Since coming up with my own list of 100 favorite films of this century to date, it’s inevitable I’d want to do the same for albums. During my 100 Albums project some years back, I said I’d never rank them, but those were all-time favorites to date; I can handle ranking a quarter century. Either way, I’ve included links to the 37 titles that were part of that project.
As for these rankings, like the film list, the top 30 or so is based on how I feel about each album right now—how much I return to it, how much I want to return to it. My number one in 2025 would have been the same in 2020, 2015 or 2010; the rest of the top ten is aligned with those periods as well, obviously apart from the entry that came out in 2023 and maybe Hometime, which I’ve always loved but whose presence in my life has grown exponentially in recent years (as did Riot On An Empty Street roughly a decade ago.) Rankings below #30 or so are even more intuitive although I was surprised to see Local Valley so high as it came in at a mere #7 on my top albums list of 2021.
As for metrics, four artists appear with three albums each (Sam Phillips, Saint Etienne, Kings of Convenience, Tracey Thorn—four for her if you count Fuse) and an additional thirteen have more than one slot. The most common years to appear are 2003 and 2004 when I was in my late 20s, writing for a music website and absorbing so much stuff. That more than half of these entries are from the 2000’s I can only chalk up to my age or perhaps having had more time to live with and retain them. Ideally, if I did this exercise in another 25 years for a half-century of music, the 2010’s and 2020’s would have just as much representation. Also, ask me to formulate another list like this in a year or two and don’t be surprised if it shifts all over the place.
- Since I Left You (The Avalanches, 2000)
- Fan Dance (Sam Phillips, 2001)
- Aerial (Kate Bush, 2005)
- Tales From Turnpike House (Saint Etienne, 2005)
- Black Rainbows (Corinne Bailey Rae, 2023)
- Oceans Apart (The Go-Betweens, 2005)
- Riot On An Empty Street (Kings of Convenience, 2004)
- Feast of Wire (Calexico, 2003)
- Kaputt (Destroyer, 2011)
- Hometime (Alison Moyet, 2002)
- Music For The Age of Miracles (The Clientele, 2017)
- Northern Gospel (Emm Gryner, 2011)
- Here Come The Miracles (Steve Wynn, 2001)
- Home Counties (Saint Etienne, 2017)
- Out Of The Woods (Tracey Thorn, 2007)
- Queens Of The Summer Hotel (Aimee Mann, 2021)
- What’s Your Pleasure? (Jessie Ware, 2020)
- Record (Tracey Thorn, 2018)
- 5:55 (Charlotte Gainsbourg, 2006)
- Edge Of The Sun (Calexico, 2015)
- Random Access Memories (Daft Punk, 2013)
- Seven Swans (Sufjan Stevens, 2004)
- Bachelor No. 2 (Aimee Mann, 2000)
- The Naked Dutch Painter and Other Songs (Stew, 2002)
- Get Away From Me! (Nellie McKay, 2004)
- The Facts of Life (Black Box Recorder, 2001)
- Phantom Power (Super Furry Animals, 2003)
- Lil’ Beethoven (Sparks, 2002)
- Don’t Do Anything (Sam Phillips, 2008)
- Fuse (Everything But The Girl, 2023)
- My Finest Work Yet (Andrew Bird, 2019)
- Tales Of Us (Goldfrapp, 2016)
- Reconstruction Site (Weakerthans, 2003)
- Want One (Rufus Wainwright, 2003)
- Local Valley (Jose Gonzalez, 2021)
- The Hair, The TV, The Baby and The Band (Imperial Teen, 2007)
- Guest Host (Stew, 2000)
- New Pagan Love Song (Paul Brill, 2004)
- Weather Alive (Beth Orton, 2022)
- Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt (Tompaulin, 2004)
- I Speak Because I Can (Laura Marling, 2010)
- Lungs (Florence + the Machine, 2009)
- OOOH! (Out of Our Heads) (Mekons, 2002)
- Chutes Too Narrow (Shins, 2003)
- Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You (Big Thief, 2022)
- Running Out of Love (The Radio Dept., 2016)
- I Know What Love Isn’t (Jens Lekman, 2012)
- Froot (Marina and The Diamonds, 2015)
- Declaration of Dependence (Kings of Convenience, 2009)
- Overpowered (Roisin Murphy, 2007)
- One Beat (Sleater-Kinney, 2002)
- Christine and the Queens (Christine and the Queens, 2015)
- Words and Music By Saint Etienne (Saint Etienne, 2012)
- A Girl Called Eddy (A Girl Called Eddy, 2004)
- Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia (The Dandy Warhols, 2000)
- I Am Not There Anymore (The Clientele, 2023)
- Singles (Future Islands, 2014)
- Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea (PJ Harvey, 2000)
- Twin Cinema (New Pornographers, 2005)
- Time (The Revelator) (Gillian Welch, 2001)
- Island (Owen Pallett, 2020)
- So This Is Goodbye (Junior Boys, 2006)
- Business & Pleasure (Emm Gryner, 2023)
- My Light, My Destroyer (Cassandra Jenkins, 2024)
- Armchair Apocrypha (Andrew Bird, 2007)
- In Our Heads (Hot Chip, 2012)
- Obligatory Villagers (Nellie McKay, 2007)
- The ArchAndroid (Janelle Monae, 2010)
- Beauty & Crime (Suzanne Vega, 2007)
- Stone Rollin’ (Raphael Saadiq, 2011)
- Mid Air (Romy, 2023)
- Scarlet’s Walk (Tori Amos, 2002)
- Behind The Music (The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, 2001)
- Songs Of A Lost World (The Cure, 2024)
- Love & Hate (Michael Kiwanuka, 2016)
- Dottie’s Charms (Jill Sobule, 2014)
- Love and Its Opposite (Tracey Thorn, 2010)
- Stand For Myself (Yola, 2021)
- Bebel Gilberto (Bebel Gilberto, 2004)
- Dear Catastrophe Waitress (Belle & Sebastian, 2003)
- Faded Seaside Glamour (Delays, 2004)
- Z (My Morning Jacket, 2005)
- Hairless Toys (Roisin Murphy, 2015)
- Modern Vampires of the City (Vampire Weekend, 2013)
- Goodnight Rhonda Lee (Nicole Atkins, 2017)
- E*MO*TION (Carly Rae Jepsen, 2015)
- Quiet Is The New Loud (Kings of Convenience, 2001)
- D-D-Don’t Stop The Beat (Junior Senior, 2003)
- One Life Stand (Hot Chip, 2010)
- A Boot And A Shoe (Sam Phillips, 2004)
- Blackstar (David Bowie, 2016)
- Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance (Belle & Sebastian, 2015)
- Come On Feel The Illinoise! (Sufjan Stevens, 2005)
- Heartthrob (Tegan & Sara, 2013)
- Poses (Rufus Wainwright, 2001)
- The Idler Wheel… (Fiona Apple, 2012)
- Transatlanticism (Death Cab For Cutie, 2003)
- The Evangelist (Robert Forster, 2008)
- Night Falls Over Kortedala (Jens Lekman, 2007)
- The Slow Wonder (A.C. Newman, 2004)
Haunted Jukebox 