My discoveries per year

[dihansse]

These are the two albums of 2013 I listened to:

First an album I already own and the first album of Purling Hiss I heard:

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Water On Mars by Purling Hiss
And it's also the first Purling Hiss album where the bad production didn't get in the way of the quality of the album. It doesn't reach the heights of the more recent albums yet but it's very good fun to listen to with Rat Race which has lots of references to Dinosaur Jr as the highlight. It remains firmly at the 5th rank of the year.

And an album on my wishlist:

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Rat Farm by Meat Puppets
a true return to form compared to their earlier albums. In essence this is country music but the offkilter voice and guitars just makes this band and this album something special with Original One and Sweet as the highlights. Unfortunately I had to revert to Youtube to listen to this album because it wasn't available on Apple Music and it immediately enters at the 18th rank of the year.

[dihansse]

These are the two albums of 2014 I listened to:

First another Mike Polizze album I already own:

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Weirdon by Purling Hiss
And again a Purling Hiss album with no comment on the sound quality which is actually very good. And another big step forward in the quality of the songs. The music is still rooted in the indie guitar rock of the nineties (especially Dinosaur Jr.) but at the same time it is also vintage Mike Polizze guitar rock and the songs are just outstanding with at the same time a very interesting punk ethos. The album climbs from the 13th to the 3rd rank and the beautiful thing is: the band keeps on improving after this album.

The an album on my wishlist:

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Fun by Die Nerven
This is already the third album I listen to from this terrific German punk band with also the lyrics in German. They are at the seem time deeply rooted in the punk tradition but at the same time there is also lots of originality here. This album matches the quality of the other two albums I already listened to and this one immediately enters at the 14th rank of the year chart of 2014.

[dihansse]

Without Mike Polizze but this is an album I already own of 2015:

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Ivy Tripp by Waxahatchee
Nothing special to say about this one: just a solid Waxahatchee album which moves from the 37th to the 38th rank but just because the next album moves in front of it.

Because from my wishlist I listened to:

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MCIII by Mikal Cronin
And what a beautiful album this is. It is a lot more orchestral (even a bit like ELO) than the previous MCII although on tracks like iv) Ready he still rocks hard: but the songwriting remains as magnificently good. The album has two different sides (the second part evolves round some sort of comin-of-age theme) but that shows a perfect unity anyway. Nearly all tracks are highlights and the album enters at the 3rd rank of the year: a real discovery I can recommend to everybody.

[dihansse]

These are my two choices for 2016 just to show that real guitar rock was not dead round that period (and still not today):

First an album I already know/own:

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Teens Of Denial by Car Seat Headrest
And this one is also one which was generally loved because it made it to the 4th rank of the year on BEA and rightly so because this is for me a classic album. The love for the guitar is everywhere although there is also a big role for other instruments with references to about any indie rock favorite you can think of. It's also a big album not in the least because of its length of nearly 70 minutes without every becoming a moment boring. The long Ballad of the Costa Concordia is generally viewed as the best track but to me the one that cuts the deepest is Connect The Dots (The Saga Of Frank Sinatra). But the whole album is just magnificent and even better than the also fantastic Twin Fantasy.
And you know what: this album goes immediately from the 25th to the 3rd rank of the year.

And only at the 3rd rank because the album on my wishlist was even better:

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High Bias by Purling Hiss
Yes again a Purling Hiss/Mike Polizze album I hadn't heard yet. Here the guy rocks even harder than on his previous albums ànd with a good sound quality so I was treated to something special here. The highlight is the long Everybody In The USA which ends with an over 6 minutes guitar freak out I absolutely adored. But nearly all the other tracks are also absolute wonders of great guitar rock. He would even get better on his next albums (especially Drag On Girard which according to me is still the best album of this year: 2023) but this one is already good for the 2nd rank of 2016.

[dihansse]

These are two albums from 2017 I listened to and also the last in this round. There are a few more Mike Polizze albums in the next year but I listened to all of them fairly recently, not in the least to the most recent Purling Hiss one of 2023 which is still my favorite album of this year: Drag On Girard.

But back to 2017 with an album I already know/own:

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Aloha Hola by D.A. Stern
Not a bad album with Diggin' For Something as the Highlight. It goes from the 54th to the 46th rank.

And an album on my wishlist:

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Man Woman Life Death Infinity by The Church
A fairly atypical album by The Church because it's much more calm as their other albums but still a typical The Church album and it immediately enters at the 39th rank of the year.

So back to the start for the 13th round.

[dihansse]

So I'll start this new round with the year 1973:

First with an album I already own:

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Sabbath Bloody Sabbath by Black Sabbath
I swear by the first two albums of BS and OK also the third album is a killer. But I have always thought that they were losing their drive a bit with this album which is by no means a bad one. But it's already so long ago I last heard it, a revisit was due. It already starts with the title song. It's supposed to be the closest to their former music but in my opinion doesn't have the impact of an Iron Man, NIB or War Pigs. But that doesn't mean that their move to more prog related music is always a bad thing. I love the way Spiral Track evolves and also Killing Yourself is a fantastic song. All in all maybe somewhat better than I had in mind and the album goes from the 31st to the 19th rank.

Then an album on my wishlist:

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Hoe Sterk Is De Eenzame Fietser by Boudewijn de Groot
One of the strongest album by this Dutch singer songwriter. Sometimes it sounds a bit dated but overall this is a good album especially the first part. There is a very big hit here of the lowlands (Belgium and Holland): Jimmy with very poetic lyrics (which also goes for the rest of the album) and a captivating rock opera style of music. Good for the 32nd rank of 1973.

[Fischman]

[dihansse]

Here is just an album I already know from 1974. Btw 2016 was the first year I started this thread so I will gradually start to revisit albums I discovered if it's at least seven years since I've listened to the full album. And one of these albums I discovered was:

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Pretzel Logic by Steely Dan
I discussed this album very briefly on 21 October 2016 (ok not completely 7 years ago) with the following brief comment: This is the Steely Dan I like so a welcome addition.
And you know what, that's still true and there is one real highlight: Rikki Don't Lose that Number. The album goes from the 19th tot the 12th rank of the year 1973/

For the moment there aren't any albums of this year on my wishlist.

[dihansse]

Skipping a few years I arrive at 1977.

With first an album I already own and needed to be revisited:

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Rumours by Fleetwood Mac
Overall appreciated as the album of the year in a year where you had fantastic music in a lot of genres including also punk and hard rock. But this is a real classic but I'll start with the negative points: the last tracks and especially Oh Daddy are really not on par with the rest of the album. But that rest is just classic with (in that increasing order) The Chain, Don't Stop and the absolute classic Go Your Own Way as the highlights. I like some albums of this year more but that's just because there were so many but this one still rises from the 12th to the 6th rank of the year.

And an album on my wishlist:

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Ha! Ha! Ha! by Ultravox
For this band, there is a clear divide between the more guitar/punk based era of John Foxx and the more electronic phase with Midge Ure. Nearly everybody including me know them especially from that last period which includes their major hit Vienna.
They released two first albums in 1977 and this is their second and it really surprised me in the good sense. There are clear influences from bands like Roxy Music and even punk but in nearly in all their songs they are able to keep it exciting and original. On Artificial Life they even sound like a mix between Television and Magazine. The most peculiar track is Hiroshima Mon Amour which has a bit of a jazzy atmosphere like also Japan sometimes did. So a very good discovery and I will certainly check out the other 2 albums from that era. It immediately enters my 1977 year chart at the 22nd rank.

[dihansse]

These are the two albums of 1978 I listened to:

First an album I own and haven't listened to in a long time:

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The Godz by The Godz (Hard Rock)
Repo knows I like this album but in fact I used to like it because of one and only one song: Under The Table. The song begins with a fantastic intro and than takes on kind of an epic nature with really great guitar parts: one of my favorite hardrock songs. I know that the Godz are not the most widely appreciated band in the world and I would also recommend only this album but after listening back to it, I more and more come to the conclusion that this is an enjoyable album overall. They play the sort of pubrock bluesy hardrock in which for example also AC/DC is very good and one of the best examples of that is the long Gotta Keep A Running which has a bit the flavor of Let There Be Rock. Also the cover of Golden Earring's Candy's Going Bad is very good although the psychedelic ending at the end becomes a bit boring. So all in all a good album which climbs from the 53rd to the 13th rank of the year.

And an album on my wishlist:

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Blondes Have More Fun by Rod Stewart
One of those albums nobody wants to touch any more also because of its sexist nature (see the cover art). But this is all very tongue-in-cheek and the hit song Da Ya Think I'm Sexy? is of course the key example and in fact together with Miss You of the Stones a song where a rock artist succeeds at recreating the disco sound of that era in the best way. Of course Rod Stewart was also good in producing both the cheesiest and heartbreaking slows on the same album and the good one here is Best Days Of My Life while Last Summer is just utterly bad and dated. The title song is a fairly regular but good rock'n Roll track. And that's about it: so overall not his best album but nevertheless good for the 50th rank of the year also because it brings back memories from my youth.