The 100 Best Albums of the 21st Century (so far)

Hello and welcome to potentially the biggest personal project I have ever undertaken.

The 21st Century is currently seeing off its 25th year, marking a whole quarter of the 2000s already. And since life is only moving faster by the year (thanks, time dilation 👍) what better opportunity will I have to look back at the entire catalogue of music from this century so far than right now? And even better, what better chance will I get to try and rank the absolute best of it all (in my humble opinion) in one of my standard lists? Right?!?! Well whether you wanted this or not, it’s here. So…yeah.

For those who follow my Best 50 Albums of the Year series (including my first-ever ranked list, The 50 Best Albums of the 2010s, written five years ago), this list won’t strictly follow the canon established in those rankings. You may notice some inconsistencies because this list tries to span a full 25 years of the musical zeitgeist. Therefore, I’ve decided it must more heavily consider the generational impact (or in more recent cases, predicted impact) of the selected albums.

There are music artists and personalities of the 21st Century who had a huge impact on recent popular culture, but more so with their iconic personas or memorable moments outside of recorded music than with any one particular album they released. So, I will not include those who I view haven’t created enough of an impact specifically with the format in question. Plus, 100 albums is a lot, but did you know that there are actually more albums than that? So some you love might not feature here…soz.

Finally, as much as I’d love to add the entire discographies of some of my favourite artists, I’ll be limiting the number of albums per artist in this list to a measly two (except for one artist I couldn’t resist). That’s probably for the benefit of everyone.

Anyway. Onwards:

100. Norman Fucking Rockwell! — Lana Del Rey (2019)

Sorry B2D fans, Lana’s best era has been the last five years, and Lana’s best album is Norman Fucking Rockwell!.

NFR was the first time Lana truly showed that she had chops, imo. The songwriting is magnificent, she really lets loose with her vocals and steers clear of the deeper, more understated delivery that made her early work less affecting. Plus, the production is varied with lovely chord progressions and more surprising song structures throughout.

On NFR, Lana’s performances are deeply vocative and the emotion she displays sticks hard. It just seems that everything clicked here, and she certainly realised that herself as her following releases, which include 2023’s brilliant Did you know there’s a tunnel…, played into this approach with continued excellence.

99. Viva La Vida — Coldplay (2008)

A somewhat obligatory inclusion of Coldplay here, but I can’t say I don’t enjoy the hell out of this record. Nostalgia of long road trips to Newcastle in 2008 likely bump it into inclusion for this list, but to this day there are some undeniable bangers on this.

It’s Coldplay’s best studio album, and it’s their last before their career took a very different turn.

98. The Argument — Fugazi (2001)

What an insane swansong. Rarely do you see a band bow out with as commanding and authoritative a final statement as The Argument.

Fugazi closed their unwaveringly consistent career with a hard-hitting and expansive effort that collated all of the experimentation they’d dabbled with in previous albums, and then took that a notch further, exploring even further out and tapping into adjacent indie and art rock to add dynamism and narrative colour to their final mark in the sand.

97. Song For Our Daughter — Laura Marling (2020)

Marling’s rawest and most heartfelt record was one of the biggest treasures during such an uncertain time. Its release in April 2020 made it the perfect accompaniment to a beautiful Spring and the comfort its songs provided allowed for a deep well of solace.

Her previous albums all largely had more instrumentation, were more upbeat and leaned more heavily into the rocker side of folk. But Marling completely stripped those elements back for this record to let us gaze upon her songwriting in all its glory. And what an experience it delivered. An absolutely enchanting record.

96. Speak for Yourself — Imogen Heap

The indietronica artists’ artist that is Imogen Heap enjoys taking her time. We don’t get many full solo albums from her, but if that means every now and then we get another wonderous, other-worldly left-field pop album to cherish forever then so the hell be it.

On Speak for Yourself, the album many people would regard is the most notable of her lasting legacy, she perfectly crafts a small, bedroom-sized world to put on show to the entire world. Her quirky delivery, vocoder flirtations and spicy bubblegum electronica all blend perfectly to present a digital, futuristic art piece that sounds like what a robot would create once it discovers true sentience. It’s a distinct product of one of the most creative brains in the underground pop world.

You’ll all know the track Hide and Seek when you hear it too 😉

95. Miss E…So Addictive — Missy Elliot (2001)

Miss E… was a landmark album. It became the central star to which certain genres that previously floated nearby finally aligned together.

Timbaland’s visionary production brought in influences that had seldom been used in popular R&B music at the time (most notably some Indian-inflected instrumentation in the groundbreaking hit Get Ur Freak On), and Missy’s confident, assertive, often sexually assured performances throughout helped to empower a generation of women in hip-hop.

It’s not always appreciated as a vastly successful release in the surroundings of far more commercially popular releases, but it certainly influenced a shedload of them.

94. Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You — Big Thief (2022)

You won’t find a group of musicians having much more fun than this beautiful scattergun of a record from Big Thief.

Powered by one of the world’s best living songwriters, Adrianne Lenker, and one of the most intriguing guitarists in Buck Meek, they were already a household name for previously wondrous releases like Capacity and U.F.O.F. So, while I already knew what the band were capable of, nothing could prepare me for such an explosion of passion, experimentation and togetherness that Dragon… had to offer.

It’s a real pick-and-mix of lovely folk and rock collaborations between some extremely close friends. Just hit play and save your faves!

93. Joy As An Act Of Resistance — IDLES (2018)

The angry Bristolians have been gracing our screens and stages for quite a few years now, releasing records at a strong pace and always sticking up for the right side of history (somewhat performatively at times but hey, gotta market yourself). And while their debut Brutalism had all the workings of what makes IDLES great, their second album Joy As An Act Of Resistance is what put them on the map.

Featuring crunchy riffs, snare-heavy punk drumming and a gruff, detuned Joe Talbot ranting about life’s dickheads and giving racists a dressdown, Joy… hit extremely hard for many of us in a post-Brexit, pre-Covid, United Kingdom. It felt like an immediate tool to bring like-minded people together, given how mainstream it ended up becoming.

And while there have been questions about IDLES’ methods of sticking up for social justice over the years (partly because they need to balance superlative statements with being relatively BBC-friendly), the ends in their case always justify the means, in my view. Plus, they’re just great fucking fun to listen to and enjoy live with fellow comrades. Long live ‘em.

92. Have You In My Wilderness — Julia Holter (2015)

Another record you can file under ‘so pretty it’s just there to be gawked at’, Julia Holter stripped back her eclectic instrumentation for a string-heavy acoustic dream-pop sensation on Have You In My Wilderness.

Her breathy voice blends perfectly with the album’s whispy orchestration to make this album feel like the crisp breeze you’d find on a misty early Spring morning on a deserted coastal landscape. The songs float by like fleeting birds returning from the sea, dragging ethereal whispers along with them like prayers from a humanless ether that have been encrypted by the elements.

I don’t know what the hell possessed me to just write that, but I guess those are the words that describe the feeling I get from this thing.

91. No Shape — Perfume Genius (2017)

Perfume Genius’ Mike Hadreas has developed an incredibly unique sound to his music that I can only really liken stylistically to that of Phil Elverum.

While his earlier, more acoustic and stripped-back releases resembled more of a Sufjan/Elliot Smith aesthetic, No Shape (and its predecessor Too Bright) retains his delicate, vulnerable vocal delivery but partners it with huge, crisp walls of synthstrumentation that make him potentially sound more like an angel than any other musician does during its euphoric highs.

No Shape is my favourite example of this beautiful dichotomy of approaches Hadreas has nailed down and branded to him. Otherside, Wreath, Slip Away and Just Like Love are just absolutely spellbinding.

90. The Fire This Time — Various Artists (2002)

A brooding experimental venture that perfectly encapsulates the specific feeling many had while witnessing the Gulf War of Iraq in the early ’90s, The Fire This Time made use of a burgeoning scene of underground dance music producers (Orbital, Soma, Aphex Twin and many more) to provide a riveting backdrop to an essential narrative recollection of the horrors western political establishments took part in during one of the most prominent wars of the late 20th Century.

For this to come out just one year prior to the next western invasion of Iraq (and further involvement from the US/UK in the Middle East), it has become a premonitory and stark representation of these nations’ political and economic obsession with exerting control and influence in that region through a series of devastating military exploits. We won’t forget what they did (and what continue to exercise in that region particularly), and this album is a reminder of what our political establishment is capable of for very little reason other than symbolic national interest.

89. Flower Boy — Tyler, the Creator (2017)

Tyler had a bit of a rocky start to his solo career before Flower Boy. His discography beforehand had a mixed reception in general, but at the time he really went hard on edgy lyrics that would have even felt outdated during peak Slim season. There are so many ways to be abrasive and vulgar, and many ways to cultivate an audience around that, without being a dickhead about it. And Tyler eventually learned that lesson in the lead-up to Flower Boy.

On this album, everything just clicked. The songs were full, intricately produced and they flowed together better than any of his track listings had before. He let the guard of his historically supra-masculine persona down and invested some real time in exploring more vulnerable parts of his psyche. He also used the album as a chance to communicate his sexuality more honestly, which was an important step for some fans of his older work who enjoyed the lyrical content without question.

88. folklore — Taylor Swift (2020)

This is the obligatory placement for Taylor Swift in my ‘The Best 100 Albums of the 21st Century (so far)’ article.

In all seriousness, the inclusion for most in this list would probably be 1989, but that album just doesn’t click with me as much as her folklore / evermore era. Folklore was the first time I’d fully enjoyed an album produced by the Taylor Swift Industrial Complex™️ — exile (feat. Bon Iver), betty, my tears ricochet and others showed a side to her songwriting that I hadn’t heard before, and I’ve always been partial a folky tinge so the sound was just further up my street.

It would please me greatly to hear a crop of T-Swiz songs that have taken this amount of care once again.

87. ( ) — Sigur Rós (2002)

The mythical Icelandic trio are a staple of post-rock, and their music has been heard in more contexts than many of the world’s top composers could even dream of. And ( ) (or, Svigaplatan, which means ‘The Bracket Album’) is one of the band’s more understated, but also staggeringly beautiful soundscapes they’ve ever put to record.

It doesn’t reach the dramatic highs of their opus, Ágætis byrjun, and it didn’t enjoy as much commercial success as Takk… three years later, but in recent years it has grown on post-rock fans so much that it’s just as prominent a member of the conversations about their best work. It’s absolutely as emotionally envigorating, and just as serene and intricately performed as their maximum efforts. A wonderful accompaniment to a sombre mood.

86. I Trawl The Megahertz — Prefab Sprout (2003)

An LP of two halves, from a band of two halves with a career of two halves.

I can’t claim to be a huge Prefab Sprout fan — their music of the ‘80s/90s hasn’t quite struck me, at least. But when leading member Paddy McAloon reclaimed the band name in 2003 for a wildly different piece of music to anything the band had ever produced before, they arguably turned more heads than at any other time in their career.

I Trawl The Megahertz is an album that is primarily a song, accompanied by a number of supporting smaller songs. The front-and-centrepiece title track is a 22-minute mythical epic that describes exactly what the name says. On it, we’re transported to the frequency waves that host the world’s wide-ranging audio media. Snippets from all areas of the globe crop up and disappear, as a backdrop of heavily orchestrated, meditative jazz rock guides us across the vast digital foundations of sonic technology, searching for the next whimsical soundbite after the next.

It’s another truly unique piece of work that can only be best understood by playing the damn thing. So go do that pls xxxx

85. Relationship of Command — At The Drive-In (2000)

One of the definitive modern post-hardcore albums, Relationship of Command is a punchy, high-energy, throat-wrenching lament of society’s ills. It’s a gleaming example of a genre that came into its own at the turn of the 21st century, where the rough-around-the-edges sound to hardcore finally found a more conceptual footing through bands like At The Drive In and Fugazi.

This album will take you on a phenomenal ride through crashing guitar riffs, manic screeches that sound like David Byrne if he emerged from the seventh circle of hell, and addictive hooks that get you joining in on the impassioned deconstructing of the establishment.

84. The Black Parade — My Chemical Romance (2006)

The greatest pop punk album that never was actually very pop punk, the mountainous rock opera The Black Parade by My Chem is a foundational album for all people in the Scene, Emo and Alt worlds. It’s basically a mecca for anyone who wore black as a teenager.

Of course, there are so many artists and albums from a similar time with as dedicated a following, but it’s hard to argue there is a more universally loved musical representation of the hormonal angst many of us experienced while this music was in its purple patch.

It’s punchy, grandiose, insanely passionate and, most of all, it’s insanely well performed by Gerard Way. He’s one of the most underappreciated front performers of any band this century. If you want to find out why, give The Black Parade a listen.

83. Mama’s Gun — Erykah Badu (2000)

With such an abundant neo-soul output at the turn of the century, it comes as no surprise that Mama’s Gun should find itself on a list such as this.

While Badu had already blown people away with her debut Baduizm, it was Mama’s Gun where her artistry and consistency was tested, yet to a wildly successful and lasting result. Released under Motown Records, all over this LP are some of the most celebrated R&B songs of the last couple of decades (think Didn’t Cha Know and Bag Lady), supported by contributors that were either legends at the time (Roy Ayers) or were hugely well-established musicians in the hip hop and R&B scenes (Questlove, D’Angelo, Common).

It’s a blissful experience throughout, with gorgeous harmonies and luscious vocals that could melt steel. It’s a cornerstone of the neo-soul era.

82. Merriweather Post Pavilion — Animal Collective (2009)

AnCo are one of those most wildly popular bands to have rarely been heard of outside of a particular scene. When I first dove into their records in around 2015 I was shocked to learn how much ground they had already covered without me noticing it, and I’m convinced it’s because they seem to gleefully gatekeep themselves into the warm embraces of the indie scene and don’t ask for much else.

The band have a number of highly-praised releases under their belts all the way back to their debut, and they absolutely dominated the psychedelic pop scene all throughout the noughties. During this time, they progressively released impressive album after impressive album every couple of years, each time one-upping themselves until the apex that was Merriweather. Their first without a regular guitar player, it plunges you so deeply into its saccharinely sweet, synth-heavy neo-psychedelic pop world that it’s impossible to scrape off the sugar afterwards.

Constant harmonies (a trademark), reverb-washed wacky vocals (also a trademark), progressive builds (another trademark) and track after track of bombastic, drum-heavy epics absolutely served as the narrative peak of the insane decade this band had.

81. Run the Jewels 4 — Run the Jewels (2020)

I feel like I could’ve chosen between RTJ2, 3 or 4 for this list, as Killer Mike & El-P are just so goddamn consistently awesome at delivering wall-to-wall, ‘we own this, shut the fuck up’ braggadocious heat song after song, album after album. Fittingly for this list though, I’ve decided to opt for my Album of 2020, Run The Jewels 4.

I won’t go into huge amounts of detail here as my review in 2020 describes the occasion of this album far better than my 2024 brain could. But in addition to another set of insane bangers that I still go back to regularly, it was a timely and important release to supplement the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement. And it will long be remembered as a key art piece that emerged during that moment. Man, I can’t fucking wait for RTJ5.

80. Lonerism — Tame Impala (2012)

There aren’t many more consistent auteurs out there than Kevin Parker. His dedication to extrapolating his thoughts into ideas, then into songs, then across every instrument, then all together into recorded music, mixed perfectly and sounding as clean & crisp as it always does, basically all by himself, is a regularly referenced but still undeniably impressive talent. And it excites me deeply that he, for the most part, applies that insane skillset towards psych.

After his breakout album Innerspeaker (an album I also enjoy but sadly am far less familiar with), Lonerism was thought to be an early opus for Kevin. And it’s no wonder why. Absolute behemoths of modern psych rock are strewn across this thing — Apocalypse Dreams, Mind Mischief, Why Won’t They Talk To Me?, Feels Like We Only Go Backwards and Elephant all grace its tracklist, making it one of the best examples of rock music in the 21st Century, period.

79. Writing of Blues and Yellows — Billie Marten (2016)

One of my most treasured records from a period of my life where much of the music I listened to has just stuck with me to this day. Marten has been a master songwriter since her teenage years, and I will never stop banging the drum about her.

I must have spent so many hours listening to this at the time that even now, even if I go a year without hearing it, every single note and blemish will register in my head by the second. This is just a magnificent feat for a 17-year-old to achieve. Brava.

78. Jane Doe — Converge (2001)

I find it hard to identify the hardcore influences of more recent Metalcore albums (likely because the genre has been evolving for a couple of decades now), but my god do I hear the original intention in Jane Doe.

It’s one of the truest meetings of hardcore and metal you’ll find, it’s and therefore a bastion of the reason this sub-genre exists. It hones the same searingly lo-fi, rough-and-ready sound into a beast of its own by taking learnings from the original metalcore releases ten or so years beforehand and merging them with more technical mathcore riffs to offer something truly groundbreaking.

This album came out while nu-metal was booming, if that helps you understand the solace it provided to many heavy music fans who, I guess, just wanted a bit more edge.

77. SATURATION I, II and III– BROCKHAMPTON (2017)

I’ve grouped three albums in this one but for very very good reason. It’s effectively a triple album, anyway.

While BROCKHAMPTON’s SATURATION trilogy was a ‘you had to be there’ moment, I genuinely believe that if you haven’t listened to them before, and you decide to dive into all three albums and watch the attached documentary they released alongside III, you can relive the special moment in time that was the six-month period between Summer-Winter 2017.

I did just that slightly later than some at the start of 2018 (granted, the series was still fresh in the zeitgeist and the band were all still active at the time), and I became absolutely obsessed with them. I played the albums almost every day for months; I got to know all of the members and their individual talents & quirks; I became invested in all of the intense experimentation they were sharing with fans on a regular basis. The energy from the trilogy was just so raw, prolific and serendipitous that you couldn’t help but want to vicariously experience their lives during that moment.

Excellent rapping, passionate collaboration and a bohemian, inclusive approach to art created the perfect environment for some of the most enjoyable music of the 2010s on SATURATION I, II and III.

76. Geodaddi — Boards of Canada (2002)

The enigmatic Scottish twosome had already firmly set themselves at the forefront of the IDM wave with the 1998 album, Music Has The Right To Children. And Geodaddi was more of a victory lap than anything else. It’s a fucking awesome pair of producers doubling down on what they’re capable of.

The texture of this album is somewhat of a marvel. Quite understandably, not many music albums feel very 3D. But the way BoC warp sounds and samples into very prominent and extremely tactile elements on each track, giving an onomatopoeic effect that completely enshrouds you in their innovative creation, is just a completely mesmerising undertaking.

It’s puzzling, it’s hard to make out, and it sounds exactly like the damn cover art. AND it has the theme song to Salad Fingers on it. What the hell is there to love move?

75. Fever — Kylie Minogue (2001)

I know what type of fever this is…Disco Fever amirite HAHAHAHAHAHA yeah WOOOOOOOO! 🕺 🪩 💃 🪩 🕺 🪩 💃 🪩🕺 🪩 💃 🪩🕺 🪩 💃 🪩

Well it’s more nu-disco to be exact 🤓 but my gOD this is so much fun. In fact, doing my homework for this list meant getting the privilege to listen to Fever’s second track, Love At First Sight, for what must have been the first time in years, and I’m so glad to say that it’s one of the best pop songs ever written, period. And then right after that on the tracklist…Can’t Get You out of My Head??? I mean seriously???

While Kylie had released several albums before this one, I think it’s hard to deny that this is her best work. This is just pure Y2K Pop Goes The Millennium goodness, with some of the best bops of the 2000s just casually sitting there. What a masterpiece, Kylie, brava 👏

74. Everything At The End of Time (Compilation) — The Caretaker (2016–2019)

This is a lot. Really a lot.

While it’s technically a compilation of six albums, I couldn’t let the last 25 years go by without mentioning Everything At The End of Time — an attempt to examine the debilitating consciousness and cognitive function of dementia.

The Caretaker’s James Leyland Kirby has made a name for himself for repurposing old, nostalgic trad and ballroom jazz numbers into audial representations of fading memory (bit niche, I know), and his opus ended up being the furthest he had ever delved into that topic, to the point where he essentially ‘gave’ his own musical project, The Caretaker that is, dementia.

It follows the recognised ‘stages’ of the disease, as it gradually loops, warps and distorts each album further and further until the listening experience becomes all but incomprehensible — much like the unfortunate cognitive decline of those who suffer from the devastating illness. It’s a big artistic investment, but one that offers a very unique perspective on a widely under-understood area of human experience.

73. False Lankum — Lankum (2023)

The only reason this wasn’t my favourite album of 2023 was because Sufjan had released his best album eight years the same year. Lankum are well known for taking some of the most beloved Irish folk songs and absolutely obliterating them into long, brooding, strung-out renditions. It’s a hypnotic sound that creates an intensely disarming atmosphere.

And False Lankum was Lankum’s best effort at this yet. From the apocalyptic opener Go Dig My Grave to the odyssey of The New York Trader, to the serene Clear Away in the Morning and stripped-back Lord Abore and Mary Flynn, the band takes you on a half-meditative, half-sinister journey through the Upside Down of Irish Folk. I can guarantee you won’t be the same afterwards.

72. Minecraft — Volume Alpha — C418 (2011)

Sorry, it’s just the best video game soundtrack of the 21st Century.

71. Lateralus — TOOL (2001)

The thinking man’s metal band never once again topped the heights it reached with Lateralus — a mathematical deconstruction of metal and song composition down to its very bones.

On this mind-bending album, frontrunner Maynard James Keenan attempted to tap into what some people consider the fundamentals of western academia (Latinate scripture, the Fibonacci sequence, etc.) to create compositions, time signatures and rhythms that are meant to ‘make sense’ to us innately. And while that rightfully sounds a little far-fetched (and hyper-fixated on a small subsection of human academic output), the result was still an insanely detailed, cinematic tour-de-force that is a marvel to behold at times.

Despite its complicated setup, everything is also very tightly performed and expertly executed, with perfect mastering and dynamic sound that will just explode in your headphones. It’s just shockingly good.

70. Have One On Me — Joanna Newsom (2010)

The inevitable output of a musical genius experiencing a particularly prolific purple patch, Have One On Me almost feels like a victory lap. After doing more than most musicians ever could with Ys (more on that later), Newsom doubled down — literally — with a two-hour double album of some of the most beautifully whimsical and ethereal folk songs of the century.

It’s hard not to feel intimidated by it. Her produce just knew no bounds. It’s just hit after hit of stunning wonder to the point that you feel like you’re drowning in the most intoxicatingly addictive organic substance in existence. How is it possible for something like this to even…happen?

69. Aaliyah — Aaliyah (2001)

RIP Aaliyah ❤️

The immense young talent stood atop the huge wave of contemporary R&B at the turn of the 21st century, and she released this self-titled opus just one month before she tragically died in a plane crash after wrapping a music video shoot in the Bahamas, aged just 22. Thankfully, her legacy was immediately felt, and is still felt in full force today, as this album has played a huge part in her posthumous success.

Aaliyah the album is a diverse platter of utterly gorgeous R&B tracks, including Timbaland production that helped to move the needle forward for the genre, drawing on the wide-ranging gamut of musical influences that gave contemporary R&B its name. Her voice is a seductive velvety yoghurt that you feel abject privilege to be able to try, and the overall feeling of this album is still one of complete joy, even when acknowledging the devastating context that followed it.

68. Cosmogramma — Flying Lotus (2010)

The pioneer of Wonky. The man leading the modern IDM charge. The co-founder of Brainfeeder, one of the best modern music labels. The glitch-hop maestro, Flying Lotus, has released numerous innovative albums in the 21st century. But it’s his second official full-length release, Cosmogramma, that blows my mind slightly more than his other works.

It’s another one of those purely confusing listening experiences where all you get are vignettes of ideas and barely-developed constructs, but eventually you understand that the whole thing is the idea and construct. FlyLo uses an insanely diverse array of instrumentation and soundscapes to paint an almost tropical tint onto his IDM here, which even muddies the listening environment that you try to place yourself in with this thing.

It’s just a one-of-a-kind listen. It’s one of those albums where you literally have no clue as to how one person could pluck this out of their brain and place, ordered, into a packaged form that can be experienced in repetition. There are infinite dimensions to his genius, and it’s a privilege to even be granted access to a sliver of it like Cosmogramma.

67. Daughter of Darkness — Natural Snow Buildings (2009)

I’m so glad I get to write about this. If you know my taste fairly well, you’re gonna know how partial I am to the unsettling and fear-inducing side of art. Well, well, well, doesn’t this thing have it in droves?

I hadn’t heard much free folk before Natural Snow Buildings. It turns out I was a sleeper agent for it, though, because when I first heard Daughter of Darkness — seven hours of sinister, droning, neo-medieval folk music with many tracks inside lasting for over 40 minutes — I’d found my new favourite thing. And NSB’s discography didn’t disappoint in the subsequent deep dive either.

Daughter of Darkness, though, remains their best work in my view. It’s the most challenging in parts, not least because of its runtime, but it also goes the furthest in scratching that itch for creepiness I so desperately crave. It sounds like the musical score you would write to follow Nosferatu through his devious exploits. Man I fucking love it.

66. 21 — Adele (2011)

It’s been 13 years since Adele’s 21 and we all still remember its release like it was yesterday. It feels like its songs have only recently started to fade from the public consciousness, and that’s only because she’s already entered her Streisand-esque ‘residency’ phase. And while I don’t view that to be an early retirement by any means, this phase is just proof that she’s already been there and done it. And this album is the reason why.

Rolling in the Deep. Set Fire to the Rain. Someone Like You. Turning Tables. Rumour Has It. Just listing these songs is evidence enough that the mark she left on the 2010s was not just permanent, but indestructible. With 21, Adele helped to fill some of the space in our hearts created by Amy’s passing that same year. You’d be a fool to think they couldn’t coexist, but many were able to find some much-needed solace in Adele during such a stage of cultural grief.

65. Original Pirate Material — The Streets (2002)

A beautifully unique release that’s long burst past ‘cult status’ territory, Original Pirate Material is an enlightening window into the goings-on of a twenty-something dude just trying to have a good time.

It masterfully weaves together two-step, US-influenced hip hop and UK garage amongst frontman Mike Skinner’s nonchalant, mostly spoken-word but highly animated delivery, as he waxes lyrical about interpersonal exchanges and interactions with authorities as he seeks simple enjoyment and vibrant connections across London. It’s hilarious, insightful, and visual — you can so easily picture the entire environment the album’s protagonist is navigating and you feel like all the people he comes across are just like some you know in real life.

Skinner struck gold with this format, and he has rightfully carved a very singular reputation for his project’s approach.

64. Terrifyer — Pig Destroyer (2004)

This list needed a bit of grindcore. So how convenient that there’s a grindcore album worthy of the list?! Pig Destroyer’s manic, visceral, gut-wrenching album, Terrifyer, feels so much fun being so juxtaposed with some of the surrounding albums in this list, but that’s just the undeniable beauty of music expression and the various forms it can take.

This album is, predictably, completely unpredictable. It’s like jazz, to be completely honest — it feels like no single performing musician knows what’s ahead of them, but they’re so in sync with each other in their spontaneity that they’re all able to follow the exact same path, together, at the exact same pace. Vocalist J.R. Hayes sounds absolutely deranged, like he himself is helplessly stuck in the endless torturous loop of hysterical instrumentation we’re also subject to.

It’s just an all-senses-harmed type of deal. And since it’s grindcore it’s over before you can even figure out what the fuck is going on. Love it.

63. The Blueprint — Jay-Z (2001)

A titan of East Coast hip hop, Jay-Z represented the new wave of rap for the 21st Century in the post-’90s feud era. While this was a few years after Biggie and Tupac’s historic beef ended in the separate deaths of the both of them, there wasn’t pure peace for Jay, as The Blueprint came at the time Jay and Nas, another Queens native, were exchanging regular (although much less inflammatory and IRL) disses in their work.

But this one-upmanship just excelled Jay’s knack for creating true blue, aspirational and inspiring music for the masses, with notable production credits from the usual suspects of this period, Kanye and Timbaland. The commercial success that rappers like Jay then drove across mainstream media helped to push hip hop even further into the zeitgeist, and eventually (once a few more business ventures came into the fold) even made Jay-Z the first hip hop billionaire.

62. Promises — Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders, London Symphony Orchestra (2021)

For all the odd shit I like, I’ve realised that not many of that ilk are very unassuming or subtle — the majority of them are as extroverted as they are odd; a style of peacocking that can admittedly act as a bit of a barrier to entry at times.

But while I’d still file it under ‘odd’, Promises couldn’t be less extroverted if it tried. It’s a delicate baby bird figuring out its place in the world over a 46-minute runtime. Gradual builds still lead to euphoric highs, but the highs are all colour with no tangible weight. It’s a thing that happens in front of you for you to gaze open-mouthed at, rather than get stuck into.

An insane collaborative effort, Promises brings together revered producer Floating Points, the late free jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, and the one and only London Symphony Orchestra for a meticulously crafted and utterly riveting musical venture. There is truly nothing quite like it.

61. Virgins — Tim Hecker (2013)

Tim Hecker has always struck such a unique tone with his ambient music. His use of fuzzy distortion, a la The Disintegration Loops or The Caretaker, adds a spice to his compositions that leave you stranded somewhere between unconsciousness and lucidity, constantly trying to recognise your surroundings but never quite knowing what’s right in front of you.

Virgins retains that trademark to a significant degree — each time clarity emerges ahead, it is soon obstructed by more confusion and disorientation. Yet this time, Hecker wants you to feel those ambiguous surroundings. You can’t interact with them but they can affect you — jagged staccato piano lines stab you repeatedly, walls of deep bass overwhelm your every sense, and unresolved synth passages leave you wanting.

It’s a stark reminder that despite ambient music’s nominative determinism, it can be just as visceral as genres with far more moving parts.

60. WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? — Billie Eilish (2019)

This album is so good that it’s the only album ever to motivate me enough to write a music-related article for my Medium blog outside of an album ranking. I just decided to rank its track listing instead. 🤦‍♂️.

Billie is obviously one of the biggest stars of the current era, having initially emerged onto the scene as a kid at the latter end of the 2010s. But even alongside some of her more recent albums, which have been some of the most commercially successful releases of the 2020s, it is her 2019 debut that still takes the cake, in my view.

It has the best roster of absolute bangers and gut-wrenching ballads, all with the iconic ghostly sound that Billie crafted before a young audience that had never really heard popular music like it beforehand. Along with her brother FINNEAS, she truly helped pave the way for more care and more intricate design towards modern pop music. She proved you can slip off the boilerplate and still be the biggest artist in the world. And damn I am I grateful for that.

59. Plastic Beach — Gorillaz (2010)

The colossally ambitious, tremendously collaborative third album from this beloved virtual group was all but confirmation that Damon Albarn is a benevolent musical deity.

On Plastic Beach, Gorillaz basically became the bandleader of an entire music scene. This album’s ‘features’ don’t really feel like album features, because by this point in Gorillaz’ discography, almost every single song on the album instead feels like part of a compilation at which Albarn & co were at the core.

To facilitate this, they leant even harder into the hip hop scene, welcoming in bonafide names like Mos Def, Snoop Dogg, De La Soul and Kano, and their rockier songs were supported by some of the most well-established musicians in the scene (think Lou Reed, Gruff Rhys and Mark E. Smith).

For Albarn to then funnel all of this talent through an environmental concept around our species’ incessant unsustainable overconsumption, and its impact on our fellow species’ ecologies, was a genius tactic to get as wide an audience as possible considering the message he wanted to convey.

58. Drukqs — Aphex Twin (2001)

One of the most engrossing producers in music produced one of the most interesting musics of his career with the fleeting, darting, woodchipper of a record that is Drukqs. Similarly to his compatriots like Boards of Canada, Squarepusher and Burial, Aphex has always guaranteed us the undefinable and indescribable.

Ideas start, temporarily flourish and are then whisked away for the next shiny thing quicker than you can process the preceding one. Periods of liminal bliss are interrupted by scattered, abrasive percussion and you’ve just got to accept it. You can’t take any moment for granted, you must always stay on your toes. And that tension between what you want and what you get is the lifeblood that powers this two-hour record forward.

57. good kid, m.A.A.d city — Kendrick Lamar (2012)

The GOAT. What more is there to say about this man? He’s simply one of the most brilliant minds of the 21st Century. For a narrative as riveting, detailed and lasting as good kid, m.A.A.d city to come out of a mere 25-year-old at the time is impressive enough, but to do so via some of the most successful rap songs of the 2010s just proved how talented and seminal this man not only was to become, but already was.

He turned our heads towards his misunderstood and misrepresented hometown and, by proxy, all other similar neighbourhoods that are collectively using joy, entrepreneurship and art to fight back against the lack of governmental and societal support they receive, and put us in the shoes of a Black kid who never stopped striving for acceptance and greatness in those conditions.

Kendrick is a once-in-a-lifetime artist, and GKMC will be forever recognised as his first permanent mark on our planet’s contribution to the universe.

56. James Blake — James Blake (2011)

It’s always worth making the point when the topic comes up — there are two types of dubstep. And James Blake shone a blinding light on its original form (before the loud, abrasive and pretty basic ‘brostep’ emerged at the turn of the 2010s), in a definitively minimal appreciation of what used to be regarded as one of music’s more ‘quiet’ genres.

On his self-titled debut, Blake uses the empty spaces between his chords like chords themselves. He generates gorgeous grooves that just about hit where they need to — the just being key as it’s the patient edging of the groove that makes OG dubstep so great — and impresses hugely with an absolutely angelic voice that strikes sheer beauty in even the darkest of his soundscapes.

And this was only his debut. He, of course, then went on to become one of the most prominent artist’s artists of the last ten years. And his masterful craft just supports that notion wholeheartedly.

55. The Marshall Mathers LP — Eminem (2000)

Like many of the biggest rappers of the 2000s, ‘Nem initially emerged at the end of the ’90s as part of the cohort that took the mainstream mantle and filled the gap left by the East vs West feud dying down (due to equal parts the deaths of Biggie & Tupac and the rising vested interest to make rap music more radio-friendly). But it was his second album released in 2000, The Marshall Mathers LP, that cemented him as one of the most prominent MCs in hip hop.

Eminem always had the gift, and this album was really where he channelled it on all cylinders. On this one album, we have Stan, The Way I Am, The Real Slim Shady and Under The Influence — some of the most recognisable rap songs of the last few decades. He shocked (pearl-clutching, white) audiences with his provocative content, which only fuelled the fire beneath him and made him a bigger star. And as much as he probably won’t stand by some of his lyrical decisions to this day, it helped to create one of the strongest personal brands in music. So I’m sure he doesn’t regret much.

54. Songs for the Deaf — Queens of the Stone Age (2002)

A true blue pedal-to-the-metal rock record masterminded by a true blue pedal-to-the-metal rock band.

The group’s leader Josh Homme isn’t much of a role model, but his undoubted talent for arranging hard-hitting, face-scrunching earworms has made him one of the most revered rock personalities in the last 30 years. And while his other works of genius (…Like Clockwork and Rated R in particular) also enjoy near-undivided praise, it’s Songs for the Deaf — featuring none other than Dave Grohl on drums — that represents the apex of the band’s chops.

It’s some of the most recognisable Y2K-era headbangers intriguingly inter-spliced with Spanish-speaking radio continuation segments, just to provide that extra bit of flair. Once it starts, it won’t stop yeeting you around across a thumping dirt road until you end up dazed and confused in no man’s land. Idioms are fun.

53. The College Dropout — Kanye West (2004)

Not only couldn’t I bring myself to write about anything Kanye has released in recent memory for fear of starting a discourse about his very evident public meltdown, I actually do think his debut, The College Dropout, is his best album.

While he went on to drive much more innovation in mainstream hip hop with his later releases, and all but solely shifted the musical direction of hip hop multiple times throughout the late 2000s and 2010s, I think that The College Dropout is his most impressive offering in isolation, as it was his first official statement in front of the microphone, rather than the mixing deck as a producer (which he was already an immensely sought-after asset for).

And what a statement it was. It’s proof that he knew the formula from the outset. It practically invented Chipmunk Soul (sampling high pitch, sped-up R&B snippets for the hooks), which went on to influence much of noughties hip hop production, and it immediately shot Ye to commercial success, putting him on the map for the first proper time (for listeners at least). You know the rest, warts and all.

52. And Their Refinement of the Decline — Stars Of The Lid (2007)

This century’s Music For Airports. RIP Brian McBride.

Starts Of The Lid were one of those ambient groups that always said far more than the material components of their sound ever could. The sentimentality they were capable of producing using just simple, pensive chord changes and wistful atmospherics, tied in with their descriptive song titles that intricately matched the mood of each song, creates a deep, complex template of a story within which you can then fill the gaps to craft your own deeper meaning.

Given its long runtime, it’s also the type of record that can also accompany you through times you need to knuckle down or focus, where you can tap back into the album whenever you wish but you won’t feel the need to give it your undivided attention. (Music is perfectly fine to be consumed this way, FYI.) While this is kind of the intention of ambient music in general, not many attempts at it nail both of these sides so effectively.

51. Benji — Sun Kil Moon (2014)

This one hits hard.

There were a few albums I listened to for the first time in 2015 that stuck with me a little stronger than many had beforehand. The death of a family member and the beginning of a past relationship put me in quite an emotionally opportune position to connect with music more deeply, and that short period has provided many of my favourite artists to this day as a result.

And while Sun Kil Moon isn’t up there among my favourite artists, his album Benji was an ever-present part of my life for a number of years. The raw honesty, drawled neverending ramblings, simple acoustic instrumentation and — most importantly — devastating stories about death and mortality cut insanely deep for me at the time.

The experiences he details in this record (which we can only assume are true, given how detailed they appear to be) provided some perspective for me while I was going through a similar process, and the unassuming simplicity to it meant that it didn’t demand much from me to enjoy it. All that was needed to appreciate what he had to say was an ear. And not many albums can provide such a profound effect with such intentionally rudimentary elements.

50. Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not — Arctic Monkeys (2006)

An iconic album for a myriad of reasons. Not only was it one of the pioneering albums of the garage rock / Manchester scene revival, but it was one of the first albums that effectively marketed itself on the internet as part of its release.

On Whatever…, Myspace Maverick Alex Turner turned on his charm for the very first time and introduced us to the raw, energetic, punky sound that gave the Arctic Monkeys its timeless plaudits. And while the band has moveds solidly into crooner territory in the 2020s, no one can deny the tsunami this album caused in the mid-naughts.

We all know several of the songs by heart and would probably all want to passionately yell them back at the band at a Reading Festival or Glasto again sometime in the future. The album is simply a mainstay of British culture.

49. Warm Chris — Aldous Harding

My album of 2022.

Not many artists have mastered subtlety as intricately as Aldous Harding. Her music somehow finds a perfect mid-point of minimal yet fully realised; it’s a soft brush stroke that contains a multitude of colours. And Warm Chris embodied this loose relationship with reality to a bemusing degree.

Harding’s nonsense lyrics are merely there to provide the exact right sound to complement the soft, stripped-back acoustic band playing everything so deftly that the instruments could’ve been made of clouds. The album is right there in front of you, but it’s impossible to make out. All you know is that somehow you have this comforting, fuzzy feeling inside like you’re being tended to by a ghost. It’s like I’m nice and warm and I’m a guy called Chris or something.

And this addictive experience is only Aldous’ second-best attempt at doing so, in my humble opinion…

48. IGOR — Tyler, the Creator (2019)

I’m actually pretty annoyed I haven’t had this in my regular rotation over the last few years. IGOR is just fantastic.

After impressing so much with his previous release Flower Boy (he’d garnered popularity beforehand but FB was his first widely-acclaimed album), Tyler absolutely bamboozled fans and critics alike with this fuzzy, complicated, enigmatic neo-soul record that was very much the Kid A to Flower Boy’s OK Computer.

However, unlike Kid A, it really seems that IGOR may end up being Tyler’s most popular album too. Blockbuster singles like EARFQUAKE, NEW MAGIC WAND, and ARE WE STILL FRIENDS? dominated the charts in 2019 and are still doing insane numbers to this day. It makes this album a great example that the masses are capable of expanding their tastes when it’s done right.

47. Lemonade — Beyoncé (2016)

One of the biggest critical successes of the 2010s, Bey’s Lemonade needs no introduction. It features some of her greatest-ever songs (Hold Up, Daddy Lessons and Formation, to name a few) and contains one of the most impressive rosters of collaborators put to a pop / R&B album in the 2010s.

It has features from Kendrick, The Weeknd, Jack White and James Blake, and, as per, notable production credits from many other hugely influential artists (Diplo, Ezra Koenig, Mike Will Made It), which is a testament to how much of a commanding influence Beyoncé has on the music industry. Some of her best performances and revelatory lyrics are saved for this special release — more so than ever was she uncovering vulnerabilities and parts of her personality that had rarely seen the light of day.

It’s one of the 21st century’s must-consume pieces of media. But she has one better album than it, in my opinion…

46. The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do — Fiona Apple (2012)

While Fiona hasn’t regularly released music since her initial ’90s classics, you just know that every single time she releases something new it’ll be just as legendary as everything she’s previously released. It’s such a nailed-on fact that I’ll gladly call her one of the most consistent artists of the last 30 years.

A fantastic example of this fact is her The Idler Wheel…, released in 2012. One difference you could probably point out between her earliest work and her 21st-century releases is that Fiona sits within each song a little longer than she did before. On this album, she expanded the destination her music could reach, diverting into more breaks and instrumental solos to let you immerse yourself even further into her enigmatic psyche.

Her no-filter word-tumbling is as eccentric as ever, and the catharsis of her passionate and self-empowered lyrical revelations were as strong as they had ever been, but the music just feels that much more developed on here than in her earlier work. It’s like you get everything you love but with extra toppings. She’s just a fucking boss, basically.

45. The Epic — Kamasi Washington (2015)

While Kamasi has gone on to mastermind a healthy number of grand, supersonic jazz releases over the past nine years, I believe it is his first offering that will stand the test of time.

It’s nearly three hours of huge, passionate, mindblowing compositions from a group so talented that they’d be mistaken for jazz’ Avengers, all performed at just the largest scale you can imagine and led by one of the most genius minds in music. It’s a perfect example of nominative determinism — The Epic is a simply dumbfounding feat to have achieved and it symbolises what a group of passionate and accomplished musicians can create when everything clicks.

44. Thought For Food — The Books (2002)

I’m so glad I get to write about this album — this small side quest of mine is so much fun sometimes 😎

The Books are the quintessential Folktronica band. They had an understated existence, but I can’t say I’ve had much better listens delving into a band’s discography for the first time than with these two gents.

Thought For Food was their debut album, which makes their off-kilter approach all the more impressive, as they would’ve had little idea as to how this musical effort would land. But they were somehow able to merge spoken word & field recordings with some of the best blends of acoustic and glitch I’ve ever heard.

Hearing folk music so manipulated and disjointed for the first time is initially quite a severely jarring experience, but The Books are just as quick to welcome you in and provide comfort within its soundscape too. This is just the loveliest little LP.

43. To Be Kind — Swans (2014)

A behemoth.

Listen at your own peril because you will not be the same after encountering it.

Beware its power and aggression and do not attempt to reciprocate with any aggression any your own.

If you choose to let it into your home, you shall not hold me responsible for the condition of your person, your loved ones or your belongings upon its exit two hours later.

Buckle up, compose yourself, and good luck.

42. Donuts — J Dilla (2006)

RIP, J Dilla.

Donuts is one of those absolute gems that isn’t lauded by you lot anywhere near as much as it should.

Dilla’s ability to take us on a slick, groovy, neon-lit journey via a patchwork of pre-existing material was one that can only be rivalled by a handful of highly esteemed colleagues. And there is every reason to argue he stands above them all to this day.

A bastion of instrumental hip-hop, Donuts encapsulated decades of artistry before it, and it’s now become part of that encapsulation process for modern-day hip-hop producers. How poetic that the long-forgotten plunder from the samples in a plunderphonics album will once again become culturally relevant to those inspired by the main body of work it was rediscovered for?

41. Dopethrone — Electric Wizard (2000)

I feel the immense privilege to say I’ve seen this band live, and I don’t think I’ve been the same since. All everyone did while they were playing was gawk at the intense mist, succumb to hypnosis from unintelligible video projections and fall comatose to the fuzz and distortion. Essentially, it’s the exact intended experience (plus a little weed) that you’d expect to have if you’re a fan of music like Electric Wizard’s insane fucking monstrosity, Dopethrone.

Electric Wizard feel very singular in the metal music zeitgeist, even for stoner metal specifically. They’re another one of those bands who are immediately identifiable, with a specific USP that is popular because it’s FUCKING GOOD, yet also because it’s insanely hard to replicate close enough to turn it into a scene of homogenous attempts to all hit the same mark. Their recipe is secret, and people should respect it enough to leave it alone.

Not on many albums do you get hit with such unrelenting heaviness, yet also feel that you’re gliding. They have such a knack for pummelling you while also caressing you. I can’t describe it properly — you’ll just have to try it yourself.

40. Sound of Silver — LCD Soundsystem (2007)

James Murphy, you beautifully conflicted individual.

Sound of Silver is proof that the Talking Heads are actually an energy that a select number of privileged people can tap into — not just a group of humans. It’s compelling evidence that Dance Punk might well be the most fun genre there is. It’s an indisputable argument that progressively intensifying musical builds with a large ensemble are the best things to put in an album.

Murphy’s sheer passion, emotional transparency and addictive hooks, tied in with the band’s effortlessly danceable instrumentation, make this collection of songs some of the most joyous to experience in a group setting you can find. What a goddamn successful blueprint this man found.

39. BRAT — Charli xcx (2024)

2024 isn’t even over yet, but we have already found the most influential album this year will likely have to offer. Not only is BRAT deserving of the musical accolades it’s already receiving, but its very nature ended up permeating the entire cultural sphere from day dot.

It was an immediate movement, with Charli fans adopting the iconic shade of green via any visual platform they could on its release date. Then came the proliferation of BRAT memes, based on its extremely simple yet infinitely applicable model. Then came the Brat Summer trend and the adoption of the ‘brat’ mantra in mainstream media, artistry and politics.

Then after the devastating failure of BRAT at the US ballot box, Charlie took it upon herself to reclaim BRAT in the states by hosting and performing on SNL, throwing a free show in Times Square, and (I presume) accepting the immense honour of BRAT being awarded ‘word of the year’ by the Collins Dictionary (for crying out loud).

We’ll likely never know how intentional this movement was. But one thing we know for sure is that Charli wanted the ‘brat’ persona to be felt and channelled by all who it touched. And we can categorically say she was successful, as it propelled her and her bra(t)nd to heights she’d never experienced before.

38. Madvillainy — Madvillain (2004)

RIP MF DOOM.

One of hip hop’s most legendary beatmakers facilitating one of 21st-century hip hop’s most legendary MCs? Don’t fucken mind if I do.

Madvillain is the group that combines sample-rich musical extraordinaire Madlib with the revered, sickeningly gifted rapper MF DOOM. Madvillainy is one of the best hip hop albums of all time and is widely considered to be the best abstract hip hop album, period.

Madlib’s trademark nostalgic style fits DOOM’s drawling delivery and esoteric bars like a glove, with each track blending into one other via sampled transitions that come from a variety of sources: old television shows, obscure songs from around the world, vague instrumental breakdowns to name some of many.

DOOM matches the vibe with similarly ambiguous lyrical content, opting to focus on the sounds of his words over any specific meaning or intended literary interpretation, and the result is literally just liquid mezmerisation. You’ll come away thinking ‘what the fucking hell did I just listen to?’, and you would have felt exactly what was intended.

37. Designer — Aldous Harding (2019)

I’ve already lauded Aldous for her innate knack for giving us just about enough to understand and appreciate her artistic brilliance — that tease and tension with what’s tangible is what makes her music so damn enthralling. And it was her third album, Designer, where she first definitively showcased this for me.

Throughout the record, Harding haunts us with vague visages and meditative musings, giving us barely a glimpse of what’s behind the curtain and maintaining our intense curiosity throughout. The notion that there must be something more to it is what makes it such an attraction. What we are able to retain is pleasant and captivating; an intriguing tapestry of soft rock and contemporary folk — but the enjoyment almost comes out of the notes that aren’t played and the words that aren’t sung.

This constant grapple with Harding’s multiple (or zero?) truths has made Designer one of the most repeatable albums I’ve ever heard. It’s something that can suit almost any stage of life I find myself in. There are acres of solace within the unknown of this record — and there’s not quite a more unique relationship with an artist you could hope for than that.

36. I Love You, Honeybear — Father John Misty (2015)

The suavest man in folk-rock turned very soppy for a short while on his second solo album, I Love You, Honeybear. It’s another record from the cohort that has stayed attached to me since I first heard them in 2015, and it’s another that has accompanied me to the shower more than conditioner ever has.

This wonderful album is full of heartfelt odes of adoration from Mr Tillman to his partner, who he evidently loves very much. It contains more synonyms and metaphors for affection than the Adult section of a bookshop, all amongst so many admissions of personal flaws that a psychotherapist would just need to listen to this to figure him out from head to toe.

The songwriting is gorgeous and so easy to sing along to, and his passion is so addictive that it’s hard not to fall in love with his partner yourself, for god’s sake. Just let loose and enjoy this adorable thing.

35. Untrue — Burial (2007)

If you’re looking to main character somewhere dreary and bleak, then look no further. Burial the artist is somewhat of an enigma, but he’s built a near-flawless reputation in the darker corners of EDM for creating some of the most consistently on-point soundscapes for those grotty sewer dwellers that love deep reverb, dulled garage beats and low, minor synth chords.

Okay his music has a much wider appeal than that, I’m sure, but I guess all I want to get across is that Untrue is such effective mood music that it will instantly become a staple in your selection for those pensive, melancholy days. It makes you seem super cool when you play it in front of other people — but you should probably avoid it at the summer barbecue.

34. Javelin — Sufjan Stevens (2023)

Oh look, it’s the best album of 2023! But as per usual for Sufjan, it’s also potentially the most devastating listen of 2023.

While Sufjan often experiments with new ideas across his discography, there are seminal albums in his catalogue that you can pluck out as his ‘official’ singer-songwriter records. Javelin was his first of those in some time, and it came during a desperately tough year for him.

I won’t write at length about it here (shall keep my official review in last year’s list), but it’s once again an unspeakably impactful release from my favourite musician of all time. I’ll never stop singing his praises, of course.

33. Kid A — Radiohead (2000)

Contrary to commonly-held belief, I don’t think Kid A is a violent left-turn from Radiohead’s previous (and classic) album OK Computer — it is more of an anomalous evolution.

If I’m honest, despite this, I still find it incredible that Thom & co somehow pulled this out of the bag after such insane and broad success on their third release. But whatever they were smoking helped them produce one of the most unique vibes ever put to record. No one can quite pinpoint or settle on the material elements of it. Even the cover art puts you in some sort of below-map, liminal landscape that looks both familiar and alien simultaneously.

Right from the very start of the album, on Everything In Its Right Place, we’re subjected to peculiar chord progressions, complex time signatures and synth-heavy electronica — something that would befuddle listeners who were expecting OK Computer 2 at the time. This displacing aura only just continues through with mysterious songs like the proto-Minecraft title track Kid A, floating-on-a-dark-cloud How to Disappear Completely, lobotomy simulation Treefingers, hard-drive-drive-thru Idioteque and feathery climax Motion Picture Soundtrack.

If these tracks weren’t punctured by the album’s few semi-normal songs (The National Anthem, Optimistic, In Limbo, Morning Bell), Kid A the album would likely string you out to the point that solids could pass through you. But thankfully we all get to stay opaque for long enough to enjoy the whole thing. What an experience.

32. SINNER GET READY — Lingua Ignota (2021)

One of the most unsettling albums you’ll ever hear. Also, the best album of 2021. And by default, one of the best albums of the 2020s (yes I can say that with half the decade still to go — do the math).

I wrote at relative length about SINNER GET READY three years ago, so I needn’t say too much more about it this time. But since it’s been a little while, I just want to reiterate that this has held up so goddamn well and I’m still infatuated with it.

Kristin Hayter has now retired the Lingua Ignota project and has reinvented herself to be slightly separate from the harrowing work it produced. But she’s still going mightily strong with her new semi-self-titled moniker (The Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter) and I can’t wait to see what she does next.

31. The Money Store — Death Grips (2012)

The mysterious gruesome threesome tend to dominate the industrial hip-hop scene whenever they feel like poking their head above water. No one is ever sure if we’ve seen the last of them or if they’re one day away from rearing their fearsome heads once again, but whenever they do you can count on it being a new talking point.

The Money Store (one of my favourite album titles in this list) is their best work. While you always know what you’re getting with a DG album, the crop of songs across this record is pound-for-pound the pinnacle of what they’re capable of.

It’s brimming with harsh, abrasive, pummelling beats, dissonant, blaring synths and car-crashing drums that are all tied together by MC Ride’s barely intelligible paranoid barking. What more could you want in life, really? The band try their absolute hardest to sound as unappealing as possible, and we weirdos just want them to push on as far as they can with it.

30. OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES — SOPHIE (2018)

R.I.P. SOPHIE.

There’s not much I can add to the loving tributes of one of electronic music’s most adored and influential producers, but all I can say is I am so glad this album exists.

While SOPHIE’s time came to an end far too short, I do feel like OIL… epitomises her unmatched knack for choppy, ambiguously textured club bangers to a perfect degree. Her entire musicianship was running on eight cylinders throughout the entire album, and it meant we got to hear some of the most intriguing club music of the 21st Century.

Hers and PC Music’s influence on pop will, without question, be lauded in music history books for decades to come. Thank you so much, SOPHIE ❤️

29. ★ [Blackstar] — David Bowie (2016)

One of the most memorable swansongs ever. Bowie bowed out in magnificent fashion with a heart-wrenching record that perfectly summarised his trailblazing influence. An extremely well-put-together and dazzling jazz rock record, it’s clear his finger never once slipped off the pulse.

Even in his final months on Earth, he brought us brand new reasons to appreciate his genius. The ten-minute title track is a masterclass in pacing and stitching together riveting musical passages, and the poignancy of his perspectives, tied in with his wisened delivery makes it already feel like he sent this album as a message to us from a higher plane.

Society will forever remember him. His influence will touch people millennia from now. And I’m so happy this album is a prominent part of his eternal canvas.

28. Is This It — The Strokes (2001)

Yes, and then some. This album is still spoken about to this day for a reason.

It’s the most effervescent young man you have ever heard, sharply crooning over punchy guitar riffs that stick in your head like mud. It provided a fresh take on the seemingly forgotten Garage Rock sound that was rising from the ashes of the 1970s, with songs that took hold so strongly that it permeated British and American culture (especially within sport) as heavily as Britpop did in the years leading up to it.

With this debut, The Strokes immediately won the hearts of millions, and their sound is a permanent mark on our collective subconscious.

27. Nurture — Porter Robinson (2021)

Therapy in a jar. Porter Robinson overcame some of his major personal struggles in the making of this album, so it’s extremely fitting that the music he made to get out of that hole also happens to be some of the most uplifting, elating music you could possibly hear.

Nurture is Porter preaching what he is practising, and the connection you feel with him while listening to it invokes all the times you’ve also conquered similar feelings. There’s just such a relentless optimism and hope to it; the persistent intuition that everything will be okay and that in any time of darkness or hardship, there is joy to be found.

Porter’s Wii Sports-style genre of choice helps to hammer this home quite specifically, too, as he’s able to crank up the sweet and saccharine EDM synths and musical builds to the point that you get the maximum hit of dopamine when it all peaks. It’s just so perfectly crafted to make you feel good. And I feel fucking wonderful whenever I play it (which is a lot).

26. Currents — Tame Impala (2015)

A colossal album. Kevin Parker drove the first relatively stark difference from his previous material on Currents, and he garnered a whole host of new fans in the process. He stuck to the meticulously produced and sultry, groovy energy of any Tame Impala album, but fully lent into the synthier side of his sound to enormous success.

While some psych fans found the poppier approach a little too sugary to handle, I truly think that there is as much musical excellence on display here as there is on Lonerism. You can’t let sensational songs like Eventually, The Moment, New Person Same Old Mistakes and his opus Let It Happen grace your ears and then assume he’s not working as true to his principles as he was beforehand. There are all-timers in the Tame Impala canon on this album and only fools would disagree.

Currents was a landmark moment in rock & pop music. The resurgence of synthpop was already burgeoning, but this is the genre’s biggest statement of the century so far.

25. Stankonia — Outkast (2000)

It’s pretty fair to say that Outkast were mostly known for their late ’90s output, and many may actually think that Stankonia was a ’90s release too. But just edging into the 21st Century, it’s the only one of the ‘big three’ Outkast albums (ATLiens and Aquemini being the other two) to be worthy of contention in this list (because that’s how dates work).

Similarly to many artists with albums in this list from the years 2000/2001, much of Big Boi and 3K’s work in the previous decade set them on a winning streak towards this moment. ATLiens was a statement of supremacy in Southern hip hop, Aquemini was a statement of supremacy in hip hop, and Stankonia was a statement of supremacy in music.

The duo one-upped themselves with every release, taking on a larger challenge and succeeding each time. And while you could argue the slightly more commercial tone of Stankonia was an inevitable step away from some of their initial artistic intentions, that step was so smart and the artistry was still so prominent that it’s as enjoyable a piece as both of the previous works.

24. Punisher — Phoebe Bridgers (2020)

It’s been four long years since the last Phoebe album, peeps. And while I’m banking on a return to her solo work in 2025 (no evidence of that, just vibes), it will take the effort and enlightenment of a thousand centuries to reach the peaks of Punisher.

Her debut album put her on the map, but the second propelled her into stardom. And for every reason you can think of. On Punisher, Phoebe crafts such a deeply poignant, yet intensely uplifting feeling in her music that you end up emotionally feeding off the experience like you depend on it to live.

It’s as much of a high as any narcotic could provide, as your brain is trying to balance desperate sadness with unrequited hope. I just wish that Phoebe could somehow do this again. But if I’m honest, if I’d choose to enlist anyone on this planet to make lightning strike twice, it would be her.

23. Blonde — Frank Ocean (2016)

Blonde is the timeless product of a beautiful, conflicted human. It’s the result of peak introspection; a window into the mechanisms of emotion; a message directly from the soul. On Blonde, Frank manages to provide the most accurate depiction possible of feeling. Not a single ounce of empathy is required to deeply relate to what he conveys on this record.

It is an essential piece of 21st-century art. It will be impossible to omit for future historians who attempt to summarise our era’s culture. To them, Frank Ocean will be as memorable as Frank Sinatra is to our older generations. His music is just too true, too representative and too overwhelmingly good to be forgotten about by the year 2100.

Protect this man at all costs. Care for his every need, bow to his every will and maybe…just maybe…he’ll reward us with some new music. But he doesn’t have to!!! HOnestly no rush Frank take your time!!! Would just be nice, y’know…no pressure though I promise but cmon man we believe in you!!! PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!1

22. For Emma, Forever Ago — Bon Iver (2007)

Bon Iver’s debut For Emma, Forever Ago is a timeless relic of the indie folk boom, standing head and shoulders above many of its compatriots.

Recorded and mixed practically alone in a remote farmhouse after a breakup, this album is an end that perfectly reflects its means. Deep, reverb-soaked harmonies, poignant acoustic strumming and powerful lamentations on a relationship that once was all makes FE,FA a nailed-on option for all who are seeking a reassuring accompaniment to their sadder days.

Sporting some of the most popular folk songs of the century, Bon Iver was able to strike such a chord with this passionate outlet that it propelled leader Justin Vernon into major success. And thanks in part also to his subsequent releases, in a similar vein to James Blake in the pop/electronic scene, Vernon is now a trusted collaborator on some of the biggest musical ventures of the last two decades. And it all stemmed from this stunningly beautiful record.

21. RENAISSANCE — Beyoncé (2022)

I can unashamedly tell you that this is the best Beyoncé album. A legendary figure of this century, not a single other performer can reach the level of (justified) reverence that Bey can claim.

With that comes many diverging opinions on her greatest era, and while the RENAISSANCE made a slightly smaller commercial splash than some of her other album rollouts, there is no question in my mind of its superiority over her other releases.

From 2022-present, we’ve seen the return of club music to the zeitgeist (funny that — I wonder what was happening to stifle it in the year right before this 🤔), and Beyoncé piloted this resurgence with not just a nostalgic throwback to ’80s / ’90s-era House, but a spotlighting on the underground LGBT scene that burgeoned in the clubs in that time too. And Bey’s inclusion of some of the artists that led that scene is a much-needed mainstream endorsement of what was likely shunned at the time.

Never has Beyoncé and her music sounded as good as this. It’s utterly magnificent.

20. Toxicity — System of a Down (2001)

It goes without saying that nu-metal had a rocky existence. Those who were there at the turn of the century can largely admit that the bands they still cherish to this day were probably not that good in retrospect. But of the handful of nu-metal groups that made it through hindsight’s critical lens, System of a Down stands tall.

Potentially the best nu-metal album of all time, Toxicity blends together all of the greatest elements of the teenage bro angst the genre captured at the time.

It has unrivalled musicianship, powerful headbangers, strong humour, and, best of all, hyper-politicised messages we can all rally behind. It’s pure punk just with meatier chords. The band can tweak their tone effortlessly to their liking to send the right message, and their grasp on our attention is ironclad. They just know what the fuck they’re doing, tbh 🤘

19. Demon Days — Gorillaz (2005)

Ohhhhh YESSSS. Please never forget that this album absolutely slaps. By every metric. Whatever the hell kind of brain Damon Albarn has needs to be donated to science and studied after he passes — anything we can do to preserve his genius needs to be funded and prioritised immediately.

Demon Days is Gorillaz’ best example of their distinct idiosyncrasy. Their perfectly synthesised concoction of sound has been designed specifically to scratch that itch. The instrumentation and influences vary WILDLY throughout, but they always make sense in the context of the album. We have synth-heavy art pop, boom bap rap, groovy trip hop, nu-disco dance, true blue ’70s pop rock and even some spacey gospel, for heaven’s sake.

Gorillaz are a special, one-of-a-kind group. No one can even come close to replicating their vibe, and most know not to even try. Long live ‘em.

18. E·MO·TION — Carly Rae Jepsen (2015)

Carly’s most popular singles paint a very different picture of her as an artist than her albums tend to. And that’s coming from someone who thinks Call Me Maybe and I Really Like You are masterpieces in their own right too.

In all seriousness though, Emotion is where Carly proved she can blow most other pop artists out of the water. She is a cut above many of those who get far more recognition than she does, and the world needs to start appreciating her a shedload more.

So much of Emotion is just impeccable vibes. The music is just pure, unadulterated goodness. She doesn’t waste time with low-key ‘breaks’ or filler tracks — if she wants to tone down the lyrical excitement in favour of some introspection, she will do so while still requesting we dance to it. Each song is crafted to boost your serotonin to unforeseen heights. And Run Away With Me might also be the best pop song of the 21st Century so far. ’Nuff said.

17. Nonagon Infinity — King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (2016)

One of the wildest rides you could hope for in music. The clever musicians who love a good time gave us their cleverest, goodest time yet on Nonagon Infinity.

Hitting an insane BPM throughout, with chugging riffs and more ‘woo!’s than a rollercoaster, this album is the well-earned pick-me-up anyone could need if they’re in need of some energy. Not only that, but these boys pulled off a wicked feat in basically making everything circular. There are constant repetitive reprises of the same refrains throughout and thick, balls-to-the-wall riffs which create a viscous circle (yes, viscous) of disorientation and wonder.

It’s just about the band’s biggest achievement, in my view. It’s the cream of an incredibly prolific and abundant crop. They are potentially the most consistently good band going, and I could’ve put so many other albums here in its place. But there’s just nothing topping this opus for now. You never know what they could do next, tho.

16. GREY Area — Little Simz (2019)

Simbi has been ever-present on my AOTY lists since this very record. And to this day, with multiple genre-defining releases over the last few years, GREY Area is, in my view, the rightful winner of them all.

On GREY Area, Simz presents a no-frills tableau of all the reasons we ought to love her. Excellent writing, colourful production (thank you Inflo 👏) and captivating storytelling are abundantly evident throughout this thing, and the journey it takes you on leaves you wanting to replay it every single time the final chord is played.

The sheer variance of vibes, the dynamic instrumental palette and the range of stories she has to share on GREY Area means that there is something for everyone to love, and a lot for many people to adore. Starting off so assured with Offence and Boss, to mellow things out with Selfish and Wounds, to then burst out of the shell with Venom and 101 FM, and then to ease us out with an introspective run of serene soundscapes and beautiful poetry, shows just how much growth she’d seen in such a short period.

With this album, Simz found her groove, and she has continued onto greatness locked inside it.

15. Back to Black — Amy Winehouse (2006)

RIP Amy ❤️

It’s no surprise that this is still such an intensely popular album to this day. Not only is it Amy’s most prominent statement, with her most impassioned performances and impactful lyrics, but it paints a clear picture of the struggles she fought through to make the album happen — and by proxy, many of the same struggles that eventually proved too difficult to overcome.

The ‘black’ she refers to repeatedly throughout this album is the same darkness that troubles many young artists trying to handle intense fandom and media attention — depression, addiction and self-sabotage to name just a few. But on Back to Black, Amy stands strong and mighty against those headwinds — providing a permanent account of her resolve while also performing at the absolute peak of her potential.

She was a once in a generation artist, and I hope she continues to stand strong via her artistry for centuries to come.

14. The Glow Pt. 2 — The Microphones (2001)

The Microphones’ Phil Elverum is a god amongst his fellow lo-fi folk. Listening to this and noting the 2001 release year makes so much sense when you consider NMH’s In The Aeroplane Over The Sea was released just three years earlier — this period was rife for slacker folk, with loose timekeeping and rough, distorted soundscapes at the forefront of the aesthetic.

The Glow Pt. 2 is already an indie classic. A young Elverum was able to craft something so deeply personal, but through a vague, translucent lens where you have to squint through the fog to see the true meaning behind the music and lyricism. The album largely follows a lightweight, fuzzy, acoustic sensibility, but Phil has this knack of puncturing that foggy serenity with the heaviest bass hits that immediately add significant depth to the dynamics. It’s like because you know the music is capable of that range at times, the lack of it during the quieter moments are as noticeable as the times where it’s in full force.

Anyway, particular note aside, this album is a folking epic. The access to instruments Elverum seemed to possess makes it sound other-worldly and occult, while also providing a stark tablet that bares his whole psyche. It’s a magnificent fix of all the satisfying things.

13. Discovery — Daft Punk (2001)

Discovery almost single-handedly provided disco with the means it needed to re-pivot itself for the 21st Century. Without it, we may not have seen the modern-day successes of Róisín Machine, What’s Your Pleasure?, and Future Nostalgia, plus many more of the mainstream dance albums that have dominated the charts in the last 20 years.

Not only did Discovery shift the needle, but it is pound-for-pound one of the best dance albums to have ever been made. Just this one album contains modern classics like One More Time, Digital Love, Harder, Better, Faster Stronger, Something About Us and Veridis Quo. Songs where even if you aren’t too familiar with the titles, they’ll be ingrained in your brain from constant exposure from a myriad of sources in media.

It’s so much fun. It’s so colourful and surprising throughout; even after regular listens there are flourishes and switch-ups that surprise you. There’s almost no denying its greatness, and I’m sure many of you will agree.

12. Ants From Up There — Black Country, New Road (2022)

To those who know, I don’t have to say much to explain what makes this such an important record. It’s not even that it’s had an immense influence on the wider music sphere. It’s just that it could potentially be the first album from the 2020s that enough people eventually agree is a classic.

Despite the relatively small scene it had an impact on, the sheer consensus this album has as a definitive all-timer, and the fact that so many people already agreed this the very year it came out, built a far bigger case for this record’s supremacy than any other album I’ve seen in the current decade.

BCNR are the peak example of a British new-wave post punk band, yet Ants From Up There is hardly post punk unlike their earlier releases. It’s like an Everest-Scale Indie Folk Bright Eyes Arcade Fire Joanna Newsom Extravaganza written and performed by one of the most talented bands of the 21st Century.

The amount of emotional investment you develop across the ten tracks is cumulatively more than I think I could muster up to watch a thousand coming-of-age films. It’s just such a yearning, earnest, hopeful and uplifting experience that you can’t experience any high like it elsewhere. It’s just the most spellbinding thing that everyone deserves a shot at at least several hundred times.

11. Voodoo — D’Angelo (2000)

Known colloquially as a close companion to Erykah Badu’s Mama’s Gun, which was released in the same year, Voodoo was another sophomore album that proved how prominent neo-soul and the new wave of R&B was in the early 2000s.

D’Angelo has always been one of the more secluded and enigmatic artists in the field, but whenever he rises, we all know we’re in for a masterpiece. Voodoo was our second helping of his complicated buttery goodness. On this album, you could argue D’Angelo strayed a little further from the traditional structures of mainstream R&B and pop that Badu and Aaliyah (very) lightly employed, in order to create a sound that represented the genre’s roots to its very bones.

Almost every song is a deep meditation. There are twisting and winding passages and organic instrumental jams that could only have come from the soul. D’Angelo himself has less of a vocal presence across the record too, treating his voice as more complementary to the overall sound rather than the centrepiece. I’m not sure the word ‘vibe’ can better describe an album than this one.

10. Since I Left You — The Avalanches (2000)

The Avalanches played a huge part in popularising everyone’s favourite underrated genre, ‘plunderphonics’: music made up entirely of samples and other pre-existing recordings, but mixed together and manipulated into a new, completely original and independent piece.

Though aside from the many spoken word and vocal passages that spread throughout the track listing, there’s absolutely no obvious sign that any of the music behind Since I Left You would’ve originated from anywhere other than the Avalanches’ own studio. These are fully realised dance tracks — wild, colourful, intriguing dance tracks at that — where all instrumental elements would have been used in another piece of recorded music beforehand. A cynic would say that shouldn’t technically make an album better, but cynics are boring and should shut up.

Of course, the album is near-perfect as well. It’s an hour-long mix of some of the most serene, quirky and staggering sounds that just happen to also be very danceable and suited to any setting. It’s infinitely applicable, just like all recyclable materials.

9. Helplessness Blues — Fleet Foxes (2011)

Like most millennials, my introduction to the ’70s-era faux-medieval folk scene actually came with the emergence of indie folk in the mid-late naughts.

Fleet Foxes broke onto the scene just as it kickstarted, almost cosplaying as those long-bearded harmony-loving hippies from a few decades before them, and soon became a staple of the sound and an example of the best it had to offer. Helplessness Blues is the band’s second album, released in 2011 well after the fleeting indie folk sound first blossomed and just as it started to wane, so to many it felt like an amalgamation of the short-lived craze that took the indie sphere by storm.

And my fucking god, it’s just fucking perfect. The pining songwriting, the luscious harmonies, the medieval acoustic inflections and the powerful choruses absolutely blew me away when I first heard it in 2015 (yes, it’s another one of those albums), and it has been with me ever since. I’ve sung these songs potentially more than Robin Pecknold even has — over 50% of that time in the shower as well— and it made me into the huge Fleet Foxes fan that I still am today.

I adore this album with all my heart. I know every single note and syllable and could recite each one to you right now. It’s just extraordinary. Please for the love of god, give it a go.

8. Vespertine — Björk (2001)

Just when everyone thought that Björk had eclipsed all she had achieved before with the riveting classic album, Homogenic, she returned four years later in 2001 with potentially her best album of all.

Vespertine could in some ways be viewed as a companion piece to Homogenic, as they both employ similar instrumental palettes but follow very different paths. As opposed to its predecessor, Verspertine is minimal, vulnerable, and supposedly ‘domestic’, with only fleeting (and therefore extremely arresting) swells of intensity that emerge during its gradual builds and hypnotic meditations. It’s no surprise she enlisted like likes of Matmos on the production, as the duo are well versed in creating subtle electronics out of everyday sounds that skim along the surface, adding tension and intrigue.

Her lyrical content is introspective and intimate, keeping to the theme of small, inward-looking art that was made in response to the huge outward scale of Homogenic. The expansiveness of the record stretches as far as an angelic choir and no further — it helps to elevate some of the more grounded soundscapes into the ethereal and alien world Björk is so accomplished at curating, yet still keeps the intimacy, as if the heavenly performance is happening directly in front of you and you alone.

There’s only so many words I can use to describe how singularly impressive this mystifying artist is. I just wish everyone hears this before they move into the celestial landscape from which it came.

7. Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven — Godspeed You! Black Emperor (2000)

Not many albums can claim to be as cinematic as Lift Your Skinny Fists…, Godspeed’s second official album. It’s truly one of the most riveting, uplifting, euphoric and mind-blowing musical experiences you could ever wish for. It should be as frequently academically studied as classical music is, and I have no doubt it will be a part of the handful of post-rock albums that are treated as such in decades’ time.

On this mindblowing record, Godspeed are patient with each of its four arrangements, building to climaxes with such a gradual and exhilarating pace and deploying such invigorating chord progressions that it locks you into each story and makes you follow its developments like your life depends on it. And with such excellent use of field recordings and spoken word dramatisations, the band is able to capture a convincing, detailed vision of its apocalyptic nature that you can practically see all elements of society collapsing before your very eyes.

It’s one of the most visual albums I’ve ever heard. The worldbuilding is second to none. It’s like the most catastrophic disaster movie you’ve never seen.

6. Carrie & Lowell — Sufjan Stevens (2015)

For many years, this was The Album for me. As you’ll see in my first-ever list this lil blog, The 50 Best Albums of the 2010s, it beat out every other album I’d heard from that decade.

Now, I’d like to think I’ve expanded and deepened my appreciation of music by quite a large degree in the last five years, and opinions and feelings change over time, of course. So I’m comfortable with placing this a little further down on this particular list, as to a certain extent I think Carrie & Lowell has done its job for me. It was my closest musical companion throughout the latter half of the last decade, and while I still cherish it immensely, I’ve moved onto pastures new (well, Sufjan is still my GOAT, but it’s another of his albums instead 😉).

Carrie & Lowell is often considered to be one of the saddest albums of the 21st century. It’s a raw, unfiltered depiction of Sufjan’s complicated, near-immediate feelings after the passing of his mother, Carrie — someone the album reveals he had a difficult relationship with since he was a child. The grief he displays is so personal, yet the perspectives he provides us in each song have such a deep profundity to them that they could console anyone coping with the loss of a loved one. He puts those messages front and centre, processing his own familial trauma with no facade, with very minimal instrumental backing or extra production elements. It’s just songs and that’s it, except for the odd string-soaked outro.

I will never forget this album. It’s a biological part of me.

5. Titanic Rising — Weyes Blood (2019)

The word ‘ethereal’ gets thrown around a lot these days for an increasingly diluted purpose. Those simply displaying a fraction of the reason the word was invented are graced with it as a descriptor at an alarmingly growing rate.

So, I propose that as a society, we completely ban the word from being uttered in any context other than in reference to Weyes Blood and her spellbinding release, Titanic Rising.

Every phrase I can think of to describe this album needs to be intensified tenfold in order to match the feeling I want to portray about it. ‘Heavenly’ is not enough; ‘divine’ doesn’t cut it; ‘other-worldly’ pails in comparison to the way I want to tell you about this album.

It’s one of the most arrestingly heavenly pieces of human expression I have ever bore witness to. I feel drunk just trying to relive it in my head and I know that however I’m feeling, it can fix me immediately. It is the oxygen I need to feel human. And I still can’t get anywhere near describing how good it is.

4. In Rainbows — Radiohead (2007)

Radiohead’s best album of the 21st century. This thing just grabs you by the scruff of the neck and drags you at lightspeed through a technicolour wormhole, unrelenting except for a couple of tiny moments of serenity before picking the pace back up and thrusting you through a disorientating mess of bendy guitars, wonky bass, eccentric rambling vocals and percussion that takes swipes at you from every angle.

After making a bit of a name for themselves for being a bit boring and pretentiously patient on Kid A and much of the tracks on Hail To The Thief, the band took a bit of a hiatus, and after twiddling their thumbs for a bit just said ‘fuck it’. They cranked the BPM up by 20 and designed an entire album with the sole intention of battering you with sheer speed and mesmerising pace. Weirdly, it probably uses a considerably less diverse range of instrumentation than an album like Kid A, but the manner in which it’s all played is what’s so dumbfounding on In Rainbows.

This was Radiohead’s first album released outside of their contractual agreement with EMI. So this album’s ‘interesting thing’ (each RH album has at least one) is that they released it independently, online, for a pay-what-you-want price. Anyone could download it, and it was up to the consumer whether they paid or not — a characteristic message from the band to the wider industry at the time. To be completely honest, I wish they retained some of the social resistance that they used to have, as they seem a lot more selective with what they are outspoken about these days.

However, that disappointment doesn’t make me any less head-over-heels for this perfect modern rock record. Radiohead have moved the mainstream needle countless times in their existence, and even with their album rollouts drying out, I have no doubt they’ll do it all again soon.

3. Ys — Joanna Newsom (2006)

This utter genius doesn’t get anywhere near the recognition she deserves. A lot of you have never let Joanna into your life and, quite frankly, it shows. If you had, you’d understand that we actually have the greatest bard of the last three centuries living among us right now. And if you’re looking for evidence of this, Ys is the best possible example I can provide.

It’s a measly five songs on paper, but an utter revelation once explored. Each track is a meandering philosophical thesis, brimming with incessant charisma and set to the backdrop of what art-house tavern music would’ve probably sounded like when agriculture was still 95% of our species’ pastime. It’s like she’s a 17th-Century Björk or something. This album is just such a mindblowing creation and every time I visit it I can’t help but ponder the true ceiling of humans’ potential as a collective if it was guided more often by people with this sort of brain.

Ys is truly one of a kind. Nothing will ever sound like it ever again. Please bless yourself with this definitively unique experience.

2. Illinois – Sufjan Stevens (2005)

My god it was tough putting this here.

As I’ll always say, a Sufjan placement this high up will be a surprise to no one who knows me. His album Javelin was my favourite of 2023, his album Carrie and Lowell was my personal favourite for YEARS, and for the eagle-eyed of you, he is the only artist to have three placements in this list (sorry). And I wish I could’ve added more. So it’s important to know this context before going into my mini-review of potentially the most present piece of media in my entire life: Illinois.

This all said, with the most objective hat I can find atop my head, I truly think Illinois is in contention for one of the best albums of the century so far. And thankfully, many others agree, at least according to others on my nerdy music sites 🤓

The off-the-scale ambition, the novel-heavy narrative detail, the endless euphoria within each peak, the crushing revelations in each slower passage, the riveting stories, the blaring horns, the sensational folky backbone, the fascinating historical lessons, the evident camaraderie in the band, the enchanting group vocals, the wacky experimental vignettes, the gut-wrenching personal anecdotes, the fucking weird sentence-long song titles, the tiny interludes that might as well have been added to the surrounding songs’ runtimes, the riveting instrumental builds, the poignant opener and the poignant closer. All of it, and so much more, make it my most cherished musical experience of all time as of the quarter point of the 2000s.

Sometimes I feel a little silly having so much passion for literally just some guy. That’s all he is, as is anyone else. But just the mere prospect that a person can willfully create something like Illinois is enough for me to always hold out hope that things will be okay in the world, because humans are capable of that. And that’s exactly the reason why the following album is №1.

1. To Pimp A Butterfly — Kendrick Lamar (2015)

This album is ten years old in 2025. Isn’t that crazy? It feels like we first heard these songs just a couple of years ago. One reason why, I suppose, is because much of the material found within it is ever-present and ever-applicable to the lived experience of those it was created for. It’s the work of a modern-day societal oracle — someone with a deeply experienced, near-omniscient perspective possessing a comprehensive, near-objective manifesto of what needs to be done to right our civilisation’s wrongs. Another reason why, I also suppose, is because this work was delivered via one of the most culturally significant, universally beloved and best-performed artworks of all time.

To Pimp A Butterfly is bigger than any album could ever strive to be. Its impact transcends its musical influence — two immediately notable examples of which being the Black Lives Matter protest chant, ‘We gon’ be alright’, which is based on the track Alright, and the lasting impact of The Blacker The Berry as a timestamped protest against the murderous racist violence from US police on the Black population. There are lots more examples to be found, but essentially it’s important to convey that TPAB is considered more of a cultural moment than potentially any other album release of the last few decades. Yet this cultural moment is a perpetual one — everything about this album speaks to what has, does and will take place in a civilisation that doesn’t typically favour justice, but contains more resistance and joy than any amount of injustice could ever try to overcome.

Onto the music (this is an album ranking after all), Kendrick is a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and artist. Albeit for DAMN. over TPAB, but considering the award had never been given to a hip hop artist before, the base point I’m making is that he is truly one-of-a-kind. On To Pimp A Butterfly, his performances and lyricism are simply unparalleled to anyone else. The consistently varied flows, the character work and distinct voices he enacts to convey them in each story, the pen game and linguistic mastery he displays with his wordplay, and the discerning and impactful messages he provides using all of those techniques together meant that this artistic statement was more impactful than any other 21st-century attempt I can think of. This man has no ceiling; what he’s able to create and allow everyone else the privilege to understand is a purely astounding feat.

As for the production, the home-grown jazz instrumentation from other Compton-based musicians, the innovative conceptual ideas and the narrative colour added throughout the tracks all amount to a listening experience that feels more connected to people than any other artwork I’ve ever heard. It’s just 100% max execution in every corner. Progressing through the album, there’s not a single blemish — certainly not a single skip — and there’s no single reason I could put any other album at №1 of this (frankly exhausting) list. It’s simply impossible to have a conversation about the best music of this century so far without Kendrick being at the forefront of it.

No album deserves this spot more than Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly. And I can guarantee you that I won’t be alone in believing that. Long live this exceptional artist, and long live the fight for humanitarian equity, empowerment and justice in the face of a world that will, one day, have no choice but to listen.

Max Beckett

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Honourable mentions

The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess — Chappell Roan (2023)

Fetch the Bolt Cutters — Fiona Apple (2020)

LP! — JPEGMAFIA (2021)

Desire, I Want To Turn Into You — Caroline Polachek (2023)

A Crow Looked at Me — Mount Eerie (2016)

Frou Frou — Details (2002)

…Like Clockwork — Queens of the Stone Age (2013)

Run the Jewels 2— Run the Jewels (2014)

Transient — Gaelle (2004)

NO NOW — Clarence Clarity (2015)

Funeral — Arcade Fire (2004)

A Pocket Of Wind Resistance — Karine Polwart (2017)

Mount Eerie — The Microphones (2003)

songs — Adrianne Lenker (2020)

I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning — Bright Eyes (2005)

Dead Magic — Anna von Hausswolff (2018)

The Ruby Chord — Richard Dawson (2022)

La Grande Folie — San Salvador (2021)

PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation — King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (2023)

The Age of Adz — Sufjan Stevens (2010)

Silent Alarm — Bloc Party

Michigan — Sufjan Stevens (2003)

Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge – My Chemical Romance (2004)

ANTI — Rihanna (2016)

Someone Out There – Rae Morris (2018)

A Moon Shaped Pool — Radiohead (2016)

The Lemon of Pink – The Books (2003)

A Dream Is All We Know – The Lemon Twigs (2024)

Supreme Clientele – Ghostface Killah (2000)

“Awaken My Love!” – Childish Gambino (2016)

This Is Happening – LCD Soundsystem (2010)

Peasant — Richard Dawson (2017)

Elephant — The White Stripes (2003)

Hybrid Theory – Linkin Park (2000)