74. Ambulance LTD – LP
Ambulance LTD have wrote an album which is best served as a guide to the past 20 years of rock music, the album has some incredibly catchy songs and riffs namely on the opening instrumental track ‘Yoga Means Union’. Its surprising to hear so many different styles of music on one album which I can only help but feel that was part of the reason most of the band kept on changing, only 1 remaining member from this recording still plays in the band, they have yet to work on a follow up to this album so it stands as the lone testament to Ambulance LTD’s legacy.
Listen To: Primitive (The Way I Treat You)
73. Miike Snow – Miike Snow
Miike Snow have more than likely appeared on one or several blogs you have already read, their debut album is a brilliant mix of pop songs played on live electronic instruments, something to be seen live to get the full experience. They have produced and written some of the biggest pop songs of the past decade for people including Britney, J-Lo, Kylie, Kelis and the Sugarbabes. This album shows that they have saved some more interested songs back for themselves.
Listen To: Animal
72. The Cribs – Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever
The Cribs finally came to age on their third album, the first two showed great promise and had some amazing songs but the variation in song quality always meant you skipped half the album. ‘Men’s Needs…’ finally showed us that they can record a great album, the Wakefield trio got in Alex Kapranos from Franz Ferdinand to produce it and brought in Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo for vocal duties on ‘Be Safe’ which is definitely the album’s highpoint.
Listen To: Men’s Needs
71. Super Furry Animals – Rings Around The World
SFA OK! Rings around the world was their first release since the demise of Creation and is a perfect example of the great music that the Super Furry Animals produce. They credited Paul McCartney on ‘Receptacle of the Respectable’ for providing celery and carrot, tracks like ‘Sidewalk Surfer Girl’ and ‘Rings Around The World’ make this the strongest album SFA made in the last decade.
Listen To: Juxtapozed with U
70. Beta Band – Hot Shots II
Beta Band unfortunately split up over the past decade, however luckily for us they released Hot Shots II before they called it a day, the final track ‘Eclipse’ has some of the strangest lyrics but summarises exactly why Beta Band are genius, listen to it once and you will get the weird and wonderfully stoned world of the Beta Band. I also danced on stage with Steve Mason once but that’s another story altogether….
Listen To: Squares
69. The Strokes – First Impressions of Earth
When you become the biggest Rock band in the world after two albums each 30 minutes long, you have to work a bit harder on your follow-up. So when ‘First Impressions’ was launched and weighed in at 50 minutes long it seemed they had done a double album! With a heavier sound, better production and riff’s that Nick Valensi has clearly worked on whilst not going solo! Julian seems more confident with cleaner vocals that make ‘First Impressions of Earth’ a perfect example of the beauty that is beholded in the Strokes.
Listen To: Ize Of The World
68. N.E.R.D. – In Search Of
Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams’ first album juxtaposes the mixture between R&B and rock music, using a live band to record the backing music they brought a power attack on the masses, with some insane lyrics that can be heard on ‘Lapdance’. ‘Rock Star’ and ‘Bobby James’ are clearly the album highlights showing two very different elements that are found throughout the album that of rock and R&B mixing for this gem.
Listen To: Provider
67. The Horrors - Primary Colours
I hated The Horrors, I mean really despised them! They didn’t have any songs, their image annoyed me and they were pushed on me everywhere I looked. They got dropped from their label and then came back releasing the followup on XL. ‘Primary Colours’ wasn’t just a change in direction but a complete transformation, its got the songs and direction that the last album lacked. Musically brilliant, lyrically interesting, this was a transformation I would never have imagined in my wildest dreams!
Listen To: Sea Within a Sea
66. Charlotte Gainsbourg – 5.55
Ah Charlotte Gainsbourg, the daughter of the superb Serge made this album with the help of French duo Air, Jarvis Cocker and Nigel Godrich. The album mixes the beauty that we have heard in her voice throughout many a film with some superb mellow music. The album was strangely sung in English as opposed to her native French tongue (except for ‘Tel Que Tu Eres’), this album proved that she wasn’t just a good looking French actress but a brilliant singer who formed the perfect team to make a gem for her second album. Her next one has been produced by Beck and is out next year.
Listen To: The Operation
65. Scissor Sisters – Scissor Sisters
This album brought the gay disco, pop scene to the mainstream masses. When it came out in 2004 it took the entire music industry by storm, the popularity slowly picked up as the singles flowed off this record ‘Laura’, ‘Filthy Gorgeous’, ‘Take Your Mama’, ‘Mary’ and ‘Comfortably Numb’ an insane cover of Pink Floyd which gave it a disco beat you would never have thought it could stand. The album was one of the finest pieces of pop to come out over the past decade.
Listen To: Tits on the Radio
64. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Ease Down The Road‘Ease Down the Road’ is one of the finest albums that Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy released in the past decade. He worked on 11 albums over this past decade including a great collaborative effort with Tortoise, however its this laid back beautifully crafted album that stood out to me from the bearded one’s catalogue of the past decade.
Listen To: Just To See My Holly Home
63. Mogwai – The Hawk Is Howling
The first time I ever heard of Mogwai was at Glastonbury in 2003 when I saw them and thought they lacked vocals, little did I know of the genius post-rock genre that they were leading. ‘The Hawk Is Howling’ brings the classic elements of Mogwai with the slow build up of the songs into the hurricane of music that hits you throughout the album. Mogwai created an album here that made people remember just how brilliant their music was and would have made people unaware of their style impressed with the songs, this is their most accessible album.
Listen To: The Sun Smells Too Loud
62. Hope of the States – The Lost Riots‘The Lost Riots’ was Hope of the States debut album, just before it was released in 2004, guitarist Jimi Lawrence committed suicide after having finished his parts on the album, the harrowing opening track ‘The Black Amensias’ starts this album in an eerie way. Hope of the States are definitely like marmite people either loved them or hated them, with ‘The Lost Riots’ you should find yourself listening to a majestic sad album full of hope.
Listen To: The Red, The White, The Black, The Blue
61. Johnny Cash – American III: Solitary Man
The man in black knew he was dying, as a result he started recording some stripped down covers of his songs with Rick Rubin producing some of his most accessible works. His finest testament being a cover of ‘Hurt’ by NIN which truly stands as one of the finest recordings of that song….ever! It was however ‘American III: Solitary Man’ that I found to be a stronger album, covering U2, Tom Petty, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and as the title of the album suggests Neil Diamond, however its Nick Cave’s cover which is the true masterpiece on this album.
Listen To: Mercy Seat
60. Patrick Wolf – Wind In The Wires
Patrick Wolf’s second album was more accessible than his debut ‘Lycanthropy’. He recorded everything on the album himself building up both pop songs and electro underground dance tracks such as ‘Teignmouth’, the opening track ‘The Libertine’ although not breaking any chart success showed the beauty that Wolf has with his violin as he builds up the song into a piece of folktronica genius.
Listen To: Tristan
59. Kanye West – Graduation
Most top 100’s have had either ‘College Dropout’ or ‘Late Registration’ in their list, I however found that I preferred ‘Graduation’ to his previous efforts. Much more accessible the songs that are found on ‘Graduation’ would take Kanye into an International Superstar. ‘Flashing Lights’ and ‘Stronger’ mixed elements of electronica into Hip Hop with ‘Stronger’ sampling Daft Punk, he also had Chris Martin appear on ‘Homecoming’ showing the level of superstardom that was awaiting.
Listen To: Stronger
58. Various – Im Not There Soundtrack
The only soundtrack to make it into my list of greatest albums of the past decade, ‘I’m Not There’ was a Dylan film that had 6 different actors portray the different elements of Dylan’s life. The soundtrack is a who’s who of some of the greatest musicians of the past 20 years. There are many highlights amongst the 33 covers of Dylan, too many to actually list so just go and buy this one yourselves!
Listen To: Goin’ To Acapulco (covered by Calexico and Jim James from My Morning Jacket)
57. Coldplay – A Rush Of Blood To The Head
The dreaded second album, most bands/labels and fans dread what the outcome of the follow up album is going to sound like. They enjoyed the first taster but want the songs to progress and have more substance than the first album, when Coldplay released ‘A Rush of Blood’ it was clear that they were no one trick pony. This album is filled with huge songs that would move Coldplay into the stadiums up and down our country, enough singles on this album to pass around this is their finest album.
Listen To: A Rush Of Blood To The Head
56. Dizzee Rascal – Boy in Da Corner
Dizzee won the Mercury Music Award for this album back in 2003, this brought the rise of grime music to the masses as he went solo after Roll Deep Crew. The track ‘Jezebel’ mixes the world of grime with that of classical music to provide the most shocking song on the album, the track tells the story about a young girl who parties too much, earning herself the nickname ‘Jezebel’ and ending up as a single mum with two kids with no father.
Listen To: Jus’ a Rascal
55. Jay-Z – The Black Album
The Jigga man announced that this would be his retirement from the game and would be releasing this as his final album. ‘The Black Album’ established Jay-Z as a maverick who was able to make an old-shool album that was incredibly modern. Shawn Carter’s album has become on of the most influential albums within Hip-Hop, Danger-Mouse used his acapella version mixing it with the Beatles to produce ‘The Grey Album’ thus the height of respect for Jay-Z’s ‘Black Album’
Listen To: December 4th
54. Grandaddy – Sumday
Jason Lytle released ‘Sumday’ after Grandaddy’s concept album ‘The Sophtware Slump’, this album saw him being able to write some of his classic laid back indie pop songs which form ‘Sumday’ the album opens with the genius ‘Now It’s On’ a classic song which introduced them as a radio friendly band.
Listen To: Now It’s On
53. White Lies – White Lies
Their debut album is dark, gloomy and absolutely brilliant. Formerly named ‘Fear of Flying’ they changed their name along with their sound, the album which revolved around the theme of death brought White Lies into the mainstream public domain, their show at Glastonbury proved how their popularity had grown as the other stage was filled with thousands singing along to the words of ‘Death’, ‘To Loose My Life’, ‘Farewell to the Fairground’ and the album highlight ‘From the Stars’.
Listen To: Unfinished Business
52. Yeasayer – All Hour Cymbals
When I went to see Yeasayer my mother thought I was off to see 70s crooner Leo Sayer, luckily not as what I saw would have blown him out of the water. Yeasayer made the album that MGMT wish they could have made, they used elements of psychodelia but built an album with much more depth than their New York counterparts. ‘All Hour Cymbals’ is the most mesmerizing album that I heard during 2007, it became a heavy favorite on my CD player and is still receiving the same levels of plays that it initially did.
Listen To: 2080
51. My Morning Jacket – At Dawn
In ‘At Dawn’ you can hear the majestic vocals of Jim James as he croons through gorgeous mellow Kentucky sound. One listen of this album and it will make you feel more joy than being given a snow day, the songs on here are perfect and truly one of the finest albums that was released in a period where crap Hip-Hop and Nu-metal dominated the charts.
Listen To: The Way That He Sings
50. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Howl
‘Howl’ was recorded without Nick Jago (drummer) he left the band to go to rehab following drug issues and that infamous inflatable penis signing. This meant that the album that was recorded was a lot more stripped down and blues inspired, as a result we found the most interesting change of direction for the band from their Rock and Roll sound which they had mastered. This album is one that appeals to both those that loved BRMC’s first two albums but also fans of earlier Dylan.
Listen To: Complicated Situation
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