Your Album of the Years for 2005-2023

This list of mine is a bit messy since some of these years I do not quite have a definitive AOTY for them, though I am certainly trying to find some stuff that may catch my ears and turn into definitives. I will put a star next to the years that aren't quite definitively placed yet.

2005: Frances The Mute - The Mars Volta
2006: Nothing - Meshuggah
2007: Ziltoid The Omniscient - Devin Townsend
2008: Little Lucid Moments - Motorpsycho*
2009: The Great Misdirect - Between The Buried and Me
2010: Warm Slime - Thee Oh Sees*
2011: Snowtorch - Phideaux
2012: Journey To The Centre Of The Earth - Rick Wakeman*
2013: Still Life With Eggplant - Motorpsycho
2014: Citadel - Ne Obliviscaris
2015: Vulnicura - Bjork
2016: Here Be Monsters - Motorpsycho
2017: Remedies - Soup
2018: A Drop of Light - All Traps On Earth
2019: Periphery IV: Hail Stan - Periphery*
2020: Virus - Haken
2021: Cavalcade - black midi*
2022: All The Pretty Days - Fren
2023: Divine Inner Tension - Hail The Sun

2023: I/O ~ Peter Gabriel
2022: Misadventures Of Doomscroller ~ Dawes
2021: Valentine ~ Snail Mail
2020: Virus ~ Haken
2019: South Of Reality ~ The Claypool Lennon Delirium
2018: Kiss Yr Frenemies ~ Illuminati Hotties
2017: To The Bone ~ Steven Wilson
2016: Emily’s D+Evolution ~ Esperanza Spalding
2015: Hand. Cannot. Erase. ~ Steven Wilson
2014: Great Western Valkyrie ~ Rival Sons
2013: The Raven That Refused To Sing (And Other Stories) ~ Steven Wilson
2012: Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City ~ Kendrick Lamar
2011: Grace For Drowning ~ Steven Wilson
2010: Stone Temple Pilots ~ Stone Temple Pilots
2009: Before The Frost… Until The Freeze ~ The Black Crowes
2008: Schoolyard Ghosts ~ No-Man
2007: Fear Of A Blank Planet ~ Porcupine Tree
2006: The Crane Wife ~ The Decemberists
2005: Frances The Mute ~ The Mars Volta
2004: A Ghost Is Born ~ Wilco
2003: In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3 ~ Coheed And Cambria
2002: Songs For The Deaf ~ Queens Of The Stone Age
2001: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot ~ Wilco
2000: Figure 8 ~ Elliott Smith

Edited by Psychedelic Paul - February 04 2024 at 14:01

Tapfret wrote: There are a number of years like 2014 and 2018 that had 4 or 5 albums that would have easily knocked any of the other years' albums off the thrown. And some those other years are hard to pick for the opposite reason.

I have years like that as well.

There are a number of years like 2014 and 2018 that had 4 or 5 albums that would have easily knocked any of the other years' albums off the thrown. And some those other years are hard to pick for the opposite reason.

Thanks for all the lists, those are insightful for me to peruse.

Tapfret wrote: Not sure if this is supposed to be what was my top pick at the time, or what it is now. Some have changed. I suppose it would have to be now if I plan on playing with the 1 album/artist restriction....

It's up to you, but I prefer now. I would not expect forum members to know which they were most into then. With me, it can change so often, even from day to day or moment to moment. It would be easier for some PA old-timers to remember what they were into then by searching, but I would not expect most members to remember. Had I not opted to exclude winners then I would have included David Bowie's Blackstar for 2016, which was my album for 2016. Had I not done it one per artist, Swans' The Glowing Man would have been very tempting.

From the winners and runners-up collab list, I voted in the AOTY for (I did not vote every year): Magma's Ëmëhntëhtt-Ré, Univers Zero' Clivages, David Bowie's Blackstar, black midi' Hellfire, maybe? (I got more into black midi early this year), Robert Wyatt's Comicopera, Far Corner's Risk maybe.

People can list as many alternate lists as they like, and if people want to post another list of what they recall being most into then, I would find it interesting to compare. My lists would be almost constantly in flux as there is much I love from the past 60 or so years and I often discover and become infatuated by new-to-me music from those years. Some people's preferences are more static than others.

Not sure if this is supposed to be what was my top pick at the time, or what it is now. Some have changed. I suppose it would have to be now if I plan on playing with the 1 album/artist restriction.

I don't remember when I first started voting in the AOTY on this site. I think I might have done a couple a long time ago, but only took it more seriously in 2019. Anyways, below is what I would pick now, not necessarily what I would have picked back in those years.

No winners and no repeat artists:

This was easy for me to do because I've already set up polls and voted in them for all the years.