Best Albums of the 2000s

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Explore the best albums of the 2000s, based on over 2 million album rankings across 60,000 charts.
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2000s decade summaryThe best artists of the 2000s were Radiohead, Arcade Fire, The Strokes, Coldplay, Sufjan Stevens, Muse, Arctic Monkeys, The White Stripes, Wilco and Animal Collective.

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In Rainbows

Radiohead

"It's as creative and bright as a 5 year old's experiments with poster paints, sugar paper and glitter glue. And very nearly as fun too. Its only real hiccup is its short-lived middle section. The sound established within the first few moments of '15 Step' is so distinguishable, and the superbly s...""It's as creative and bright as a 5 year old's experiments with poster paints, sugar paper and glitter glue. And very nearly as fun too. Its only real hiccup is its short-lived middle section. The sound established within the first few moments of '15 Step' is so distinguishable, and the superbly strong 3 songs that follow it only build it further and further. 'Nude' is one of the best songs ever, end of discussion. 'Weird Fishes' adds tumultuous and bounding flavour and a fresh boost of energy with its fast-paced-ness. 'All I Need' and 'Faust Arp' sadly don't quite make the cut for me - not sure why exactly, they just lack the essence of this album. But then along comes 'Reckoner' to kick start it all over again and begin the final act, climaxing in 'Jigsaw Falling Into Place' (where Yorke manages to use the word "beat" on a non-dance song to surprising effect), and the whole thing is so tastefully completed by the melancholy piano chords of 'Videotape'. This is an album to love and cherish. It's so genuine and wonderful. It's Radiohead being Radiohead. Nothing else sounds like this because it's in its own genre of style. Sure, maybe you could attribute a few influences, but you'd be hard pressed to find anything that isn't original. And perhaps its strongest point is that unlike previous Radiohead, In Rainbows is steered away from being political, from being a concept album or from being like Radiohead's older work. It still sounds new even as it nears its 10th anniversary. This is a rare jewel, no doubt. An album that is just music (however pretentious that sounds). I get the impression that this was made not for the sake of spreading a message or trying to top the charts. No, it was just made out of brainstorming ideas for different songs, made from bog-standard, no frills, on-the-spot creativity. And that theme spreads on to how you listen to it. It's undemanding, easy on the ear and rewarding. I'd always recommend you listen to the whole thing in one go, but aside from that there are no obligations on how to respond to it or what to feel. You the listener just get to appreciate its fantastic and unending quality. This here is a masterclass in how to make music. Take notes, and make the most of it; things like this don't come around often. " [+] Reply

DeusExMackia | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +13 votes (13 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2007

Appears in:

2,986 charts

Rank Score:

40,711

Rank in 2007:

Rank in 2000s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

89 (3,984 votes)

Comments:

399

Kid A

Radiohead

"This is better than Funeral - which has taken the 2000's No. 1 just because of recent Reflektor hype - save Kid A anyone please! Why? Because every single song (yes, I'm looking at you too, Treefingers) is its own unique, daring, thrilling masterpiece. This was an album that actually challenged i..." [+] Reply

- Gunit | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +12 votes (16 helpful | 4 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2000

Appears in:

3,237 charts

Rank Score:

39,131

Rank in 2000:

Rank in 2000s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

89 (4,501 votes)

Comments:

564

Funeral

Arcade Fire

"If it sounds like any other album of the so called "indie" it is beacuse, this is the quintaessencial album of that "subgenre", one of the best of the last decade and definietely a key recording overall, it has such a beautiful atmosphere and the structure of the songs is so precise and dreamlike..." [+] Reply

covecove | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +13 votes (16 helpful | 3 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2004

Appears in:

2,936 charts

Rank Score:

32,064

Rank in 2004:

Rank in 2000s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

Comments:

"I’ve hesitated to review this until now. Like most of my favorite albums, this one had to grow on me, for 18 years to be exact. I felt like it lacked the immediacy of most great rock albums, that it needed more hooks and stronger payoffs instead of ending abruptly on certain songs. I remember rea...""I’ve hesitated to review this until now. Like most of my favorite albums, this one had to grow on me, for 18 years to be exact. I felt like it lacked the immediacy of most great rock albums, that it needed more hooks and stronger payoffs instead of ending abruptly on certain songs. I remember reading an article about some industry executives who felt ‘Is This It’ should have been an even bigger album, that the songs never reached the heights of their potential. They used the template from the songs here and helped co-write ‘Since You Been Gone’ by Kelly Clarkson, demonstrating what they felt was the direction The Strokes songs were building to, but with bigger hooks. And I tended to agree with that sentiment for a long time, that these songs were good but never built up to a large payoff. Until one day, I was driving my old truck (as opposed to a newer Bluetooth enabled company vehicle) where I had no Spotify, no streaming service to speak of, just my old CD binder and the music of my youth. I was reminded of being in my friend’s basement, smoking weed and riding skateboards with our high school buddies, listening to The Strokes and desperately wanting to ‘get’ them the way they did. But it still didn’t click. It was good, yes, but that was all. It was historically important, I never argued that. But I never loved it. Fast forward a few weeks, and the album stayed in my CD player. I only drive that old truck on weekends, and somewhere along the way I misplaced the binder. So I have a choice: listen to this, the only album in my CD player, or the radio. I continued playing this album. And over time, I noticed my son nodding along to the songs, asking me each time he got in my truck who we were listening to, and commenting that they sound like The Beatles (he’s 3, he gets a pass). And in these moments, in a shared a experience, the songs started revealing themselves to me. I appreciated that the songs didn’t contain soaring choruses (with the exception of the perfect ‘Hard to Explain’) and instead relied on actual songwriting and musicianship to establish its brilliance. With all due respect to the poster below me, I feel it’s one of those rare albums that is anachronistic without being derivative. It could have been recorded in 1970 or today, and would have found an audience any time in between. It took me much longer than most to understand this album, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t appreciate it a little more for that reason. 97/100" [+] Reply

- Joshuatyler | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (4 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2001

Appears in:

2,504 charts

Rank Score:

27,170

Rank in 2001:

Rank in 2000s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

Comments:

"The Greatest album of the 21st century so far. Storytelling worthy of Dylan. 5 stars!" Reply

- SamTheMan | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +16 votes (17 helpful | 1 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2005

Appears in:

1,704 charts

Rank Score:

19,255

Rank in 2005:

Rank in 2000s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

86 (1,933 votes)

Comments:

169

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Wilco

"Not a single weak song on it. Not a single instrument out of place. Not a single production mistake. Not a single line that Tweedy doesn't inflect like if he really cared about his art. It's complex at every level, but it doesn't feel challenging because the music invites you to appreciate it lik..." [+] Reply

- Lacobra | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +11 votes (11 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2002

Appears in:

1,702 charts

Rank Score:

16,270

Rank in 2002:

Rank in 2000s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

85 (1,977 votes)

Comments:

174

Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

Arctic Monkeys

"Definitely in my Top 5 albums of all time. The guitar music is great but the way it is brought across in broad Yorkshire accent and dialect is summet else. The way the stories are told in the lyrics is just how one of your mates would tell a story about one of his nights out." Reply

- nshaw75 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +9 votes (9 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2006

Appears in:

1,650 charts

Rank Score:

15,607

Rank in 2006:

Rank in 2000s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

Comments:

"It's like A Clockwork Orange. It's dastardly sinister while also being humorously whimsical." Reply

PsychologistHD | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +13 votes (13 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2004

Appears in:

1,086 charts

Rank Score:

13,306

Rank in 2004:

Rank in 2000s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

86 (1,239 votes)

Comments:

Turn On The Bright Lights

Interpol

"In the earliest days of the 21st century, New York City was not only a dominant fulcrum for the arts, it also stood as a mecca for some of the best up-and-coming indie rock artists of the era. Bands such as The Strokes, LCD Soundsystem and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. If these wonderful acts were assembl...""In the earliest days of the 21st century, New York City was not only a dominant fulcrum for the arts, it also stood as a mecca for some of the best up-and-coming indie rock artists of the era. Bands such as The Strokes, LCD Soundsystem and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. If these wonderful acts were assembled at a legendary NYC party, deep in the corner, pensively camouflaging would be Interpol. Always tastefully suited and donning black, Interpol were surely the most brooding and moody of these groups and their music brilliantly reflected the sentiment of a city that they loved but was holding them prisoner. Their crowning achievement was 2002's Turn on the Bright Lights, an introspective compendium of social alienation and the poetic juxtaposition of perception and reality in the city they called home. Lead singer Paul Banks pulls no punches on third track NYC, claiming, "The subway is a porno, The pavements they are a mess, I know you've supported me for a long time, Somehow I'm not impressed". Lead guitarist Daniel Kessler vigorously drives fifth track Say Hello to the Angels. The breakneck pace is notably apt when uncovering the song's inspiration, unfailing sexual yearning during a rocky relationship. Fan favorite Obstacle 1 is often noted as an anthem for the turn-of-the-century indie revival. It was seemingly influenced by the death of a model that willingly pierced her own throat. The relevance to the narrator is still up for interpretation but lines such as, "But it's different now that I'm poor and aging, I'll never see this face again, And you go stabbing yourself in the neck," imply a distant, one-sided affinity. The darkness only purveys further from there. Playfully titled track Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down describes another flesh-centric liaison gone awry due to the title bearer's personal instability. Sam Fogarino's burst-guided drumming creates the sensation that the song itself is slowly descending deeper and deeper into the Hudson. Banks croons, "Bottom of the ocean she dwells, bottom of the ocean she dwells", as he too drifts into the abyss. The lion's share of the band's attention appeared to revolve around their status as dead ringers for legendary post-punk foursome Joy Division. Interpol, while respecting Joy Division's legacy, dismissed the strategic intention of such comparisons, not content to live in another's shadow or (Shadowplay). While The Strokes and LCD Soundsystem concocted hits that were not out of place at Columbia University parties and the sprawling New York City club scene, Turn on the Bright Lights' target was an entirely different audience. A sector of listeners that felt petrified at the notion of being present at a social soiree or those who desired whole-hearted love in favor of booze-soaked escapades. It's a shame that these days that Interpol are perceived to have lost their labels as critical darlings, lost to a new generation sporting deaf ears on which the band's music falls on. Shamefully, they often get lost in the shuffle when commenting about the impact of early 2000's indie rock, swiftly swept to the side by more thematically positive acts that potentially have less provocative things to say. How appropriate of the band to be caught up in such a woebegone story. Hindsight suggests that Interpol just may have been the finest act to grace that era. They certainly released its most polished, brilliantly arranged artifact. You can find it gracing the shelves of a Greenwich Village antique shop. "I had seven faces Thought I knew which one to wear But I'm sick of spending these lonely nights Training myself not to care" -NYC Standout Tracks: 1. Obstacle 1 2. Leif Erikson 3. Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down 97.8" [+] Reply

DriftingOrpheus | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +6 votes (6 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2002

Appears in:

1,310 charts

Rank Score:

12,799

Rank in 2002:

Rank in 2000s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

84 (1,651 votes)

Comments:

128

10.

Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

"I think that my vocabulary is not sufficient to convey what this album illustrates in my mind. Its an epic affair. I feel like when I really give in and immerse myself in this record I am sort of confronting and feeling some concept as big as civilization itself. It feel at times like the beginni..." [+] Reply

Mercury | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +22 votes (22 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2000

Appears in:

1,117 charts

Rank Score:

12,080

Rank in 2000:

Rank in 2000s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

86 (1,353 votes)

Comments:

108

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Total albums: 1,000. Page 1 of 100

Best Albums of the 2000s composition

Year	Albums	%

2000	103	10%
2001	100	10%
2002	109	11%
2003	111	11%
2004	87	9%
2005	107	11%
2006	101	10%
2007	92	9%
2008	88	9%
2009	104	10%

Artist	Albums	%

Animal Collective	6	1%
Bruce Springsteen	6	1%
Wilco	5	0%
Opeth	5	0%
Bright Eyes	5	0%
Modest Mouse	5	0%
The Decemberists	5	0%
Show all

Country	Albums	%

	550	55%
	221	22%
	57	6%
	39	4%
	23	2%
	23	2%
	18	2%
Show all

Compilation?	Albums	%
No	989	99%
Yes	13	1%

Live?	Albums	%
No	994	99%
Yes	8	1%

Soundtrack?	Albums	%
No	991	99%
Yes	11	1%

Best Albums of the 2000s chart changes

Biggest climbers Biggest climbers in top 100 since last month
Up 3 from 68th to 65th Deathconsciousness by Have A Nice Life
Up 2 from 75th to 73rd Transatlanticism by Death Cab For Cutie
Up 2 from 23rd to 21st Vespertine by Björk

Biggest fallers Biggest fallers in top 100 since last month
Down 2 from 20th to 22nd Boxer by The National
Down 2 from 70th to 72nd The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me by Brand New
Down 1 from 22nd to 23rd American Idiot by Green Day

« View best albums of the 1990sView best albums of the 2010s »

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