Favorite Albums By Decade

[ewok20t3]

The "Best of the 2000's" thread got me thinking about decades past. So what are everyone's favorite albums from previous decades?

I decided to start with the 80's because I haven't listened to a whole, whole lot of full albums that were released before the 80's. My top albums from the 60's are The Beatles' Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and Revolver. My top albums from the 70's are The Clash's London Calling, The Wall by Pink Floyd, Paranoid by Black Sabbath, and IV by Led Zeppelin.

80's
- I'm slowly expanding my 80's music collection. I'm ashamed to say I've never heard a full album by some of my favorite 80's artists such as Talking Heads, Bauhaus, and Joy Division. I've also not heard a full Depeche Mode album before Violator. Otherwise this list might look a bit different.

1. The Cure - Disintegration (1989)
2. U2 - The Joshua Tree (1987)
3. Metallica - Ride The Lightning (1984)
4. The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead (1986)
5. The Police - Synchronicity (1983)
6. Michael Jackson - Thriller (1982)
7. Metallica - ...And Justice For All (1988)
8. R.E.M. - Document (1987)
9. Metallica - Master of Puppets (1986)
10. Living Colour - Vivid (1988)
11. Beastie Boys - Licensed To Ill (1986)
12. AC/DC - Back In Black (1980)
13. Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction (1987)
14. The Cure - The Head On The Door (1985)
15. Heart - Bad Animals (1987)

90's
- I hadn't realized how much I favor the latter part of the 90's, probably because around 1997 was when I started falling in love with music. Although this list has no representation of it, I am a fan of early 90's grunge and metal, I just don't like any of those albums better than these. It's kind of pathetic that I don't have a single album before 1997 in my top 15, but I guess it is what it is.

1. Jars of Clay - Much Afraid (1997)
2. Fono - Goes Around Comes Around (1999)
3. Five O'Clock People - The Nothing Venture (1999)
4. Seven Day Jesus - Seven Day Jesus (1997)
5. Caedmon's Call - Caedmon's Call (1997)
6. Jimmy Eat World - Clarity (1999)
7. Radiohead - OK Computer (1997)
8. Burlap To Cashmere - Anybody Out There (1998)
9. Pete Stewart - Pete Stewart (1999)
10. Stavesacre - Speakeasy (1999)
11. Switchfoot - New Way To Be Human (1999)
12. John Elefante - Corridors (1997)
13. Plumb - CandyCoatedWaterDrops (1999)
14. Living Sacrifice - Reborn (1997)
15. SonicFlood - SonicFlood (1999)

2000's
-I already posted this in the "Best of the 2000's" thread, but since it goes with this topic, I've posted it again.

1. Mae - The Everglow (2005)
2. Life In Your Way - Waking Giants (2007)
3. Anberlin - Cities (2007)
4. Dead Poetic - New Medicines (2004)
5. All The Day Holiday - The Things We've Grown To Love (2009)
6. Jimmy Eat World - Futures (2004)
7. Hands - Creator (2009)
8. Luna Halo - Shimmer (2000)
9. Blindside - Silence (2002)
10. Project 86 - Songs To Burn Your Bridges By (2003)
11. Lucerin Blue - Tales of The Knife (2003)
12. Spoken - A Moment of Imperfect Clarity (2003)
13. Mae - (m)orning (2009)
14. Lifehouse - No Name Face (2000)
15. Copeland - You Are My Sunshine (2008)

[murlough23]

All I know from the 80's is U2. The Joshua Tree and War would go towards the top of a very short list there. That may change as I get deeper into my "Respect the Classics" project.

For the 90's, I know my favorite would be Jars of Clay's Much Afraid. Also on the short list (in no particular order) would be Jars of Clay's s/t and If I Left the Zoo, Radiohead's OK Computer, U2's Pop and Achtung Baby, Out of the Grey's s/t debut, No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom, dc Talk's Jesus Freak and especially Supernatural, Five O'Clock People's The Nothing Venture, Caedmon's Call's s/t and 40 Acres, Burlap to Cashmere and Chasing Furies' one and only full-length albums, and though it's a very recent discovery for me, Pearl Jam's Ten. It would be a weird list for me to make, long on old CCM favorites and short on fairly recent mainstream discoveries that everyone else played to death back then.

[ewok20t3]

For the 90's, I know my favorite would be Jars of Clay's Much Afraid. Also on the short list (in no particular order) would be Jars of Clay's s/t and If I Left the Zoo, Radiohead's OK Computer, dc Talk's Jesus Freak and especially Supernatural, Five O'Clock People's The Nothing Venture, Caedmon's Call's s/t and 40 Acres, Burlap to Cashmere and Chasing Furies' one and only full-length albums, and though it's a very recent discovery for me, Pearl Jam's Ten.

Sounds like we have pretty similar taste in 90's music. All of those would've been in my top 50.

[bloop]

I'll try to put something together, but it's definitely subject to change.

I love your 80s list, btw.  I know you didn't have it on there, but I'm listening to my INXS record right now.

[ewok20t3]

I love your 80s list, btw.  I know you didn't have it on there, but I'm listening to my INXS record right now.

Thanks! I like INXS, but that's another one of those bands that I haven't heard anything by except their singles.

Another note on my 80's list, I was disappointed to find out that my favorite Duran Duran album came out in 1993. It sounds so 80's I was tempted to include it anyways. 

[Ian]

90s would be OK Computer.  Also really enjoy Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space.  Not that big of a 90s fan actually.

[bloop]

#1 album from each, I think.  I might fill them out later.

50s:  Kind of Blue, Miles Davis
60s:  Revolver, The Beatles
70s:  Blood on the Tracks, Bob Dylan
80s:  Daydream Nation, Sonic Youth
90s:  OK Computer, Radiohead
00s:  Kid A, Radiohead
10s:  Placeholder, Radiohead

j/k about that last one.

[murlough23]

10s:  Placeholder, Radiohead

j/k about that last one.

Oh come on, you know that's what Pitchfork has already made up their minds about. Hell, they're probably banking on Radiohead being so brilliant that they can invent the time machine so that they can go back and make the best albums of the 80's and earlier.

[ewok20t3]

10s:  Placeholder, Radiohead

Haha!

Nice choices for 60's, 90's, and 00's. I've never heard the full album of your other choices, but I like what I've heard from them.

Oh come on, you know that's what Pitchfork has already made up their minds about. Hell, they're probably banking on Radiohead being so brilliant that they can invent the time machine so that they can go back and make the best albums of the 80's and earlier.

That made me laugh 

[bloop]

Oh come on, you know that's what Pitchfork has already made up their minds about. Hell, they're probably banking on Radiohead being so brilliant that they can invent the time machine so that they can go back and make the best albums of the 80's and earlier.

I like the way you think.  Groundbreaking artists and Nobel laureates in '10!

[bloop]

So, I thought up a tentative 60s list.  It goes something like this (very Beatles and Dylan-heavy):

Revolver, The Beatles
Highway 61 Revisited, Bob Dylan
Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys
Blonde on Blonde, Bob Dylan
A Love Supreme, John Coltrane
Astral Weeks, Van Morrison
Sgt. Pepper's, The Beatles
Bringing It All Back Home, Bob Dylan
Abbey Road, The Beatles
In the Court of the Crimson King, King Crimson

[ewok20t3]

Revolver, The Beatles
Highway 61 Revisited, Bob Dylan
Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys
Sgt. Pepper's, The Beatles

All of those will be on my 60's list if I decide to make one. I feel like I need to listen to some more albums from that decade before I make my list, though. The artists above along with Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, and Elvis are the only artists who were prominent in the 60's that I listen to on at least a semi-regular basis.

[eatenbytehworms]

00s: Kid A, Radiohead
Illusion of Safety, Thrice
90s: OK Computer, Radiohead
The Bends, Radiohead
Blue Album, Weezer
Grace, Jeff Buckley
Achtung Baby, U2
80s: Doolittle, Pixies
Joshua Tree, U2
70s: A Night at the Opera, Queen
Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon&Garfunkel
Ramones, Ramones
60s: Abbey Road, Beatles
Parlsey, Sage..., Simon&Garfunkel