I’m not sure this album is SYML’s best, but it certainly was the one I returned to time and again on my media player.
Do As Infinity, EIGHT
I never got around to owning this album on a physical format, and listening to again a decade later makes me think it’s probably the best in the band’s 20-year discography. It holds up incredibly well.
Rammstein, Mutter
I get the sense this album might be Rammstein’s most accessible.
Club Nouveau, Listen to the Message
Club Nouveau’s Life, Laugh and Love is an unsung 80s classic, but its socially-conscious follow-up didn’t replicate that success, despite being an album of much deeper thoughtfulness and more forceful messaging.
Hamilton Leithauser, Black Hours
I kept coming back to this album because Leithauser doesn’t seem to like being beholden to a single style.
Ray Lynch, Deep Breakfast
I have a soft spot for new age music from the 1980s, and modern dance music owes a lot of its ethereal pads to work by the likes of Lynch. I did think “Celestial Soda Pop” was a set of variations on Blondie’s “Call Me.”
Cynthia Erivo, I Forgive You
I would have thought the success of Erivo’s work on Wicked and a concert performance of Jesus Christ Superstar would have rubbed off on this album, but it seems like nobody’s talking about it. And I’d much prefer to listen to this album than Wicked.
A decade ago, I wrote a series of entries ranking my favorite albums from 1985 to 2004. My collection has expanded greatly since then, particularly in the last five years. So I wanted to see what has changed in 10 years.
In 2008, my collection tapered off with releases before 1987. I went so far as to call 1986 an uninteresting year. I’ve since had time to explore the year in greater depth.
The Art of Noise, In Visible Silence
Janet Jackson, Control
Soundtrack, Megazone 23 Song Collection
Paul Simon, Graceland
XTC, Skylarking
The Smiths, The Queen is Dead
Prince & the Revolution, Parade
Nakamori Akina, Fushigi
Duran Duran, Notorious
Club Nouveau, Life, Love and Pain
Other favorites from the year:
Anita Baker, Rapture
Bananarama, True Confessions
Fishbone, In Your Face
Run DMC, Raising Hell
Peter Gabriel, So
John Adams, Harmonielehre
Enya, Enya
Dwight Yoakam, Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc. Etc.
R.E.M., Lifes Rich Pageant
Pet Shop Boys, Please
Kronos Quartet, Music of Sculthorpe, Sallinen, Glass, Nancarrow, Hendrix
The Human League, Crash
If you told Younger Me that Older Me would like So and Raising Hell, Younger Me would wretch. At the time, Run DMC and Peter Gabriel were so ubiquitous, I felt I would never need to hear “Walk This Way” or “Sledgehamer” for the rest of my life.
One advantage of growing older is no longer caring about looking at all fashionable.
Younger Me would have been puzzled by the inclusion of Dwight Yoakam on the extended list, to which Older Me would have to tell Younger Me to wait 9 years.
Younger Me: Oh, I was wondering whether I should get that Human League album. Is it really that good? Older Me: Yeah, but I don’t think you’d quite appreciate it at your station in life. Wait a few years. Younger Me: Really? How many? Older Me: 30.
![[Meredith Monk - Cellular Songs]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/MeredithMonkCellularSongs361796_f.jpg)
![[SYML - Nobody Lives Here]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/SYMLNobodyLivesHere20253447562HA3_f.jpg)
![[The Postal Service - Everything Will Change]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/ThePostalServiceEverythin3187431MQ6_f.jpg)
![[Nakamori Akina - Fushigi]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/nakamori-akina-fushigi-300x300.jpg)