This isn't the first, or second, or even third, time I've made a similar list, but I feel like updating it with urgency, I'm not entirely sure why.
I have had a surge of affection for the concept of albums in general, for the fact that there are still great albums coming out every year, despite everything.
The album is very much my main format again. That's the funny thing. That's what streaming has done for me, though I know that's not what it's done for most people. When I was on iTunes and iPods, I listened mainly to playlists of my own construction, usually having rapidly sifted the best tracks from albums. Sometimes I've listened to the radio more, sometimes I've used shuffle more.
But I find, with the slightly clunky mechanisms of Sonos and Apple Music, I just want to put on an album, then another album, then another, through my working day. I am very lucky to work with the music I choose on in the background all day.
Often I listen to new albums, usually two or three new ones a week, sometimes more, rarely fewer, usually at least two or three times each, more if I like them, of course. Sometimes I listen to old favourites which catch my memory. Sometimes I go chronologically through the whole, or a large part, of the career of someone major, be it Joni Mitchell or REM or Nick Drake or whoever.
I've noticed that, throughout my life, my primary mode of listening has changed at quite regular intervals. For the first years, it was mainly records in our house, then from about 1988 I mainly listened to cassettes up until about 1998, when it was CDs until around 2006 when downloads took over, up to 2014 when I started streaming. Something new should be coming along anytime! Or maybe I'll go back to records ... unlikely, so expensive. We have a few, but I'm sadly stuck on streaming. Not Spotify, to alleviate my conscience a little.
I started with Top 100 nut have ended up around 200 albums, which covers pretty well the albums since 2000 that I love. I didn't want to leave out anything that I have at any point really loved. I think I've managed a pretty honest list, where I haven't second guessed myself or tried to appear to have more eclectic taste than I do. I am more eclectic in my initial listening than in my loves. if you see what I mean. I revert to the mean, after all.
Talking of which, a few thoughts about artists who, for various reasons, don't appear on the list.
There are people who have made lots of songs I love this century, like Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Maccabees, Girls Aloud, but there just isn't quite an album I've lived with and loved.
And there are people who have created great albums I've enjoyed, but I've not quite felt like they were mine. Foremost among those ... Taylor Swift, Arctic Monkeys, Radiohead. I like all the Radiohead albums this century, but the only Radiohead albums I love are The Bends and OK Computer. Too many other people love 21st century Radiohead for reasons I struggle with. Actually, there's a fantastic recent interview with Thom Yorke, which is in a forthcoming book called The Singers Talk, which really helped me understand why 21st century Radiohead are not quite my thing.
He talks about how much he loves Blood on the Tracks and how Dylan goes - and i think these are pretty much his exact words - all the way with the songwriter thing, whereas he himself can't quite go all the way with the songwriter thing, because he treats song creation too much like painting, and is too interested in the weird sounds.
And really, that's what I feel about a lot of 21st century music, I want people to go all the way with the songwriter thing. There are artists who don't, like Radiohead, but you know that if they did it would be brilliant, but there are a lot of artists who actually couldn't, and i think they do other stuff to get away with the fact they're not actually great songwriters.
A couple of other interesting things from the Thom Yorke interview, while I'm on the subject - seems obvious, but he had classical singing lessons when he was at school, he learnt where to sing from and where to sing to. Also obvious, he takes incredibly good care of his voice, and knows every nuance and every warning sign. Anyway, still, no Radiohead on this list. Not even In Rainbows, not even A Moon Shaped Pool. They are a good band, though. You should check them out.
I wanted to include albums I loved for a time, even if I don't love them anymore. e.g. I wasn't going to include Wilco by Wilco, but I remember how high it figured in my iTunes Most Listened for a few years, and how in the months after it came out, i told people i thought it was a perfect album, but then it just all of a sudden seemed a bit like Wilco-by-numbers. But I did love it, and it's good.
Likewise with Seldom Seen Kid by Elbow, 22 Dreams by Weller. I listened to them a lot for a while. I also remember the album by Monsters of Folk got a lot of iTunes listens, but I can't remember a single song from it, so I have left that off.
I have also left on some albums by some bad guys, discredited, unpleasant guys. There we go. They were albums I loved at a time.
It was going to be 100, then 150, but it's a bit more than 200 in the end. I'm sure there are albums, particularly from the early to mid 2000s, where listening wasn't tracked, either by me or by Apple, quite so well, which should be here, little gems I loved for a few months. So really, the precise number of albums on the list is irrelevant. I should imagine I've listened, all the way through, to approaching 2000 new albums since 2000. This is a good selection.
There are a few interesting trends, though more interesting to me than anyone else, so I won't dwell on them. I'll only mention the albums are pretty evenly distributed, apart from 2011, 2012 and 2013, which have hardly any. I can think of three of four different but linked reasons why which relate to my own listening habits, but, above all, I just genuinely think that is not a great time for albums, or rather, for the kind of albums I like.
But they recovered with a vengeance. Or maybe, perhaps more interestingly, that was the time (mid-30s) I was meant to stop being into new music, like happens to most people, but I stuck it out and got a second wind. Very pleased I did.
So, anyway, I think I've written before about what makes me love an album or think an album is great. It's not that deep. But I do really like a strong second half.
Having relaxed the criteria a little towards the end of the process, I will probably think of a few more ... and think, well obviously I love Radiohead's In Rainbows as much as I like Run the Jewels 2. Who am I kidding? But, anyway, here's my nice list.
- St Cloud - Waxahatchee (2020) - bit of recency bias, but this is my favourite. I've been listening to it solidly since it came out. I just think it's perfect and a joy and a marvel.
- The Trials of Van Occupanther (2006) - Midlake
- Purple Mountains - Purple Mountains (2019) - lyrically, I really think the best album I've ever heard. Line after line, horrible, funny, mathematical, human.
- Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco (2002) - was my favourite album of all time for a while, but has quietly been overtaken.
- More Adventurous - Rilo Kiley (2004)
- Nixon - Lambchop (2000)
- Melodrama - Lorde (2017)
- Have One On Me - Joanna Newsom (2010) - Most albums should have between 9 and 13 songs, be between 33 and 51 minutes. But some get to be different.
- Skeleton Tree - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (2016)
- The Sophtware Slump - Grandaddy (2000)
- Illinois - Sufjan Stevens (2005)
- Song for Our Daughter - Laura Marling (2020)
- The World Won't End - The Pernice Brothers (2001)
- Lapalco - Brendan Benson (2002)
- Busy Guy - Stephen Fretwell (2021)
- A Ghost is Born - Wilco (2004)
- No More Shall We Part - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (2000) - it's funny, really, I almost ended up putting only two Cave albums on this list. See what I said about Radiohead for how I feel about Push the Sky Away, even Ghosteen. This is my favourite Cave - rambling, biblical, almost conventional.
- Free All Angels - Ash (2001)
- The Hour of Bewilderbeast - Badly Drawn Boy (2000). Free All Angels and Bewilderbeast. Like decades haven't happened.
- Alligator - The National (2005)
- The Midnight Organ Fight - Frightened Rabbit (2008)
- Phantom Power - Super Furry Animals (2003) - the best SFA album, I think.
- Want One - Rufus Wainwright (2003)
- 1972 - Josh Rouse (2003)
- Chutes Too Narrow - The Shins (2003)
- Run Come Save Me - Roots Manuva (2001)
- Carrie and Lowell - Sufjan Stevens (2015)
- Blackstar- David Bowie (2016)
- Lemonade - Beyonce (2016) - just, most of the albums I love aren't part of the zeitgeist, and I think I have an active problem if albums belong to too many other people, but Lemonade was really like a cinematic event everyone was invited to, and it lived up to it
- On the Line - Jenny Lewis (2019)
- Hate - The Delgados (2004) Masterpiece of misanthropy
- Ys - Joanna Newsom (2006)
- Nashville - Josh Rouse (2005)
- Modern Times - Bob Dylan (2006)
- Sky Blue Sky - Wilco (2007)
- Lisbon - The Walkmen (2010)
- American Interior - Gruff Rhys (2014)
- Little Black Numbers - Kathryn Williams (2000)
- Funeral - Arcade Fire (2004) In the grisly, creepy end, their only good album.
- Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love - Kara Jackson (2023) This is the highest album from 2023. The title track is such a lovely tune.
- I'm Wide Awake It's Morning - Bright Eyes (2005)
- Strangers - Ed Harcourt (2005)
- Heartbreaker - Ryan Adams (2000)
- The ArchAndroid - Janelle Monae (2010)
- The Ballad of Darren - Blur (2023) I think it's fine to love an album because we're just glad it exists. No doubt this album will fade a little in time, but, right now, I'm so pleased with it.
- Moving Up Country, Roaring the Gospel - James Yorkston and the Athletes (2002)
- Beautiful Collision - Bic Runga (2002)
- The Execution of All Things - Rilo Kiley (2002)
- High Violet - The National (2010)
- Meriweather Post Pavilion - Animal Collective (2009)
- Is This It - The Strokes (2001) Turns out, though I moan about it, I like this album a lot.
- Here Be Monsters - Ed Harcourt (2001)
- The Dreaming Room - Laura Mvula (2016)
- Heaven - The Walkmen (2012)
- O - Damien Rice (2002) Feels pretty discredited, and I've hardly listened to it in 15+ years, but when I did, I realised it was still very good.
- Holes in the Wall - Electric Soft Parade (2002)
- Micah P Hinson and the Gospel of Progress (2004)
- Rough and Rowdy Ways - Bob Dylan (2020)
- Benji - Sun Kil Moon (2014) A great, humane, album which doesn't really hint (although maybe it does at times) at all the bad stuff thart would come out about its maker
- Dear Catastrophe Waitress - Belle and Sebastian (2003)
- Real Life - Joan as Police Woman (2006)
- Cease to Begin - Band of Horses (2007)
- Challengers - New Pornographers (2007) I should like Destroyer more, considering how much I loved the Dan Bejar songs on this. Have never quite loved anything else by either him or the New Porongraphers as much as this one, though.
- To Pimp a Butterfly - Kendrick Lamar (2015)
- 22 Dreams - Paul Weller (2008)
- When the Haar Rolls In - James Yorkston (2008)
- Lifted … - Bright Eyes (2002)
- Asleep in the Back - Elbow (2001) This was 2001 pre-Strokes, my friend John copied me five "new acoustic" albums onto tape - this, Matthew Jay, Turin Brakes, Kings of Convenience, I am Kloot. It was all meant to be the next big thing. I still like Elbow a lot. I think they really tried to sound different from themselves, but were never quite able to.
- Blómi - Suzanne Sundfor (2023) This is from this year, and has some of the most straightforwardly pretty songs I've heard for a long time.
- Back to Black - Amy Winehouse (2006)
- I Speak Because I Can - Laura Marling (2010)
- Divers - Joanna Newsom (2015)
- Awfully Deep - Roots Manuva (2005)
- So Jealous - Tegan and Sara (2004)
- Sometimes I Might be Introvert - Little Simz (2021)
- St Vincent - St Vincent (2014)
- Picaresque - The Decemberists (2005)
- Draw - Matthew Jay (2001)
- The Crane Wife - Decemberists (2006)
- Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes (2008)
- Natalie Prass - Natalie Prass (2015)
- Golden Hour - Kacey Musgraves (2018)
- Gold - Ryan Adams (2001) I still have a weird affection for this album, despite everything and everything else
- Fifth Column - UNPOC (2003)
- I am a Bird Now - Antony and the Johnsons (2005) Also, Anohni and the Johnsons did a great album this year, My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross, the best work since I Am a Bird Now, in my opinion, which could easily be on the list, but I just left out.
- American III: Solitary Man - Johnny Cash (2000)
- A Different Lifetime - Spearmint (2001)
- Give Blood - Brakes (2005) Fun as fuck. Probably the best festival band I ever saw.
- Masseduction - St Vincent (2017)
- The Navigator - Hurray for the Riff-Raff (2017)
- Fetch the Boltcutters - Fiona Apple (2020)
- The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You - Neko Case (2013)
- Legacy! Legacy! - Jamila Woods (2019)
- It Still Moves - My Morning Jacket (2003) The start of this album is one of my all-time favourites. What a sound.
- My Maudlin Career - Camera Obscura (2009)
- Sound of Silver - LCD Soundsystem (2007) In this case, I have probably, unlike in some cases, put an album on because I love some songs in it so much. It's not an album I've enjoyed that much all the way through. That's true of all their albums really.
- The Last Broadcast - Doves (2002)
- Cassadaga - Bright Eyes (2007)
- The Shepherd's Dog - Iron and Wine (2007)
- The Magic Whip - Blur (2014)
- Supreme Clientele - Ghostface Killah (2000)
- Surf - Roddy Frame (2002)
- True Meanings - Paul Weller (2018)
- May Your Kindness Remain - Courtney Marie Andrews (2018)
- Love and Theft - Bob Dylan (2001)
- Psychodrama - Dave (2019)
- Up the Bracket - The Libertines (2002)
- Rings Around the World - Super Furry Animals (2001)
- Popular Problems - Leonard Cohen (2014)
- American IV: The Man Comes Around - Johnny Cash (2002)
- Arular - MIA (2005)
- Final Straw - Snow Patrol (2003)
- World Without Tears - Lucinda Williams (2003)
- Open Season - Sea Power (2005)
- Helplessness Blues - Fleet Foxes (2011)
- SOS - SZA (2022) This is such an impressive album, and, though a bit long, such an enjoyable listen. To meet, even surpass, expectation when there's hype, to make something so commercial but rich in songs. To me, this album reminds me of Back to Black.
- All is Dream - Mercury Rev (2001) If the list started a year or two earlier, Deserter's Songs would be Top 20. As would The Soft Bulletin. Those are the main two which feel like they belong to, and set a template for, this century but I can't include.
- Tom McRae - Tom McRae (2000)
- Modern Vampires of the City - Vampire Weekend (2012). Mixed feelings about Vampire Weekend, very similar to Franz Ferdinand - super-fun indie crossover bands, both of which I've seen, and hugely enjoyed, twice (in fact, the Franz Ferdinand Benicassim set may be the best festival headliner I've ever seen) but, though I like all their albums, just, they're not quite mine. But I think this is their best.
- Semper Femina - Laura Marling (2017) All her albums are great. This one, which I thought merely decent at the time, has really stayed witth me.
- Autofiction - Suede (2022) It's so good, last year's Suede album. Honestly. So much oomph.
- Vulnerabilia - My Computer (2002) Strange outlier from the early 2000s. If this had really taken hold, my taste would be completely different by now.
- Hoodies All Summer - Kano (2019)
- A Certain Trigger - Maximo Park (2005)
- Kids in Philly - Marah (2000) I remember what a big album this was for me - American barroom rock, or whatever you call it. The song Round Eye Blues, honestly, I think it's one of the best songs ever, as good as anything Springsteen has ever done. "I still sense the circling danger of those invisible bastards on a piss-hot day". I love that line.
- First Love - Emmy the Great (2009)
- The Seldom Seen Kid - Elbow (2008)
- Pre Pleasure - Julia Jacklin (2022)
- Wilco - Wilco (2009)
- Metals - Feist (2011)
- Anniemal - Annie (2004)
- Stay Gold - First Aid Kit (2014)
- A Seat at the Table - Solange Knowles (2016)
- Two Ribbons - Let's Eat Grandma (2022) This band should rename themselves. This album is so sad.
- Fold Your Hands, Child, You Walk Like a Peasant - Belle and Sebastian (2000)
- Big Time - Angel Olsen (2022)
- The Order of Time - Valerie June (2017)
- The Great Eastern - The Delgados (2000)
- Stereo/Mono - Paul Westerberg (2002)
- From Every Sphere - Ed Harcourt (2003) I loved this for a year or two much more than its placing suggests.
- KC Rules OK - King Creosote (2005)
- Out of Season - Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man (2002)
- Original Pirate Material - The Streets (2002)
- Rewind the Film/Futurology - Manic Street Preachers (2013) This is two albums released in the same year - it was the point that really strengthened my love of the Manics. How much they still cared, this far into their career.
- I Never Learn - Lykke Li (2014)
- Think Tank - Blur (2003) I am a big Think Tank apologist. Has one of the best moods of all Blur albums. Actually prefer it to 13.
- Are We There - Sharon van Etten (2014)
- All Days are Nights - Rufus Wainwright (2010)
- The Tipping Point - Tears for Fears (2022)
- Old Ideas - Leonard Cohen (2012)
- Push the Sky Away - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (2013)
- Wincing the Night Away - The Shins (2006)
- 4.44 - Jay-Z (2017)
- Vulnicura - Bjork (2015)
- I Love you Jennifer B - Jockstrap (2022)
- The Cellardyke Recording and Wassailing Society (2014) James Yorkston. Yorkston and Marling are the two best British singer-songwriters this century, for me.
- Let it Come Down - Spiritualized (2001) This was the first Spiritualized album after Ladies and Gentlemen, and revealed their relative feet of clay, but it's still got some lovely songs.
- Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand (2004)
- Someone to Drive You Home - The Long Blondes (2006)
- The King is Dead - The Decemberists (2011)
- Boy in Da Corner - Dizzee Rascal (2003)
- Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea - PJ Harvey (2000)
- Cast of Thousand - Elbow (2003) This is a good example of something. I added this at the last minute. I'd really forgotten that I listened to it a lot. I had condensed it to a couple of songs (Fugitive motel and Switching Off) but actually, I used to love the whole album. Elbow have a long tail of 7.5 albums, but their first 4 are 8.5s.
- Hotel Shampoo - Gruff Rhys (2011)
- No Cities to Love - Sleater-Kinney (2015)
- Is a Woman - Lambchop (2002)
- Mid Air - Paul Buchanan (2012)
- I Walked With You a Ways - Plains (2022)
- Through the Windowpane - Guillemots (2006) The Guillemots were quickly swallowed by hype and became part of the landfill indie story, but I really really love a few of the songs on this album.
- Silent Alarm - Bloc Party (2005)
- Magpie - Stephen Fretwell (2004)
- From Scotland with Love - King Creosote (2014)
- The New Abnormal - The Strokes (2020)
- The Good, The Bad and the Queen (2007) I wasn't going to include this or any Gorillaz, because I always listen to them and wish it was Blur. But I listened to this album a lot. Albarn may have released more good/very good albums than anyone else this century.
- Renaissance - Beyonce (2022)
- Lost Souls - Doves (2000)
- 100 Broken Windows - Idlewild (2000)
- Loss - Mull Historical Society (2001)
- Master and Everyone - Bonnie "Prince" Billy (2003)
- The Sunset Trees - Mountain Goats (2005)
- LP1 - FKA Twigs (2014)
- Journal for Plague Lovers - Manic Street Preachers (2009)
- Boys Outside - Steve Mason. One of the best uses of his sad and lovely voice (2010)
- You Could Have It So Much Better with Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand. The first two FF albums are both supernice, now I think about it (2005)
- Relationship of Command - At the Drive-In (2000)
- Yeezus - Kanye West. Don't know, really. Kanye West is one of the worst people of the century, and I couldn't contemplate listening to his stupid voice now, but this album felt like a shock of brilliance for a while (2013)
- Red Dirt Girl - Emmylou Harris (2000)
- The End of History - Fionn Regan (2006)
- The Greatest - Cat Power (2006)
- Rips - Ex Hex (2014)
- Any Other City -Life without Buildings (2001)
- Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky - Porridge Radio (2022)
- The Liberty of Norton Folgate - Madness (2009)
- Love & Hate - Michael Kiwanuka. This wasn't the one that won the Mercury, but I think this is the best Kiwanuka album. Such a rich sound (2016)
- Weathervanes - Jason Isbell (2023)
- Scissor Sisters - Scissor Sisters. Definitely liked the Scissor Sisters until everyone else liked them (2014)
- American Band - Drive-By Truckers (2016)
- The Glare - David McAlmont and Michael Nyman. This is a brilliant, one-off album. McAlmont writes and songs about news stories (2009)
- This is Hope - Mull Historical Society (2004)
- I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too - Martha Wainwright (2008)
- Rabbit Fur Coat - Jenny Lewis (2006)
- The Whole Love - Wilco. Even at this stage, Wilco were making really good albums (2011)
- Queen of Denmark - John Grant (2010)
- Ease Down the Road - Bonnie "Prince" Billy (2001)
- Night Falls Over Kortedala - Jens Lekman (2007)
- Do You Like Rock Music? - Sea Power (2008)
- Hot Shots II - The Beta Band (2001) The last two Beta Band albums were both really good. Not as good as the three Eps, but really good.
- The Reminder - Feist (2007)
- Razorlight - Razorlight (2006) Razorlight became the biggest joke, but their first album was a sharp shock of sweet powerpop.
- Run the Jewels 2 - Run the Jewels (2014)
- Nothing is Wrong - Dawes (2011)
- The Blueprint - Jay-Z (2001)
- Humanz - Gorillaz (2017)
- United by Fate - Rival Schools (2001)
