Inspired by the recent NYT list and poll on the top 10 films of the 21st century what are your top 10 albums of the century (so far)?

Here are mine in no real order. I kept it at just one album per artist with a slight cheat in including both a White Stripes and Jack White album. Without the limitation I'd probably include 2 if not 3 Fiona Apple albums.

Fetch the Bolt Cutters - Fiona Apple
RAP Music - Killer Mike
Sometimes I Might Be Introvert - Little Simz
White Blood Cells - The White Stripes
American Idiot - Green Day
Blunderbuss - Jack White
Back to Black - Amy Winehouse
Marshall Matthews LP - Eminem
Toxicity - System of a Down
Stankonia - Outkast

No order
Black Sabbath - 13
Chickenfoot
Stones - Blue And Lonesome
Savoy Brown - Voodoo Moon
Robert Plant - Dreamland
New Riders Purple Sage - 17 Pine Avenue
Little Feat - Rooster Rag
Hot Tuna - Steady As She Goes
Blue Oyster Cult - Curse of The Hidden Mirror
Tom Petty - Mojo

..and....GET OFF MY LAWN!!!

I wouldn't attempt listing these in any specific order and I know I'll think of a few more I'm currently forgetting.

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Diego Garcia - Laura
Jedi Mind Tricks - Violent By Design
Beck - Sea Change
John Grant - Queen of Denmark
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Lemonheads - Varshons
Josh Ritter - Hello Starling
Bright Eyes - I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning

Aimee Mann - Bachelor #2 or Lost in Space (I go back and forth between these two)
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine
Lucinda Williams - Essence
Cat Power - The Greatest
Norah Jones - Come Away With Me
Sarah Jarosz - Build Me Up from Bones
James Taylor - October Road
Tom Waits - Blood Money
Damien Rice - O

Honorable Mentions:

Sara Watkins - Young in the all the Wrong Ways
I'm With Her - Wild and Clear and Blue
Keb' Mo' - The Door

Bob Dylan - Love And Theft
Joanna Newsome - Ys
Tool - 10,000 Days
Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour
Bob Dylan - Rough And Rowdy Ways
Iron Maiden - A Matter Of Life And Death
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
Radiohead - Kid A
Radiohead - Amnesiac
Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me

Thought Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots was from the 1990s or that would have made my list.

Van Halen - A Different Kind Of Truth
Black Sabbath - 13
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse
Jello Biafra and Melvins - Sieg Howdy!
Franz Ferdinand/Sparks - FFS
Black Mountain - IV
Tool - Fear Inoculum
Steven Wilson - The Raven That Refused To Sing
Arctic Monkeys - AM

I don't know if I'd call them top 10, but these come to mind for me, in no particular order.

Dead Heart Bloom: Chelsea Diaries
Metronomy: The English Riviera
Kings of Leon: Youth & Young Manhood
Guy Garvey: Courting the Squall
Flight of the Conchords: self titled
Philip Glass: The Complete Piano Etudes (Maki Namekawa, piano)
The White Stripes: Elephant
Ray Bryant: In the Back Room
Amy Winehouse: Back to Black
Maroon 5: Songs About Jane (though I've soured on this because Adam Levine can apparently be an asshole)

Opeth - Blackwater Park
Opeth - Ghost Reveries
Opeth - Watershed
Nightwish - Once
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This is actually kind of hard to come up with full albums that deserve spots in such a list. I've also got a kind of brain fog when it comes to 21st century popular culture, when everything just sort of turns into a big soup.

Also doesn't help that this the is the iTunes/mp3/Youtube/streaming era where there's more of a emphasis on individual songs and playlists than albums. I hear a lot of songs, but not necessarily full albums.

Confield
Draft 7.30
Untilted
Quaristice
Oversteps
Move of Ten
Exai
elseq1-5
Sign
Plus

honorable mentions:
NTS Sessions 1-4
AE_LIVE 2016/2018
AE_2022—

Too soon for meaningful lists.


For context, I likely would not recogzine anything on a "top 10 albums of the 20th century" compiled in the year 1925.

In no order:

Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace

Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP

Kanye West - The College Dropout

Bon Jovi - Have A Nice Day

Metallica - Death Magnetic

Kaleo - A/B

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium

50 Cent - Get Rich Or Die Tryin

Green Day - American Idiot

The Offspring - Conspiracy Of One

I don’t really know that I have ten truthfully. I also listen to less music now than I used to. Some of my favorites though would be:

Green Day: American Idiot
The White Stripes: Icky Thump
Pearl Jam: Backspacer
Foo Fighters: Wasting Light

I could throw in more Pearl Jam and Foo Fighters but I tried to limit to one each and I think those are my favorites by them respectively.

Think of it as Top 10 albums (or movies like the NYT thing) of the 21st Century... so far (ie. first quarter of the century).
Not sure about you, but I'm very doubtful I'll be here in Jan. 1, 2100 to post my top albums of the 21st Century anything.

No clue without pouring over the collection. Probably some Dream Theater, Nightwish, Pain of Salvation, Ayreon, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd on there.

that being said there is one album I just discovered last summer that would absolutley make the list and probably be in my Top 5 - All time:

Gorillaz - Demon Days

I'm way late to the party but it's just perfection, beginning to end.

Best thing I could do was go to Discogs and sort my collection by release year, newest first. Here are 10 albums in my collection, released after 2000 that I really really like:

Green Day - American Idiot
Ex Hex - Rips
Charly Bliss - Young Enough
The Dollyrots - Eat My Heart Out
Fountains of Wayne - Welcome Interstate Managers
The Longshot - Love is for Losers
Juniper - S/T
Tacocat - NVM
Death by Unga Bunga - Pineapple Pizza
Descendents - Hypercaffium Spazzinate

two honorable mentions:
The Primitives - Spin-O-Rama
Tinted Windows - S/T

It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, I actually took several albums OFF the list as I was way over 10.

I like that first Ex Hex album quite a bit. I didn't think the second one was nearly as good.

Seeing "American Idiot" a lot here. Aside from the title track and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," that album didn't really grab me. I should probably revisit it at some point.

Will have to think about this a bit, as we've kind of strayed away from the album these days. It'll probably be mostly European bands for me. A few that come to mind:

My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade
Nightwish - Dark Passion Play (I also dig their others for the most part)
Sabaton - The Art of War
Edge of Paradise - Prophecy
Delain - The Human Contradiction
Battle Beast - Battle Beast
Butch Walker - The Spade (also like most of his other albums)
Beyond the Black - Beyond the Black
Halestorm - The Strange Case of...

Hence the appearance of Rips on my list, and not It's Real. I do like the second one though, but yeah, not as much as the first. Rips was definitely influenced by late 70s power pop (when I saw them on that tour, they played a song by The Real Kids, and I wanna say Sweet too). It's Real seemed to be more in the vein of Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, that earlier 70s hard rock that was just short of heavy metal. Which is also good. But not as good as power pop.

"Jesus of Suburbia" is an absolute masterpiece of a song, and to this day the band feels it's the best thing they've ever done. It reminds me a lot of The Who's "A Quick One While He's Away", in that it's 4-5 songs strung together as one. But it's not as easy as just playing 4-5 songs back to back; the piece has an ebb and flow to it, almost theatrical. Hell, not almost theatrical, it is theatrical. Just as The Who bangs and crashes their way through the "You Are Forgiven" finale of their opus (and seriously, just check YouTube for the version of it from the Rolling Stones' Rock and Roll Circus...rumor is the performance so overshadowed the host Stones' songs, the show was unreleased for many years), the finale of "Jesus" is rock and roll power to its highest degree.

The album would have made my list if that was the only song on it, it's that good.

I'll also throw in that American Idiot as a whole shows that punk rock is not just some simple 3-chord diversionary offshoot of "real" rock and roll. I mean, yes it can be, the Ramones made a career (sort of) on it. But it can also be used as a story telling medium, an arc, a theme. I know, Husker Du did it first with Zen Arcade, but that friggin record is all over the place. It's great, no argument there, but it's not as cohesive as Idiot. Green Day's record is an achievement that will likely always be in the talk of best punk rock albums ever. And yes, it's better than fucking Dookie, I don't care what the sales numbers are.

Jesus of Suburbia is definitely the gem of the album but my personal favorite (incase you go for just a few tracks avoiding the huge singles on the album in your re evaluation ) is Letterbomb.

I went through Discogs sorted by year and picked out a few titles I’d put in the running. Point of order: like some others have said, I listen to a lot of music on streaming or hear on the radio that I don’t have the album for even with how much I enjoy the specific singles.


I ended up with more than 10, I’ll note the absolute best as I go:

2000: The O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack. In my childhood I would spend time in the summers with family in West Virginia where they belonged to a very conservative church (a half step to the left of Mennonites) and all church singing was always a cappella and when I first heard the music in this film it took me right back to my childhood.

Another soundtrack for this year: The Phantom Menace Ultimate Edition. Two discs of some of the saga’s best music. No matter what you think of the movie, the score (especially the show stopper Duel of the Fates) is an absolute winner.


2001 - Since I Left You by The Avalanches. This is one I’ll call out as a cream of the crop title. Combining samples from hundreds and hundreds of various songs, dialog and spoken word recordings, this album creates an amazing journey through life, love and loss. While they have released two more albums of similar songs, none of reached the height of soulful longing like the title track or the psychotropic descent into madness of Frontier Psychiatry.

2002
Once More With Feeling from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I wasn’t even that big of a Buffy fan. The wife and I enjoyed watching it but we weren’t super fans. But this episode was a standout in an already well written show. It is one of the few times I’ve gone to Best Buy on release day for a music CD. To this day snippets of the songs still resonate in my mind and remind me of the days of a past fandom.

Come Away With Me, Norah Jones - my second standout album. Yes, she’s a nepo baby, but the talent is there. It is unmistakably there, no matter what you think of the material the voice cannot be denied. From the breakout single Don’t Know Why, to the whisper-on-the-wind title track, Norah bring you into the sorrow in her heart.

2003 - special mention: Let It Be… Naked. I wasn’t really a Beatles super fan at the time this came out, but for some reason I was compelled to buy it. The stripped down songs certainly hew closer to what we usually expected of the Fab Four, but it’s still not quite there. I believe that somewhere in between the original release and … Naked lies the perfect version of LIB, but I don’t know how they can get there. In the meantime I'll gladly own both versions.

Sarah McLachlan Remixed. (Special mention). Another artist I wasn’t a super fan of but several years after it was released I stumbled across it at a thrift store and recognized a few tracks so I bought it. I took it to work where I had my own office at the time, and started playing it on my work computer over a little pair of desktop speakers.

I played it for three weeks. I mean that I would start the album to playing when I got into work and I kept it on repeat all day, every day for at least three weeks solid if not longer. Only pausing for phone calls and such. The album enchanted me that much.


2004
Barenaked for the Holidays, by Bare Naked Ladies. As an atheist, I have a fraught relationship with Christmas. I love so much of the music, and the tv specials and movies (Christmas Vacation is a top movie for me) but the religious aspect does bother me. This album is a welcome pause from much of the other music that gets played on the radio, by adding in non spiritual tracks about the season and even some Hannakuh songs, it creates a festive atmosphere that feels a smidge more inclusive and welcoming.
And of course the duet with Sarah McLachlan is the standout showcase of talent.

Has Been by William Shatner (special mention). While his past singing efforts fell short, to put it mildly, Shatner has a new direction here as he is guided through the project by Ben Folds. The standout track is the former Captain Kirk’s cover of Common People. His halting delivery gives the track a distance from reality that allows the song to hold it’s own outside of the canon of the life experience.

2005
Extraordinary Machine, Fiona Apple. I still would like to hear the other version someday, if she ever cleans it up for an official release, but the released version is of course a clear winner for inclusion on a top 10 list. Fiona is occasionally playful, even the title track seems a depressing litany of grievances but her voice dances across the scale while the music keeps her walking down the sidewalk of life.

Ben Folds Five, Whatever and Ever Amen Remastered (special mention). The seminal album from piano man Ben Folds gets a cleanup and some bonus tracks (including the charming lounge cover of She Don’t Use Jelly)

2008
Volume 1 She & Him. This unique sound from actress Zoey Deschanel and singer/songwriter M. Ward blend folk and pop in fun ways that still stay with you in a way that will surprise and delight you. (Special mention)

2009
The Beatles in Stereo. It’s the Beatles, in a big beautiful box with all the albums given a fresh coat of sonic paint. (Special Mention)

2014
R.E.M. Unplugged. A double disc of their two Unplugged shows, with two of my favorite tracks from the band: their sugary sweet cover of The Love is All Around us, and their almost dirge like re-do of their own The One I Love.


2019 -
Monster Remasterd, R.E.M. - One of the minority of fans that truly love the album, and the remixed version of the album on the second disc of the box set may have helped the album land better with the general music population as it tones down some of the harshness while keeping the fury and power of the tracks.


2021 - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan remastered. I thought I knew this score. I have watched the movie so many times over the past 40 plus years, I actually thought I knew this score. I did not.

When I played this CD for the first time, I heard instruments I didn’t even know existed. If you like James Horner and Star Trek, this is must buy.

2022
More remasters that I wanted to mention
R.E.M. Chronic Town. While the tracks were stuffed on another album, this represents the first time the EP has been issued as a standalone release and I had to have it for my collection in this form factor.
It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, Vince Guaraldi - after the discovery of some long missing tracks a few years ago, the Guaraldi and Schultz families have been putting out long requested versions of these scores in much higher quality than previous releases.
Norah Jones, Come Away With Me Remastered - the original album was already a masterpiece, with this remaster you can hear the clunk of the piano keys against the strings as it makes its note and it is an amazing experience.


2023
Two more cover/compilations
Mickey Dolenz covers R.E.M. - fun stuff, could have been longer.
Dolly Parton - Rockstar. Dolly’s voice is showing some age, but she has used it for decades now as blue collar country icon and she has earned the chance to stretch her wings. Not all the tracks are winners, but the good ones are absolutely worth listening to. Her cover of What’s Up with Linda Perry herself is a personal favorite.


This post was written while listening to Apple’s Extraordinary Machine (damn this is good) and while high as a kite, so please forgive any writing errors or just plain weirdness. I’ll revise tomorrow after I sleep this off.