I am Kyle's self-indulgence

I saw this over at the AV Club.

I had some trouble with the first half of this list. As some people know, I was pop-culturally unaware during all of the 1980s and didn't start listening to secular music until ninth grade. This has left me with not only a big gap in my music collection, but a general disdain for all 80s music. The few albums I do have from that decade are from the back catalogs of bands I discovered much later (thus the over-representation of U2 and The Flaming Lips you're about to see).

It was a lot of fun to pick out my favorites from the 90s on and discovering which albums were released in the same year. Who knew that Beck's Mellow Gold (and three other simultaneous releases) came out the same year as Johnny Cash's American Recordings? As my wife pointed out, I never would have listened to Cash at the time, but that's not really the issue here.

Anyway, take a look at my albums and judge my musical knowledge (or lack thereof) accordingly.

1979: The Wall by Pink Floyd
1980: Boy by U2
1981: October by U2
1982: Concert in Central Park by Simon and Garfunkel
1983: War by U2
1984: The Unforgettable Fire by U2 (see what I mean about my lack of diversity in 80s music?)
1985: The Flaming Lips EP by The Flaming Lips (I'm not sure if EPs count, but otherwise I have nothing. That's right: I don't own a single full-length album from 1985)
1986: Graceland by Paul Simon
1987: The Joshua Tree by U2
1988: Telepathic Surgery by The Flaming Lips
1989: The Offspring by The Offspring
1990: In a Priest Driven Ambulance by The Flaming Lips
1991: Mental Jewelry by Live
1992: Automatic for the People by R.E.M.
1993: Debut by Björk
1994: Mellow Gold by Beck
1995: Clouds Taste Metallic by The Flaming Lips
1996: Endtroducing... by DJ Shadow
1997: OK Computer by Radiohead
1998: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel
1999: The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips
2000: American III: Solitary Man by Johnny Cash
2001: Gorillaz by Gorillaz
2002: ( ) by Sigur Rós
2003: Elephant by The White Stripes
2004: Real Gone by Tom Waits
2005: Illinois by Sufjan Stevens
2006: Ships by Danielson
2007: In Rainbows by Radiohead
2008 (so far): Third by Portishead

It's too early to call 2008 yet, and I haven't even had a chance to buy most of the new releases I want, but with new music by Beck, Nick Cave, Sigur Rós, and Bonnie "Prince" Billy it's looking to be a good year for music.

My best year for music overall is 1994: 4 releases by Beck, The Beastie Boys' Ill Communication, Weezer's self-titled debut, and Johnny Cash's first American Recordings album made it hard to pick just one.