Top 100 Albums of the 00s, Part 2: The rest of the World
If you have seen a film called How to
Lose Friends and Alienate People, there is a scene regarding “The greatest movie of all time”. The conclusion our protagonist
comes to is Con Air. He feels it
has everything, Nicolas Cage providing the action, John Malcovich doing the
fine acting, John Cuzack for the ladies, and Steve Buscumi for the comedic
relief. By that logic, he could be correct as he gave a qualified answer.
If you were to ask me what the
greatest album of all time is, then I will have to ask to specify your
question. Michael Jackson’s Thriller is the highest selling album, and had a lot of good singles on it,
and still holds up after thirty years. How will it go in a Century? I don’t
know. If Michael Jackson is not your cup of tea, or if you focus more on the
person, and less on the music, you may think of something else. Pet
Sounds by the Beach Boys?
My opinion is constantly changing
depending on what mood I’m in, and what music I am discovering. Attached is
part two of my odyssey to find the greatest albums of the 00s.
The previous requirements still
apply: released between 1st January 2000 to 31st December
2009, have cultural impact, and be popular at the time. The only difference is
that this list is focussing on the non-Australian and non-New Zealander albums
Honestly one of my favourite
albums of the 00s is Myths, Legends, and other Amazing Adventures
Vol 2 by the Aquabats.
However that album was a collection of B sides and discarded tracks from their
previous album’s recording session, and was not widely popular (at least in the
mainstream, to ska enthusiasts it is a grand album). There are a couple albums
that are not as widely popular as others that I snuck in on this list, mostly
due to cult status and critical acclaim. So I have amended this to include
albums that are still being talked about and that I can buy at my local record
store, and that when the band comes to town that they sell out a large venue.
To write this list I had to
confer widely with my colleagues, peers, friends, and family. My taste and the
taste of my peers varies, so I am looking for the albums we all agree on.
Writing this list did beg a
different question. What is a perfect album?
One of the most popular albums of
all time Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles is one of the most popular albums of all time, and
will make a 1960s list without question. But I do not consider it perfect.
There is a single blight on its name, Within
You Without You. George Harrison’s contribution to this album I would
describe as a it feeling like a two hour sitar wank. Even more inconveniently
it is the first song on side 2, so when I listen to this on vinyl I have to aim
for that groove to get to track 2 of side 2, When I’m 64. That would have made a much better opener to side 2
and made that album perfect. Oddly I heard a mix of it with some bass and it
worked a little better. But it is a song that I need to work hard to enjoy
while the rest of the album I enjoy with ease.
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy
Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
on the other hand does not have a shit song on it. It is just eleven songs
telling the story of Ziggy Stardust; a
Starman waiting in the sky. He’d love to come and greet us, but he thinks he’ll
blow our mind. The thing I love the most about Ziggy Stardust is that over the course of the opus I feel many
different emotions. A couple years ago I was in Melbourne seeing the David Bowie Is exhibition at the
Australian Centre for the Moving Image. There was a moment when I walking into
a room, where on all the walls they had projected his last gig in Melbourne
(2003) and I felt like I was there. The song was Rock’n’Roll Suicide; I
feel no shame in saying I shed a tear in that moment, it was beautiful.
Back to the 00s. There are a
couple of records on this list that I am not the biggest fan of, but I do
recognise the cultural impact they had at the time.
I am looking forward to the
comment section hearing “Oh, but what about
this album? Did you not like it?”; odds are that the album you mentioned
either made the short list, or did not fit the criteria. If you think I did get
it wrong, do please give me a recommendation for future review.
| Release | Artist | Album | Country | City |
| 16/5/00 | Britany Spears | Oops … I did it again | United States | McComb, MS |
| 23/5/00 | Eminem | The Marshall Mathers LP | United States | Detroit, MI |
| 23/5/00 | A Perfect Circle | Mer De Noms | United States | Los Angeles, CA |
| 10/7/00 | Coldplay | Parachutes | United Kingdom | London, LDN |
| 28/8/00 | Robbie Williams | Sing when you're winning | United Kingdom | Stoke-On-Trent, SFD |
| 17/10/00 | Limp Bizket | The Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavoured Water | United States | Jacksonville, FL |
| 24/10/00 | Linkin Park | Hybrid Theory | United States | Los Angeles, CA |
| 6/11/00 | Fatboy Slim | Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars | United Kingdom | Bromley, SRY |
| 13/11/00 | Marilyn Manson | Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) | United States | Canton, OH |
| 26/2/01 | Daft Punk | Discovery | France | Paris, IDF |
| 27/2/01 | Opeth | Blackwater Park | Sweden | Stockholm |
| 2/4/01 | Rammstein | Mutter | Germany | East Berlin |
| 1/5/01 | Destiny's Child | Survivor | United States | Houston, TX |
| 8/5/01 | Sum 41 | All Killer, No Filler | Canada | Ajax, ON |
| 15/5/01 | Tool | Lateralus | United States | Los Angeles, CA |
| 12/6/01 | Blink-182 | Take Off Your Pants and Jacket | United States | San Diego, CA |
| 25/6/01 | Basement Jaxx | Rooty | United Kingdom | London, LDN |
| 17/7/01 | Muse | Origin of Symemtry | United Kingdom | Teignmouth, DVN |
| 30/7/01 | The Strokes | This Is It | United States | New York, NY |
| 27/8/01 | Björk | Vespertine | Iceland | Reykjavik, CR |
| 28/8/01 | Slipknot | Iowa | United States | Des Moines, IA |
| 3/9/01 | Jamiroquai | A Funk Odyssey | United Kingdom | London, LDN |
| 4/9/01 | System of a Down | Toxicity | United States | Los Angeles, CA |
| 11/9/01 | Jay-Z | The Blueprint | United States | New York, NY |
| 22/10/01 | Aphex Twin | Drukqs | United Kingdom | Lanner, CON |
| 22/1/02 | Bad Religion | Process of Belief | United States | Los Angeles, CA |
| 19/2/02 | The Postal Service | Give Up | United States | Seatlle, WS |
| 26/2/02 | Norah Jones | Come Away With Me | United States | Brooklyn, NY |
| 6/3/02 | 50 Cent | Get Rich or Die Tryin | United States | Queens, NY |
| 25/3/02 | The Streets | Original Pirate Marerial | United Kingdom | Birmingham, WMD |
| 21/5/02 | Eminem | The Eminem Show | United States | Detroit, MI |
| 11/6/02 | David Bowie | Heathen | United Kingdom | London, LDN |
| 9/7/02 | Red Hot Chili Peppers | By The Way | United States | Los Angeles, CA |
| 16/7/02 | The Flaming Lips | Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots | United States | Oklahoma City, OK |
| 26/8/02 | Coldplay | A Rush of Blood to the Head | United Kingdom | London, LDN |
| 27/8/02 | Queens of the Stone Age | Songs for the Deaf | United States | Palm Desert, CA |
| 22/10/02 | The Foo Fighters | One By One | United States | Seatlle, WS |
| 4/11/02 | Justin Timberlake | Justified | United States | Memphis, TN |
| 1/2/03 | Michael Bublé | Self Titled | Canada | Vancouver, BC |
| 24/3/03 | Placebo | Sleeping with Ghosts | United Kingdom | London, LDN |
| 25/3/03 | Linkin Park | Meteora | United States | Los Angeles, CA |
| 1/4/03 | The White Stripes | Elephant | United States | Detroit, MI |
| 5/5/03 | The Dandy Warhols | Welcome to the Monkey House | United States | Portland, OR |
| 6/5/03 | NOFX | War on Errorism | United States | East Bay, CA |
| 23/6/03 | The Black Eyed Peas | Elephunk | United States | Los Angeles, CA |
| 7/7/03 | The Darkness | Permission to Land | United Kingdom | Lowstoft, SFK |
| 26/8/03 | Streetlight Manifesto | Everything Goes Numb | United States | Keasbey, NJ |
| 23/9/03 | OutKast | Speakerboxxx/The Love Below | United States | Atlanta, GA |
| 23/10/03 | My Chemical Romance | The Black Parade | United States | Newark, NJ |
| 1/2/04 | Danger Mouse | The Grey Album (featuring Jay-Z and The Beatles) | United Kingdom | Thurrock, ESS |
| 9/2/04 | Franz Ferdinand | Self Titled | United Kingdom | Glasgow GSW |
| 10/2/04 | Kanye West | The College Dropout | United States | Chicago, IL |
| 7/6/04 | The Killers | Hot Fuss | United States | Las Vegas, NV |
| 8/6/04 | My Chemical Romance | Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge | United States | Newark, NJ |
| 10/8/04 | Rise Against | Siren Sounds of the Counter Culture | United States | Chicago, IL |
| 20/9/04 | Green Day | American Idiot | United States | East Bay, CA |
| 27/9/04 | Interpol | Antics | United States | New York, NY |
| 16/11/04 | Rammstein | Reise Reise | Germany | East Berlin |
| 22/11/04 | U2 | How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb | Ireland | Dublin |
| 28/12/04 | John Legend | Get Lifted | United States | Springfield, OH |
| 2/2/05 | Bloc Party | Silent Alarm | United Kingdom | London, LDN |
| 12/4/05 | Mindless Self Indulgence | You'll Rebel to Anything | United States | Queens, NY |
| 3/5/05 | Fall Out Boy | From Under Cork Tree | United States | Chicago, IL |
| 11/5/05 | Gorillaz | Demon Days | United Kingdom | Cholchester, ESX |
| 30/8/05 | Kanye West | Late Registration | United States | Chicago, IL |
| 23/1/06 | Arctic Monkeys | Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not | United Kingdom | Sheffield, S York |
| 23/1/06 | The Kooks | Inside In/Inside Out | United Kingdom | Brighton, ESU |
| 4/4/06 | Pink | I'm Not Dead! | United States | Doylestown, PA |
| 24/4/06 | Gnarls Barkley | St Elsewhere | United Kingdom | Atlanta, GA |
| 25/4/06 | Taking Back Sunday | Louder Now | United States | Long Island, NY |
| 6/6/06 | AFI | December Underground | United States | Ukiah, CA |
| 3/7/06 | Muse | Blackholes and Revelations | United Kingdom | Teignmouth, DVN |
| 13/7/06 | Lily Allen | Alright Still | United Kingdom | London, LDN |
| 28/8/06 | Karsabian | Empire | United Kingdom | Leicester, LEC |
| 27/10/06 | Amy Whinehouse | Back to Black | United Kingdom | London, LDN |
| 26/2/07 | The Kaiser Cheifs | Yours Truly, The Angry Mob | United Kingdom | Leeds, WYK |
| 3/3/07 | Arcade Fire | Neon Bible | Canada | Montréal, QC |
| 18/4/07 | Arctic Monkeys | Favourite Worst Nightmare | United Kingdom | Sheffield, S York |
| 31/5/07 | Rhianna | Good Girl Gone Bad | Barbados | Bridgetown |
| 8/7/07 | Bon Iver | For Emma, Forever Ago | United States | Fall Creek, WI |
| 10/7/07 | The Smashing Pumpkin | Zeitgeist | United States | Chicago, IL |
| 13/7/07 | Mark Ronson | Version | United Kingdom | London, LDN |
| 2/10/07 | MGMT | Oracular Spectacular | United States | Middletown, CN |
| 10/10/07 | Radiohead | In Rainbows | United Kingdom | Abingdon-on-Thames, OXF |
| 30/10/07 | Avenged Sevenfold | Self Titled | United States | Huntington Beach, CA |
| 29/1/08 | Vampire Weekend | Self Titled | United States | New York, NY |
| 12/5/08 | Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip | Angles | United Kingdom | London, LDN |
| 3/6/08 | Fleet Foxes | Self Titled | United States | Seatlle, WS |
| 3/6/08 | Weezer | The Red Album | United States | Los Angeles, CA |
| 17/6/08 | Katy Perry | One of the Boys | United States | Santa Barbara, CA |
| 20/6/08 | Sigur Ros | Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust | Iceland | Reykjavik, CR |
| 19/9/08 | Kings of Leon | Only By The Night | United States | Nashville, TN |
| 11/11/08 | Taylor Swift | Fearless | United States | Reading, PA |
| 18/2/09 | The Prodigy | Invaders Must Die | United Kingdom | Braintree, ESX |
| 18/3/09 | Royksopp | Junior | Norway | Troms, TM |
| 5/9/09 | Porcumpine Tree | The Incident | United Kingdom | Hemel Hempstead, HRT |
| 20/9/09 | Dizzee Rascal | Tongue and Cheek | United Kingdom | London, LDN |
| 2/10/09 | Mumford and Sons | Sigh No More | United Kingdom | London, LDN |
| 16/11/09 | Them Crooked Vultures | Self Titled | United States | Seatlle, WS |
| 18/11/09 | Lady Gaga | The Fame Monster | United States | New York, NY |
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