Albums for every year I've been alive

First, two notes from the world of d'oh!

1. I realized that yes, PR is starting next week, but it is also starting at 9 pm, which is the time that Ghosthunters is on. Crap.

2. I had great plans Wednesday to follow through with a recipe from Cook's Illustrated for grilling Cornish game hens. The hens were thawed, brined, and ready to be butterflied and rubbed with spices, only then...

I couldn't light the grill.

My Matchlight was a bit damp from the rain (I know...keeping it outside is dumb, but it always dries out a few days later), and my Kingsford, which lives inside, needs lighter fluid, which I didn't know until I called my mother for help. No amount of crumpled puzzle-book pages (since I don't get any newspapers) would get the coals to light, and I went through an entire cheap book of matches before I quit in disgust. I roasted the hens in the oven instead, and they were delicious, but now I'm going to have to do the whole thing all over again to prove that I can.



Anyway, I'm copying this from Carrie, except in some cases to pick albums I had to do the "if I had to take one album from this year to a desert island" game...whether because there were too many albums or, more likely, too few. I really don't have much music knowledge, you know.
I starred the biggest years.
1978 Dream Dancing - Ella Fitzgerald (because I know some of the songs)
1979Greatest Hits Volume 2 - ABBA (for one song)
1980Fame - Original Soundtrack
1981Speak & Spell - Depeche Mode
*1982Thriller – Michael Jackson
1983Madonna - Madonna (couldn't find anything else)
1984Some Great Reward - Depeche Mode
1985Songs from the Big Chair - Tears for Fears (ditto 1983)
1986Licensed to Ill - The Beastie Boys
1987 Heaven on Earth Belinda Carlisle (runner-up is Faith, George Michael, but Joshua Tree, Out of the Blue, Dirty Dancing, and Solitude Standing all came out this year, among others...I must have watched a lot of MTV this year)
*1988Forever Your Girl Paula Abdul

1989Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ Peter Gabriel

*1990The Immaculate Collection Madonna (also a hard year...lots of music appealing to a 12-year-old girl)
*1991Metallica ("The Black Album") Metallica
*1992Little Earthquakes Tori Amos
1993Tuesday Night Music Club Sheryl Crow (runner-up Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, Sarah McLachlan)
1994Cracked Rear View Hootie & the Blowfish (runner-up Big Ones, Aerosmith)
*1995Pieces Of You Jewel and Jagged Little Pill Alanis Morissette, and I refuse to choose between them. Garbage and Poe also had albums this year, among others.
*1996 Boys for Pele Tori Amos and Tidal Fiona Apple, straight tie, though Tidal probably has an edge. I have no fewer than 7 albums from this year, including Beck, Cake, Dave Matthews, Marilyn Manson, and Sheryl Crow. So when future kids say, "your music taste is stuck in..." we will know it's 1996.
1997Savage Garden Savage Garden (runner-up Surfacing Sarah McLachlan)
*1998Ray of Light Madonna (lot of albums from female singers I like this year)
*1999When the Pawn... Fiona Apple (close runner-up Affirmation, Savage Garden, especially now)
*2000You Were Here Sarah Harmer (though Poe had an album this year also)
*2001Laundry Service Shakira (close runner-up Exciter, Depeche Mode)
2002Under Rug Swept Alanis Morissette, I guess.
2003 I'm going with No Doubt's singles album here
2004Breakaway Kelly Clarkson
2005 maybe Johnny Cash to represent? Artists put out albums, but I didn't seek them out.
2006Begin to Hope Regina Spektor (though I honestly don't know the album well, I have it)
*2007The Reminder Feist
2008 I got nothing
If I could do trade-ins, I'd let '78, '79, '80, '83, '85, and maybe '02, '03, '05, and pick something more from the heavy years. In all, this wa a difficult task for me because I don't have a whole lot of albums and don't listen to the radio much anymore.