Honorable Mentions:
Here are some of the albums that I considered for the top 50 but just didn't make the cut. Its not that they weren't classic albums, its that they just had one flaw (in my opinion) that kept them from cracking the big list.
Fiona Apple -"Extraordinary Machine", D'Angelo -"Voodoo", The Libertines "Up The Bracket", Beck "Sea Change", Johnny Cash "American IV"
Editors note: I would also like to add The Gaslight Anthem "The '59 Sound" and Against Me! "New Wave" to the list as #50B and #50C. That is the great thing about lists. You can always change them...
And now, to quote the immortal Casey Kasem..."on with the countdown"
#50 Cody ChesnuTT-The headphone masterpiece
You have to love the balls. A no-name records an album in his house and calls it a masterpiece. Funny thing was, he wasn’t lying. The album runs the gamut from wistful (“In The Treehouse”) to hilarious (“Bitch I’m Broke”) to straight up rockin’ (“Young Upstarts in a Blowout”, “Look Good In Leather”). Too bad Mister ChesnuTT gave up the ghost after this one…but maybe its all he had in the tank.
#49 Ben Folds -Rockin' The Suburbs
#48 Franz Ferdinand - S/T
Or as David Lee Roth may have said it "Dance the night away." Pretty sure DLR wasn't dancing with dudes named Michael though.
#47 The Hold Steady-Almost Killed Me
#46 Kings of Leon - Only By the Night
#45 Radiohead - Kid A
I remember people skipping school for this beast senior year. Skip school for a record? Do people even do shit like that anymore? Oh, and "The National Anthem" and its brothers on this disc lived up to the hype.
#44 Beck -Guero
The funkiest disc since "Odelay", "Guero" was a hell of a lot more fun than "Sea Change".
#43 Get Up Kids - On A Wire
Some of the most heartbreaking songs of the decade tempered with a Beatles-esqe bounce.
#42 Green Day- American Idiot
After “American Idiot” came out, I unfairly called it better than “Dookie”. I was wrong. Some people can’t get around the “political” nature of the album, but its more of a story of bored and sad teenagers than one about Bush. Remember, American Idiots were around long before Dubbya and will be here long after.
#41 Interpol-Antics
Interpol came out of the gate being called a Joy Division clone. “Antics” disproved this theory, and how! Songs like “C’Mere” and “Slow Hands” boomed with anthemic intensity. Too bad Interpol wouldn’t hit heights like this again.
#40 Wilco - A Ghost Is Born
#39 Eagles of Death Metal – Peace, Love, Death Metal
A nonstop throwdown on wax, one that involves Frenching the devil, apple wine and Stealers Wheel. Josh Homme claimed that this is what the Eagles would sound like if they were a death metal band. The Eagles only wish they could kick this much skuzzy ass.
#38 Prince-Musicology
In which one of the GOATs decides to quit fucking around with avant garde bullshit and make something straightforward. It sold like hotcakes and contained some of the funkiest shit the mans dropped in years (“Illusion, Coma, Pimp and Circumstance” and “Musicology” were undeniable). A trip back in the day while still seeming thoroughly modern.
#37 The Darkness-Permission To Land
We all knew had a feeling this was going to be a flash in the pan, a one off. But what a fucking ride it was! If you didn’t smile the first time you heard Justin Hawkins sing “I Believe In a Thing Called Love” like he was channeling some mutant Freddie Mercury, you have no soul. Songs about genital warts “Growing On Me” and school activities “Friday Night” were aural Velveeta—cheesy, bad for you but oh so goddamned good.
The better, star studded follow up to the critical darling (but sort of lacking) "The College Dropout." If you don't like "Gold Digger," you weren't 21 and at a bar when it dropped.
#35 Arcade Fire-Funeral
Sounding a lot more like classic rock than the indie hipsters would want you to believe, “Funeral” combined orchestral flourishes and driving backbeats in 2004 like no other album.
#34 Radiohead-In Rainbows
The secret best Radiohead album of the 2000’s. Sure, “Kid A” was more influential. But “In Rainbows” was where “The Bends” met “Kid A” and grew up. Rockin’ at some points, contemplative at others, and just downright gorgeous at others (“Videotape”).
#33 Alkaline Trio – From Here To Infirmary
The pop punk album Elvis Costello would have made had he debuted in 1995. Happy shiny riffs coupled with biting lyrics about being a drunk fuckup who loses women and friends. Who could forget as wonderful a line is “Remember when I said I loved you?/Well forget it I take it back”?
#32 TV On The Radio-Dear Science
#31 Phoenix-Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
The album where Phoenix finally put it all together. Other albums had killer singles and filler, where “Wolfgang” had nothing but killer pop anthems. Rightfully so, “1901” became the groups first hit in the US.
#30 Ghostface Killah-Fishscale
The best surrealist painting in the history of rap music. Yes, the album was about coke (a rap sub-genre that I absolutely hate). But Fishscale was so much more than that. So many specific product references dot the tracks it feels like Dutch Masters, Snapple and Pyrex were paying GFK, and I am sure that “Underwater” had nothing to do with coke and waaaaayy more to do with LSD. Spongebob in a Bentley, really?
#29 New Pornographers-Electric Version
Power pop for now people!
#28 NERD-…In Search Of
In 2002, Pharrell was king, Chad Hugo was his resident alchemist, and that Shay dude sat on the fucking couch and played Madden. Together they made beautiful music about lapdances, boob-kissing, hauling coke, being rock stars, and running into the sun. A kick ass party album from guys who knew how to get down.
#27 Flaming Lips-Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
The perfect album for smoking joints in a Honda Civic (not like that ever happened to me…). Sunshine-y tunes about Japanese girls and robots with some of the most humane lyrics of the decade (“Do You Realize?” and “Fight Test” should be required listening for anyone without a soul).
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