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My Year-By-Year Best Of Music Project

Several months ago I wrote about wanting to put together back-dated Best Of lists for each year going back to 2005. I half-ass started the project by making Smart Playlists in iTunes for every year as a starting point. That’s 13 years of lists I’d have to research and put together. I didn’t do much more.

Since we’re still in the season of year-end lists, it’s now or never (not really, obviously) and I’m getting started with 2008. I’ve abandoned all hope of doing this chronologically and will just tackle random years as I am able to.

When I say Best Of I mean it in two (potentially overlapping) respects - albums that I enjoyed the most and albums that I thought were well made, critically speaking.

One thing note about this approach: there will be bias.

a) I am writing this with 10+ years of time to let albums cement themselves in - or fall-out of - my preferences. I will do my best to remember which albums I really liked at the time - even if I haven’t listened to, or thought of, them in several years. There will also be albums that I did not like at the time but have since come to really like. If I end up including such an album, I will make note of it.

b) I am writing this with the help of other Best Of lists. My iTunes library is the starting point to show which albums I at least made an effort to buy or download but it is not an exhaustive list (especially as we move passed the 2005-2008ish years). I will be filling in the memory gaps of other albums by reviewing other people’s lists and looking at some of the music awards given out that year.