Every calendar year since 2017, the year my son Aiden was born, I've selected an album that was released that year and set it aside. The idea being that when he comes "of age" (maybe 16, 18 or 21) I'll give him the time capsule boxset and say "son, this is your musical life". He'll probably roll his eyes embarrassed.
The selection criteria will likely evolve. At the moment it's some sort of balance between my favourite album of the year and a record that (in my view) encapsulates the mood of the time - both mine and the world at large.
Offline this list is documented in a little scrapbook I keep, alongside shit art he occasionally brings home from daycare, a list of sporting matches we attend together and miscellaneous other things I feel serve as an accurate document of his/our life.
Alongside that physical record it feels appropriate to document the selections here as well, both for back-up and to provide some surrounding (editable!) context for each pick.
2021: Glow On by Turnstile
2020: ??? (draft lost)
2019: Thrashing Thru The Passion by The Hold Steady
Seven deep and they deliver maybe/imho their best yet. Prob not, but Daddy needs to include one HS album in this collection. Thank me later son.
2018: How To Socialise & Make Friends by Camp Cope
Keys-in-a-fist frustration meets reflective mourning meets twenty-something angst in a perfect blend of raw pop-punk and the balance of female pride/pain in 2018.
2017: Damn by Kendrick Lamar
Reckon I'll be updating this little paragraph every year for the next twenty or so. Herein the 2019 version. Son, this is the bloke that evolved rap music beyond everything your dad thought it could ever be, and in under an hour reduced all that junk that your dad grew up blasting on his shitty Sanyo hand-me-down stereo (equaliser settings on point though!) as mere nostalgic currency.
Note: this is an evolving post, updated periodically.