilberto, Nara Leao, James Brown, Nina Simone, The Shangri-Las, John Coltrane (!!), and many more. '70s to come.

[baystateoftheart]

[Decurso]

That is a lot more effort than I'm willing to invest in one sitting, but I'll start with the 60s for now...
1963 Bob Dylan-The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
1964 The Beatles-A Hard Days Night
1965-The Beatles-Rubber Soul
1966 Bob Dylan-Blonde on Blonde
1967 Jimi Hendrix-Are You Experienced
1968 The Beatles-White Album
1969 The Rolling Stones-Let it Bleed
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100 Punk Favourites

Live Albums

Death Metal

[RockyRaccoon]

[CA Dreamin]

I'll do the '90s:

'90 - Violator, Depeche Mode
'91 - Nevermind, Nirvana
'92 - Rage Against the Machine self-titled
'93 - Vs., Pearl Jam
'94 - Superunknown, Soundgarden
'95 - The Bends, Radiohead
'96 - Pinkerton, Weezer
'97 - The Colour and the Shape, Foo Fighters
'98 - Mutations, Beck
'99 - Make Yourself, Incubus

[Decurso]

[Grzywa]

OK, I'll do 2000 onwards:

2000 - The Hives Veni Vidi Vicious
2001 - The Strokes Is This It
2002 - Queens of the Stone Age Songs for the Deaf
2003 - The White Stripes Elephant
2004 - Franz Ferdinand Franz Ferdinand
2005 - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
2006 - Beirut Gulag Orkestar
2007 - LCD Soundsystem Sound of Silver
2008 - Portishead Third
2009 - Micachu and the Shapes Jewellery
2010 - The National High Violet
2011 - TV on the Radio Nine Types of Light
2012 - Swans The Seer
2013 - Queens of the Stone Age ... Like Clockwork
2014 - Mac DeMarco Salad Days
2015 - Colin Stetson & Sarah Neufeld Never Were The Way She Was
2016 - David Bowie Blackstar
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Always shouts out something obscene

[LordMark]

I was born in 1987, so I'll start there.

1987 - Appetite for Destruction by Guns N' Roses
1988 - Surfer Rosa by Pixies
1989 - (tie) Doolittle by Pixies and The Stone Roses by The Stone Roses
1990 - Nowhere by Ride
1991 - Loveless by My Bloody Valentine
1992 - Rage Against the Machine by Rage Against the Machine
1993 - Modern Life is Rubbish by Blur
1994 - Definitely Maybe by Oasis
1995 - The Bends by Radiohead
1996 - Pinkerton by Weezer
1997 - OK Computer by Radiohead
1998 - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel
1999 - 13 by Blur
2000 - Kid A by Radiohead
2001 - Is This It by The Strokes
2002 - Songs for the Deaf by Queens of the Stone Age
2003 - Hail to the Thief by Radiohead
2004 - Funeral by Arcade Fire
2005 - Alligator by The National
2006 - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not by Arctic Monkeys
2007 - In Rainbows by Radiohead
2008 - Viva la Vida by Coldplay
2009 - Billy Talent III by Billy Talent
2010 - The Suburbs by Arcade Fire
2011 - Wasting Light by Foo Fighters
2012 - Dead Silence by Billy Talent
2013 - Sunbather by Deafheaven
2014 - Great Western Valkyrie by Rival Sons
2015 - New Bermuda by Deafheaven

[meccalecca]

Following the excellent precedent set by Satie with his post, I'm including some thoughts about each record. Starting with the 1960s and will move on with other decades later.

1960: Everly Brothers - It's Everly Time
Good god those golden harmonies. Drawing from roots of country and rockabilly, Phil and Don presented early rock & roll with a template to work from. Their 3rd album, I find it to be their most consistently great listen. They may be simple poppy love songs, but with those beautiful voices fronting an excellent band including Chet Atkins on steel, it's hard not to feel the incredible vibes. Brian Wilson would follow this lead a few years later and create one of the greatest pop treasures of all time.
1961: James Brown - The Amazing James Brown
With James Brown, people tend to focus on Live at the Apollo and his funkier later work, but this early work from the Godfather of Soul is just as impassioned. This collection features a handful of my favorite soul tunes ever recorded.
1962: Roy Orbison - Crying
Orbison was an early master of the melodramatic melancholy. On Crying he sets the bar for all future woe-is-me rock songs. Just as important is the backing orchestrations which straddle between subtle and sweeping.
1963: Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
While it was preceded by another record, I feel like this is the real debut of Dylan. Here he immediately proves to be the ultimate folk songwriter. His fingers plucked gorgeous melodies that would live on forever, his words provided even deeper meaning.
1964: Ronettes - Presenting The Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica
The combination of Phil Spector with Brill Building/Ellie Greenwhich's songwriting and the Ronettes incredible talent produced possibly the most likable and uplifting record of the decade. As much as I love the Shangri-Las, this is undoubtedly my favorite record by any of the great 60s girl groups.
1965: The Byrds - Turn Turn Turn
Rather than praise the genius of Dylan again, I'll take the time to say that The Byrds were just as incredible. Pioneering folk rock with rich harmonies and that classic 12-string jangle, what stands out most for me may be Gene Clark's emergence as a songwriter on this album.
1966: Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
Meticulously crafted, Brian Wilson's masterpiece may be the most perfect pop record ever recorded. The warmth and good vibes that come with each and every listen make each listen as pleasurable as pretty much anything in the world.
1967: Velvet Underground & Nico - Velvet Underground & Nico
Simultaneously dreamy, raw, confrontational. They managed to capture the spirit of New York's underbelly both lyrically and sonically. There's a necessary danger in their playing, the production, and Reed's words.
1968: Scott Walker - Scott 2
My favorite of Walker's early records. Borrowing heavily from the great French Chansons, especially Brel, his voice soars like very few others in history. The orchestrations are rich and dynamic.
1969: Velvet Underground - Velvet Underground
Their 3rd straight masterpiece, this has at times been my favorite VU record. Possibly their most minimal record, it relies heavily on Reed's songwriting to carry it. It could definitely be seen as an early predecessor to the slowcore of Low and Galaxie 500 which would come decades later.
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