An Album For Each Year Of My Life

There’s a new meme traversing the Internet. It involves compiling a list of albums (long play records) for each year of your life. In my case there’s 36 years of albums to choose from, going all the way back to 1972. One further rule is that you’re not allowed to pick an artist/band more than once: so no picking Prince for Purple Rain in 1984 and also for Sign O’ The Times in 1987.

I’ve spent lunchtime today, and about three hours tonight compiling what I think is the definitive list, although in Ridley Scott terms, I reserve the right to issue “Director’s Cuts” and “Final Cuts”.

It’s an interesting experiment traversing the lists and having to choose one over the other… The 1980s were fertile ground for lots of great albums, especially 1987 was unbelieable. The late nineties and noughties where often spartan and I found myself struggling to pick anything some years.

So without further ado, here are my 36 albums.

Year Artist/Band Album
1972 Neil Young Harvest
1973 24 Carat Black Ghetto: Misfortune’s Wealth
1974 James Brown The Payback
1975 Kraftwerk Radio-aktivitaet
1976 Kiss Destroyer
1977 Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack
1978 Kate Bush The Kick Inside
1979 Pink Floyd The Wall
1980 Joy Division Closer
1981 Klaus Nomi Klaus Nomi
1982 Michael Jackson Thriller
1983 Doe Maar 4US
1984 Talking Heads Stop Making Sense
1985 Eurythmics Be Yourself Tonight
1986 Beastie Boys License to Ill
1987 Guns ‘N Roses Appetite For Destruction
1988 Queensryche Operation Mindcrime
1989 Faith No More The Real Thing
1990 Depeche Mode Violator
1991 Mr. Bungle Mr. Bungle
1992 The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy Hypocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury
1993 Orbital Orbital
1994 Portishead Dummy
1995 Leftfield Leftism
1996 Beth Orton Trailer Park
1997 Nuyorican Soul Nuyorican Soul
1998 Massive Attack Mezzanine
1999 Sigur Ros Agaetis byrjun
2000 Thievery Corporation The Mirror Conspiracy
2001 Kylie Minogue Fever
2002 The Streets Original Pirate Material
2003 Peaches Fatherfucker
2004 Nouvelle Vague Nouvelle Vague
2005 Editors Back Room
2006 Amy Winehouse Back To Black
2007 Roisin Murphy Overpowered

Feel free to comment on my list, dispute my selection, or point me to your list…

Other lists I’ve found are:

Enjoy, but be warned compiling your own list is a labour-intensive, brain-draining, and difficult activity. Cancel all appointments, notify family members, and switch off all phones: you may be some time. (unless your 6 years old, in which case I suggest the you start with The Sugababes).

Edits:

1973, 24 Carat Black “Ghetto: Misfortune’s Wealth” replaces Roberta Flack “Killing Me Softly”
1988, Queensryche “Operation Mindcrime” replaces Cowboy Junkies “Trinity Sessions”
1978, Kate Bush “The Kick Inside” replaces “Grease : The Soundtrack”



2 Responses to “An Album For Each Year Of My Life”

  1. John Mac says:

    Ij, u have way too much time on your hands, I expect fatherhood will bring some respite :o )

    Good list though, and there’s nothing to dipsute. With that said mine would look substantially different with the exception of 1989 (feck, was it really), but what’s yours is yours. I love that love Kiss, it always made me smile, if ever there was an unlilkely candidate! Kraftwerk I get, Kiss…….naw!

  2. Laura says:

    Oh my goodness, I shouldn’t even think about doing this until wintertime when I hibernate. And I have a music and vinyl obsessive friend who will see this and may never leave the house again, except to spend his money in monorail records.

    My list will be different I’m sure, but I reckon Portishead will be in for that year.

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