My discoveries per year

[dihansse]

And here is my final entry for round 15 with two albums of 2023 I listened to:

First an album I already own/know:

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Every Loser by Iggy Pop
There's two types of fans' reactions to this most recent album of his: there's the people who think he shouldn't have made it and there's the people who really enjoy(ed) it. I belong to the latter type because I think he still has the fire and even more so than a few of his other recent albums. One of the only artists of his type who succeed at growing older while not making any compromises. And the album moves from the 73rd to the 56th rank of 2023.

And an album from my wishlist:

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Culture Gun by The Blue Aeroplanes
The Blue Aeroplanes released two of my all-time favorite albums, BeatSongs and especially Swagger. So to my surprise it seems that I had missed their release of a 2023 album, Culture Gun. And in fact it's not to bad although it doesn't reach the heights at all of my favorite albums. So not very high on my 2023 top chart but still at the 81st rank.

Btw I'm a bit angry at Apple Music where my music collection contains three types of albums: albums I upload from my own CD's, albums I bought on Itunes and nowadays mostly music from Apple Music I add to my playlist. Being one of my favorite albums, I uploaded Swagger but when a Deluxe version appeared (also with better sound quality) I replaced my uploaded version by this one. And now I discovered to my surprise that this new version is not available anymore on Apple Music . It's still available in Spotify however.

[dihansse]

So this is a new round will each time I'll listen to two albums from each consecutive year: one album I already own/know and one album from my wishlist (still 800 albums).
But I'll take the fifties and the first half of the sixties in one entry as not many albums were released yet in those years.

So I'll start with an album of 1957 which I already own/know, an album from one of my favorite Belgian artists:

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Jacques Brel 2 (Quand On N'a Que L'Amou...cques Brel
This is one of his first albums and apart from the title track which is one of his best ever and a little but J'en Appelle this album is fairly forgettable. So it moves from the 5 to the 20th rank of the list of my favorite 50's albums.

And there are no albums of the fifties on my wishlist.

[dihansse]

Here also only a album I already own/know because nothing anymore on my wishlist:

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My Favorite Things by John Coltrane
This is a great jazz standard, especially the title track is played with such a souplesse you can't do anything but fall for it so just has to be the at the first rank of 1961 and at the 3rd rank of the first half of the sixties.

[dihansse]

Only an album I already Own/know (none on my wishlist):

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Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan
As I already said I'm not the biggest fan of Bob Dylan although Like A Rolling Stone of course remains a great track. The album goes from the 15th to the 14th rank on my 1965 year chart.

[dihansse]

And also from 1966 only an album I already own/know:

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Sounds Of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel
Three things:
- to me Paul Simon is one of the best songwriters ever (no comments about him being too mellow accepted)
- this is a near classic album
- and maybe the most controversial: without Art Garfunkel, Simon & Garfunkel wouldn't have been Simon & Garfunkel
Because by coincidence I'm watching a three hour documentary about Paul Simon in which of course he repeats that he was the only real contributor to the duo: he wrote all the songs and there was no contribution from Art Garfunkel whatsoever. But he contributed his voice and those two voices blended together to form the most beautiful harmonies.
And then this album which features three real classics: of course the title track, April Come She Will and especially The Boxer. Although the rest of the album maybe doesn't match the songwriting quality, the harmonies on about all the songs make them all worthwile so it is only normal that this album goes from the 8th to the 3rd rank (of course Revolver and Pet Sounds have to stay at the highest ranks).

[dihansse]

These are two album of 1967 I listened to:

An album I already own/know:

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Songs Of Leonard Cohen by Leonard Cohen
Now this is a classic and this is only his first album: Suzanne, Master Song, Sisters Of Mercy, So Long Mariannen Het That's No Way To Say Goodbye, One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong, all songs where his songwriting competes with his lyrics writing and there is not a bad track to be found on this album. So of course it remains at the fourth rank.

An album from my wishlist:

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Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones...he Monkees
To start: Pleasant Valley Sunday is a great track in line with their other major hits. But here the Monkees are on their own without the help of a big production team to support them. They try different styles, plain pop, bluesy stuff, a bit of psychedelica but in my view they never really succeed as the songs themselves are fairly bleak. So one song is not enough to carry this album and I have chosen not to include it in my year chart.

[dihansse]

And here we go for another year with two albums of 1968 I listened to:

First an album I already own/know:

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Wheels Of Fire by Cream
Maybe a bit enhanced with the great live tracks at the end (especially the long version of Spoonful is fantastic) but this is still a great album even if only the studio tracks are counted with of course the highlight White Room which has a few of the best riffs ever. But the whole album is good so it goes from the 7th to the 2nd rank of the year.

And an album from my wishlist:

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Picknick by Boudewijn de Groot
Boudewijn De Groot is normally a very classic Dutch singer songwriter but here he tries to go psychedelic and in most parts is also successful doing that. He has had many hits in Holland and Belgium but only one of these appear on this album. Meester Prikkebeen, a great track. Good for the 22nd rank of the year.

[dihansse]

For 1969 also only an album I already own/know:

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Green River by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Bad Moon Rising and Lodi are the classics and otherwise a fairly ordinary album. It moves up from the 13th to the 11th rank of the year.

[dihansse]

For 1970 I listened to two albums:

An album I already own/know:

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Déjà Vu by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
A classic album mainly but the three classics on the album, Carry On, Our House and to me especially Almost Cut Your Hair where Neil Young showed his special style of guitar playing we got to know so well. Also Helpless, Teach Your Children and Woodstock are above average so no wonder this album goes up from the 19th to the 5th rank of my year chart.

And an album from my wishlist:

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Hawkwind by Hawkwind
The absolutely crazy spacerock of the live album Space Ritual you have to hear to believe. This first album is not yet that as it begins with the fairly classic but good bluesrock of Hurry on Sundown. But tracks like the good Be Yourself or the noodling of the two Paranoia tracks already show what would become in the future. Not overall fantastic but already good for the 38th rank of my 1970 year chart.

[dihansse]

Two albums of 1971 I listened to:

An album I already own/know:

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L.A. Woman by The Doors
2 classics, the title track and Riders On The Storm, 1 very catchy track, Love Her Madly and the rest fairly blues but also fairly average tracks. All in all still a very good Doors album and also their last with Jim Morrison so it still deserves its 5th rank of the year.

And an album from my wishlist:

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A Space In Time by Ten Years After
Not so electric guitarbased as their former album and more psychedelic and sometimes accoustic. But still a good album with of course their very good "hit", I'd Love To Change The World and otherwise enough good tracks to keep me interested so the album enters my 1971 year chart at the 27th rank.