Rolling Stone's 100 Best Albums of the 2000s

Evoking Fear of Music Talking Heads, Station to Station David Bowie and Sign ‘O’ the Times Prince, the resulting disc might be the most oddly beautiful, psychedelic and ambitious of the year.

For Emma, Forever Ago never turns into a pity party, because Vernon has a light touch, with zero interest in narrative or confessional lyrics.

Despite the anger and bitterness, Hail to the Thief is more musically inviting than Radiohead's last two outings. The album's fourteen tracks ... are more tuneful and song-focused than 2000's Kid A or 2001's Amnesiac.

It's a strange, category-evading rock record, a mystery disc of gravity and low humor, of punk aggression and love-bead contentment; when you try to nail down the band's personality, it won't stay still.

On Neon Bible, the reverb is so big and black that the beat becomes boom andthe orchestral garnish, arranged by Chassagne and Final Fantasy's Owen Pallett, gets pressed to the margins.

Coldplay make straight-ahead, melodic Brit pop that strives for significance with a capital s, even as it has a hard time shaking its influences — you can also hear the ethereal guitar chime of U2, a bit of Dave Matthews’ breathy folk implosion, even a misting of Roger Waters-era Pink Floyd.

More than any previous Sleater-Kinney record, The Woods reflects the classic-rock undercurrent that runs through the punk heroines' live shows.

Under Construction, uninhibited and unpredictable, is her best yet.

This is grandiose music from grandiose men, sweatlessly confident in the execution of their duties.

Vespertine is a particle beam in comparison, as weightless as light but concentrated with direction.

Many of his best songs have focused on his ambivalence about materialism, but on 808s & Heartbreak, the theme has hardened into schtick.

Interpol’s sleek, melancholy sound is a thing of glacial beauty.

On their debut, Vampire Weekend mostly earn points the old-fashioned way: by writing likable songs you'll be glad to revisit next month.

M.I.A.’s long-awaited full-length debut, Arular, is every bit as stunning as “Galang”: weird, playful, unclassifiable, sexy, brilliantly addictive.