Albums by Year

Yeah, there about 20 things that I haven't yet taken the time to write down, but Felix (inspired by a Llama, etc.) posited an interesting exercise: best album by year, from the year you were born. I excluded compilations and soundtracks, which seemed to pare down my collection by a significant amount, and by "best" I mean what I enjoy the most. ...so if you think "Back to the Egg" sucks, well, you're probably right, but I like it, anyways:

1975 Queen, A Night at the Opera
1976 Stevie Wonder, Songs in the Key of Life
1977 Gilberto Gil, Refavela
1978 The Rutles (kind of a soundtrack, I guess, but the best I could come up with)
1979 Paul McCartney, Back to the Egg
1980 The Cure, Boys Don’t Cry
1981 Depeche Mode, Speak & Spell
1982 Michael Jackson, Thriller
1983 Prince, 1999
1984 Madonna, Like a Virgin
1985 Dead Milkmen, Big Lizard in My Backyard
1986 They Might Be Giants
1987 George Michael, Faith
1988 kdlang, Shadowland
1989 B-52s, Cosmic Thing
1990 Jane’s Addiction, Ritual de lo Habitual
1991 Marisa Monte, Mais
1992 Suzane Vega, 99.9*F
1993 Bjork, Debut
1994 Tori Amos, Under the Pink
1995 Pizzicato 5, The Sound of Music
1996 Beck, Odelay
1997 Les Elles
1998 Soul Coughing, El Oso / or / Rufus Wainwright
1999 Cibo Matto, Stereo Type A
2000 Golec uOrkiestra, 2
2001 Gorillaz
2002 Flaming Lips, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
2003 Kaada, Thank You for Giving Me Your Precious Time
2004 Of Montreal, Satanic Panic in the Attic
2005 Petra Haden, The Who Sells Out
2006 Sean Lennon, Friendly Fire / or / Regina Spektor, Begin to Hope
2007 Cocorosie, Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn
2008 Flight of the Conchords???

2008 isn't over yet, and that's probably the only album I've even (mostly) heard from this year. It takes time for stuff to filter through to me (or to stand out from the crowd on kcrw).

I had *huge* troubles populating the early 80s, which is surprising - a period of great tunes - but not many noteworthy albums. In fact, 1990 beat DM’s “Violator” only b/c I could find *no* other good album in 1981, and I was going on the premise that I'd only have one nominee per artist. It was hard work to pare down the list from 1989-1999, which makes sense - the albums that I could sneak to buy in HS, then when I had freedom in college, and finally as a compulsive concertgoer living in NYC. The few albums that I know and cherish from the last few years all seemed to stem from the same year or two, so, overall, competition was uneven...
I agree w/ the llama that it may not be worth the time it took to make the list, but so it goes.