Music 100 Best Albums

#100 - Dance-Pop, Electropop - Why choose between dancing and crying when you can do both?

Early on in her seventh full-length album—and international breakthrough—the Swedish pop star makes a declaration: “Fembots have feelings, too.” And, boy, does Body Talk have feelings. The album launched two of the 21st century’s definitive “sad bangers”—“Dancing on My Own” and “Call Your Girlfriend”—inspiring a wave of aching but triumphant crying-on-the-dance-floor anthems.

But Body Talk’s emotional core is embodied by more than just those two instant classics. On “Love Kills” and “Hang With Me”, Robyn reminds listeners to steel themselves against the potential hurt and heartbreak of love. Alongside those considerable moments of vulnerability, there are also songs that teem with strutting, defiant confidence: the stark “Don’t Fucking Tell Me What to Do” and the bizarre but wonderful Snoop Dogg collaboration “U Should Know Better”, with its pulsing beats and playful boasting. (Few pop stars save for Robyn could successfully deliver a line like “Even the Vatican knows not to fuck with me.”) And every single track here is an airtight addition to the vision articulated on “Fembot”: This is an album that’s immaculate and poised, featuring a protagonist unafraid to bare her soul.

“Any great pop writer will tell you that Robyn is a huge inspiration.” - Niall Horan

#99 - Country Rock, Pop Rock, Soft Rock - A snapshot of ’70s excess and the soundtrack to the comedown.

In early 1976, the Eagles released Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975, a compilation that would spend the next half decade on the Billboard 200 and go on to become the biggest-selling American album of the 20th century. But the band’s most popular, career-defining song was still months away: the title track to Hotel California, the record where the Eagles expunged any lingering trace of their country-rock roots and took up residence in the football stadiums of the world.

That shift can be largely attributed to the new kid in town: guitarist Joe Walsh, who added the exclamation point to Don Henley’s eerie narrative with one of the most dramatic guitar solos in the rock canon. That swagger spills over into the brontosaurus stomp of “Victim of Love” and the disco-fied “Life in the Fast Lane”, a—the?—definitive account of Hollywood hedonism. Hotel California is both a portrait of ’70s excess from behind the velvet rope and the soundtrack to the inevitable cruel comedown.

“There was some friction, but that was all creative. After that, we achieved an amount of success beyond our wildest imagination, and there was no turning back.” - Joe Walsh (of Eagles)

#98 - Pop Rap, Southern Hip Hop, Trap - Buy a ticket and take the ride.

Named for a now-closed Six Flags in Travis Scott’s native Houston, ASTROWORLD delivers on any good amusement park’s promise and premise, offering breathtaking peaks and drops and daring thrills. Perhaps the biggest hairpin turn: By stacking and expertly curating his third solo album with a sprawling and adventurous collection of both A-list and emerging musical, vocal and production talent, the rapper/superproducer emerges as the most exciting attraction in the park.

Scott says, “Psychedelics got me going crazy,” on opening track “STARGAZING”, and the rest of the album proves it; “SICKO MODE” features multiple beat changes and Drake halting mid-verse, playing like some kind of funhouse trip. Other must-see sideshows include Stevie Wonder playing harmonica, James Blake crooning, The Weeknd emoting and Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker shredding. But the main draw is still Scott’s life and unique vision.

#97 - Alternative Metal, Rap Metal - Anger is a gift.

It would be interesting to see how many suburban kids learned about Che Guevara, or that the FBI targeted Martin Luther King for his opposition to the Vietnam War, from Rage Against the Machine’s first album. While other ’90s albums, like Nirvana’s Nevermind, helped bring underground styles into the mainstream, Rage brought The Weather Underground.

Like the revolutionaries, MCs and hard rock that inspired it, Rage Against the Machine exists in all caps. Its most lasting lyrics—“Some of those that work forces/Are the same that burn crosses” (“Killing in the Name”), “Anger is a gift” (“Freedom”)—have the instant memorability of a protest chant. The immediacy isn’t just a metaphor for their message; it’s a way to spread the word and put power into the hands of the people. It’s an album you could listen to at the gym or build a syllabus around.

#96 - Alt-Pop, Synthpop - A new kind of teen pop, wise beyond its years—featuring one of the biggest hits of the 21st century.

During the aughts, the party-hearty teen-pop pantheon was a sea of Auto-Tuned vocals, sugary-sweet lyrics, misappropriated school uniforms and twerking Disney stars. Then came Lorde. On Pure Heroine, her 2013 debut album, the Auckland-born singer-songwriter born Ella Yelich-O’Connor relied instead on restrained, almost growled vocals set to skeletal, programmed beats. She focuses on the realities of suburban teenage ennui from the very first track, “Tennis Court”, which opens with the line “Don’t you think that it’s boring how people talk?”

The album’s centrepiece—one of the biggest hits of the 21st century—is “Royals”, which describes the inherent disconnect of being a broke schoolkid listening to luxe-life rap tunes: “But every song's like, ‘Gold teeth, Grey Goose, trippin’ in the bathroom/We don’t care/We’re driving Cadillacs in our dreams.” And the album’s success made room for a new raft of teenage stars wise beyond their years, including Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo, who could make music as moody and menacing as adolescence itself.

“I was really proud of baby me. I was like, ‘This is awesome. Good on you. You were asking real questions of your world.’” - Lorde (on relistening to Pure Heroine as an adult)

#95 - Contemporary R&B - On his ambitious, soap-opera-worthy fourth LP, Usher Raymond reaches his final form.

If you have a distinct memory of 2004, then you remember how inescapable USHER’s fourth studio album was for the entirety of that year. This was Usher Raymond in his final form: No longer a boyish heart-throb under the tutelage of top producers who doubled as mentors, he’d finally reached his artistic prime.

“We wanted to create an incredible body of work that was about real deep conversation.” - USHER

The album’s title track tells an enthralling tale in which USHER has to admit to his infidelity; the song’s sequel, “Confessions, Pt. II” (a ubiquitous single), ramps up the drama when he finds out the woman he’s been cheating with is three months pregnant. The story’s closing, “Burn”, finds him mourning the relationship he obliterated.

And as affecting as that trilogy was, there are massive hits at every corner of Confessions. “Yeah!” with Lil Jon and Ludacris encapsulates the playful, hard-hitting feeling of Atlanta’s scene at the time, and “My Boo” with Alicia Keys is one of the defining duets of the 2000s. Confessions has achieved a status that few albums in the 21st century can live up to, but its influence is evident in how many have tried.

#94 - Dubstep, Future Garage - Gritty but still gentle, an instant touchstone of UK electronic music.

Released in 2007, Untrue immediately became a touchstone of UK electronic music, aided by the mystique surrounding Burial’s anonymity (to this day, William Emmanuel Bevan rarely grants interviews). The album is gritty without being abrasive, with house-like vocals that lend a gentleness to the thundering, muddy bass. The album’s second track, “Archangel”, is perhaps one of the most recognisable songs in electronic music, with its pitched-down soprano sample consisting of the lines “Holding you/Couldn’t be alone/Couldn’t be alone/Couldn’t be alone.” (Bevan apparently wrote and produced the song in 20 minutes, following the death of his dog.)

On much of Untrue, Bevan sounds like he’s attempting to triangulate the sound of isolation after dark. He wrote and produced the record nocturnally, insisting on getting to work long after the sun went down. Tracks like “In McDonalds” and “Homeless” are indicative of that approach: They evoke something quietly desperate, both in their titles and their spare compositions; the result is electronic music that’s deeply human and affecting.

#93 - Alternative R&B, Neo-Soul - Museum-worthy art that heals, homing in on the Black female experience—especially her own.

“Fall in your ways so you can wake up and rise,” Solange sings in the intro track of her third album. The line encapsulates the journey of the then 30-year-old artist—formerly known as Beyoncé Knowles’ little sister—emerging from an eight-year hiatus from music and recognised as a bona fide visionary in her own right.

“Look at the control that she has, the power in the nuance, in the quiet. That’s just as powerful as loud horns and belting.” - Lizzo

On cuts like “F.U.B.U.”, Solange centres Black empowerment; on “Don’t Wish Me Well”, she pores over personal growing pains and what is left behind. Eight interludes weave her stories together, featuring narration from her parents, Mathew and Tina Knowles, as well as Master P. Other collaborators include Lil Wayne, Sampha, The-Dream and Raphael Saadiq, who initially sent Solange the instrumental for what would become “Cranes in the Sky” and went on to produce eight of the album’s tracks. The 21-song set is museum-worthy art that heals, homing in on the Black female experience, inextricable from Solange’s own struggles and triumphs.

personal note: I’m getting very frustrated at seeing Lizzo involved in such prestigious events such as these, surely after her controversy she doesn’t deserve these opportunities?

#92 - Neo-Soul, West Coast Hip Hop - Embracing the art of emotional bloodletting—and setting rap in a bold new direction.

Even when he was the enfant terrible of underground hip-hop, Tyler, The Creator’s most provocative and irony-soaked albums still provided windows into his anxiety and self-loathing. But his fourth solo album, 2017’s Flower Boy, was the moment Tyler fully embraced his role as bloodletting diarist, stripping away the appeals for shock and fully embracing expressions of lovesickness and loneliness. He emerges as a pan-genre auteur, as likely to spit rhymes as croon in a Pharrell-ian falsetto, landing somewhere at the intersection of hip-hop, neo-soul and chilled jazz.

In many ways, Flower Boy was prescient about where music was going as a whole, thanks to early appearances from future hitmakers like Steve Lacy and Kali Uchis. Though Tyler surrounds himself with a packed guest list of friends (Frank Ocean), heroes (Pharrell Williams) and rap superstars (A$AP Rocky, Lil Wayne, ScHoolboy Q), Flower Boy is still a deeply personal statement from a one-of-a-kind artist. It just happened to have set hip-hop in a bold new direction.

#91 - Sophisti-Pop - The sound of an artist reaching towards something profound and quietly radical.

After proving the depth, scope and maturity of his songwriting with an unassailable solo debut, George Michael released his second album, which feels like a pointed gear change. True, there is “Freedom! ’90”, a bright, piano-driven single designed to deftly skewer both the emerging age of music video culture and Michael’s own conflict about the way the Faith era had almost turned him into a piece of caricatured public property.

Nonetheless, the pervading mood of Listen Without Prejudice is one of subtlety, political consciousness and emotional desolation. Woodwinds evoke sparse battlefields (“Mothers Pride”), echo adds ghostly desperation (most notably on the spine-tingling Stevie Wonder cover “They Won’t Go When I Go”) and wind-blown acoustic guitar nods to folk (“Something to Save”). Crowned by the grand Lennon-ian sweep of “Praying for Time”, it is a quietly radical, deeply affecting creative progression—the sound of an artist retreating from pop’s synth-driven orthodoxy into something touched by timelessness, profundity and, in almost every sense, real soul.

#90 - Hard Rock - Out of tragedy came one of the biggest, brashest rock albums ever made.

When impish AC/DC singer Bon Scott died on 19 February 1980, the band’s career—one that had, after years of hard touring, made a huge leap in America on the back of 1979’s Highway to Hell—seemed destined to go with him. But after Scott’s father pulled Angus and Malcolm Young aside at the funeral and gave his blessing for the band to continue, the brothers began working on new music—at first as a way of mourning, but soon as a chance at rebirth. Six weeks later, Brian Johnson was in, and AC/DC were back. (Yes, they’re back.)

Despite its backstory, Back in Black is imbued with the same good-time riffs and grooves of the band’s previous output. Johnson proved himself cut from a similar cloth as Scott, imbuing songs such as “You Shook Me All Night Long” with double entendres (“She told me to come/But I was already there”) and an otherworldly rasp. Released five months after Scott’s passing, Back in Black became nothing less than one of the biggest-selling albums of all time and the blueprint for hard rock’s commercial domination through the ’80s.

#89 - Dance-Pop, Electropop - Before there was paparazzi, there was “Paparazzi”.

With the arrival of 2008’s The Fame, a star was (forgive us) born. But before Lady Gaga was living the lifestyle of the rich and famous, Stefani Germanotta was getting ready in the New York club scene. That’s what makes The Fame such a self-manifesting statement—it chronicles the glamorous A-list culture Gaga had yet to actually experience.

When she sings about having “a little bit too much” on “Just Dance”, the album’s defining first single, she’s that free-spirited party girl we’ve all wanted to be. Meanwhile, pop bops such as “Poker Face”—which followed “Just Dance” to the top of the charts—and “Paparazzi” reveal the lyrical and melodic beast behind the beat.
The Fame was already a sensation when it was reissued as The Fame Monster in 2009. This piled on even more hits, including “Bad Romance”, “Alejandro” and “Telephone”. The presence of none other than Beyoncé on the latter only confirmed Gaga’s lightning-fast ascent from diva-in-training to the real deal.

#88 - Soul, Vocal Jazz - A singular interpreter at the peak of her powers, shape-shifting across styles.

I Put a Spell on You became one of Nina Simone’s most successful albums, and its title track—a string-laden, melodramatic cover of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ campy rock classic—would turn out to be her biggest single since her debut. But it was “Feeling Good” that ultimately became the album’s best-known track—the scale of the horn section and orchestra are no match for Simone’s vocal force on the completely reimagined show tune. It’s the rare minor-key celebratory anthem.

“She can do everything as if she means it.” - Brittany Howard

By putting her stamp on so many different types of songs, Simone fought against the somewhat limiting designation of “jazz singer”. “Pop singer” hardly was the best replacement, as evidenced by the way Simone’s musical edge never dulls, no matter how many layers of orchestration get added atop it. She was simply a singular interpreter, never hampered by the ways other artists might sing a song before or after her. Whether reimagining musical numbers (“Beautiful Land”), temporarily transforming into a chanteuse (“Ne Me Quitte Pas”, one of three tracks originally written in French) or casually tossing up familiar-sounding R&B songs like “Gimme Some”, Simone sounds equally comfortable—and equally, indelibly herself.

#87 - Trip Hop

#86 - Contemporary R&B, Neo-Soul

#85 - Cuntry Pop, Singer-Songwriter

personal note: no way apple music actually added a good album and did something fucking iconic 🤩🤩🤩

#84 - Gangsta Rap, G-Funk, West Coast Hip Hop

#83 - Proto-punk, Art Rock, Singer-Songwriter

#82 - Gangsta Rap, East Coast Hip Hop

#81 - Country Rock, Folk Rock, Singer-Songwriter

#80 - Hardcore Hip Hop, Horrorcore

#79 - Singer-Songwriter, Art Pop, Soft Rock

Personal note: yes.

#78 - Piano Rock, Pop Rock

#77 - Pop

#76 - Reggaeton, Latin Pop

#75 - Pop Rap, Southern Hip Hop

#74 - Industrial Rock

#73 - Jazz-Rock, Yacht Rock

#72 - Contemporary R&B, Alternative R&B

Personal note: I do actually think this is a great choice but that is probably just because I have not experienced enough older music to prefer it to this.

#71 - Progressive Electronic

#70 - Gangsta Rap, West Coast Hip Hop, Hardcore Hip Hop

#69 - Thrash Metal

#68 - Indie Rock, Garage Rock Revival

#67 - Trip Hop