Things get far more difficult from here on in... I feel I must reiterate that these choices are from albums I own...

• 1990: Pantera, "Cowboys From Hell"
• 1991: Nirvana, "Nevermind"
• 1992: Faith No More, "Angel Dust"
• 1993: Smashing Pumpkins, "Siamese Dream"

1990 wasn't too hard, with the only real competition coming from Midnight Oil's "Blue Sky Mine" and Bjork's one off album with Tríó Guðmundar Ingólfssonar, "Gling-Gló". "Cowboys From Hell" and Metallica's self-titled a year later helped drag metal into the mainstream.

1991 was a hard year. A hugely influential year of music in my life, with many many good albums. Baby Animals, Crowded House's "Woodface", Metallica's "Black", Mr. Bungle, Queen's last real album ever "Innuendo", RHCP's BSSM, Smashing Pumpkins' "Gish", Soundgarden's "Badmotorfinger", Pearl Jam's "Ten" and Sepultura's "Arise". Ultimately the choice came down to Pearl Jam and Nirvana. I decided I was only switched on to Pearl Jam at the moment because of the recent "Ten" remix album...

1992 even harder than 1991. Less influential but more albums that I consider truly great. But ultimately, I can't call myself a Faith No More fan and not pick "Angel Dust". Honourable mentions to R.E.M.'s "Automatic For The People", Tori Amos' "Little Earthquakes", Ministry's "Psalm 69" and Megadeth's "Countdown To Extinction".

1993? Bjork? Later albums are far better. Cypress Hill? A fad. Counting Crows? fantastic unbeatable debut album, but the rest of their stuff sucks. Pearl Jam? Vs. vs Ten and Ten wins. The Whitlams Introduced themselves but didn't get great for another couple of albums. Tea Party too. I considered being a smarty-pants and saying The Sharp's "This Is The Sharp", and I would have meant it... but I can't go past Smashing Pumpkin's "Siamese Dream". It's part of my DNA.

A while back someone (via a meme I think) challenged me to pick my favourite album for each year of my life.

After my clean up and analysis of my CD collection (1, 2, 3) I can finally have a go at this challenge.

Except... I don't own a lot of music from the early years of my life. For most years until 1989 I barely own more than five per year.

As a result, my picks are mostly Midnight Oil, Metallica or Faith No More albums.

• 1978: Jeff Wayne, "The War of the Worlds"
• 1979: Pink Floyd, "The Wall"
• 1980: [Disqualified]
• 1981: Midnight Oil, "Place Without a Postcard"
• 1982: Midnight Oil, "10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1"
• 1983: Metallica, "Kill 'Em All"
• 1984: Metallica, "Ride The Lightning"
• 1985: Faith No More, "We Care A Lot"
• 1986: Metallica, "Master Of Puppets"
• 1987: Faith No More, "Introduce Yourself"
• 1988: Metallica, "...And Justice For All"
• 1989: Faith No More, "The Real Thing"

To be honest, "Place Without a Postcard", "We Care A Lot" and "Kill 'Em All" probably would never have hit this list if it wasn't for the fact they were in such short lists ("Kill 'Em All" is the only album from 1983 that I own).

I do however solidly stand by "Introduce Yourself", "10,9,8..." and "Master Of Puppets" as the best albums of their years.

The only non-compilation album I have released in 1980 is Rush's "Permanent Waves" and I only like one song on that album ("Jacob's Ladder") so I disqualified the year.