My favorite post to write each year is my top 25 albums. I spend far too much time thinking about it. Case-in-point, in addition to my running list throughout the year, I write my first draft sometime in early November. To get things started, I've traditionally thrown out a revisited top ten from the year before, to see which albums stuck with me another year, which albums would've benefited from another month or two of listening and, in general, just to waste time thinking about something inconsequential like music.

Since I have everything nicely backed up for me on my blog, I can look at past years to see how my tastes have changed (I've done these lists since I was in my early teens, back when Hootie & the Blowfish might have snuck into a top five). If I was picking right now, here's what 2005 & 2006 would look like:

2005:
1. Gimme Fiction by Spoon (1)
2. Apologies to the Queen Mary by Wolf Parade (2)
3. Illinois by Sufjan Stevens (not ranked)
4. The Mysterious Production of Eggs by Andrew Bird (4)
5. The Woods by Sleater-Kinney (6)

2006:
1. Dust of Retreat by Margot & the Nuclear So and So's (not ranked)
2. Jokes & Trials by Ned Collette (2)
3. The Eraser by Thom Yorke (16) this one really grew on me
4. Chulahoma by The Black Keys (1)
5. Fox Confessor Brings the Flood by Neko Case (not ranked)

Which brings us to 2007. In December it looked like this:
10. Untrue by Burial
9. Future Suture by Ned Collette
8. This Bliss by Pantha du Prince
7. Emerald City by John Vanderslice
6. The Reminder by Feist
5. Armchair Apocrypha by Andrew Bird
4. Design in Quick Rotation by Marco Mahler
3. In Rainbows by Radiohead (it had just come out)
2. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga by Spoon
1. Boxer by The National

And if I had to do it again today, it'd look like this:

10. We Belong to the Staggering Evening by The Ike Reilly Assasination (14)
9. Future Suture by Ned Collette (9)
8. The Reminder by Feist (6)
7. Design in Quick Rotation by Marco Mahler (4)
6. This Bliss by Pantha du Prince (8)
5. Curses by Future of the Left (not ranked)
4. Ga Ga Ga Ga by Spoon (2)
3. Boxer by The National (1)
2. Armchair Apocrypha by Andrew Bird (5)
1. In Rainbows by Radiohead (3)

In true obsessive spirit, I've got my preliminary top ten figured out for 2008. Wonder how much it will change in two months. And then in 14 months.

Labels: music