Can you think of a better year for music than 1971?

1977, 1979 are both really good. Im also a huge fan of the 60s.

1966 is often underrated but it was the year modern guitar music really started for me.

Possibly two of the best albums ever made in:

The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde

As well as classics such as:

The Beatles - Revolver
Frank Zappa - Freak Out!
Monks - Black Monk Time
13th Floor Elevators - The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th floor elevators
The Sonics - Boom
The Seeds - S/T

1967 and 1968 were also good with Psych Garage rock reigning supreme but the real gem of a year was 1969 (the 9s are always good 79, and 89 are both amazing years). While the highs arnt as good as '66 there is plenty more depth

In no particular order:

King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
Led Zeppelin - (both 1 and 2)
The Velvet Underground - s/t
The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed
The Beatles - Abby Road
Miles Davis - In A Silent Way
The Who - Tommy
Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica
Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left
Frank Zappa - Hot Rats
David Bowie - Space Oddity
Bob Dylan - Nashville Skyline
Scott Walker - Scott 4 (and 3)
Leonard Cohen - Songs for a Room
MC5 - Kick Out the Jams
Tim Buckley - Happy Sad
Sun Ra - Atlantis
The Stooges - S/T
Jimmy Cliff - S/T

Seriously unbelievable year with many solid releases. I bet that more good recorded music came between the years 1966-71 and 1977-1982 then all the other years combined. Although this is clearly my own taste.

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man oh man! stuck this one on immediately, seeing as it was you. shit, man! this is fucking awesome. wonderful weirdness!

definitely an immediate purchase.

nice one bud!

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Not to be a traditionalist slurping the white cock of canonisation but 1966/67/68 are strong contenders, even setting the big hitters aside. Huge innovations in sound design, production, tech and songwriting across the board in a diverse range of styles, plus tentative forays into several entirely new genres. If we consider not just the music but the galvanising effect the music arguably had on the world around it, I think the argument is strengthened even more.

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WRT your points about 66/67 especially, a lot of the albums you mention are hugely important for not only the tunes but the /statement/ a lot of them made. The Beatles are a great example - exploding the wall between high and low culture, introducing avant garde, electronic, musique concrete and world music to a global audience via the pop tune, and helping to create the idea of the album as work of art. Shit, they even dropped the drums/bass/guitars for entire tracks at points - Within You and Without You, Tomorrow Never Knows, Eleanor Rigby…they’re so a part of our culture that, as with The Velvet Underground, Jimi, the postmodern lyrics over blues and folk music Dylan was tinkering with, and the adventurous production on Motown records of the time, it’s easy to forget how fucking weird and consequently galvanising that music and those albums were. My dad said listening to the radio between 66-68 was like hearing a different alien signal every day.

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Actually, 1986 is probably my favourite year:

Siouxsie & the Banshees - Tinderbox
Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring
New Order - Brotherhood
XTC - Skylarking
Peter Gabriel - So
Paul Simon - Graceland
Felt - Forever Breathes the Lonely Word
Love and Rockets - Express
Cocteau Twins - Victorialand
The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
R.E.M. - Lifes Rich Pageant
Sonic Youth - EVOL
Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians - Element of Light
Public Image Ltd - Album
Kraftwerk - Electric Cafe

Yeah, gorgeous year.

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Indeed. I missed a lot of motown and quite a few great singles to focus on a very rock (and male) oriented list of albums. There was a lot going on for sure. I like 69 because it feels like a solidifying of those ideas. There are also a lot of albums that really start laying the ground work for what would eventually become the punk movement.

The Fall - Live at the Witch Trials + Dragnet
The Raincoats - s/t
Devo - Duty Now for the Future
Stiff Little Fingers - Inflammable Material
Swell Maps - A Trip to Marineville

missed out Nick Cave - Your Funeral, My Trial and The Fall - Bend Sinister

don’t think i have many other 86 albums though.

1994 is the one that came to mind for me too. Loads more seminal hip hop too

OutKast - Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
Common Sense - Resurrection
Organized Konfusion - Stress: The Extinction Agenda
OC - Word, Life
Digable Planets - Blowout Comb
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth - The Main Ingredient
Scarface - The Diary
Jeru the Damaja - The Sun Rises in the East
Beastie Boys - Ill Communication
Gang Starr - Hard to Earn

etc. etc.

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Literally thousands of recommended albums from 2013

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yeah; st vincent, vampire weekend, deafheaven, kendrick, chance, these new puritans and run the jewels…loads of sick albums, i just think looking back in 100 years time, the only album anyone’s really going to be taking about is borrell 1

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Another shout for both 1979 and 1991 here.

Certainly can.

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1971 was awesome, but I find more or less every year from about 1967 through 1974 to have valid arguments.

Here’s a write up I did a couple of years ago about it:

And:

Prince and the Revolution- Parade
The Go-Betweens - Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express
Slayer - Reign in Blood
Husker Du - Candy Apple Grey
The Triffids - Born Sandy Devotional
Elvis Costello - King of America and Blood and Chocolate
The Feelies - The Good Earth
This Mortal Coil - Filigree and Shadow

1986 was an amazing year

The 70s were awesome. Easily my favourite decade.

Ive always liked 1975

Physical Grafitti
Blood on the Tracks
Horses
Zuma and Tonight’s the Night
Radioactivity
Another Green World

Plus others I can’t remember.

95

the case for 1991 Nevermind Nevermind - 25 Albums Released 25 Years Ago We Still Adore / In Depth // Drowned In Sound

Have a hard time remembering years and what exactly came out when but for my personal tastes I’d say 93 or 98, or really any year in that run. Or maybe even 04? idk

#1997
Radiohead - OK Computer
Biosphere - Substrata
Autechre - Chiastic Slide
Squarepusher - Hard Normal Daddy
Lamb - Lamb
Wu Tang Clan - Wu Tang Forever
Bjork - Homogenic
Mu-ziq - Lunatic Harness
Plaid - Not For Threes
Mogwai - Young Team