To start off, I’d like to make it very clear that this whole thing was Chris’ idea. He came to Kelly and I with it and we, being the list-making addicts that we are, accepted, not fully understanding the consequences of our acceptance.

But, to his credit, he did save the best for last. Excuse me while I stroke my ego for a moment…still there? Good. I was worried that you may have left, what with me being a total ass about my arbitrary last-ness. All of our lists hold equal importance and relevance to each of our lives. That’s probably the hardest part about making these lists, because they’re supposed to be more reflections of your own personal experience than what the actual best album was, so it’s harder to attack one another for our choices. This was, obviously, the hardest part about making this list- knowing that you can’t realistically attack one another over album choices. It’s hard not to bicker and tear each other down over our barely differing musical tastes.

As a bit of a warning before we actually get into my list for best albums from each year of my life, I have to set out the ground rules by which I ordered my list. While we did indeed go back and forth over the ground rules and guidelines by which we’d adhere to when making these lists, we are different people (which certain picks in our lists make abundantly clear).

1. In the 1980’s and early 1990’s, I tried to pick an album that I was actually interested in from that year. This is, of course, subject to memory and tempered by the fact that I wasn’t that into music early in my life and tended to hear what was on the radio more than anything else (see: Huey Lewis & The News). In these years, the ‘Runner Up” is designated as the album I consider to be the best from that year, even if it wasn’t my favorite at the time.
2. In the more recent years (90’s to present) I used the “Runner Up” distinction when I couldn’t make up my damned mind about which album was best. I’m just like that. Get used to it.

On with the list!

For those of you who are interested in listening to a track from each of the albums listed below, follow this here link.

1979 - The Clash: London Calling (1)

1980 - AC/DC: Back In Black

1981 - Black Flag: Damaged (2)

1982 - George Thorogood & The Destroyers: Bad to the Bone / Runner Up- Michael Jackson: Thriller

1983 - Huey Lewis & The News: Sports / Runner Up- Stevie Ray Vaughn: Texas Flood

1984 - Prince: Purple Rain / Runner Up- The Replacements: Let It Be (3)

1985 - The Replacements: Tim / Runner Up- Husker Du: New Day Rising

1986 - Van Halen: 5150 / Runner Up- Beastie Boys: Licensed to Ill (4)

1987 - Guns and Roses: Appetite For Destruction

1988 - Tom Waits: Big Time

1989 - The Pixies: Doolittle

1990 - They Might Be Giants: Flood (5)

1991 - Pearl Jam: Ten / Runner Up- Skid Row: Slave to the Grind (6)

1992 - R.E.M.: Automatic for the People

1993 - Snoop Dogg: Doggystyle / Runner Up- Uncle Tupelo: Anodyne (7)

1994 - Green Day: Dookie

1995 - Everclear: Sparkle & Fade / Runner Up- Radiohead: The Bends

1996 - Pearl Jam: No Code / Runner Up- Weezer: Pinkerton

1997- Radiohead: OK Computer / Runner Up- Foo Fighters: The Colour and the Shape

1998 - Neutral Milk Hotel: In An Aeroplane Over The Sea

1999 - Beck: Midnite Vultures / Runner Up- Hefner: Fidelity Wars

2000 - eels: Daisies of the Galaxy / Runner Up- Superdrag: In The Valley of Dying Stars

2001 - Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot / Runner Up- Alkaline Trio: From Here to Infirmary (8)

2002 - Bright Eyes: Lifted…or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground

2003 - The Wrens: Meadowlands / Runner Up- Beulah: Yoko

2004 - The Hold Steady: Almost Killed Me / The Thermals: Fuckin’ A

2005 - Sufjan Stevens: Illinoise / Runner Up- Spoon: Gimmie Fiction

2006 - The Thermals: The Body, The Blood, The Machine / Runner Up- Ghostland Observatory: Paparazzi Lightning

2007 - The National: Boxer (9) / Runner Up- The Weakerthans: Reunion Tour

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[1] CONSENSUS!!! Go ahead, try and name a better album from 1979, I dare you.

[2] No, I didn’t listen to Black Flag when I was 2. I probably would have been much more messed up than I already am. In fact, I have problems listening to this whole album in a single sitting today. Still, it’s quite the statement.

[3] This was the first really tough decision I had to make. I love this ‘Mats album, but Purple Rain is Purple Rain. As a Minnesotan, the choice between guys that look and drink and wear awkward clothes just like I do and His Purpleness is hardly an easy one. But, I very well could have just listed the single of “Purple Rain” as the album of the year, it’s that important. It is a little-known fact that all Minnesotans are legally required to enjoy Prince’s music. The penalty for not liking it is listening to 10 straight hours of Garrison Keilor’s tales from Lake Woebegon.

[4] Sadly, this is not the most homo-erotic album cover from the 1980’s, but it’s close. Looking back, this is one of Van Halen’s weakest albums, yet, at the time, it was my favorite. I did not have very good judgement as a six year-old.

[5] “Is he a dot, or is he a speck? When he’s underwater does he get wet? Or does the water get him instead? Nobody knows, Particle man.” Need I say more?

[6] Slave to the Grind was the first tape I ever bought by myself. Ten was the second. 1991 was a weird year for me, musically.

[7] There seems to be a trend here where, at this point in our lives, each of us turned to some form of rap or hip-hop. I’d been exposed to NWA and various other gangsta rappers (Easy E, anyone?) for years, but this was the first album that I would listen to at any time, any place. Just not within earshot of my parents.

[8] Technically, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot came out in 2002. But, it was slated for release in 2001 and was released by Wilco on their website that year as well, so I counted it for this year. A similar logic was used to make The Clash’s London Calling the best album of 1979, even though the record was not released in the US until 1980.

[9] CONSENSUS!!! Nice that we could start and end on a unifying note…except for Old Man Hagen and his 1978…