YACHTOBER: Tom Lane's GREATEST YACHT ROCK ALBUMS

Tom Lane has been posting on Tom Lane's Music Blog for just over eleven years now though he actually began the blog on another platform in the late Nineties before switching over to Blogger. His first Blogger post back in 2005, like many of his posts that would follow, was about the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, specifically the nominations for the Class of 2005. His very next post the following day, a Monday, was a book review; then hours later, he posts a podcast recommendation. He comes right back on Tuesday with some sage advice: 

"Hear it before you buy it. The best way to save your hard-earned money on lousy records is to listen before you buy it."

Then Tom comes right back with more RRHOF posts, a couple of album reviews and more book recommendations and then he posts his first Mix Tape post, listing what he's been listening to all week. And there, in just the first month of his namesake blog, Tom Lane established the template he would use for the next decade and beyond though he probably perfected it before moving over. The Mix Tape posts would eventually evolve into Playlist posts less than a month later and include not just the songs and albums he listened to but also books he had read as well as movies and documentaries he viewed. Gradually, the weekly summaries began appearing daily just not every day. He and I seem to have a great deal in common as far as our musical tastes and listening habits (Prince, Little Big Town, the NOW compilations, Spotify, Seventies AM Top 40, Lewis Taylor, and unabashed pop) and while I stay out of the politics of the RRHOF, preferring to watch the annual safe for public consumption HBO version of the induction ceremony (which seems to be the tail wagging the selection process), I enjoy reading Lane's discourses on the institution.

And his Pazz & Jop Poll ballots, which he sort of lucked into by writing to one of the Village Voice music editors more than a decade and a half ago, are less "critic-y" (i.e. featuring albums and singles I have never heard and really have no interest in) than those of the paid or known critics. Looking back at his ballots over the past ten years, we have maybe 60% in common, which is outrageously high in my book.

In researching an upcoming YACHTOBER post, I came across Tom's blog and then spent the better part of the following two days reading his posts. Discovered his ranked list of the 50 Greatest Yacht Rock Songs, then his 50 more songs addendum to that list and then the reason we are here today: the unranked list of Tom Lane's Greatest Yacht Rock Albums posted just a few months ago. Here are all but one of those albums*, in chronological order.

*With all apologies, I omitted Tom's selection of 1984's Chicago 17 because it falls outside of the parameter of 1975-1982 he stated on his Yacht Rock Singles list. Well, that and I am not a fan of the album. Of course, I am being arbitrary as Diamond Girl was released in 1973 which is also outside the range 1975-1982. The difference? I love that album.