Albums of the Year
The Top 10 Albums of 1986
Emptying out a storage space in Houston means judging sentimental value against what fits in the car.
Andrew Womack
Albums of the Year
The Top 10 Albums of 1985
Even though it wasn’t an election year, in 1985 Alex P. Keaton could have run for president—and won.
Albums of the Year
The Top 10 Albums of 1984
It was no Orwellian nightmare; to have nightmares you need to sleep, and you can’t sleep when you lay awake terrified about nuclear war.
Albums of the Year
The Top 10 Albums of 1983
Because album lists shouldn’t happen only once a year. In this installment: The New Wave was drying up and the New Romantics were taking hold. But tell that to a Cub Scout in 1983 and you'll get a blank stare.
Albums of the Year
The Top 10 Albums of 1982
Ten favorite albums from the year the ’80s really began.
Albums of the Year
The Top 10 Albums of 1981
Iran’s taking hostages, Pat Sajak’s still on the air, and all of a sudden 1981 doesn’t feel like so long ago.
Albums of the Year
The Top 10 Albums of 1980
The dawn of a new decade saw punk rock fading away, or at least saving up to buy a synthesizer.
Albums of the Year
The Top 10 Albums of 1979
When every album came with a poster, disco was dying, and actors weren’t presidents.
Albums of the Year
The Top 10 Albums of 1978
Year-end album lists shouldn’t happen only once a year. Inaugurating a new series, Andrew Womack raids his music collection to rank his favorite albums from every year, year after year, starting with as far back as he can recollect.
Albums of the Year
The Top 10 Albums of 2006
The “record” industry is dead and 99-cent singles are now the rule, and yet terrific, cohesive rock LPs kept appearing every week.
Albums of the Year
The Top 10 Albums of 2005
After a year of music, thousands of hours of listening time, and one worn-out iPod, here are picks for the very best music this year.
Albums of the Year
The Top 10 Albums of 2004
There were thousands of albums released by thousands of artists in 2004, so it must be hard to determine which were the 10 greatest, right? No, not really.