30 Years of Music

Dayton and his brother had an idea to create a list of their favorite albums and commentary on those albums for each year that they have been alive. Dayton passed this along to me and I thought it sounded like a fun idea for a blog post. It's been almost two weeks of me working on it, but it's ready.
The following is a list of albums from every year I have been alive, 1978 to the present (Although many of my favorite albums were all released before my birth). Some are favorites and some are the lesser of many evils, but all of them are albums that I have had or still have in my collection. The rules excluded live albums and compilations. Some years were difficult to even come up with one album and some years I just couldn't narrow down enough, so I have changed the rules a little (It's my blog, I can post what I want) and on some years included several albums that are favorites of mine, instead of a single favorite album. So I hope you enjoy the list, feel free to comment and/or scrutinize any of my choices. If you happen to post a similar list on your own blog, let me know and I will post a link.

1978
Van Halen - Van Halen
I didn't really know many albums from this year, I know all of the songs on the album and a lot of them are great songs. I don't think this album still holds up today, but I had to pick something.
Honorable Mention
The Who - Who Are You
The only other album that I know from this year.

1979
Pink Floyd - The Wall
This wasn't even a competition, this is hands down the best album from this year. Still a great album, my first introduction into a concept album. This album includes some of Pink Floyds greatest songs and my all time favorite, Comfortably Numb.

1980
AC/DC - Back In Black
Another easy choice, this is a classic rock album. Anyone who is a fan of Rock should have this in their collection. Often imitated the guitar and hard hitting beats make this album, well "Rock".

1981
Rush - Moving Pictures
This was probably the most difficult year for me to pick an album that I liked, let alone even have in my album collection. Rush was one of the first progressive rock bands that I ever listened to. Love them or hate them, this is a good album and you will find most of these songs on any Rush greatest hits compilation. (Tom Sawyer, Limelight, YYZ)

1982
Social Distortion - Mommy's Little Monster
Another difficult year for me, a solid Social D album, although not their best work. Many of you will be giving me crap for not picking Michael Jackson - Thriller, but alas I have never even listened to it all the way through, sorry.

1983
U2 - War
I am not a huge U2 fan, but this album has some really good songs that have become classic U2 fare. (Sunday Bloody Sunday, New Years Day) I think this is the first U2 album I ever owned, used from GrayWhale for sure.

1984
Bob Marley and The Wailers - Legend: The Best of Bob Marley and The Wailers
OK, I know I am not supposed to pick a compilation, but I just couldn't pick anything from this year and if I was going to pick a Best Of CD, this is probably the best Best Of CD I own, a great, great album.
I could have picked Van Halen - 1984 or Metallica - Ride The Lightning, because they are the only other albums from this year that are even worth mentioning, but I was never a fan of either. Fade to Black is still a great song though.

1985
The Cult - Love
As I struggle through the 80's, I find another year with really only a single album that I have ever listened to. I discovered The Cult when a friend of mine took me to see them in concert, because we had nothing better to do and it was only $9.60 for a ticket. They put on a great live show and subsequently I picked up a few of their albums.

1986
Beastie Boys - Licensed to Ill
Not my favorite Beastie Boys album, but it provided plenty of good listening with the boys when we were out having fun. I truly think that the Beastie's are a guys only band, girls just don't seem to get it.
Honorable Mention
Van Halen - 5150
A great album from Van Halen. I think they are one of the better bands that came out of the 80's. My sisters Trish and Krista were both fans and Trish took me to my first concert, Van halen of course, but not in 1986 (I was only 8).

1987
Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction
The best thing to come out of the "Glam Rock" era. This is really a great album, every song is good and it really signaled a change for rock at the time, everyone else was just trying to imitate this album.
Honorable Mention
U2 - The Joshua Tree
A classic U2 album, their best in my opinion.
Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason
OK, I know it's only half of Pink Floyd (No Roger Waters), but On the Turning Away and Learning To Fly are some of my favorite Pink Floyd songs.

1988
Metallica - ...And Justice For All
This is a great album, it's the album that got me into Metallica. For some this was when Metallica "Sold Out", but for me it was when the music fit my tastes better and I started to listen more and more to Metallica and metal.

1989
Faith No More - The Real Thing
I know there isn't a lot of FNM fans out there, but out of all the different Mike Patton bands, Faith No More is the best. This is really a good album and it's another progressive band that got me into that genre of music.
Honorable Mention
Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
A good album by the Beasties, I didn't start listening to it until several years after it's release. Not my favorite BB album, but when I hear the rythim of Hey Ladies, it brings me much joy.
Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine
My favorite NIN album, really the only industrial stuff that I listen to. It's more raw than Trent Reznors later work and his genius can't be denied.

1990
Alice In Chains - Facelift
This is another album that I didn't pick up until I had a few of AIC's later albums and then went back to complete my collection.
Honorable Mention
Jane's Addiction - Ritual De Lo Habitual
I remember going on a trip with my friends to Hebgen Lake in Montana and Kirk would wake us up every morning with this album. I still wish my alarm clock would play this "Stop, here we go!!!"

1991 (A Great Year For Music)
Pearl Jam - Ten
Still one of my favorite albums, every song is great. I still find myself listening to this album all the time, Black, Evenflow and Alive are my favorites. The really was a great year for music, it was a year when things really started to change, it was the beginning of "Grunge", but it was more than just that.
Honorable Mention
Nirvana - Nevermind
Another groundbreaking and great album, almost a tie with Pearl Jam, but I leaned much more toward Eddie Vedder rather than Kurt Cobain, a close second.
Metallica - Metallica
Another Metallica album that the purists probably hate, but it's my favorite. All the tracks were much more radio friendly than previous albums, but for me that was what worked for them. They haven't made a good album since, in my opinion. (Of course I'm still bitter about the Lars Vs. Napster thing)
Toad The Wet Sprocket - Fear
A great album, very mellow and melodic, but very good stuff.

1992 (Another Great Year)
Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes
Some people may be surprised by this considering all of the other great music that came out of this year. I didn't start listening to Tori until about 1999, but this is such a great album. Every song is great, musicly and creatively it's Tori's best and it's just all around good stuff.
Honorable Mention (There are many)
Alice In Chains - Dirt
AIC's best album, more good grunge music.
Rage Against The Machine - Rage Against The Machine
Nobody does Metal and Rap together better than Rage. This is really a great album, and is still relevent today. We used to listen to this in the locker room before hockey games, great songs to have running through your head during a hockey game.
Tool - Opiate
Tool's first album, controverstial, frightening and a little disturbing but listening to it now just shows how much potential Tool had at the time, they are still one of my favorite bands of all time.
Beastie Boys - Check Your Head
Standing up to the other albums of this year it's a little weak, but it's my favorite BB album, so I had to include it somewhere.

1993 (A Tie)
Pearl Jam - Vs.
Probably one of the best sophmore releases by a band ever. Another solid album, it was the first album that I ever went to a midnight CD release party for, Hastings in Riverdale.
Tool - Undertow
Another great sophmore effort. Undertow still stands today and I hear songs such as Sober and Prison Sex on the radio all the time. Such a huge leap from Opiate, this album hits hard. Just like their previous album it was controversial (Bar Code Cover Anyone?), dark, mysterious and excellent.
Honorable Mention
311 - Music
Still heralded by 311 fans as their best album. Not the first 311 album that I owned, but I think I agree that their first was their best. An excellent band to see live, no I'm not joking they really are good live.
Counting Crows - August and Everything After
A great album full of melody and catchy lyrics and tunes. I don't think the band has topped this effort, still gets a lot of play on my iPod.

1994
Green Day - Dookie
I absolutely loved this album. For me it was really nothing like I had ever heard before and it showed me that music didn't have to be serious, it could just be light hearted and funny. Green Day made it OK for punk bands to be mainstream. I know they took a lot of crap for it, but there are a ton of bands out there today that have Green Day to thank for opening the door for them.
Honorable Mention
Alice In Chains - Jar of Flies
I used to listen to this album to fall asleep. I still listen to it when I want to hear some good mellow stuff.
Dave Mathews Band - Under The Table and Dreaming
In my opinion DMB's best stuff. A great album that saw a great band get popular and have the ability to become superstars. Dave is an amazing artist and I got the chance to see them live about a year after this album came out, a great band to see live.
Toad The Wet Sprocket - Dulcinea
Another great Toad album, lots of really good songs. It's a shame that the band broke up, but this was really the last good album they put out.

1995
311 -311
I absolutely loved this album. It came out when I was in high school and my friends and I used to listen to this all the time. I have to admit that I have a hard time listening to it now, but I still find myself going down memory lane and listening to these songs to feel nostalgic. Also of note, this was the first CD I ever bought that I was able to listen to on the way home from the store. Trish had a CD player in her car and I drove it just so I could listen to it as soon as possible.
Honorable Mention
Alanis Morrisette - Jagged Little Pill
I still listen to this quite a bit. There is such emotion in this album, it's really good and for me was the first time that I found a female artist who could really rock.
Faith No More - King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime
FNM is such an underrated band. They are so diverse and different. This is a great album with songs that range from the strange and weird to the mainstream, mellow and hard.

1996
Tool - Aenima
This was my favorite album for such a long time, still one of my favorites. It's such amazing work and again I think people don't give Tool enough of a chance. So misunderstood, this album is musicly complex and extremely intelligent, I think this was when I started to really think of music as art and also that music could be smart and deep.
Honorable Mention
Dave Mathews Band - Crash
Brooke and I listened to this a lot when we were dating. It was one of very few duplicate CD's we had when we got married. Still a good album, and it always brings me back to that time.

1997
The Ataris - Anywhere But Here
The first real band that I started listening to that nobody had ever heard of. It started my streak of trying to find independent and unheard of bands. I saw these guys in a club in Logan with about 20 other people, we were all up on the stage. It was really fun and I think around these times was when I swore off listening to music on the radio completely.

1998
Zebrahead - Waste Of Mind
I'd like to thank my good friend Josh for helping me discover this band. Such a fun band to listen to and a fun band to see live. This is a great album and took the rap/rock genre to a new level for me.
Honorable Mention
The Living End - The Living End
Another semi known band from Australia. These guys really have great talent and they are so amazing to see live. I liked this album quite a bit, but it wasn't until I saw them play the songs live that I really started to listen to this album and really get into the band.

1999 (A Tie)
Blink 182 - Enema of the State
I really liked this album, another album that Brooke and I listened to a lot while we were dating. Just a lot of fun catchy tunes.
The Ataris - Blue Skies, Broken Hearts, Next 12 Exits
More pop/punk type stuff from The Ataris, but they stepped it up from their last album. I really thought this was going to make them a big, popular band but they really stayed in obscurity and I am glad. A great album to listen to if you are in the stage of your life where you are dating and having fun with friends.
Honorable Mention
Tori Amos - To Venus and Back
I saw Tori live around this time and she put out a live album along with the new material on this album. It's more great stuff, not as good as Little Earthquakes but another album that made me see how talented she really is.

2000
A Perfect Circle - Mer De Noms
Maynard from Tool's side project that turned into much more than a side project. This is such a great album, musically and lyrically. There is such a range of music on this album, from almost classical type music that is really melodic to more Tool sounding songs that are dark and heavy. A video directed by David Fincher didn't hurt either.
Honorable Mention
Zebrahead - Playmate of the Year
Another good Zebrahead album, funny and just fun to listen to. It came out while we were on our honeymoon so I bought it at a mall in San Diego.

2001
Tool Lateralus
Another great Tool album, probably their weakest but even in a year with a lot of great albums, their talent and complexity still stands out as the best.
Honorable Mention
Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American
The first album I listened to from this band, they instantly became one of my favorite bands.
The Living End - Roll On
More good rockabilly punk from these guys.
Tori Amos - Strange Little Girls
This was such an interesting concept and Tori really pulled it off. She took songs that were all written from a males point of view and covered them from a woman's point of view. It's really good stuff and paired with the originals it's very interesting.

2002
Something Corporate - Leaving Through the Window
Who knew that a piano in a rock band could be so cool. This is really a great album and Andrew McMahon became one of my favorite artists (He is Brooke's favorite). Again I need to thank Josh for introducing me to these guys. Between his two bands I have seen them live at least 5 times.
Honorable Mention
Tori Amos - Scarlets Walk
Probably one of her lesser known albums, but it's still great work from her and I think her vocal work is as good here as on Little Earthquakes.

2003
A Perfect Circle - Thirteenth Step
A great follow up to their first album. A Perfect Circle did it again. This time with more of a concept in mind, the music still ranges quite a bit. This was a little bit more of a commercial release but also got the benefit of better production.
Honorable Mention (Another Year With A Lot Of Good Albums)
Something Corporate - North
Another great album from this band and the last album before Andrew decided to change bands and form Jack's Mannequin, but it's all the same to me. More good Piano Rock.
AFI - Sing The Sorrow
Part of my short experimentation into Emo, this album is actually pretty solid stuff. It's dark and full of angst, it has a mood to it, but that is one of the things that makes it good.
The Ataris - So Long, Astoria
The best produced and most commercially successful Ataris album.
Coheed and Cambria - In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth 3
I first just thought this album was weird, but the more I listened the more I came to really appreciate it.

2004
Green Day - American Idiot
Should I have been surprised as I was that this turned out to be such a great album. I was skeptical when I heard that Green Day of all bands was releasing a concept album, but they pulled it off. It's their best work to date, it's one of the best albums of the last several years and remains a favorite of mine.
Honorable Mention
Jimmy Eat World - Futures
Another great album from this band, they keep getting better with each release.
Kelly Clarkson - Breakaway
Dayton had this on his list too, I rarely get into pop, but this album is actually really good.

2005 (A Tie)(Brooke will hate that one of her most hated bands tied with her favorite band)
Coheed and Cambria - Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One, Fear Through The Eyes of Madness
I actually started listening to this band with their second CD, but I don't think I really listened to it and got into it until this album came out. The guitar in this album and all of their others is excellent. Love them or hate them, I know his voice is weird, but it's one of the things I like about them. The new face of progressive rock and the ultimate concept album.
Jack's Mannequin - Everything In Transit
To continue with Andrew McMahon and his bands, this is another great album. More emotional and more grown up than his Something Corporate stuff, this is a really good album with a lot of depth.
Honorable Mention
Fall Out Boy - From Under The Cork Tree
Radio friendly pop, punk songs but they are also catchy and really fun to listen to.

2006
Tool - 10,000 Days
A lot of Tool fans really hated this album, some even thought it was fake and there was a lot of analysis of the songs from fans who thought it was just leftover studio sessions from previous albums. As for me, I really love this album. I think it's a lot more of a personal album than Tool has ever done, it's epic, it's intelligent, it rocks hard and it will blow you away. It also has the coolest CD packaging ever. I hope it's not their last.

2007
Jimmy Eat World - Chase This Light
Most of my iPod's top 25 most played songs are from this album and 10,000 days just above it. Maybe it's because I only started keeping track of my play counts a couple of years ago or maybe it's because these two albums are really good. Only time will tell. This is the best album from Jimmy Eat World, it has everything, it's catchy, it's fun and it rocks. More rock and roll than previous attempts at pop punk type music from this band.
Honorable Mention
Coheed and Cambria - Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two, No World For Tomorrow
This is a very close second, another great Coheed album, that continues the great music and crazy convoluted story of the previous albums. But the guitar, the guitar is great. It's also fun to play the available songs on Rock Band.
Mae - Singularity
Another somewhat obscure band that I think the mainstream community will be hearing more from in the future, a really good album.
Relient K - Five Score and Seven Years Ago
A really good album from this band, they have branched out from the Christian band community and done a more mainstream effort here. Although their values still appear in the songs, it's more radio friendly. Thanks to Wolfie for helping me discover this band, who also have a great Christmas album (Let It Snow, Baby... Let It Reindeer)

So there you have it, 30 years of music. Hopefully you enjoyed this very long post, those of you who made it through the whole thing. Even though it took me two weeks to put together and was actually harder than it might sound it was really fun for me. Make sure to comment and let me know what you think, I am sure there will be much distaste and pleasure at some of my choices. And of course, they could have been some that I have missed, you know how reliable Wikipedia is.