Best Pop/Rock Album of the Year from 65+

Before 1965 - Elvis, Buddy, Ella, Miles, Frank etc. (not all pop/rock of course)

Some years have more than one, and some years have nobody!

1965 - Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan - he really should have stopped touring and just wrote songs
1966 - Revolver - The Beatles - they stopped touring and wrote songs, a great move
Pet Sounds - Beach Boys - not having Good Vibrations on this was a bad move
1967 - Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles - Ringo sings!
1968 -White Album - Beatles - they now defined the 60s
1969 - Let It Bleed - The Rolling Stones - you can't always have what you want
1970 -Greatest Hits - Sly & the Family Stone - acknowledged in the 06 Grammy's
1971 - Led Zeppelin IV - Led Zeppelin - stairway to superstardom
What's Going On - Marvin Gaye - I could listen to him sing forever
1972 - Can't Buy a Thrill - Steely Dan - before they became too polished
1973 - Dark Side Of The Moon - Pink Floyd - engineered by Alan Parsons
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John - I have an outline for a musical based on this classic
1974 - Sundown - Gordon Lightfoot - down on his luck and up at his peak
1975 - Born To Run-Bruce Springsteen - "cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run"
Physical Graffiti - Led Zeppelin - they loved playing live too much to become a studio band
1976 - Hotel California - The Eagles - the perfectionists hit perfect
Eagles Greatest Hits - The Eagles - know anybody who doesn't like this?
1977 - Rumours - Fleetwood Mac - not having Silver Springs on this album was criminal
Seconds Out - Genesis - the pinnacle and end of progressive rock
1978 -
1979 - London Calling - The Clash - life beyond Disco and progressive rock
1980 - Back In Black - AC/DC - leather roars up the road
1981 - Bella Donna - Stevie Nicks - leather meets lace at the Bella California
1982 - Thriller - Michael Jackson - a team and money effort
1983 - Synchronicity - The Police - a creative tension clicks
1984 - Purple Rain - Prince - the best musician of this generation
1985 - Brothers in Arms - Dire Straits - money for nothin' and riffs for free
1986 - Graceland - Paul Simon - like a window in your heart
1987 - The Joshua Tree - U2 - the 80's perfectionists
Appetite For Destruction - Guns N' Roses - first taste of self-destruction
1988 - It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back - Public Enemy - best named band
1989 - The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses - the best album to give somebody who thinks they have it all but doesn't have this
1990 -
1991 - Nevermind - Nirvana - grunge connects and disconnects big time
Achtung Baby - U2 - reinventing themselves
1992 - Automatic For The People - R.E.M - before they liked drum machines
1993 - Fumbling Towards Ecstasy - Sarah McLachlan - put headphones on, lights off, and float in ecstasy
1994 - A Night in San Francisco - Van Morrison - the master at work
1995 - The Bends - Radiohead - fake plastic trees and real uncompromised music
Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness - The Smashing Pumpkins - still just Billy Corgan in a cage
1996 - Odelay - Beck - derivative and yet so original
1997 - Ok Computer - Radiohead - this what you get when you mess with us: sonic wonderland
1998 -
1999 - Supernatural - Santana - maybe too smooth, but that guitar!
2000 - Stankonia - Outkast - it pops and it rocks and it hip hops
2001 - Is This It? - The Strokes - yes, worth the hype
2002 - The Rising - Bruce Springsteen - over time more people will find this
2003 - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below - Outkast - hey, yeah!
2004 - American Idiot - Green Day - off the barren punk streets and on a long boulevard of musical dreams
2005 - Kicking Television - Wilco - the best mixed live album ever- a pure treasure

All of these artists also had other high quality releases that in many cases were close to album of the year.

Other artists had albums that were close and an overall high quality body of work, including Simon and Garfunkel (Bookends, Bridge over Troubled Water), Allman Brothers (At Fillmore East, Brothers and Sisters), CSNY (Deja vu), Neil Young (After the Goldrush, Harvest), Who (Who's Next), Stevie Wonder (Innervisions), David Bowie (Ziggy Stardust), Eric Clapton (461 Ocean Blvd.), Aerosmith (Toys in the Attic), Bee Gees (Main Course, Saturday Night Fever), The Smiths (The Queen is Dead), Def Leppard (Hysteria), Bonnie Raitt (Nick of Time, Luck of the Draw), Eminem (The Marshall Mathers LP).

Not the best albums, but some old stuff you might not have heard of:
Slade Alive - Slade - totally raw and astounding
Scheherazade & Other Stories - Renaissance - heavenly
Tales of Topographical Oceans - Yes - Considered one of the 50th worst albums of all time, this double album set contains many musical nuggets surrounded by intricate unfathomable filler - I've always wondered if somebody could extract those nuggets and make something of this.

Here's the story on Sony BMG's copy protection software:

http://www.bridgematters.com/badsony.htm

I still have the Switchfoot CD infected with this stuff - no news update on the Canadian refund - got an email about the US proposed settlement but does this apply in Canada? This was a lot of hassle for not much music.

Welcome to my blog on Everything That Matters to me, except for bridge which is covered here:

www.BridgeMatters.com