A Complete Explanation Of Everything
Monday, July 14, 2008
A Record, A Year...
Courtesy of TGWAOF, I present to you a record I like for every year of my life... It can't be my favourite 'cos I'm only working off my new itunes library setup. Finally got that done and my new 160 GB Ipod is now duly rocking it and my songs are nice and backed up on the Western Digital 500 GB external drive and my laptop is now half empty! 30 GBs of free space!
Anyway, this listing is far from definitive but it's drawn from a database of 15,335 songs or 60.88 GBs or 42.5 days of music according to itunes, so it's statistically representative I believe...
1979: "Unknown Pleasures" - Joy Division
Joy Division, simple and a good start.
1980: "Boy" - U2
A bad year for my music collection, time to start looking for some more 1980 records.
1981: "Still" - Joy Division
Even better again, once again in '81, the lads from Macclesfield score a posthumous hit with a controversial one... Mind you it was either this or "October"...
1982: "Avalon" - Roxy Music
It's got "More than this" on it aswell, that'll do...
1983: "Kill 'em all" - Metallica
Couldn't leave that out, the birth of metal as we know it...
1984: "The Smiths" - The Smiths
Starting a daffodil craze back in 1984...
1985: "Hounds of Love" - Kate Bush
I'll have to go with this ahead of Talking Heads... Although this was a pretty decent year for music by the looks of it...
1986: "Slippery When Wet" - Bon Jovi
A karaoke classic, I can still be found beltin' out: "Livin' on a Prayer"...
1987: "Appetite for Destruction" / "Introducing the Hardline According to..." - Guns N'Roses / Terence Trent D'Arby
A great year for music and too close to call...
1988: "Isn't Anything" - My Bloody Valentine
Narrowly beating out Public Enemy...
1989: "Bleach" - Nirvana
The grunge years begin with possibly my favourite Nirvana record...
1990: "Violator" - Depeche Mode
We "Enjoyed the Silence" and have been doing so ever since with the boys from Basildon...
1991: "Nevermind" / "Ten" - Nirvana / Pearl Jam
Whilst MBV and Massive Attack are good shouts, this was the year that brought corporate rock crashing down, o'course, it went back there in the end... It gave us The Seattle Sound and two of the finest records ever made though...
1992: "Blind" - The Sundays
If only for the most gorgeous interpretation of "Wild Horses" ever, plus we need to mellow out and chill for a bit after these last few years...
1993: "In Utero" - Nirvana
The last Nirvana entry for obvious reasons! Beating out "Pablohoney" / "Songs of Faith & Devotion" / "Versus" / "Siamese Dream"...
1994: "Troublegum" - Therapy?
Narrowly beating out Soundgarden & "Superunknown", still it's a classic and we haven't heard from Ireland since 1980...
1995: "Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness" - The Smashing Pumpkins
The grunge equivalent of prog-rock signalled the death knell for a wonderful era but it was good while it lasted and a fitting homage to the oeuvre at that time... Honourable mention for Garbage's debut this year with probably my favourite single ever, "Only Happy When It Rains"...
1996: "Down on the Upside" / "New Adventures in Hi-fi" - Soundgarden / REM
Soundgarden's elegy and epitaph but a wonderful cohesive record and the only entry REM would ever make on any list I'll make, I bought this record as a present for a mate but ended up obsessed over it. Still one of my favourite records...
1997: "OK Computer" - Radiohead
Radiohead at their fittest, happiest and most productive...
1998: "Try Whistling This" - Neil Finn
A closefought year but Neil just takes it ahead of Gillian Welch / Lucinda Williams...
1999: "69 Love Songs" - The Magnetic Fields
Ah yes, we were all fully employed and very much in love... Enough tunes here to last the year aswell...
2000: "Hybrid Theory" - Linkin Park
A number of contenders but this says, pick me! For some reason...
2001: "Pneumonia" - Whiskeytown
It was about now that I started to turn a little bit country, Ryan Adam's first band serving up one of the ultimate slices of Americana / Alt Country / Cosmic American Music to quote Gram...
2002: "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" - Wilco
Interpol's "Turn on the Bright Lights" nearly deserves joint status here but Wilco's redefinition of alt-country is so sonically groundbreaking in terms of everything, it just has to go out on it's own...
2003: "Give Up" - The Postal Service
Closely matched by M83 - "Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts"...
2004: "Kleptomania" - Mansun
Technically a collection but it was also supposed to be the long awaited fourth album aswell and I couldn't give it to The Arcade Fire on a technicality...
2005: "Plans" - Death Cab for Cutie
This is when Death Cab started to make sense to me...
2006: "Boys & Girls in America" - The Hold Steady
Bruce Springsteen without the bombast or the sax, we learnt something during the grunge years...
2007: "Riot!" - Paramore
Narrowly beating out Tegan & Sara's "The Con", well I couldn't end this listing all credible and shit like...
2008: "Narrow Stairs" - Death Cab for Cutie
Long way to go yet but it's strong enough for me to go and see them in Manchester on Wednesday night and that's the furthest I've gone for a gig in a good while...
Anyway, this listing is far from definitive but it's drawn from a database of 15,335 songs or 60.88 GBs or 42.5 days of music according to itunes, so it's statistically representative I believe...
1979: "Unknown Pleasures" - Joy Division
Joy Division, simple and a good start.
1980: "Boy" - U2
A bad year for my music collection, time to start looking for some more 1980 records.
1981: "Still" - Joy Division
Even better again, once again in '81, the lads from Macclesfield score a posthumous hit with a controversial one... Mind you it was either this or "October"...
1982: "Avalon" - Roxy Music
It's got "More than this" on it aswell, that'll do...
1983: "Kill 'em all" - Metallica
Couldn't leave that out, the birth of metal as we know it...
1984: "The Smiths" - The Smiths
Starting a daffodil craze back in 1984...
1985: "Hounds of Love" - Kate Bush
I'll have to go with this ahead of Talking Heads... Although this was a pretty decent year for music by the looks of it...
1986: "Slippery When Wet" - Bon Jovi
A karaoke classic, I can still be found beltin' out: "Livin' on a Prayer"...
1987: "Appetite for Destruction" / "Introducing the Hardline According to..." - Guns N'Roses / Terence Trent D'Arby
A great year for music and too close to call...
1988: "Isn't Anything" - My Bloody Valentine
Narrowly beating out Public Enemy...
1989: "Bleach" - Nirvana
The grunge years begin with possibly my favourite Nirvana record...
1990: "Violator" - Depeche Mode
We "Enjoyed the Silence" and have been doing so ever since with the boys from Basildon...
1991: "Nevermind" / "Ten" - Nirvana / Pearl Jam
Whilst MBV and Massive Attack are good shouts, this was the year that brought corporate rock crashing down, o'course, it went back there in the end... It gave us The Seattle Sound and two of the finest records ever made though...
1992: "Blind" - The Sundays
If only for the most gorgeous interpretation of "Wild Horses" ever, plus we need to mellow out and chill for a bit after these last few years...
1993: "In Utero" - Nirvana
The last Nirvana entry for obvious reasons! Beating out "Pablohoney" / "Songs of Faith & Devotion" / "Versus" / "Siamese Dream"...
1994: "Troublegum" - Therapy?
Narrowly beating out Soundgarden & "Superunknown", still it's a classic and we haven't heard from Ireland since 1980...
1995: "Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness" - The Smashing Pumpkins
The grunge equivalent of prog-rock signalled the death knell for a wonderful era but it was good while it lasted and a fitting homage to the oeuvre at that time... Honourable mention for Garbage's debut this year with probably my favourite single ever, "Only Happy When It Rains"...
1996: "Down on the Upside" / "New Adventures in Hi-fi" - Soundgarden / REM
Soundgarden's elegy and epitaph but a wonderful cohesive record and the only entry REM would ever make on any list I'll make, I bought this record as a present for a mate but ended up obsessed over it. Still one of my favourite records...
1997: "OK Computer" - Radiohead
Radiohead at their fittest, happiest and most productive...
1998: "Try Whistling This" - Neil Finn
A closefought year but Neil just takes it ahead of Gillian Welch / Lucinda Williams...
1999: "69 Love Songs" - The Magnetic Fields
Ah yes, we were all fully employed and very much in love... Enough tunes here to last the year aswell...
2000: "Hybrid Theory" - Linkin Park
A number of contenders but this says, pick me! For some reason...
2001: "Pneumonia" - Whiskeytown
It was about now that I started to turn a little bit country, Ryan Adam's first band serving up one of the ultimate slices of Americana / Alt Country / Cosmic American Music to quote Gram...
2002: "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" - Wilco
Interpol's "Turn on the Bright Lights" nearly deserves joint status here but Wilco's redefinition of alt-country is so sonically groundbreaking in terms of everything, it just has to go out on it's own...
2003: "Give Up" - The Postal Service
Closely matched by M83 - "Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts"...
2004: "Kleptomania" - Mansun
Technically a collection but it was also supposed to be the long awaited fourth album aswell and I couldn't give it to The Arcade Fire on a technicality...
2005: "Plans" - Death Cab for Cutie
This is when Death Cab started to make sense to me...
2006: "Boys & Girls in America" - The Hold Steady
Bruce Springsteen without the bombast or the sax, we learnt something during the grunge years...
2007: "Riot!" - Paramore
Narrowly beating out Tegan & Sara's "The Con", well I couldn't end this listing all credible and shit like...
2008: "Narrow Stairs" - Death Cab for Cutie
Long way to go yet but it's strong enough for me to go and see them in Manchester on Wednesday night and that's the furthest I've gone for a gig in a good while...
posted by Christophe at 14.7.08
3 Comments:
I so forgot 69 Love Songs for 1999! Damnit there's always one.... (well I had also forgoten the postal service and m83, though Fourt Tet would have still been my choice)
Nice list, up until about 2003 though :p
FYI, Plans was when DCFC *stopped* making sense. I must admit I quite liked them in the early days but the last two albums have been, well, rubbish imho. Enjoy the gig tho!
oh and i meant to say, I wish I had been born early enough to pick a joy division album :)
DCFC gig was very cool indeed, the Manchester Apollo is much like The Ambassador in Dublin... Played all the hits and the new album went over enthusiastically with the kids...
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