The Guardian's 100 Best Albums of the 21st Century

The Guardian's 100 Best Albums of the 21st Century

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100.

Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel...
June 19, 2012
Critic Score
87
32 reviews
It's an album that demands something of the listener, but rewards it in spades.

99.

Rihanna - ANTI
January 27, 2016
Critic Score
70
38 reviews

Sometimes you get the frustrating sense that strong ideas are being deliberately short-circuited in the pursuit of a slightly self-conscious weirdness.

98.

Rokia Traoré - Tchamantché
May 19, 2008
Critic Score
88
6 reviews

96.

Missy Elliott - Miss E... So Addictive
May 15, 2001
Critic Score
86
11 reviews

Packed with unique ideas and brilliantly realised, Miss E...So Addictive is further evidence of Elliott's refusal to play male rappers at their own game and her desire to change the rules entirely. It's an album that sets its own agenda and sounds like nothing else in hip-hop: an incomparable achievement.

95.

Charli XCX - Pop 2
December 15, 2017
Critic Score
81
12 reviews

With adventurous ideas, noisy thrills and eclectic guests, Charli XCX shows that cheesy pop can be truly creative.

94.

Peaches - The Teaches of Peaches
September 5, 2000
Critic Score
78
6 reviews

93.

Low - Things We Lost in the Fire
February 6, 2001
Critic Score
86
11 reviews

90.

Katy B - On a Mission
April 5, 2011
Critic Score
77
28 reviews
Clearly it requires something more than vocal talent and looks to escape the fate of the featured vocalist, and whatever it is, 21-year-old Kathleen Bryan appears to have it.

89.

Taylor Swift - 1989
October 27, 2014
Critic Score
76
31 reviews

On 1989 the reasons she’s afforded the kind of respect denied to her peers are abundantly obvious.

88.

Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
June 3, 2008
Critic Score
87
26 reviews
It all adds up to a landmark in American music, an instant classic.

87.

Justin Timberlake - Justified
November 5, 2002
Critic Score
64
10 reviews
Timberlake and Michael Jackson have nothing in common but a taste for unflattering hats.

86.

Elliott Smith - Figure 8
April 18, 2000
Critic Score
78
10 reviews
Everything Reminds Me of Her and Everything Means Nothing To Me are quintessentially Smith: deceptively soothing but full of disgust and regret. All this and great, Steely Dan-esque melodies, too.

84.

Konono N°1 - Congotronics
September 27, 2005
Critic Score
83
5 reviews

83.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree
September 9, 2016
Critic Score
91
40 reviews

On Skeleton Tree, the Bad Seeds sound shattered, barely capable of holding themselves together.

80.

Lady Gaga - The Fame
August 19, 2008
Critic Score
66
13 reviews
As pop albums go, it has an impressively high strike rate. Bar a couple of grisly piano ballads, virtually everything on The Fame arrives packing an immensely addictive melody or an inescapable hook.

79.

Kanye West - Late Registration
August 30, 2005
Critic Score
83
20 reviews

Like the rest of Late Registration, Drive Slow suggests an artist effortlessly outstripping his peers: more ideas, better lyrics, bigger hooks, greater depth.

78.

Drake - Take Care
November 15, 2011
Critic Score
76
33 reviews

Drake is insipid as a singer ... As a rapper, he is inert to the point of catatonia and his foregrounded voice becomes swiftly intolerable.

77.

The Bug - London Zoo
July 7, 2008
Critic Score
87
11 reviews

As apocalyptic as his vision can be, the thrill as he pushes his sounds further outwards proves to be as seductive as it is forbidding.

76.

Wild Beasts - Two Dancers
September 8, 2009
Critic Score
81
29 reviews
It's a strange state of affairs, a band that really come into their own when they background their greatest asset. But there's a lesson in there: sometimes, less is more.

75.

M.I.A. - Kala
August 21, 2007
Critic Score
85
27 reviews

Even at its weakest moments, Kala sounds unique - and, thrillingly, like an album that could only have been made in 2007, which is not something you can say about many albums made in 2007.

74.

Salif Keita - Moffou
March 26, 2002
Critic Score
88
4 reviews

73.

Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
November 28, 2006
Critic Score
85
23 reviews

There's not an ounce of fat here. What's left reaffirms the Neptunes' credentials as fearless sonic innovators ... and fast-tracks Clipse into the pantheon of great rap lyricists.

72.

Lily Allen - Alright, Still
July 13, 2006
Critic Score
77
24 reviews

70.

Lana Del Rey - Born To Die
January 31, 2012
Critic Score
63
39 reviews

What Born to Die isn't is the thing Lana Del Rey seems to think it is, which is a coruscating journey into the dark heart of a troubled soul. If you concentrate too hard on her attempts to conjure that up, it just sounds a bit daft. What it is, is beautifully turned pop music, which is more than enough.

69.

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
January 29, 2008
Critic Score
82
27 reviews
Behind the penny loafers and songs about commas, there's a bold band that can balance dextrous originality with an innate pop sensibility.

68.

The National - Boxer
May 22, 2007
Critic Score
84
26 reviews
In the absence of specific moments of revelation, the general melancholy becomes wearing.

67.

Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP
May 23, 2000
Critic Score
74
11 reviews

The Marshall Mathers LP is semiredemeed by producer Dr Dre's tenebrous backing tracks, but they're wasted on these self-obsessed rants. Still, it's more lucrative than going into therapy, isn't it, Em?

66.

Alicia Keys - Songs in A Minor
June 5, 2001
Critic Score
76
9 reviews

64.

Kelis - Tasty
December 5, 2003
Critic Score
74
13 reviews

63.

JAY-Z - The Black Album
November 14, 2003
Critic Score
80
12 reviews
Despite innumerable producers (including usual suspects Timbaland and the Neptunes), there's little here tune-wise to match Jay's dextrous delivery and enormous reputation. The brilliant exception is the Eminem-twiddled Moment of Clarity, in which Jay candidly admits "I dumbed down for my audience to double my dollars." If that's how he feels, he's getting out at the right time.

62.

The Knife - Silent Shout
February 17, 2006
Critic Score
79
18 reviews
It's anybody's guess what a fan of the Gonzalez and Royksopp tracks will make of this beautiful, haunted record, but its dark ingenuity is the kind that keeps electronic music alive.

61.

Kanye West - The College Dropout
February 10, 2004
Critic Score
80
15 reviews

60.

Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala
October 9, 2007
Critic Score
80
16 reviews
Pop is rarely as genuinely affecting, joyful or good as this.

59.

Janelle Monáe - The ArchAndroid
May 18, 2010
Critic Score
86
32 reviews
Behold, pop music has found its latest superstar.

57.

Amy Winehouse - Frank
October 20, 2003
Critic Score
77
8 reviews

There are contradictions - but it's hard not to hear the honesty and soul that resonates throughout this album.

55.

St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
September 12, 2011
Critic Score
86
37 reviews
It's a little top-heavy, and meanders towards the end, but it's smart, demanding and unique, too.

54.

The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream
March 18, 2014
Critic Score
85
42 reviews

The decaying guitars and analogue synthesisers create a crepuscular melancholy. These are impassioned songs, but they steer clear of Bruce's bombast or lighters-aloft choruses.

53.

St. Vincent - St. Vincent
February 25, 2014
Critic Score
87
44 reviews

The music here feels taut and meticulous, devoid of self-indulgence.

52.

N.E.R.D - In Search of...
March 12, 2002
Critic Score
79
9 reviews
The production is tough as teak, and N*E*R*D deal as capably with the swirling funk of Run to the Sun as with the epic choral closer Stay Together and the gangster chronicles of Bobby James. Landmark hip-hop.
Original Source: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/sep/13/100-best-albums-of-the-21st-century
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3y
Where TF is TOOL? TV on the radio?? Beck??? Band of horses???? And I'm sorry Koi no yokan and diamond eyes were both better albums than white pony... What about queens of the stone age or modest mouse?? You guys suck
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