This is the sound of a relationship ending. The final album between Richard and Linda Thompson, it’s often heartbreaking but always great.
Full of ten minute songs, killer thrash riffs, and a ton of shredding, this album seemed tailor made for me. One of the past decades best metal albums start to finish.
Santana’s second album picked up right where their debut left off just slightly improved. This was a band coming into their own artistically and commercially, and no one plays quite like Carlos.
Not nearly as well known as the albums preceding it, Sly and company’s best album is deep hazy funk. It’s a slightly tighter and more focused continuation of what they started with There’s a Riot Going On.
After years of being a pub rock band, David Coverdale’s group got an 80s makeover and they proceeded to dominate the charts. Coverdale’s voice is in fine form, and “Still of the Night” remains one of the best rock songs of the 80s.
Following the murder of BDP co-founder Scott La Rock, KRS-One got serious. Adopting the persona of the teacher he proceeded to spread his message over some of the most meaningful rap music of the time.
This is the album that helped break The Black Keys to the mainstream. Considerably more polished than their earlier records, the songs are still soulful and tight. Dan Auerbach’s voice continues to be a national treasure.
This is easily the best thing in bluegrass music history. The legendary Flatt and Scruggs pull no punches for nearly 25 minutes of banjo picking instrumental glory. I dare you not to yell “Yee-hah!” at the top of your lungs when listening to this.
Basement Jaxx didn’t really do anything new on their third album, but they delivered their third straight great album, and in my opinion their best. Anytime you sample Arsenio Hall in Coming to America, on the album highlight “Supersonic” you’ve made me a fan.
The first appearance on this list of the greatest band that ever existed. As much of a hot mess as any Beatles album would be, but hiding behind all the dysfunction are some of their best songs, including the all time greatest which happens to be the title track.
One of the strangest and most well regarded albums of the past decade, this is Wilco doing what they wanted to do. Messy and disjointed at times, there are some truly great songs hiding underneath. One of those albums that just gets better with each listen.
Amy Winehouse might have been a monstrous train wreck of a person during her all too short life, but for one brief moment she achieved perfection on record. Back to Black doesn’t have a bad song on it, and it seems genuinely surprising all of the tracks are originals. Truly timeless and wonderful.
Between the Buttons was the last great album of the Stones' early era, and only a slight drop off from the masterpiece that was Aftermath. Like that previous album this had differing US and UK versions. For the sake of this list, I’m selecting the US release which features the classic singles “Let’s Spend the Night Together” and “Ruby Tuesday”. Between the Buttons showed the Stones trying to be popular and succeeding wildly. Sure they became the world’s greatest rock band when they stopped giving a shit and did whatever the hell they felt like, but when it came to an arms race with their peers, the Stones were more than up to the challenge.
This album sounds very much like a product of it’s time, but hard to find more perfectly produced pop from the early 80s. Sonically this has the makings of a concept album, full of nothing but stellar songs.
A hard driving techno album that helped set the stage for all the “next big thing” hype surrounding the band. This seems like the kind of techno album a death metal band might come out with, “pure sonic terrorism” to borrow a phrase.
This is Morrissey’s best work since his time in The Smiths, and might just be his hardest rocking, at least by Morrissey standards. Some of the best songs he ever wrote are here including “You’re the One for Me, Fatty” and “I Know It’s Gonna Happen Someday”.
There were plenty of good country albums in the 80s, but no one ever came close to the type of monstrous success Garth Brooks got after this album was released. Nearly half of the songs on this album have become standards, and it’s pretty hard after a few beers not to sing along with “Friends in Low Places”.
Arch Enemy was hardly a new band when they released Wages of Sin, but it was their first with new female vocalist Angela Gossow. This simple addition injected new life into what was in all honesty a pretty pedestrian and forgettable death metal band. This is some of the catchiest death metal of the decade, led by Gossow’s blood curdling vocals and the superior shredding of Mike Ammott. Along with his brother Chris, the Ammott boys are at their peak as songwriters, delivering classic after classic. This album is unrelenting, thanks in part to Daniel Erlandsson’s drumming.
Pleasures was Ochs fourth album, and saw him branch out to include Dixieland jazz as well as classical music with his own sarcastic brand of folk music. Unlike nearly everyone else recording at the same time, Ochs resisted the urge to incorporate psychedelia into his brand of music. The single “Outside of a Small Circle of Friends” is as witty, sarcastic, and catchy as any protest song from the decade. Every other track is absolutely perfect, it’s an album that manages to make you think, feel, and somehow never seems to be too preachy.
It wasn’t their first album, but it was certainly their breakthrough. With Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks on board they delivered one of the defining albums of the decade. Almost every song was a classic and it laid the groundwork for their next blockbuster album.
I’ll admit that it is sort of a toss up which Coldplay album is their best, but I’m going on record and saying it’s their second. “The Scientist” is easily one of their two best songs, but the rest of the album massively exceeded expectations. There would be no sophomore slump for these guys.
Michelle Branch’s debut was easily the best thing to come out of the millennial pop boom. What made this album remarkable is the fact that Branch was in many cases the sole songwriter here, including the hit singles “All You Wanted” and “Goodbye to You”. People might be a little reminiscent of the singles on this album, but every song could have been a top ten hit. My personal favorite has always been “You Get Me” which is about as pretty of a song as you’ll find about liking that slightly weird girl. Her voice, complete with some stellar harmony vocals really carries the thing through and seemed to herald the arrival of a new superstar. Unfortunately Branch can join a long list of artists who never quite lived up to the promise of their debut.
John Zorn assembled a group of freakishly talented jazz musicians to play borderline insane music set to blast beats with occasional screaming from a Japanese man. Nothing about this should work, but it’s absolutely brilliant.
Time out of Mind was something of a revelation, a comeback album that showed the old man still had it, Love and Theft was that old man knowing he had it, and having the time of his life with it. His backing band rocks harder than any he’s ever had (including The Band), and lyrically this is right on par with any of his 60s work. What’s incredible is he turned 60 just before releasing this album, proving once and for all he’s still capable of topping any of his contemporaries.
The best album from Funkadelic also proved to be Clinton’s most popular. More politically conscious than most of his earlier albums this still brings the funk in a big way.
The Grateful Dead’s best studio album owed far more to Crosby, Stills, and Nash than to psychedelic drugs. The Dead embraced their roots with some great country, folk, and blues featuring some great vocal harmonies to boot.
Slightly less personal than Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Summerteeth was Wilco at their polished best. They were gradually moving away from their country roots into pop territory and the results are positively enchanting.
Although they released four albums before, for many Cowboys from Hell was Pantera’s debut. Dimebag Darrell made the case that he might just be the best metal guitarist ever here, particularly with one of the all time great solos in “Cemetery Gates”.
The album that brought Frank Zappa his first hit single, Apostrophe is a musical soul mate to Overnite Sensation. Zappa got silly but also wrote some of the most mindbogglingly complex music to go along with the borderline comedy songs.
Two of Brooklyn’s finest MC’s came together in 1998 to help return hip-hop to it’s more socially conscious roots. Incredible lyrical skill throughout, this helped remind people that rap wasn’t just about pretending to be a gangster.
The first Allman Brothers album without Duane Allman was arguably their best. Featuring the monstrously popular “Ramblin’ Man” and “Jessica” the rest of the album was a showcase for Dickey Betts while still keeping their Southern sound in tact.
It seemed inevitable that Jay-Z and Kanye West would eventually make an entire album together but it’s safe to say the album was a bit stranger than most people would have expected. Jay-Z has always brought out the best in Kanye the rapper and Kanye always provided the best beats for Jay. An odd but compelling marriage of the two greats.
Janis Joplin’s voice always seemed a bit too powerful for Big Brother and the Holding Company. Her one official solo album set out to correct that, and her vocal talents were never showcased better.
Speaking of vocal talents, by the time Roxy Music got around to making Avalon it was essentially a Bryan Ferry solo album. His vision for the band was incredibly romantic and the songs on here set the band off with one last great swan song.
This was the first album to feature all original material from Jagger and Richards and they quickly showed they were ready for the responsibility. “Paint it Black” is still one of the band’s best songs, and the rest of the album makes the case that this was the best of their pre-Beggars era.
Marquee Moon is the most guitar-centric album of the New Wave boom of 1977. Tom Verlaine and company aren’t afraid to venture into long instrumental sections yet somehow this never seems to touch on the excessive prog rock that all those punks were determined to rebel against.
An orchestral pop masterpiece, this combines all the best experimental instincts of The Flaming Lips with more focus and tighter arrangements. Lyrically Wayne Coyne got much more personal and honest to compliment the often grand songs.
After a brief flirtation with blue-eyed soul, Kevin Rowland took over Dexy’s Midnight Runners and remade them in his own unique vision. Long billed as a one hit wonder in the US for the absolutely perfect “Come on Eileen” they were superstars in England, and nearly every other track on this album could and should have been as big of a hit for them.
I’ll be honest with you, I’m not entirely sure how to describe this album to someone who has never heard it. It flows together like a concept album, but it’s anyone’s guess just what that concept might be. Wonderfully detailed yet low-fi this album is a string of contradictions that somehow work together.
Toys in the Attic was when Aerosmith really came into their own as a band. Iconic and timeless it features two of their biggest hits “Walk This Way” and “Sweet Emotion”, but it’s the rest of the album that’s worth listening to. There’s no shortage of immature word play on “Big Ten Inch Record” and “Adam’s Apple”, but the highlight is the album closer “You See Me Crying”.
They rarely toured, and only released two albums so even among death metal fans there might be some head scratching as to who the hell Vehemence was. Their second official album is brutal melodic death metal. The riffs are tight, with plenty of guitar harmonies to go along with those Cookie Monster vocals.
This album was an inescapable monster upon it’s release four years ago, and once you give it some time it isn’t hard to remember why. 21 showcases one of the best vocalists of our generation singing sad morose songs that can’t help but produce an emotional response.
He might not have succeeded in ever becoming the next big thing, but Marshall Crenshaw’s debut is some of the catchiest guitar pop of the 80s. “Someday Someway” should have been a number one single, but it’s far from the only highlight.
Rick James was feeling the funk on Street Songs. Sure everybody knows “Super Freak” but “Give It To Me Baby” is damn near the best thing ever. Along the way, James probably fueled up on cocaine and breezed through some of the catchiest and funkiest music of his career.
This album might be nearly perfect on paper but years of being exposed to classic rock radio has rendered a few of these songs tiresome. Once again borrowing heavily if not outright stealing from old blues songs, Zep helped set the bar for rock music in the upcoming decade.
I’m sure I’m on the short list of people who think this album is superior to It Takes a Nation of Millions, but this is an opinion I’ve always had. PE was in full form and they took aim at nearly everything with that relentless Bomb Squad production that was even more aggressive this time around.
Pink Floyd’s follow up to Dark Side of the Moon suffers some of the same fate that Zeppelin’s second album does. “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” is their loving and brilliant tribute to former leader Syd Barrett and it’s at least one part of the album that never gets stale.
Released in 2000, Outkast made a very convincing claim to the throne as best rap act of the new decade. Occasionally plagued by one too many skits, the songs themselves are uniformly strong, particularly the singles “Ms. Jackson”, “So Fresh, So Clean”, and “B.O.B.”
Andrew Bird’s best album plays like a tour through 20th Century American music. He shows his incredible songwriting range and adaptability ranging from country to jazz. “How Indiscreet” is the easy choice for my favorite Bird song.
It might seem inexplicable to say an instrumental guitar album was a top ten hit, but such was the quality of Joe Satriani’s breakthrough. Recorded by himself with a drum machine, Satch repeatedly demonstrates that he doesn’t need any assistance when his songs and melodies are this great.
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