One new feature I hope to establish here over the coming weeks is a list of my favourite music albums from 1960 through the present. I have some other favourites lists planned, but for now I want to focus on music.
I’ve been a keen music listener since my adolescent years, and one of my most cherished possessions is my collection of CDs, tapes, and records. That collection spans between 1952 and the present day. Today, I’m covering the entire 21st century thus far, going back to 2000. Selected albums will have commentary detailing my reasoning for the selection.
The List
2000: Linkin Park – Hybrid Theory
This is the album that made me a Linkin Park fan for life. The band’s major-label debut was the loud, proud, in-your-face prelude to the dark and edgy decade that the 2000s would end up being. If post-grunge rock and nu metal were your thing, the 2000s were a great decade to be an angry white boy.
2001: Jenifer – Jenifer
The remarkably strong debut album of French pop sensation Jenifer. This album’s music was among the first I heard in French as a student of the language in high school, and more than twenty years later, it doesn’t feel like it’s aged a whole lot. Jenifer has evolved a lot since her days on what was basically the Francized version of American Idol, and her talent is no less evident on No. 9 (2022) than it was on her first album.
2002: Audioslave – Audioslave
A hot contender for my favorite post-grunge album ever produced. Chris Cornell’s suicide still haunts me.
2003: Linkin Park – Meteora
So does Chester Bennington’s. “Numb” and “Somewhere I Belong” still sound as fresh and relevant as they did twenty years ago. Rest in power, Chester.
2004: Rammstein – Reise, Reise
2005: KT Tunstall – Eye to the Telescope
A worthy debut album and one that has held up admirably well. “Universe & U” and “Under the Weather” are still in rotation for me 18 years later.
2006: DragonForce – Inhuman Rampage
2007: Vanessa Carlton – Heroes & Thieves
This was an excellent year to be a music fan, or at least it was for me. Norah Jones, KT Tunstall, Mandy Moore, Alter Bridge, Alabama Thunderpussy, Brandi Shearer, Colbie Caillat, the Eagles, Feist, A Fine Frenzy, Linkin Park, Lucy Schwartz, Missy Higgins, Ingrid Michaelson, and the Foo Fighters all dropped new releases during the year. The fact that every single one of these releases landed with me speaks to how diverse the year was, and how diverse my tastes became during its course. But for my album of the year, I’m choosing an unconventional candidate, a commercial failure by a singer unjustly relegated to the status of one-hit wonder.
Heroes & Thieves flopped majestically upon release in 2007, and it’s a shame: Heroes & Thieves features some of Carlton’s most earnest, confessional songwriting and some of her finest performances as a vocalist. I have a sealed copy (and an unsealed copy) of this one in my collection – not terribly valuable given Carlton’s relative lack of fame, but meaningful to me as someone who downloaded this from iTunes back in the day and wore it out on my iPod.
2008: Shinedown – The Sound of Madness
“Second Chance,” “Sound of Madness,” and “Breaking Inside” are why you are here, chances are, but the entire album is remarkably solid — and one of the angriest mainstream rock albums to hit the charts in recent memory. 2008 was a bad year for a lot of people, with the world plunging into a recession, and Shinedown had its collective finger on the pulse of its listeners. This is a raw, visceral, and above all pissed off album. This was the album that made me a Shinedown fan — just keep the minimum safe distance from their abhorrent cover of “Simple Man,” the legendary Lynyrd Skynyrd ballad.
2009: Florence + the Machine – Lungs
2010: KT Tunstall – Tiger Suit
2011: Florence + the Machine – Ceremonials
2012: Regina Spektor – What We Saw From the Cheap Seats
I had to include at least one Regina Spektor album on this list, and why not include the one that has my favourite song of hers (“Don’t Leave Me (Ne me quitte pas)”)? (Side note: I prefer her Russian cover version of that song.)
2013: KT Tunstall – Invisible Empire/Crescent Moon
Ernest Hemingway once advised fellow author F. Scott Fitzgerald thusly: “Forget your personal tragedy. We are all bitched from the start and you especially have to hurt like hell before you can write seriously. But when you get the damned hurt use it—don’t cheat with it. Be as faithful to it as a scientist.”
I don’t know if she’s ever read anything by Hemingway, but KT Tunstall got the memo just in time for this album, her sole release with Blue Note Records, for it was during the production of IECM that her father died and her marriage ended. The album that resulted from her personal tragedy is simultaneously her rawest and most refined. I unconditionally adore it, and it will likely remain my favourite album by Tunstall for the rest of her career.
2014: Emigrate – Emigrate
Proving that when he’s off doing his own thing, Richard Z. Kruspe rocks as hard as the rest of Rammstein.
2015: Florence + the Machine – How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
2016: KT Tunstall – Kin
2017: Linkin Park – One More Light
“Heavy” said everything it needed to and by itself, it made the album. Shortly before his untimely death, Chester Bennington spoke through this song on behalf of everyone who has a mental illness. Featured artist Kiiara sings, “It’s not like I make the choice to let my mind stay so fuckin’ messy.” Truer words have never been portrayed in any medium, as any of my depressive brethren will vividly attest. With “Heavy,” Chester was crying out for help. Nobody listened, and nobody will ever convince me to the contrary.
The rest of the album is solid. But you probably came for “Heavy,” as I did. Kiiara’s voice is a lovely foil for Bennington’s (and they harmonize amazingly well together), and I doubt the choice could have been more inspired.
2018: Lord Huron – Vide Noir
“When the Night Is Over,” by itself, is worth the price of admission, one of my favorite love songs ever recorded. The entire album is a remarkably solid concept album about love and loss, and frontman Ben Schneider’s songwriting is on point to a degree he hasn’t matched before or since.
I stan hard for Florence and the Machine, so trust me when I say it was hard not putting High as Hope here instead. Likewise vis-à-vis KT Tunstall and Wax.
2019: Sara Bareilles – Amidst the Chaos
2020: Mandy Moore – Silver Landings
2021: Lord Huron – Long Lost
2022: KT Tunstall – Nut
You may have gathered by now that I’m slightly obsessed with KT Tunstall. The talented Scotswoman hooked me with her delectable voice and outstanding musicianship in 2007 shortly before Drastic Fantastic came out, and nine albums into her career, Tunstall is still cranking out banger after banger, even if she doesn’t get the mainstream attention I feel she deserves. Her voice hasn’t changed a lick in almost 20 years of performing, but in return her songwriting has matured and the musical and production talent around her have improved considerably.