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.