The Best 25 Albums in the Last 25 Years
There are no honorable mentions here - just categorically categorized albums from 25-1 since 1996.
By: Sam Eeckhout
Why a top 25 list?
Well, why not? We worship lists with specific numbers. As it turns out, 1996 was an outstanding year for music and a reasonable place to start. The changes and shifts heard in music over the last 25 years are astounding.
Grunge came and went, and in its absence, it paved the way for more countercultural bands to break through the mainstream. Meanwhile, Metal took a backseat, and edgy Hard Rock groups like Marilyn Manson to Rage Against the Machine to the Smashing Pumpkins rode shotgun. Being an outcast became cool.
Hip-hop had an explosive and formative decade, and a little thing called the internet began to change the way we consumed music forever.
But, how do we determine the best over such a widely changing, extremely random, genre-shifting, complicated, and technologically driven 25 years? Simple: we listen to the music.
We threw our complex and proprietary formula into the blender, and this is what came out - our absolute, unequivocal determination of the best 25 albums in the last 25 years.
LCD Soundsystem
Sound of Silver
(2007)
Sound of Silver is a sweaty dance floor. It pushes the pace for nearly an hour, morphing in and out of dirty funk grooves, pop-rock, and sing-along anthems. It’s the kind of album that can turn your day around.
From beginning to end, James Murphy patiently plays with rhythm while keeping the energy maxed to 10. In 2007, a dance album like Sound of Silver was a welcome juxtaposition to the electronic world of maximum compression. The album is wide, clean, full of dynamics, and pristinely produced.
System of a Down
Toxicity
(2001)
System of a Down threw down 15 damn-near-perfect tracks of heavy, uncomplicated riffs, polished melody-making, and set their one-of-a-kind frontman Serj Tankian loose. Amazingly, the combination of politics, humor, and heaviness worked, and SOAD broke through the mainstream. While gems “Chop Suey” (now with over 1 BILLION youtube plays), “Toxicity,” and “Aerials” dominated hard rock airwaves, the rest of the album is equally excellent - balancing punishing riffs with lyrics on corruption, the prison system, religious and drugs. Consistent top to bottom, Toxicity is genuinely one of a kind.
The White Stripes
White Blood Cells
(2001)
On their third album, White Blood Cells, Jack and Meg White found the perfect formula. They injected cool, cold rock n’ roll straight into our veins for 40 minutes.
Now, it’s true - it’s nothing fancy. The riffs are straightforward and are fumbled sometimes. The drums refuse to take any risks. Jack isn’t going to hit all the notes. And that’s how they want it - real, raw, imperfect, and in our face. They weren’t trying to reinvent the rock n’ roll wheel. But White Blood Cells slapped us in the face, woke us up from our rock hibernation, made us stand up and take notice, and reminded us what real rock feels like. The album is gritty. It’s cool. It screeches and howls and stomps around the garage - and it gave birth to the last true rockstar of this generation.
Moby
Play
(1999)
There’s no denying Moby is a polarizing musical figure, and subsequently, Play has become a polarizing album. Play is stacked with moving moments and hits, and is a gateway for thousands to wade into the electronic genre waters. While the front half packs vocal hooks like on “Honey” and “Natural Blues,” the second half slows down, shifts the focus, and creates warmth. And, of course, anchoring Play is the incredibly serene classic “Porcelain” that showcases the beauty of simplicity when electronic artists were doing everything but simple.
Tool
Lateralus
(2001)
Tool took the current metal formula and blew it up. The band went full cerebral, saying, look how intelligent we are, look how restrained we are, and created a sound that no one has ever or will ever sound like again. They followed an excellent marketing playbook of creating scarcity to accelerate hype. The thing is - they delivered.
Five years after Ænima went to number 2 on the charts, Tool expanded their sound further while focusing on its strengths. Hyper-creative guitar and bass work and a drummer savant - Tool showed incredible patience with large quiet sections, building highs and lows throughout the album.
Lateralus is a masterpiece, an unusual yet cohesive sound, and despite giving us no solos, no hooks, no choruses to speak of, its progressive sound is the pinnacle of songwriting.
FKA Twigs
MAGDALENE
(2019)
FKA Twigs sophomore album MAGDALENE doubles down on her sound and catapults her into a realm of select artists whose music transcends anything you’ll hear on this planet. Oddly, it all fits together as a genre-defying and gorgeous record that is brimming with the exceptional. Full of Björk influence, FKA Twigs dove inward and created a breathtaking musical world that is both minimalistic and extravagant at the same time.
MGMT
Oracular Spectacular
(2007)
MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular came quite literally out of nowhere to become the biggest indie band of the year in 2007. And while massive hits like “Time to Pretend” and “Electric Feel” became feel-good hits of the decade, the album's backbone is the tunes that didn’t go anthemic at music festivals worldwide. Tracks like “The Youth,” “Weekend Warriors,” and “Pieces of What” complete the perfect package of an album endlessly ambitious and creative.
Its effortless melody making can come across as basic or almost too easy. From here, the band would do a complete 180 and retreat from its pop-hit creationism. But until then, the duo of MGMT changed the musical landscape. Oracular Spectacular is an album that can be put on for any situation and enhance it.
Run the Jewels
Run the Jewels 2
(2014)
Two accomplished rappers at the height of their prime put out an incredibly urgent sophomore album that should go down as one of the greatest hip-hop albums ever. It’s full speed ahead, with both emcees pummelling us with impressive versatility and playful lyricism.
Hard to believe Killer Mike and El-P were able to elevate their lyrical assault on society, but they did. It’s aggressive and violent, perfectly mixed, with the music pouring out of each of their core. Run the Jewels 2 is an achievement and worthy of the buzziest of critic adjectives: vital.
Lorde
Melodrama
(2017)
Lorde quickly became the poster child for alienation and coming of age, running along a dark parallel to the other pop stars of the world, ala Taylor Swift and Katy Perry.
In Melodrama, Lorde holds back nothing. In the cesspool that has become mainstream pop - Lorde and Melodrama stand on their own pedestal. With a heart wide open and full of passion, Melodrama glistens. There's no underlying feeling of a pop star being marketed from the higher-ups. Lorde is doing her own thing and better than anyone else. Sure, it's melancholy, it's dramatic, it's heavy-handed, but it's soulful and damn catchy.
DJ Shadow
Entroducing…
(1996)
Endtroducing… is a living, breathing organism. Made entirely of samples - it knows no genre, it knows no rules. It morphs and changes and owes no structure to anyone. It’s a landmark album and a musical accomplishment that stands the test of time here 25 years later.
Diving deep through the record shelves, DJ Shadow compiles hip-hop beats and textures, old funk sounds, samples from horror pictures, and shifty guitar licks and makes it all fit together perfectly. Combining true innovation with musical perfection, Endtroducing… will stand alone in this space forever and will continue to sound innovative after another 25 years.
Beck
Odelay
(1996)
The first thing you might notice when you put on Odelay is that it sounds like it came out today. It sounds new. One of the biggest innovators in music put together a record filled with immaculate production, wacky samples, and hooks that will worm their way into your brain for days - and he did it after the whole world was wondering if “Loser” was just a one-hit-wonder. It can live both in the free-spirited ’60s and the modern 2020s simultaneously.
Despite Beck’s nerdy hip-hop wannabe image, Odelay is pretty badass. It is filled with distortion and dynamics that scream at one second and vibe the next. His eclectic lyrics burn images into our minds, and even if we don’t understand them, we can’t get enough of them.
The Flaming Lips
The Soft Bulletin
(1999)
The Flaming Lips meandered for quite some time before putting it all together with The Soft Bulletin. Just two years previous, in 1997, Frontman Wayne Coyne and the group attempted Zaireeka, four albums that were intended to be played simultaneously.
On The Soft Bulletin, however, The Flaming Lips went deeply emotionally, so profound “that I never thought anybody would be able to relate to it,” said Coyne. The album is widely expressive and touches on themes of believing in yourself, seizing the moment, and each band member's pains at the time. While staying true to their weird persona, The Soft Bulletin mashes their talents into one cohesive piece of art.
Outkast
Stankonia
(2000)
Stankonia is a blast. Taking lyrical intelligence and versatility and blending it with fresh beats and funk vibes - the album is 24 songs of focused experimentation. Refusing to settle on one style, the perfect duo of Big Boi and Andre 3000 walked the tightrope between creative expression and appealing to the masses.
Stankonia can’t be summed up any better than the gospel chants at the end of the furious “Bombs Over Baghdad” - power music, electric revival. There’s so much going on over 73 minutes it demands your attention. Lucky for us, with each spin, there are new discoveries and appreciation.
Amy Winehouse
Back to Black
(2006)
Amy Winehouse is one of the most complicatedly interesting figures in recent music history. Both a vocal juggernaut and a sympathetic tortured soul - Winehouse gave us an absolute wall-to-wall powerhouse album, front to back. Her iconic voice tells us about addiction, depression, relationship trouble, and sorrow. It’s funny in parts, tongue-in-cheek in others while communicating some pretty heavy topics. How many artists can sing about stubbornly refusing to get help in rehab and become a universal sensation?
Back to Black is a rare triumph, its ability to talk so openly and transparently about struggle while simultaneously being the biggest album in the world isn’t a familiar path. The loss of her talent and impact on music will leave a hole for decades to come.
Sufjan Stevens
Illinois
(2005)
The fifth album from the unfathomably prolific Sufjan Stevens is his most complete. Illinois is 22 songs wide, with exceptional instrumental composition and fluid lyrical output filled with research and stories of Illinois. It’s a beast. Everything about Illinois is robust, including the song titles (ex. "To the Workers of the Rock River Valley Region, I Have an Idea Concerning Your Predicament, and It Involves an Inner Tube, Bath Mats, and 21 Able-bodied Men”).
Illinois is an essential album through and through. Uncompromisingly large, it remains focused and never runs out of creative juices to keep your ears tuned. Stevens is an exceptional musician, fusing choir, string, brass, and about 100+ other instruments; it remains paradoxically compact. Every second with purpose, every note in its proper place, every lyric sitting perfectly beside the next.
Neutral Milk Hotel
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
(1998)
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is as tricky an album to describe as their band name is to understand. On the one hand, it’s singer Jeff Mangum, his acoustic guitar, and his wavering voice touring the dark memories of the war and learning more and more what it means to be human.
On the other hand, it’s impossibly unique. Mangum’s voice is imperfect, and his lyrics are awkward, but In the Aeroplane Over the Sea can't help but draw you in deeper with every listen. It’s lightning in a bottle and intricate in every nook and cranny - and while the debate burns on its status as a folk-rock masterpiece, its influence on musicians and music today is undeniable.
Refused
The Shape of Punk to Come: A Chimerical Bombination in 12 Bursts
(1998)
The Shape of Punk to Come is as immaculate as it is meticulous. It’s a punch directly to the face and lives up to its title with genius jazz breakdowns and intricate punk offerings. The pace is relentless, and the time signatures are ever-changing - but the album never comes across as anything but one cohesive thought. One explosive shout at the top of the lungs. The Shape of Punk to Come knew it was revolutionary, and it sounds dangerous. Ironically, they couldn’t predict their own demise, imploding and breaking up just a month after the album's release.
The Shape of Punk to Come is the total package - punk musicians firing on all cylinders with a Marxist message front and center. Lightyears ahead of the time in a genre whose boundaries were reaching its limits, Refused dizzied its fanbase and confused newcomers. The album was so entirely different from everything that it took a few years after its release for it to sink into the culture of punk and start making waves. The definition of a well-sequenced record, Refused named their album with pure confidence. They called their shot and hit a home run.
Sigur Ros
Ágætis Byrjun
(1999)
Putting on Ágætis Byrjun is like entering a completely different world. A different universe. Coming from Iceland, Sigur Rós changed music with hugely ambient sounds, glacial atmospheres, ridiculously falsetto vocals, and playing guitars with bows.
It seemed extremely unlikely Ágætis Byrjun would catch the ears of critics and fans across the globe, but its beauty gripped the world quickly. Deploying a hugely cinematic sound and even a made-up language for select lyrics, Ágætis Byrjun is one of the most passionate, magnificent, and fascinating pieces of music ever put together.
Interpol
Turn On the Bright Lights
(2002)
Coming out of the NYC rock revival scene in the early 2000s, Interpol came as the antithesis to their fellow rock saviors, The Strokes - polished, in suits with classy haircuts.
With Turn On the Bright Lights, one of the greatest debut albums ever, Interpol pushed their musical atmosphere way out, with long interludes of seemingly never-ending building tension.
Living up to the remarkable hype they generated, Turn On the Bright Lights soars and bends, with wandering bass lines, powerful downstrokes, and Paul Banks’ stark vocals that can sound cold as ice one moment and soaked with emotion the next.
Kanye West
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
(2010)
After disappearing from the world post, ‘imma let you finish but..’ fiasco - Kanye returned in full force. Pulling in heavyweight talents to support possibly the best tracks any rapper has ever performed over - West muses on themes of doubt, excess, wealth, the height of fame, and the burden that comes with it.
While his ego may know no bounds, its introspective exploration of insecurity is a piece of art. Vast in scope and fearless in its ambition, MBDTF is a defining moment in mainstream rap and a benchmark for a complete album.
The Strokes
Is This It?
(2001)
One of the most timely and essential rock albums, high school friends The Strokes released a compact 35-minute record that would catapult them to the top of the hype machine in 2001.
Arguably the first true rockstar since the death of Kurt Cobain, Julian Casablancas delivers a bleak, detached, too cool for anything or anyone lyrical performance. Emerging from a painfully slow musical era filled with “Teenage Dirtbag,” Staind, Usher dominating the airwaves, and Shaggy having the biggest selling track of the year - Is This It was a meticulously recorded right-turn.
Each tune from “Someday” to “Last Night” to “Hard to Explain” is a reminder to rock of what's possible, and its influence is as far-reaching in modern rock as any album in recent memory.
Vampire Weekend
Modern Vampires of the City
(2013)
Vampire Weekend has had a career arc other bands can only dream of. Their debut self-titled was compact, fluffy, and stuffed with infectious hits that put them on the map as a band to watch. From there, Contra saw them break free of the mold of quick hits and explore their potential. But with Modern Vampires of the City, we get the perfect amalgamation of both.
A true top-to-bottom album, 12 songs, each as good as the last, each as detailed and rich as the previous. Modern Vampires of the City is an unlikely accomplishment from a band that didn’t seem built for long-term artistic perfection after simple pop tunes like “A-punk.” Relentless with melodies, creative beyond comprehension by utilizing straightforward production tricks - Modern Vampires of the City defines a flawless record.
Kendrick Lamar
good kid, m.A.A.d city
(2012)
An intimate life story laid out heart-wide-open from beginning to end. Woven with voicemails from parents, conversations with friends, Kendrick Lamar laces horrifying stories with empowering tales of rising above and succeeding.
His vocals have range, capable of brash guttural sounds, or higher, exasperated abilities. Good kid, m.A.A.d city is fearless - heavy with painful conflict and the desperate sounds of his past trying to save him from a life of gang violence. This is a landmark record that creates a world of its own that will captivate you. Good kid, m.A.A.d city is a true coming of age album that establishes Lamar at the top of the rap world for years to come.
Arcade Fire
Funeral
(2004)
From the first light notes of a dancing piano and strings falling into place, Funeral creates a cinematic atmosphere like no other.
The Montreal indie-rockers blend powerful, euphorically uplifting moments with heart-wrenchingly simple concepts throughout ten glorious tracks. Funeral is an achievement, wide in scope while staying digestible; it’s riddled with melancholy and ambition. Through its overtly dark moments, Funeral finds its light with love and the cathartic yelps of Frontman Win Butler. You won’t find a record that is as exciting in every corner of every song.
Radiohead
OK Computer
(1997)
At this point, OK Computer has become a legend that cannot be described. Praised by every nook and cranny of the universe, there aren’t enough synonyms to fully explain the genius and brilliance that sits between 53 minutes of immaculate guitar-rock fused with electronic music.
OK Computer is forward-thinking in every sense of the phrase, starting with the incredibly dense lyricism of Thom Yorke - where Yorke warns of a future society (an all too true a prediction) of technological dependency. Radiohead took guitar-rock to the furthest edges of the genre and afterward, knowing there was nowhere else to go, blew it all up with Kid A in 2000.
There is no formula on OK Computer; it is jarringly innovative and inventive. Take “Paranoid Android” - that goes from scrambly guitar psychedelic - to remorseful vocal solos to large-scale guitar solos in 6 minutes flat. And it works. It works and fits and flows perfectly, as does the rest of the album.
There has been no band since The Beatles to push the pace of musical ambition when they could have so easily rested on their laurels and patted themselves on the back. OK Computer is the most critical, flawless record in the last 25 years and the quintessential rock album for the next 100 years.
