Okay, I finally have it whittled down to the best 25 albums of the century so far. There were rules I creating this list easier – firstly the album had to be almost perfect with little to no filler, and it had to be something I still listen to somewhat often. The “still currently listen to”, knocked a lot of things out of competition, I listened to a ton of Radiohead and Missy Elliott in the early 00s, but have barely heard those albums the past decade. And while I’m currently listening to Rachel Chinouriri’s What a Devastating Turn of Events a lot, it’s too early to tell if that’s an all-time classic.
Secondly, I tried to spread the 25 albums out across multiple genres that I listen to. This prevented me from making a list that was almost entirely Rap. It also prevented me from putting genres I’m less familiar with, like Bluegrass, on this list (but shoutout to Alison Kraus + Union Station?). And lastly when a music act had two albums I love equally, I choose what I consider the more influential album and made the other album the Also Considered. When the same act didn’t have an album of the same caliber, I choose an album from the same genre for the Also Considered.
Now, the only remaining issue was when some bands output was so consistent, it’s impossible for me to choose one album. This is why Run the Jewels, She & Him, and Maritime aren’t anywhere on this list.
All artists are referred to as they were listed at the time of the album’s original release.
Now, here’s the list, alphabetical by album name.
- 1989 – Taylor Swift
Also Considered: Red
Of all of Taylor Swift’s massive albums with massive hits, this one looms the largest. There were SEVEN different singles that came from this album and half the world can recite the lyrics for each one word for word. It’s easy to hate on something popular but this record is full of great hooks and great songwriting. - American IV: The Man Comes Around – Johnny Cash
Also Considered: American III: Solitary Man
The last album released before the Man in Black’s death it’s a fitting elegy to and from the legend. Cash himself was grieving the loss of his wife June Carter Cash. Mourning, regret, and depression permeate this album but so does hope. Country, Rock, and even Industrial song are stripped down to mostly just Cash and his weathered voice. “Hurt” may be the best cover of all time, and this version of “We’ll Meet Again” will be wrecking people emotionally for years to come. - Bleed American (Jimmy Eat World) – Jimmy Eat World
Also Considered: Riot! by Paramore
This is the album that broke Emo on the mainstream. “Sweetness” and “the Middle” is Jimmy at their poppiest and catchiest, but this album contains all of Jimmy’s sound. Their rock songs “Bleed American” and “Get it Faster”, their delicate introspective songs “Hear You Me” and “The Most Beautiful Things”, and their fun side as well “A Praise Chorus”. Every song is great in its own way and this album shows what Emo as genre can be. Though, Jimmy Eat World would just call it a Rock album. - Born to Die – Lana del Rey
Also Considered: Norman Fucking Rockwell
I’ve written about this album more than once already, but it really looms large of over all the indie-rock/pop music that came after it. Lana wasn’t afraid to embarrass herself and her pastiche of mainstream pop music, blue-eyed soul, hip-hop, singer-songwriter and her disco/pinup persona would influence the rest of 21st Century’s pop music whether people liked it or not. Personally, I love this album, but like all things Lana, it can be quite polarizing. - Christmas Songs – Diana Krall
Also Considered: Wrapped in Red by Kelly Clarkson
The classic Christmas album of the 21st Century with plenty of nods to the landmarks of the 2oth Century by Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald. This was during Diana’s transition from swing vocal jazz sound to more of an adult contemporary. It’s the perfect amount of tempo and swing for Christmas. It’s fun, bouncy, and chill all at the same time. - Funeral – Arcade Fire
Also Considered: Neon Bible
I don’t think any indie rock album has been more influential than this in this century. I’ve said this before but it bears repeating; before this there were two ways to build epic indie rock – the dissonance of bands like Fugazi and Bloc Party or the harmonies of artists like the Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens. This album was the first popular indie album I remember building epic songs where both harmonies and dissonance co-existed. It’s affected everything after it. - Future Nostalgia – Dua Lipa
Also Considered: the Fame by Lady Gaga
The best Dance-Pop album of the 21st century. There are multiple songs on this album I like better and find catchier than Dua’s breakout hit “New Rules”. One of the few pop albums of the past few years that isn’t just a few good songs and then a bunch of filler. Track-to-track perfection. - Get Rich or Die Tryin’ – 50 Cent
Also Considered: Under Construction by Missy Elliott
Perhaps the greatest rap debut since Illmatic, Fiddy unfortunately couldn’t live up to the promise of this first set of songs. But Get Rich is an undeniable highlight of the early 00s, filled with banger after banger. He made Gangsta Rap danceable again. And his raps were clever, threatening, and playful all at the same time. Who else could make “You shouldn’t throw stones if you live in a glass house and if you got a glass jaw you should watch yo mouth” hilarious and scary at the same time? - Give Up – the Postal Service
Also Considered: Transatlanticism by Death Cab for Cutie
The first big breakthrough in the Emo/Electronica cross-over. Dntels beeps and boops and haunting organs fit perfectly into Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard’s plaintive lyrics. And with the multiple covers already done on these songs, we know that stripping them down doesn’t take away from their overall power. And lastly “the District Sleeps Alone” finally gave the nation’s capital their own Emo Anthem. - Hamilton Original Broadway Recording
Also Considered: The Book of Mormon Original Cast Recording
There’s no other Broadway musical that has been has important, influential, parodied, and in the zeitgeist as Hamilton in the past two decades. It’s sounds ridiculous, a hip-hop musical about the Founding Fathers? But the story of America told through one of the most uniquely American genres makes perfect sense. - Home – Dixies Chicks
Also Considered: Midwest Farmer’s Daughter by Margo Price
By the early 2000s radio Country had strayed so far into pop it no longer felt “authentic”. Then the Chicks came out with Home, a very deliberate return to traditional country and bluegrass that name-checked Johnny Cash, Hank Williams Sr., and Merle Haggard. But it doesn’t feel like dress-up, this is the band’s strongest set of songs. Typical country themes are explored here – heartbreak, tragic relationships, a nostalgia for simple rural living. It’s their sharp songwriting and musicianship that elevate it from trite themes to an all-time classic. - Don’t Know Why – Norah Jones
Also Considered: the Fall
Just a perfect set of songs for Jones’ debut. Not quite jazz, not quite adult-contemporary, with shades of the blues and singer-songwriter. It influenced a whole generation of female singer/songwriters and adult contemporary pop to come. - Marry Me – St. Vincent
Also Considered: St. Vincent
St. Vincent would go on to make more experimental music, but this is just a perfect slice of singer-songwriter/indie rock with traces of electronica and blue-eyed soul. Though Annie Clark can absolutely shred on the guitar, the concentration on this album is on the voice and the songwriting. It’s her most consistent album, and one of the most consistent singer-songwriter albums of the century so far. - Maybe I’ll Catch Fire – the Alkaline Trio
Also Considered: American Idiot by Green Day
By 2000, I personally had expanded my listening horizons past punk, and if I was going to make a list of all my favorite punk albums most would be from the 90s or earlier. This was the last punk album that really affected me. And this would be the last “punk” album by the Alkaline Trio before they fully transitioned to more of an emo/hard-rock/singer-songwriter sound. Every single track is a banger, an anthem, or a captivating punk ballad. And each song seems to be the story of a different tragedy, whether it’s leaving the town where you grow up, the aftermath of tragic car crash, or the end of romance. It’s exactly the kind of album that hits when you’re transitioning from High School to College. - Missundaztood – Pink
Also Considered: Try This!
Pink’s breakout was a bizarre mix of party anthems and confessionals, and in the case of “Just Like a Pill” somehow both. Though, it wasn’t the first time dance music tried to expand past club anthems, it was the consistency of Pink’s persona that really elevates this – she’s not going to pretend like life isn’t hard, but that’s made her stronger. And she’s going to enjoy it. - Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers – Kendrick Lamar
Also Considered: To Pimp a Butterfly
A rap epic that is 18 songs and over an hour long. It feels like the last great album of not just rap – the last great album period. It’s sprawling concept record in which Kendrick brings up topic after topic – trauma, abusive relationships, therapy, cancel culture, and seemingly everything else about modern life. There are no easy answers but the sonicscapes are immaculate. It’s an album that feels like it could only have been made post-Covid, and post Black Lives Matter movement, but also feels timeless. - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy – Kanye West
Also Considered: the Life of Pablo
Kanye had one of the most amazing strings of albums of all-time, from 808s & Heartbreak to Kids See Ghosts he released six albums without a single weak track (ignoring Watch the Throne as an unneeded Jay-Z collab side project). But MBDTF is Ye’s Magnum Opus. West was never the best MC, which doesn’t matter when more than half the songs have at least one collaborator. It’s a sprawling masterpiece that shows his true gift – rap production. It covers various themes, tempos, and genres but doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. It’s the Pet Sounds/Sgt. Pepper of Hip-Hop. - Satellite Rides – Old 97s
Also Considered: Pneumonia by Whiskeytown
The last perfect album by the Old 97s, there’s not a weak link in the entire track list, despite obvious highlights like “Question” and “King of All the World”. This and the other album considered feel like the swan songs of the original Alt Country/No Depression movement. What would be called “Alt Country” after this would be increasingly poppy or straight-ahead rock (like later Old 97s albums), become more experimental with indie rock and psychedelia, or move back to more traditional country and bluegrass. But for one last time Rhett Miller and company made us feel like the King of all the world. - Sour – Olivia Rodrigo
Also Considered: Guts
What originally started as a joke, that Olivia is Gen-Z Joni Mitchell; doesn’t really seem like a joke anymore. It’s hard to think of anyone else since Joni who’s able to craft such personal, poetic, but yet universal lyrics. While her overall sound is indebted to Taylor Swift, Paramore, the Breeders, and more (and which she has never shied away from); she’s also added her own theatre kid persona to the overall sound. “Brutal” and “good 4 u” might not feel out of place being sung by Hayley Williams but there’s a certain musical theatricality to the vocal phrasing that’s unique to Olivia. She’s already made two basically perfect albums, of which Sour is just slightly better than Guts. - Swimming – Mac Miller
Also Considered: Faces
It’s just impossible to hear this album now as anything other than a swan song from a troubled artist who was just reaching his peak before he died. The majority of the album focuses on Mac’s struggle with sobriety, and even the title Swimming suggests that the struggle will never be over – he would always be swimming against the current, trying to keep his head above water. There’s an easiness and casualness to the rhymes and production on this. Mac isn’t trying to rap a mile a minute; he’s simply telling his story, taking his time doing I,t and asking us if we can be better neighbors to each other. In some cases, he’s even singing more than rapping. It’s the strongest album he ever made and suggested he would have expanded his sound even further, but it would end up being the last record that he would fully complete before his tragic death. - The Black Album – Jay-Z
Also Considered: God’s Son by Nas
This is Jay had the height of his powers. He’s clearly the top MC of the moment and has nothing to prove. On this supposed “final album”, his raps are free and easy – he makes even his most tongue-tying lyrics seem effortless. And he’s backed by some of the best beats legendary producers Just Blaze and Kanye West ever made. We can only imagine if had actually retired after this. It would have sealed his G.O.A.T status, it would have been like Jordan retiring about his second threepeat and never coming back. - The Head and the Heart – the Head and the Heart
Also Considered: Let’s Be Still
I’m not sure I can accurately describe how great this album is. It’s my favorite album by my favorite band. - The Moon & Antarctica – Modest Mouse
Also Considered: Good News for People Who Love Bad News
This is another album that I don’t think I can convey why it’s so great because it’s so personal to me. Modest Mouse has made many classic indie rock albums. But M&A and GNFPWLBN are probably the creme-de-le-crème of their classic albums. This record really hit as was moving from high school to college and even years later, it still affects me. The lyrics actually affected my personal philosophy and what I think about life which is something you can’t say about many albums. - xx- The XX
Also Considered: Coexist
This was such a revelation when I first heard it. A three-piece indie band who played instruments but also included electronic sampling in the DNA of their sound? But what set them apart from bands like Radiohead and Wilco, is they played their instruments like they were samples. Instead of rock band adding electronica flourishes, they were an electronica band adding indie rock flourishes. - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot – Wilco
Also Considered: Treats by Sleigh Bells
This record exists so much in the moment of its time. Wilco’s full-blown turn from Alt-Country to Indie Rock Electronica was completed on this record. But this set of songs just really captured the uneasiness and paranoia of post 9/11 America. The well-known timeline of the album – recorded in 2000, stuck in a label negotiations in 2001, finally officially released in 2002. But by 2001, it was already being downloaded and listened to by many Wilco fans. And it with titles like “Ashes of American Flags” and “War on War” it seemed remarkably prescient. But even devoid of all its bizarrely unique timing, it’s a great album. It’s the Wilco’s best album, their most consistent album, their most important album, and their last great one.
