Best album of every year since....

You mean like Please Please Me?

My theory:
Albums are needed because it is the only way to promote cult of personality. People buy records because they identify with the artists.

Singles: singles are better at capturing the mood of the moment. This is why I mainly buy compilations.

Albums I do like are by individuals rather than groups. I guess this has to do with my natural aversion towards groups.

In an MP3 world, the loser will be the album. Singles will thrive (just like ringtones).

Geir,
What was the first consistent rock album?

You mean like these:
"Everybody Loves a Winner"
"You Don't Miss Your Water"
"Do Right Woman - Do Right Man"
"The Dark End of the Street"
"A Change is Gonna Come"
"These Arms of Mine"
"I've Been Loving You Too Long"
"Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)"
"The Happy Song"
"I've Got Dreams to Remember"
"Share Your Love With Me"
"When a Man Loves a Woman"

I'll spare those for my Top 20s of each year coming up later on. :-)

Wow, OK. To each his own. I'll just leave you with this: There's a big wide world of music out there, and I think it's sad that you're able to appreciate only this much of it (holds thumb and forefinger a millimeter apart).

and Geir: first rock album (consistent)? Which was it?

So why not jazz?

Some jazz (particularly the slower songs on several classic jazz albums) is OK, but generally, there is too much inprovisation in jazz.

He should - the stuff is as free from "black music" as it gets, and the Emperor/Dark Tranquillity school certainly crams more twin guitar melodic riffing, key and tempo changes into the songs than any 'conventional' rock band I can think of. But as the above list suggests, Geir likes his music aesthetically conventional, right?

hahahahaha! You really believe there's a 'perfect' formula out there?
What if someone such as yourself said this in 1960, everyone followed it, and your 'perfect' Beatles were stuck doing Irving Berlin covers?
Now, I understand that you probaly mean this formula is perfect in your eyes, but how are you so sure there's nothing that can be produced that you'd like better?

Quite right. I of course sympathize with him on the whole 'find your own aesthetic' point, and at the same time I'm rather glad it isn't mine...

As for GH...oh dear oh dear oh dear. Matos, Blount, I take it all back - let him have it.

It won't work. I understand, though. Somewhere in groups.google.com is the massive 1995 or so argument I had with him that tired me out after about a month or something.

1950 Hank Snow: "I'm Movin' On"
1951 The Larks: "My Reverie"
1952 The "5" Royales: "Laundromat Blues"
1953 The Crows: "Gee"
1954 Elvis Presley: "That's All Right (Mama)"/"Blue Moon of Kentucky"
1955 Chuck Berry: "Maybellene"
1956 James Brown: "Please Please Please"
1957 Jerry Lee Lewis: "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"
1958 Link Wray & His Ray Men: "Rumble"
1959 The Flamingos: "I Only Have Eyes for You"
1960 Jerry Butler: "He Will Break Your Heart"
1961 Ben E. King: "Stand By Me"
1962 Little Eva: "The Loco-Motion"
1963 The Beatles: "Please Please Me"
1964 Dionne Warwick: "Walk on By"
1965 Bob Dylan: "Like a Rolling Stone"
1966 ? & the Mysterians: "96 Tears"
1967 Smokey Robinson & the Miracles: "The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage"
1968 Sly & the Family Stone: "Everyday People"
1969 The Rolling Stones: "Honky Tonk Women"/"You Can't Always Get What You Want"
1970 James Brown: "Get Up I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine Pt. 1 & 2"
1971 Temptations: “Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)”
1972 Stevie Wonder: “Superstition”
1973 Marvin Gaye: “Let’s Get It On”
1974 Gloria Gaynor: “Never Can Say Goodbye”
1975 Jacob Miller: “Baby I Love You So”/Augustus Pablo: “King Tubby’s Meets Rockers Uptown”
1976 The Sex Pistols: “Anarchy in the U.K.”
1977 The Sex Pistols: “God Save the Queen”
1978 The Clash: “(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais”
1979 Chic: “Good Times”
1980 Joy Division: “Love Will Tear Us Apart”
1981 Funky 4 + 1: “That’s the Joint”
1982 New Order: “Temptation”
1983 George Clinton: “Atomic Dog”
1984 Prince: “When Doves Cry”/“17 Days”
1985 Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam with Full Force: “I Wonder If I Take You Home”
1986 Prince & the Revolution: “Kiss”
1987 Public Enemy: “Rebel without a Pause”
1988 Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock: “It Takes Two”
1989 Rythim is Rythim: “Strings Of Life”
1990 Beltram: “Energy Flash”
1991 Nirvana: “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
1992 Acen: “Trip II the Moon”
1993 Bikini Kill: “New Radio”/“Rebel Girl”/“Demirep”
1994 M People: “Excited”
1995 Everything But the Girl: “Missing (Todd Terry Club Mix)”
1996 Blackstreet: “No Diggity”
1997 Sneaker Pimps: “Spin Spin Sugar (Armand’s Dark Garage Mix)”
1998 Fatboy Slim: “The Rockafeller Skank”
1999 Powerhouse featuring Duane Harden: “What You Need”
2000 OutKast: "B.O.B."
2001 Missy Elliott: "Get Ur Freak On"
2002 Nas: "Made You Look"
2003 (so far): Electric Six: "Danger! High Voltage," but don't hold me to it

But I've had second thoughts about a few of these--Stevie Wonder has to have his no-seeing ass on the list. Replace Rundgren with Music of My Mind by Stevie Wonder, then, but although Songs in the Key of Life is probably a better record than Jailbreak, keep Lizzy on for fun.

Matos and I agree on four records, then; Hongro on one; JBR and I agree on none; Murphy on none; Blount on none.

http://tinyurl.com/6rr8

Yea, this guy is a compulsive troll. Notice in the second thread (which seems to be his grand entrance to USENET) how many newsgroups its crossposted to (seven) and how its essentially tailor made to incite anger in each. For instance, his claim that people are tiring of hip-hop back in 1996 and then the act of xposting it to alt.rap. Not to mention that in retrospect this looks hilarious.

He'd be ingenious if the methodology hadn't already been being used for many years by other far more successful internet whacks. So, if thee be smart, learn from the mistakes of others before you; don't feed the trolls.

-
Alan

it only goes up to 97. [when is 98, 99, 00, 01, 02 going to be documented?]

Right, I see you must be too busy with ILM and other music forums, these days Geir?

Re: Embrace: Their songs simply aren't good enough.

[Correct.]

oh, i can't resist

geir what do you think of harmolodics?