Recently, I came across a series of posts that I enjoyed reading and that made me want to take part:
So, here is my entry. I picked one album for almost every year I’ve been alive, from 1981 to 2026. Why “almost”? Because I absolutely couldn’t find anything for the years 2018, 2022, 2023, and 2024. There were other years when I struggled a bit to pick an album, but I eventually did. I sometimes even had to go for soundtracks, but at least I was able to select something. That wasn’t the case for these four recent years of my life.
It’s not really a surprise, though. As time passes, I find it increasingly difficult to enjoy new music releases. When I was making my selection, I sometimes had difficulty picking only one album for the period spanning from the early 1990s to the mid-2000s. However, once I reached a certain point in my life, I felt the opposite way and sometimes found it tricky to find even one album.
I didn’t discover all of these albums in the year or even the decade they were released. For example, none of the 1980s ones were discovered during that decade.
Looking for all these albums really took me back in time. While searching for the names and release years, I was also kind of travelling back to those times in spirit, having flashbacks and memories of those different periods and the music that accompanied them. School, friends, family, neighbourhoods… Oh boy, time flies.
Some of the albums listed are, of course, also part of my article My teenage years in 12 albums.
1980s
| Year | Cover Art | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 1981 |  | AC/DC For Those About To Rock |
| 1982 |  | Michael Jackson Thriller |
| 1983 |  | Metallica Kill ‘Em All |
| 1984 |  | Metallica Ride The Lightning |
| 1985 |  | Megadeth Killing Is My Business… and Business Is Good! |
| 1986 |  | Metallica Masters of Puppets |
| 1987 |  | Guns N’ Roses Appetite for Destruction |
| 1988 |  | Megadeth So Far, So Good… So What! |
| 1989 |  | Nirvana Bleach |
1990s
| Year | Cover Art | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 |  | Megadeth Rust in Peace |
| 1991 |  | Nirvana Nevermind |
| 1992 |  | Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine |
| 1993 |  | Nirvana In Utero |
| 1994 |  | (The) Offspring Smash |
| 1995 |  | AC/DC Ballbreaker |
| 1996 |  | Rage Against the Machine Evil Empire |
| 1997 |  | Silverchair Freak Show |
| 1998 |  | Korn Follow the Leader |
| 1999 |  | Good Riddance Operation Phoenix |
2000s
| Year | Cover Art | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 |  | Deftones White Pony |
| 2001 |  | System of a Down Toxicity |
| 2002 |  | Queens of the Stone Age Songs for the Deaf |
| 2003 |  | Deftones Deftones |
| 2004 |  | Mastodon Leviathan |
| 2005 |  | Gojira From Mars to Sirius |
| 2006 |  | Death Note Original Soundtrack |
| 2007 |  | Eddie Vedder Into the Wild |
| 2008 |  | Gojira The Way of All Flesh |
| 2009 |  | Mastodon Crack the Skye |
2010
| Year | Cover Art | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 |  | Kvelertak Kvelertak |
| 2011 |  | C418 Minecraft – Volume Alpha |
| 2012 |  | Gojira L’Enfant sauvage |
| 2013 |  | Joe Hisaishi 風立ちぬ (The Wind Rises) |
| 2014 |  | Mastodon Once More ‘Round the Sun |
| 2015 |  | Ghost Meliora |
| 2016 |  | Gojira Magma |
| 2017 |  | Propagandhi Victory Lap |
| 2018 |  | ? |
| 2019 |  | Slipknot We Are Not Your Kind |
2020s
| Year | Cover Art | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 |  | Cyberpunk Original Score |
| 2021 |  | Gojira Fortitude |
| 2022 |  | ? |
| 2023 |  | ? |
| 2024 |  | ? |
| 2025 |  | Propagandhi At Peace |
| 2026 |  | Megadeth Megadeth |
To be continued…