Harry's Top Ten albums 2000-2018

I have written before about Harry's lists like his Top Ten albums lists that he would send out to us all at the end of each year. From the days of listening to Kasey Kasem's Top 40, he had a thing for lists. We have notebooks full of the Top 40's, with arrows of how many spaces a song went up or down from week to week. 

A few months ago I had found a Word document that he had typed up of his Top Ten albums from 2000 to 2018. I had been going through the lists and listening to ones that I didn't have or didn't know much about. It is nice to have these types of things, but it also makes you miss him even more. Makes you wish you had paid more attention to these lists when he sent them out. And also sad that we wont be getting another one. He had bought a few things in 2019, but as far as I know, he had not started a list that last year, though I am sure he did, he would put off buying albums at the end of the year so not to disrupt his Top Ten that he had surely been thinking about all year. 

These are just the lists here. On some of his other blogs or within emails he would explain why he liked each album and information on each. I will see how many I can find like that and may post those at a later date if there is any interests in that. It's nice to read things in his voice, I can picture him in person explaining each one.  

The number to the right to each shows how many times an artist/band had appeared in a previous Top Ten up to that point. 
(*) shows that an artist/band had not been in a previous Top Ten. 
Albums within the Top Tens did not have to be released that year, his lists were of the year that he had purchased the albums. 


2018

1. Caterina Barbieri – Patterns of Consciousness *
2. The Bomber Jackets – Kudos to the Bomber Jackets     *
3. Kadhja Bonet – Childqueen     2
4. Tropical Fuck Storm – A Laughing Death in Meatspace 3
5. Lucrecia Dalt – Anticlines     *
6. Shackleton – Behind the Glass     *
7. Current 93 – The Light is Leaving Us All 6
8. Dream Version – Fight Fair     *
9. Caterina Barbieri – Born Again in the Voltage *
10. Rockettothesky – Medea             4

2017

1. Protomartyr – Relatives in Descent         2
2. Ill Wicker – Under Diana     *
3. Kissed Her Little Sister – Ram     3
4. Mount Eerie – A Crow Looked at Me   11
5. Roger Waters – Is This the Life We Really Want? 7
6. Father John Misty – Pure Comedy     *
7. Milo – Who Told You to Think??!!?!?!?! 2
8. Kate Tempest – Everybody Down     2
9. Edward KaSpel – High on Station Yellow Moon   12
10. Lana del Rey – Lust for Life     2

2016

1. Jenny Hval – Blood Bitch     2
2. Aesop Rock – The Impossible Kid     6
3. The Drones – Feelin Kinda Free     2
4. Kate Tempest – Let Them Eat Chaos *
5. Milo – So the Flies Don’t Come     *
6. Kadhja Bonet – The Visitor     *
7. Cate Le Bon – Crab Day     *
8. Reshma – Swar Ustav     *
9. Weyes Blood – Front Row Seat to Earth *
10. Helado Negro – Private Energy     *

2015

1. Jenny Hval – Apocalypse, Girl     *
2. Juan Wauters – Who Me?     2
3. Asaf Avidan – Gold Shadow     *
4. Protomartyr – The Agent Intellect     *
5. Ian William Craig – Cradle for the Wanting 2
6. Lana del Rey – Honeymoon     *
7. Patrick Watson – Love Songs for Robots *
8. Mount Eerie – Sauna   10
9. Jenny Hval – Viscera     *
10. Sunn O)) – Kannon             3

2014

1. Kissed Her Little Sister – Mbube     2
2. Amen Dunes – Love     2
3. Sunn O))) and Ulver – Terrestrials   */*
4. Juan Wauters – N.A.P. North American Poetry *
5. Have a Nice Life – The Unnatural World 2
6. Pallbearer – Foundations of Burden *
7. Have a Nice Life – Deathconsciousness         3
8. Scott Walker and Sunn O))) – Soused           3/*
9. Hail Mary Mallon – Bestiary       5
10. Ian William Craig – A Turn of Breath     *

2013

1. The Drones – I See Seaweed     *
2. Kissed Her Little Sister – Sailor *
3. Giles Corey – Deconstructionist     *
4. The Uncluded – Hokey Fright   3/*
5. Amen Dunes – Through Donkey Jaw *
6. Stranger by Starlight – Chalk White Nights *
7. Hail Mary Mallon – Are You Gonna Eat That? 4
8. Roly Porter – Life Cycle of a Massive Star *
9. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Push the Sky Away 8
10. Aki Onda – Cassette Memories, Volume 3 *

2012

1. Aesop Rock – Skelethon           *
2. Scott Walker – The Drift           *
3. Xasthur – Subliminal Genocide   *
4. Mount Eerie – Ocean Roar   8
5. Robin Williamson – Skirting the River Road   10
6. Mount Eerie – Clear Moon   9
7. Joseph Arthur – Redemption City   4
8. Scott Walker – Scott 3   *
9. Aesop Rock – None Shall Pass   *
10 Swans – The Seer           2
2011

1. Deathspell Omega – Paracletus   *
2. Arrington de Dionyso – Suara Naga   5
3. Drudkh – Microcosmos           *
4. Agalloch – Marrow of the Spirit   *
5. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Henry’s Dream   7
6. Drudkh – Estrangement           *
7. Joseph Arthur – Graduation Day   3
8. Disma – Towards the Megalith   *
9. Tom Waits – Bad as Me         13
10. The Ocean – Anthropocentric           *

2010

1. Nick Cave – The Firstborn is Dead *
2. Swans – My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope… *
3. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Dig Lazarus Dig!!! *
4. Robin Williamson – Journey’s Edge 9
5. Grinderman – Grinderman 2     *
6. Peter Gabriel – Scratch My Back   15
7. Nick Cave – From Her to Eternity     *
8. The Legendary Pink Dots – Seconds Late…   11
9. Nick Cave – Your Funeral… My Trial     *
10. Grinderman – Grinderman     *

2009

1. Mount Eerie – Wind’s Poem 7
2. The Incredible String Band – Liquid Acrobat as Regards… 5
3. Mastodon – Blood Mountain *
4. Robin Williamson – Myrrh 6
5. Mastodon – Leviathan   *2
6. The Incredible String Band – U 7
7. Mastodon – Crack the Skye   *3
8. The Incredible String Band – Changing Horses 8
9. Pentangle – Basket of Light *
10. Gong – You     *

2008

1. The Incredible String Band – Wee Tam and the Big Huge 2
2. Pink Floyd – Piper at the Gates of Dawn (Mono) *
3. The Incredible String Band – The 5000 Spirits or the… 3
4. of Montreal – Skeletal Lamping 8
5. John Martyn – Inside Out *
6. Phil Elverum – Dawn 6
7. The Incredible String Band – Incredible String Band 4
8. Current 93 – Black Ships Ate the Sky 5
9. Robbie Basho – Venus in Cancer *
10. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes *

2007

1. of Montreal – Hissing Fauna Are You the Destroyer? 7
2. The Incredible String Band – The Hangman’s Beautiful… *
3. Old Tim Relijun – Catharsis in Crisis 3
4. Dalek – Abandoned Language 2
5. Jennifer Gentle – The Midnight Room *
6. Tunng – Good Arrows     *
7. Innocence Mission – We Walked in Song 3
8. Liars – They Were Wrong, So We Drowned 2
9. Arrington de Dionyso – Breath of Fire 4
10. Various Artists – Tropicalia *

2006

1. Dirty Projectors – The Getty Address *
2. Liars – Drum’s Not Dead *
3. Six Organs of Admittance – The Sun Awakens *
4. Espers – Espers II     *
5. The Mountain Goats – Get Lonely *
6. Joseph Arthur – Nuclear Daydream 2
7. Dungen – Ta Det Lugnt     *
8. Caribou – The Milk of Human Kindness         *
9. Robyn Hitchcock and The Venus 3 – Ole, Tarantula 12
10. Joanna Newsom – Ys *

2005

1. Roger Waters – Ça Ira     6
2. Mount Eerie – No Flashlight 5
3. Old Time Relijun – 2012 2
4. of Montreal – The Sunlandic Twins 6
5. The Moody Blues – In Search of the Lost Chord *
6. Devendra Banhart – Cripple Crow 4
7. Dalek – Absence     *
8. Antony and the Johnsons – I Am a Bird Now *
9. Madvillain – Madvillainy *
10. Radar Bros. – The Fallen Leaf Pages 3

2004

1. Devendra Banhart – Niño Rojo 2
2. Old Time Relijun – Lost Light *
3. Tom Waits – Real Gone     12
4. Devendra Banhart – Rejoicing in the Hands 3
5. Robyn Hitchcock – Spooked 11
6. Jethro Tull – Passion Play *
7. The Microphones – Live in Japan 4
8. Vetiver – Vetiver     *
9. Vashti Bunyan – Another Diamond Day         *
10. John Debney – Passion of the Christ *

2003

1. The Microphones – Mount Eerie 2
2. Clint Mansell – Requiem for a Dream *
3. Yes – Tales from Topographic Oceans *
4. Robyn Hitchcock – Luxor 10
5. Neil Young – Greendale     2
6. The Decemberists – Castaways and Cutouts *
7. Ladybug Transistor – The Ladybug Transistor *
8. Yes – Fragile     *
9. Innocence Mission – Befriended 2
10. The Microphones – Voices and Drums from Mount Eerie 3

2002

1. Peter Gabriel – Up   13
2. Radar Bros. – And the Surrounding Mountains 2
3. Joseph Arthur – Resurrection’s Son (UK) *
4. Peter Gabriel – Long Walk Home 14
5. Tom Waits – Blood Money 10
6. Devendra Banhart – Oh Me Oh My *
7. The Microphones – The Glow Part 2 *
8. of Montreal – Aldhil’s Arboretum 5
9. The Legendary Pink Dots – All the King’s Horses 10
10. Tom Waits – Alice     11

2001

1. Circulatory System – Circulatory System 2
2. of Montreal – Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies 3
3. Richard Buckner – The Hill *
4. (Smog) – Rain on Lens     2
5. Martin Medeski & Wood – The Dropper *
6. Smog – The Doctor Came at Dawn 3
7. Mercury Rev – All is Dream *
8. Current 93 – Sleep Has His House 4
9. Smog – Dongs of Sevotion 4
10. of Montreal – Early Four Track Recordings 4

2000

1. Peter Gabriel – Ovo 11
2. Radar Bros. – The Singing Hatchet           *
3. The Flaming Lips – Clouds Taste Metallic 3
4. Innocence Mission – Birds of My Neighborhood *
5. The Legendary Pink Dots – A Perfect Mystery 9
6. Genesis – Archive 1 12
7. Smog – Red Apple Falls     *
8. Rollerball – Bathing Music *
9. of Montreal – The Bedside Drama 2
10. Current 93 – I Have a Special Plan for This World 3





Comments

  1. Thanks for posting again.
    I remember the conversation around the last (?) list he put on his blog, and listening to songs by Protomartyr for the first time. I told him about a Mongolian band I'd heard that played traditional instruments and sounded more like real rock and roll than anything I'd heard coming out of a Marshall stack in a while, which of course led to a discussion of throat singing and Richard Feynman...
    Since then I've found another Mongolian band who do the throat singing thing and call themselves the Hu.

    -Doug in Sugar Pine

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  2. Harry had a much, MUCH more sophisticated and esoteric taste in music than I ever did. I only recognize a handful of artists' names from his lists!

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  3. OK, I saw this on YouTube and thought wow, I bet Harry would have liked this. Well, I can't show it to Harry any more, but I can tell Jeff about it:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_m2CZU9vdk

    -Doug in Sugar Pine

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for sharing that. Yes, he would've. He loved The Final Cut and Roger.
      Thanks again for sharing it. I wish Harry was here to help put everything into perspective they we that he did.
      Hope all is well with you

      Jeff

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