2020

 I thought I started strong with introducing myself to new music this year. Right from January, I started following albums of the month lists and I thought I did find some good new albums. But then the pandemic happened and most albums were postponed so they could be released when touring was again possible. I don't think many people realised just how long it would take until that happened, so many of these albums were released later in the year anyway. In any case, when the pandemic started, I lost my momentum in looking for new albums. I got occupied by recording my own album and somehow I felt more comfortable listening to those old favourite albums of mine. I also listened to a lot of old jazz this year as I was reading more than ever and needed instrumental music in the background. Around the end of November, I started investigating albums I had missed this year. It proofed much more difficult than I had imagined to find good albums. There were good individual songs here and there, but it was kind of difficult to find albums that would've worked in their entirety. I still think this wasn't one of the best years in music, but I think I did manage to find a nice collection of albums to this list. Many of these only opened properly after listening to them many times. Only time will tell if I keep listening to these in the longer term.

2019

I’m a bit late to release my favourite albums of 2019. This is because when the year was coming to the end, I felt like I hadn’t paid enough attention to the new albums to come up with a good top10 list. It’s not that I haven’t heard any good new music, but compared to earlier years, I’ve had less time to listen to music. Partly this is because I started a new job where I have less time than before to listen to music while I work. My feeling is that 2019 was quite a good year in music. This is a list of good 10 albums from that year, but I can by no means claim that these are the best 10 from that year, since I feel like I haven’t spent enough time exploring what’s out there. Still, I want to get this out there. This year's list includes lots of country, Americana and folk sounds. It's probably not that fashionable at the moment, so it tells a lot more about my personal taste at the moment. There are also quite a few female singer-songwriters on this list. Some of the years on this blog have been quite male-dominated, so I really welcome the new wave of excellent albums by women.

2018

I just looked at my previous posts in this blog and it seems like Brexit has been the defining theme in the last couple of years. There's still no clarity of what will happen and it seems that time is running out with very little progress made. Personally, this has been a bit better year. Lots of great trips, lots of great gigs, and some professional advances. I have been really busy with my other music blog about my record collection, which means that I have mainly listened to old albums. I have enjoyed the nostalgia of it, but it means I haven't spent as much time finding new music. I think it shows in this list. I had difficulties in finding 10 albums for this list that I really like. My research for them, however, introduced me to some excellent new albums.

2017

The promise wasn't good for the year 2017. I just re-read my post from last year and I feel like, despite of all the misery that has happened in 2017, no other year can be as bad as the year 2016. There seems to be a bit of new hope in the world now. I guess people have woken up to the awfulness that followed the Brexit vote and Trump's election. In music, many of these greatest albums touch on last year's events. I have found some amazing new artists, there are some phenomenal come-back albums and just generally really good new music. I haven't been quite as active in searching for new music this year, so it was a bit more difficult to compile this list of ten best albums, although, the top 5 was pretty clear for a while. There are various different styles in this list and it's difficult to say what would really be the correct order for these, but each one of these albums has offered some great emotions to me personally and that's why they've ended up in my top ten this year.

2016

All in all, I'm sure we can all agree that the year 2016 has been a really awful year. A series of terrorist attacks, deaths of pop-icons, mistreatment of refugees, war in Syria and in Ukraine, Brexit, Trump and the rise of populism and racism around Europe have all defined this year. When it comes to music, there were quite a few excellent albums coming out. What surprised me was that many old music legends made really good albums this year. I wasn't expecting anything from these artists anymore and that's probably why I was so excited to be proofed wrong. There are some albums from those legends on this list along with some new discoveries and some more recent indie artists that surprised me with a fresh new album. I'm hoping, if anything good will come out of this year of misery, is a bunch of good music and art in general. So my expectations for the next year are quite high already. But let's move on to this year's list.

2015

The year 2015 has been quite a good year in music. Many familiar artists and bands have made good albums, but there have also been some long-awaited debut albums and some surprisingly good albums from artists that have not hit the jackpot before. On my list, there's some jazz, dream pop, folk, indie rock, psychedelia and singer-songwriter stuff. I had to leave quite a few good albums out of this list, but then again, I wasn't too disappointed, since the ones on the list really are more interesting. This year I haven't been as active than maybe before in finding everything that's out there, so I may well have missed something.

2014

The year 2014 has been a bit of a disappointment in album releases. Where 2013 was one of the best years of all times, in 2014 I had to really search for albums that would really be something exiting. There were a lot of albums from bands that have been generally really good, that now released very indifferent albums. Then again, this list also includes some surprises. Bands I did not particularly care for before surprised me with great albums. The genres range from psychedelic rock to indie rock, Krautrock, post rock and folk. What strikes me in this list is that the bands are from very different areas. There are albums from UK and US, but also from France, Finland, Germany and Ireland. But enough general talk, here's my list of the best albums in 2014.

1963

1963 was a significant year in popular music for a couple of reasons. it saw the first two albums by The Beatles, who would change the whole music industry in just a couple of years. The same year was also good in folk music and surf rock. There are also some good jazz albums, but I don't think I can properly cover those, since my knowledge of jazz is not as good as it should be. Even though this year only has few exceptional albums, the historical significance of 1963 is great. Enjoy one of the last plunges to the album history.

1964

The year 1964. The hippy era has not yet fully began, and most of the beat bands are playing cover versions of famous 50's rock n' roll songs. There's quite a lot of folk music around, but it hasn't found the modern sounds yet, except for few exceptions. In US, surf rock is quite popular. This year's list consists mainly of these musical styles, but there's also some Indian sitar-music, jazz and early versions of modern pop. Some of the albums on this list are there merely as an example of albums that gave influences to later brilliant albums. The top three is pretty good though. I'm soon reaching the point, where I can't make these lists anymore, since good albums are getting scarcer as we move closer to the 50's when singles, not albums, were in fashion.

1965

The year 1965 takes us closer to the birth of modern pop-music. Most of the bands still make cover versions of old rhythm and blues and rock n' roll songs. Not many bands make full albums of their own music. This year, however, sees the rise of a few bands that in a few years time will be really popular. There are a few fabulous albums made this year, but it was hard to find ten good ones. The musical styles are mainly rock n' roll, r&b, folk and pop-rock. Some signs of the psychedelic movement are already there, but they haven't really evolved enough yet. There are great individual songs on this list, but only a few really good albums.

1966

The year 1966 is probably the earliest year in pop-rock music to have numerous fantastic albums. There are obviously some great albums made before that, but this year's list has ten fantastic albums. Not all the good albums made it to the list and the whole top six is quite phenomenal. This year sees the birth of psychedelic rock and first exceptional studio productions. The songwriting on these albums is quite extraordinary. There are a lot of folk albums on the list, but also great pop albums. 1966 may remain the last wholly great lists in this blog, since the good albums are getting scarcer as I move onwards to the past. So enjoy this terrific list of albums of 1966.

1967

1967 continues the trend of spectacular top 10 lists in the 60's. This year was, more than anything, a year for psychedelic rock. It seems that drugs had their part to play in almost all of these albums. Almost all of these albums are also the most iconic albums of the artists featured. There were numerous great albums that I had to leave out, because there simply wasn't enough room for all the great ones. I changed the order of these albums quite many times. this goes to say, that all of these ten albums are brilliant and it's really difficult to set them in any specific order. It's amazing to me that modern pop music was only a few years old at this point, but still, so many spectacular albums were made.

1968

1968 is yet another fantastic year in albums. Many good ones were left out. This year is in the heart of the flower power era, when most of the bands were moving in the footsteps of The Beatles in making melodic pop-songs. There is however a broader range in the musical styles than that. There's also some psychedelic  and experimental rock, folk, early attempts in heavy music and soul & jazz influenced rock on the list. Most of these albums I have been listening to for years, but there are also some that I've only listened to a little bit but really got into while making this blog. hope you enjoy the list as much as I do!

1969

Here we go! The 1960's. Birth of modern pop music. This decade is filled with classic albums that changed the world. Almost all of the modern music has their biggest influences on this decade. 1969 was the year of Woodstock and the summer of love. The list this year is again pretty amazing! Some of the best rock, pop and folk albums of all times are found on this list. I had to leave quite many great albums off the list as well. When it comes to rock music history, this year is one of the most legendary years. The top four are super-amazing!

1970

Getting closer to the 60's the albums just keep getting better. One thing I've noticed while writing this blog is that the 1960's is actually among the best decades of music. It's not just the Beatles and Bob Dylan, but there's a whole range of amazing bands and artists, that for some reason I had connected to 1970's in my mind. Also the 1960's is full of bands that have lived a really hectic lives. The Doors, for example, made six fantastic albums in four years, while touring at the same time. No wonder they needed something to ease their stress. The year 1970 has an amazing list of fabulous albums. There's folk, hard rock, blues rock, pop-rock and psychedelia. Every one of these albums is a classic and I cannot think of any albums that I could've included over these. What a great year once again! This was a golden time in music!

1971

1971 list of best albums is so full of classic and fantastic albums, that I couldn't have left any of these out. Most of these albums are widely acclaimed, but some of them are just important to me personally. The early 1970's can be considered a golden time for classic rock albums. These are the ones that show up in almost all the greatest albums of all times lists. More accurate genres include blues-rock, glam-rock, hard rock, pop-rock, heavy rock, progressive rock and folk. I kept changing the order of these albums quite a bit while making the list, but the albums on the list stayed the same all the time. Even though there are quite a lot of good albums that were left out, I always came to the conclusion that these ones should really be on the list. We'll soon approach the 1960's, which also has some amazing albums coming up. 1971, however is one of the best years in this blog!

1972

The year 1972 is again pretty awesome year in music. Most of the albums this year can be categorised in either glam-rock or folk genres. However, there's also some funk, psychedelia and pop-rock in there. Again, the vintage factor is quite high. It's weird to realise, how in 1972, almost all the best albums are considered mainstream, wheres today, very few mainstream albums are at all listenable. I guess this is due to the way record companies work these days. But back to 1972. This year did not wow me as much as the years around it, but that's no reason to say that this year wouldn't be as good. When I get closer to the 1960's I find that most of the albums I consider to be core albums of the 70's are actually really early 70's albums. This era has been one of the most influential eras in popular music since then.

1973

The year 1973 is one of the best year's in this blog. Many classic albums, some cult albums and impossibility to fit everything good in. The genres include psychedelic rock, glam-rock, singer-songwriter blues, jazzy pop-rock, hard rock, multi-instrumental alternative rock and Krautrock. This year is one of the epicentres of classic concept albums. There were many great albums I couldn't include, because there were these ten better ones. The toughest competition was made for the last place on the list, because all the others were sort of must-include cases. I'm glad I chose the one on the tenth place as well though. Enjoy!

2013

I've listened to more new music this year than I've probably ever listened to. As a consequence, I've found a staggering amount of great bands. That's why I find, that presenting only the ten best albums, would be way too restrictive. This is why I'm presenting top 15 albums for this year. I know the blog's name is Annual top 10, but hey, it's my blog and I can do what I want with it. The year is filled with interesting new artists and beautiful melodies and sounds. I was generally disappointed with many of my old favourite artists' new albums. They did not have that much new to offer and some bands or artists like Arcade Fire, The National and John Grant really disappointed me by making albums that were not interesting to me even though I've liked all their previous stuff. This is why this list consists of artists I have found this year. I really like each and everyone of these 15 albums.

First of all I must mention a few albums that are not on the list, even though they're in my opinion really good. The reason why they're not on the list is that I can't really rate them objectively. These albums are Vronsky's Throat Specific Mixture by Vronsky, Pimeä Saari by Risto Juhani and Trains by Johannes Laitila. Vronsky is my own band, so it's clear that even though I would like to shamelessly call it the best album of the year, it's hard to be objective. Risto Juhani on the other hand is one of my best friends, as is Johannes Laitila, who is also my flat mate. Even though these albums do not appear on my list, I recommend them warmly and truly think they are among the best albums of the year. Listen to Vronsky here, Risto Juhani here and Johannes Laitila here.

But after saying this, let's get on with the top 15 albums of 2013 (well-excluding those three mentioned above).

1974

Compared to many other years around 1974, this year is not particularly amazing. It was fairly difficult to find ten great albums for this list. but this kind of situation is, in a way, nice. It makes me search for new albums and lets me list some weird albums outside my usual favourites. In the end when I look at the list, it has quite many good albums, which I have listened to too little of. The genres are again rather varied. There's piano-blues, rock-opera, folk, glam-rock, rock n' roll, progressive rock, funk, jazz and synthesiser art music. Some of these albums may need a few listens to get into, but I think they're all pretty great once you get into them.