Favorite Albums By Year
This list is a reflection of my earlier tastes—not necessarily the music I now like best, but the music I once did. (I confess, though, that I still like nearly all of it.) I relied on my own memories to excavate most of my selections, except for the first three, which a journal of my mom’s helped me to recover. You can see various waves of interest as they reach my shores: music from children’s entertainment and then my parents’ music, the softest of soft pop and then the weirdo margins of alternative music, contemporary folk and then American indie rock, obscure minimalist Nordic pop and then even more obscure electroacoustic or abrasive strangenesses, with little wavelets of early British new wave—my home base—interrupting every so often.
Age 1: “Johnny, Johnny, Whoops, Johnny” [not an album, obviously]
Age 2: “C” Is for Cookie by Frank Oz and the Children’s Television Workshop
Age 3: Songs from Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Various Artists
Age 4: A Jack Jones Christmas by Jack Jones
Age 5: The Best of Peter, Paul and Mary: Ten Years Together by Peter, Paul and Mary
Age 6: The Original Monster Mash by Bobby (Boris) Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers
Age 7: Endless Summer by The Beach Boys
Age 8: Juice by Juice Newton
Age 9: Olivia’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 by Olivia Newton-John
Age 10: Kilroy Was Here by Styx
Age 11: An Innocent Man by Billy Joel
Age 12: Greatest Hits by Air Supply
Age 13: New Edition by New Edition
Age 14: Dare to Be Stupid by “Weird Al” Yankovic
Age 15: Faith by George Michael
Age 16: A Fierce Pancake by Stump
Age 17: Lincoln by They Might Be Giants
Age 18: Workers Playtime by Billy Bragg
Age 19: Thunder and Consolation by New Model Army
Age 20: Home Again by David Wilcox
Age 21: Promenade by The Divine Comedy
Age 22: Night Train by Bill Morrissey
Age 23: The Honesty Room by Dar Williams
Age 24: Dream Café by Greg Brown
Age 25: I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got by Sinead O’Connor
Age 26: My Life by Iris DeMent
Age 27: Hounds of Love by Kate Bush
Age 28: Astral Weeks by Van Morrison
Age 29: Grace by Jeff Buckley
Age 30: Castaways and Cutouts by The Decemberists
Age 31: The Execution of All Things by Rilo Kiley
Age 32: Trouble by Ray LaMontagne
Age 33: Secrets of the Beehive by David Sylvian
Age 34: Melody Mountain by Susanna and the Magical Orchestra
Age 35: Miniatures by Alog
Age 36: Alas, I Cannot Swim by Laura Marling
Age 37: Rivers by Wildbirds & Peacedrums
Age 38: Miss America by Mary Margaret O’Hara
Age 39: Rev EP by Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto
Age 40: Mimikry by ANBB
Age 41: White+ by White+
Age 42: Architecture and Morality by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Age 43: Antologie by Solveig Slettahjell
Age 44: Searching for the Young Soul Rebels by Dexys Midnight Runners
Age 45: Tin Drum by Japan
Age 46: You Want It Darker by Leonard Cohen
Age 47: Uncommon Deities by Jan Bang and Erik Honoré with David Sylvian, Sidsel Endresen, and Arve Henriksen
Age 48: Hats by the Blue Nile
Age 49: No Need for Another History by Hiperson
Age 50: Songs for Einstein’s Violin by Frank Tedesso
Age 51 (so far): Peppermint Radio by Kate Walsh