A Long Listmaking Exercise for a Long Weekend (Late edition)

I like lists. So when this idea about your top album from every year you've been alive popped up on a Web site I have been known to frequent, I couldn't resist.

I just finished today.

This is what you need to know.

• This list is done with hindsight, because there was no freakin' way I was cool enough to know about Jeff Buckley's "Grace" in 1994. (If I were to guess, I'd say 2001.)
  
• I've included honorable mentions where one album didn't dropkick all others.
  
• This list isn't going to look like your list, when you get around to it, slacker. That's good. I can justify all my picks, even if you think they're crap. Don't worry; I'll think your picks are crap too.
  
• I'm sure I forgot some kickass album that I'm in love with that deserves to be on this list. But I was shooting for this July 4, not next one.
  
• I tried not to posture. You're not going to find a Smiths album or a Pixies album, because that's not who I am.

Without further aideu:

1979: Michael Jackson: "Off the Wall"
1980: Billy Joel: "Glass Houses"
1981: Billy Joel: "Songs in the Attic"
1982: Billy Joel: "Nylon Curtain" [Michael Jackson: "Thriller"]
1983: U2: "War" [Paul Simon: "Hearts & Bones"]
1984: Talking Heads: "Stop Making Sense"
1985: Nothing I've liked came out in 1985. Seriously.
1986: Paul Simon: "Graceland" [Peter Gabriel: "So"]
1987: U2: "The Joshua Tree"
1988: Van Morrison & The Chieftans: "Irish Heartbeat" [Special mention of DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince: "He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper," my first rap album]
1989: Tom Petty: "Full Moon Fever"
1990: MC Hammer: "Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em" [Paul Simon: "The Rhythm of the Saints"]
1991: R.E.M.: "Out of Time"
1992: R.E.M.: "Automatic for the People"
1993: 10,000 Maniacs: "MTV Unplugged" [Counting Crows: "August and Everything After"]
1994: Jeff Buckley: "Grace"
1995: Oasis: "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?"
1996: Cake: "Fashion Nugget" [Belle & Sebastian: "If You're Feeling Sinister"]
1997: Radiohead: "OK Computer"
1998: Neutral Milk Hotel: "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea"
1999: Kleenex Girl Wonder: "Ponyoak"
2000: Twilight Singers: "Twilight as Sung By the Twilight Singers" [U2: "All that You Can't Leave Behind"]
2001: Ben Folds: "Rockin' the Suburbs" [The Strokes: "Is This It?"]
2002: Wilco: "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot"
2003: The Wrens: "The Meadowlands"
2004: Modest Mouse: "Good News for People Who Love Bad News" [Arcade Fire: "Funeral"]
2005: Bright Eyes: "I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning"
2006: The Hold Steady: "Boys & Girls in America" [Neko Case: "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood"]
2007: Okkervil River: "The Stage Names"
2008 (so far): The Hold Steady: "Stay Positive"