19 Awesome Albums From the Life of a 19 Year Old

I wasn't originally planning to take the holiday weekend off. Quite the contrary, I had a bunch of huge posts lined up. But the mixture of a revitalized social life, laziness, and other aspects of real life meant that said posts have not yet happened. So over the next 36 hours or so keep checking back 'cause there'll be a bunch of new stuff coming.

On Friday Idolator offered up a fascinating, yet difficult to put together meme; the objective? List the albums you like most from every year you've been alive. Obviously this is subject to debate and interpretation (Album you liked most then or now? Shouldn't the album you like most be the best album?). I had to take a long hard look before making a final call; a difference in how I read it could mean the difference between the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Creed. But after several days of looking it over, I present to you my list, with the occasional commentary. I apologize in advance to readers who feel old after seeing my list begins in 1988.

1988: Metallica, ..And Justice For All
Full disclosure; I didn't listen to this album in full until I started work on this list. That should tell you how bad music in '88 was. On the other hand, the two preceding years were brilliant. I chalk this up to the fact that 1988 is pretty much the bridge between hair metal and grunge, as you'll see in the subsequent bits.

1989: Nine Inch Nails, Pretty Hate Machine
The more NIN I listen to the more I love it. I remember hearing "Head Like A Hole" ages ago when the old Y100 was doing one of its countdowns of the best umpteenth songs in history, but never knew what it was until a roommate gave me a bunch of NIN a few months ago. Suffice it to say, I like what I heard.

1990: Alice in Chains, Facelift
Don't have much to say on this one...just a really good album.

1991: Pearl Jam, Ten
There were three albums that could have easily taken this spot: Ten, Nevermind and The Black Album. It basically came down to which band I liked most and which album, given those choices, would I opt to put in my CD player. Yeah, I know there's the fact that Nevermind is so iconic and whatnot, but while I like the songs on Nevermind, I always thought Ten was a better album. Once I listen to one track from it, I feel the urge to hear more.

1992: Gin Blossoms, New Miserable Experience
I went over my reasons for this in the last post, and yes, this album has REALLY gained that much popularity for me in this short a timespan.

1993: Counting Crows, August and Everything After
Again this came to a toss-up between this and Radiohead's Pablo Honey. Both are excellent albums, but in the end it went to Counting Crows because I've considered myself a Crows fan longer than I've been a Radiohead fan. Not the best criteria, but it was my thought process nonetheless.

1994: Pearl Jam, Vitalogy
Surprisingly enough, 1994 wasn't that great a year for music. Lots of good albums, but nothing sticks out as spectacular. Not even sure I can tell you what led me to pick this over the other options.

1995: Oasis, What's the Story, Morning Glory?
Again came down to this or Radiohead, and taking it one step further, "Wonderwall" or "Fake Plastic Trees". Again, a very tough call, but I gave the advantage to Oasis simply on the grounds of personal preference.

(Note: I'm listening to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by Smashing Pumpkins right now, and it's making a case to take this spot)

1996: Original Broadway Cast Recording, Rent
This isn't because of a lack of good music from 1996, this is genuinely because I love this album. Soundtracks tend to get forgotten in lists like this, and as much as I blame Rent on the influx of young, naive, "scene" theater kids (i.e. kids who are only into shows after seeing the film adaptation or because it's the cool thing to like at the time), it's still one of those things I'll put in to listen to just for the hell of it.

1997: Foo Fighters, The Colour and the Shape
In many ways this is a truly great album, simply because I have such a hard time listening to singles from it, but when I start at track 1, I have to go all the way through. That's a real feat these days, and for that reason it earned its spot here.

1998: Fuel, Sunburn
Easily the band's best album and the most fun to listen to, but also the one that's been a part of my collection the shortest. That had zero relevance on its appearance here, but it's still true.

1999: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Californication
In 1999 my musical tastes consisted of borrowing my older brother's CDs, which meant that I listened to a lot of Smash Mouth and Creed (both of which were actually cool to listen to back then). In fact, Human Clay almost made this list as a sentimental favorite, but after listening to Californication again I couldn't in good faith let it get snubbed.

2000: Eve 6, Horrorscope
A true sentimental favorite. I've owned this album pretty much since it came out, and within a year of owning it I burned a hole in the disc from playing it so often. Even though albums like Hybrid Theory by Linkin Park might have been better and more relevant, Horrorscope still remains a classic in my collection. And since this list is about albums I liked best, that's enough to punch its ticket here.

2001: Jimmy Eat World, Bleed American
Even though fans tend to call Clarity the band's best work, this album is the one that turned me on to the band. It's also one of the leading albums that made pop-punk cool in the early 00s, even though the album isn't exactly what we'd consider a part of that genre.

2002: Bruce Springsteen, The Rising
I was surprised by the lack of really good albums from this year. Decent artists put out albums, but none of the albums were that good. Amazingly enough, if I were to award a second place, it would go to Avril Lavigne's debut.

2003: Blink 182, Blink 182
The band's last album and by far their best work. In a year that saw great albums by Linkin Park, Radiohead and Dashboard, Blink were on a totally different level. Gone were the foul-mouthed potty humor tracks, and in its place were something thoughtful and real. Too bad egos got in the way and put a brick wall in the way of this huge step in a new direction.

2004: Green Day, American Idiot
One of the few albums on this list that were totally uncontested. I'm a bit reluctant to make this statement, but American Idiot is going to be the defining album for people just a little bit younger than me (folks who have less claim to Nirvana than I do, and I was 3 when Nevermind came out). It spawned a ton of hits and summed up the better part of a decade into 60 brilliant minutes of music.

2005: Jack's Mannequin, Everything In Transit
Believe it or not, but this was nearly brought down by Nickelback's All The Right Reasons. However the fact that JM is more musically talented, and Nickelback suffers from both American Idiot syndrome and a crappy opening two tracks killed it in the end. But I'm not ashamed to admit that I think All The Right Reasons is a very good album when you take radio play out of the equation.

2006: My Chemical Romance, The Black Parade
A great album that did it all in some ways; it was a gigantic step forward for MCR, brought a massive, arena ready sound, and it had a (uplifting, if you were willing to really listen to the lyrics) point.

2007: Foo Fighters, Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace
This time the best album and my favorite are both the same. I'm pretty sure I raved about this album enough when it came out. And yes, I do still think it's fantastic

I'm holding off on 2008 because a) the year isn't over yet, and b) I'm holding out for a midyear Best Of post in the not-too-distant future.

I was gonna post MP3s, but SaveFile is acting up and I'm kinda lazy. Check back tomorrow.

==TJ==