Choking on Nostalgia - Former Albums of the Year

It's that time of year again. Sometimes I feel that this basically justifies my existence. The whole year spent deliberating who breaks into my favourite 30 albums of the year. Don't forget the 20 honourable mentions, either! Very sad, yet very true, folks!

I've been digging through the archives over the past couple of months and have managed to procure my lists spanning back to my inaugural "Album of the Year" way back in 2002. I thought I'd share.

 

Obviously the variables into such lists these days are significantly different, given the landscape in which music is sourced and consumed (i.e. Internet and various listening devices other than a stereo and Discman). So much more is available these days.

I remember back before 2006 (before I had Broadband Internet), I was lucky if I procured one new album a week. The circumstances mainly depended on two things; money and availability, depending on the local record store's stock. How times have changed!

In any case, have a browse. Quite an interesting experience inhaling your own nostalgia. As follows:

 

2013
 

1. Pissed Jeans - Honeys
2. Jon Hopkins - Immunity
3. Bill Ryder-Jones - A Bad Win Blows In My Heart
4. Polvo - Siberia
5. Deafheaven - Sunbather
6. Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks
7. The Flaming Lips - The Terror
8. The Men - New Moon
9. Jesu - Every Day I Get Closer to the Light from Which I Came
10. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Push the Sky Away

2012

1. Liars – WIXIW

2. …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Lost Songs

3. Lee Ranaldo - Between The Times and The Tides

4. Dirty Three - Toward the Low Sun

5. Actress - R.I.P

6. Echo Lake -Wild Peace

7. Damien Jurado –Maraqopa

8. Baroness - Yellow and Green

9. Pop. 1280 - The Horror  
10. Portico Quartet - Portico Quarter

2011

1. The War On Drugs - Slave Ambient
2. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
3. The Horrors - Skying
4. Parts & Labor - Constant Future
5. Josh T. Pearson - Last of the Country Gentlemen
6. Radiohead - The King of Limbs
7. Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place
8. Low - C'mon
9. The Twilight Singers - Dynamite Steps
10. Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will

2010

1. Roky Erickson with Okkervil River - True Love Cast Out All Evil
2. The Besnard Lakes - ...Are the Roaring Night
3. Philip Selway - Familal
4. Killing Joke - Absolute Dissent
5. Zola Jesus - Stridulum II
6. Neil Young - Le Noise
7. Retribution Gospel Choir - 2
8. Envy - Recitation
9. No Age - Everything in Between
10. Three Mile Pilot - The Inevitable Past Is The Future Forgotten

2009

1. Crippled Black Phoenix – The Resurrectionists/Night Raiders
2. Polvo – In Prism
3. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion
4. The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love
5. Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport
6. The Twilight Sad – Forget the Night Ahead
7. Why? - Eskimo Snow
8. ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead – The Century of Self
9. Pelican – What we all Come to Need
10. Pink Mountaintops – Outside Love

2008

1. The Constantines – Kensington Heights
2. TV On The Radio – Dear Science
3. The Gutter Twins – Saturnalia
4. Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Real Emotional Trash
5. British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?
6. Mercury Rev – Snowflake Midnight
7. Dead Meadow - Old Growth
8. Boris – Smile
9. Deerhunter – Microcastle/Werid Era Content
10. Mogwai – The Hawk Is Howling

2007

1. Radiohead - In Rainbows
2. Jesu - Conqueror
3. Burial - Untrue
4. The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
5. Deerhunter - Cryptograms
6. Les Savy Fav - Let’s Stay Friends
7. The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are Dark Horses
8. The Forms - The Forms
9. Broken Social Scene Presents Kevin Drew - Spirit If
10. Grinderman - Grinderman

2006

1. Liars - Drum's Not Dead
2. TV On the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
3. Mogwai - Mr. Beast
4. Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped
5. Morrissey - Ringleader of the Tormentors

6. Burial - Burial
7. Isis - In the Absence of Truth
8.  Secret Machines - Ten Silver Drops
9. The Black Heart Procession - The Spell
10. ...And You Will Know Us by the Trailer Of Dead - So Divided 

2005 

1. Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake It's Morning
2. ...And You Will Know Us by the Trailer Of Dead  - Worlds Apart

3. British Sea Power - Open Season
4.  Broken Social Scene - Broker Social Scene
5. Ryan Adams - Cold Roses

6. Sigur Ros - Takk...
7. Low - The Great Destroyer 
8. Mercury Rev - The Secret Migration
9. Sleater-Kinney - The Woods
10. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Howl

2004

1. Interpol - Antics
2. The Streets - A Grand Don't Come for Free
3. The Icarus Line - Penance Soiree
4. Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse
5. Secret Machines - Now Here is Nowhere
6. Blood Brothers - Crimes
7. Manic Street Preachers - Lifeblood
8. Mclusky - The Difference Between....
9. Ikara Colt - Modern Apprentice
10. The Faint - Wet at Birth

2003

1. Muse - Absolution
2. Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
3. The Bronx - The Bronx
4. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell
5. AFI - Sing the Sorrow
6. Cave In - Antenna
7. Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlanticism
8. Deftones - Deftones
9. The Strokes - Room on Fire
10. Elbow - Cast of Thousands

2002
 

1. ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Source Tags & Codes
2. Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights

3. The Music - The Music
4. Queens Of The Stoneage - Song For The Deaf
5. Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head
6. Sparta - Wiretap Scars
7. Seafood - When Do We Start Fighting
8. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - BRMC
9. Beck - Sea Change
10. The Streets - Original Pirate Material

 

2014 honourable mentions to drop within the next two weeks, followed by my top 30.

 

Stay safe.

 

Simon K.