Albums

[Updated: 12/2023]

One of the things you should know about me is that I love music. Here is a list of some of my favorite music over the past few decades.

2023 Top 5 Albums

1. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Weathervanes
2. The National, Laugh Track
3. The National, First Two Pages of Frankenstein
4. Chris Stapleton, Higher
5. Morgan Wallen, One Thing at a Time

2022 Top 5 Albums

1. Jackson Bybee, evergreen
2. Phosphorescent, The Full Moon Project
3. Jackson Dean, Greenbroke
4. Michael McDermott, St. Paul’s Boulevard
5. First Aid Kit, Palomino

2021 Top 5 Albums

1. The War on Drugs, I Don’t Live Here Anymore
2. Lord Huron, Long Lost
3. Bleachers, Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night
4. Sam Fender, Seventeen Going Under
5. Adele, 30

2020 Top 5 Albums

1. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Letter to You
2. Chris Stapleton, Starting Over
3. Taylor Swift, folklore
4. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Reunions
5. The Strokes, The New Abnormal

2019 Top 5 Albums

1. Bon Iver, i, i
2. Daniel Norgren, Wooh Dang
3. Pedro the Lion, Phoenix
4. Michael McDermott, Orphans
5. Dylan LeBlanc, Renegade

2018 Top 5 Albums

1. Khruangbin, Con Todo El Mundo
2. Lauren Diagle, Look Up Child
3. Leon Bridges, Good Thing
4. CHVRCHES, Love is Dead
5. Jeff Tweedy, WARM

2017 Top 5 Albums

1. The War on Drugs, A Deeper Understanding
2. Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, The Nashville Sound
3. Chris Stapleton, From A Room, Vol. I & II
4. John Moreland, Big Bad Luv
5. Josh Ritter, Gathering

2016 Top 5 Albums

1. Radiohead, A Moon Shaped Pool
2. Sturgill Simpson, A Sailor’s Guide to Earth
3. Bon Iver, 22 A Million
4. Whitney, Light Upon the Lake
5. Michael McDermott, Willow Springs

2015 Top 5 Albums

1. Chris Stapleton, Traveller
2. Adele, 25
3. Wilco, Star Wars
4. James McMurtury, Complicated Game
5. Alabama Shakes, Sound & Color

2014 Top 5 Albums

1. The War on Drugs, Lost in the Dream
2. Augustines, Augustines
3. Beck, Morning Phase
4. Sturgill Simpson, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music
5. Crowder, Neon Steeple

2013 Top 5 Albums

1. Jason Isbell, Southeastern
2. The National, Trouble Will Find Me
3. Vampire Weekend, Modern Vampires of the City
4. The Head and the Heart, Let’s Be Still
5. Arcade Fire, Reflektor

2012 Top 5 Albums

1. Mumford & Sons, Babel
2. Bill Fay, Life Is People
3. Jack White, Blunderbuss
4. The Avett Brothers, The Carpenter
5. Beach House, Bloom

2011 Top 5 Albums

1. Bon Iver, Bon Iver
2. The Head and the Heart, The Head and the Heart
3. Fleet Foxes, Helplessness Blues
4. Blind Pilot, We Are the Tide
5. The Decemberists, The King is Dead

2010 Top 5 Albums

1. Arcade Fire, The Suburbs
2. The National, High Violet
3. Vampire Weekend, Contra
4. Ray LaMontagne & the Pariah Dogs, God Willin’ & the Creek Don’t Rise
5. Jakob Dylan, Women & Country

2009 Top 10 Albums

1. U2, No Line on the Horizon
2. Mumford & Sons, Sigh No More
3. M Ward, Hold Time
4. The Avett Brothers, I and Love and You
5. Dawes, North Hills

2008 Top 5 Albums

1. Coldplay, Viva La Vida
2. The Gabe Dixon Band, The Gabe Dixon Band
3. Ryan Adams, Cardinology
4. Mark Erelli, Delivered
5. Matthew Barber, Ghost Notes

2007 Top 5 Albums

1. The Avett Brothers, Emotionalism
2. Radiohead, In Rainbows
3. The National, Boxer
4. Michael McDermott, Noise From Words
5. Arcade Fire, Neon Bible

2006 Top 5 Albums

1. Johnny Cash, American V: A Hundred Highways
2. Michael Giacchino, LOST (Original Television Soundtrack)
3. Josh Ritter, The Animal Years
4. The Dixie Chicks, Taking the Long Way
5. Bruce Springsteen, We Shall Overcome

2005 Album of the Year: David Crowder Band, A Collision

2004 Album of the Year: Johnny Cash, My Mother’s Hymn Book

2003 Album of the Year – Explosions In The Sky, The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place

2002 Album of the Year – Coldplay, A Rush of Blood to the Head

2001 Album of the Year – Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

2000 Album of the Year – Radiohead, Kid A

1999 Album of the Year – Sigur Ros, Agaetis Byrjun

1998 Album of the Year – David Gray, White Ladder

1997 Album of the Year – Radiohead, OK Computer

1996 Album of the Year – Michael McDermott, Michael McDermott

1995 Album of the Year – Oasis, What’s the Story Morning Glory?

1994 Album of the Year – Hootie & the Blowfish, Cracked Rear View

1993 Album of the Year – Counting Crows, August and Everything After

1992 Album of the Year – R.E.M., Automatic for the People

1991 Album of the Year – U2, Achtung Baby

1990 Album of the Year – Dwight Yoakam, If There Was a Way