As I write, it is
December 2014. Every Christmas, since
the year 2000, my friend Adam and I exchange a top 20 albums of the year list
(full-length, studio albums of original material released that year). This has evolved into a major geek-fest exercise
where we write detailed notes on our selections and post them online. I have, for instance, just posted my top 20
albums of 2014 here.
These lists first
started going up online in 2005, but
this year I have come across my lists going back to the first year we did this –
so I thought I’d upload these ‘lost’ early lists too so there is a record of
the tradition going back to its very inception.
For the first three years (2000-2002), we didn’t write extensive
annotations/descriptions for our lists as we do now. In 2003, the tradition as it now stands began to take hold, with more extensive notes being written (albeit only on a top 15, not a full top 20). But I sadly have lost all of my 2003 notes and just have the list itself. For 2000-2003, then, I literally just have ‘lists’ to share. There has been quite an evolution from these
early lists to what this has become. So,
anyway, here are my album lists for the years 2000-2003, online for the very
first time. These are the lists as they
were set out at the time; not necessarily how I would rank the best albums that
came out in any particular year today (Papa
Roach?!).
The list for 2004 –
also never previously online – has survived in its entire annotated glory, and so I felt that the 2004
list was worthy of its own home: it can be found here.
So, here's 2000-2003, starting
at the very beginning…