The Top 50 Albums Of The 2000s (Part 1)

Voted for by readers of Triple Threat, and painstakingly collated and compiled by the editorial team, our Top 50 list is an experimental rebuke to the traditional critic selections which you'll see in every music publication/website you choose to investigate. A bold move, which throws up the odd surprise here and there, but otherwise generally feels like an on-point assessment of the decade's musical high-points. There are more commercial achievers than critic choices tend to allow for and minority music tastes are conspicuous by their absence (while it's a representative move to include a world or jazz title or two, it's clear that these are the musical domain of the afficionado and enthusiast, rather than the average music fan). Some interesting anomalies emerged during the compiling of the votes, including the four selections which were revered and loved enough to elicit an individual top spot but made no mark on any other list. If you're interested these were Bright Eyes - Cassadaga, The Enemy - We'll Live And Die In These Towns, Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles and my own selection, D'Angelo's Voodoo. The selections encompassed pretty much every conceivable genre, from Steve Reid and Kieran Hebden's left-field free jazz to Charlotte Church's Tissues And Issues. I shit you not.
It has been said that the biggest argument against democracy is spending five minutes with the average voter. Perhaps it is actually spending an evening with their record collection. Weirdly enough, with a few notable exceptions, this is not far from a list that could have been cooked up in the offices of The Independent or Q. So without further ado...

50. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Abattoir Blues/The Lyre Of Orpheus
Expansive 2004 double album that began a rich vein of form for Cave, culminating in the Grinderman and Dig, Lazarus Dig!!! albums.
Download one track: There She Goes, My Beautiful World

49. Justice - Cross
Built on the success of their Simian remix We Are Your Friends by following the example of Daft Punk by turning in a relentless, perfect modern dance album.
Download one track: Rivers Of Nazareth

48. The Klaxons - Myths Of The Near Future
JG Ballard-obsessed London troupe who did their best to invent a genre (nu-rave's glowstick adorned heyday seems to have been strictly two years ago, but it was fun while it lasted) and left us this Mercury-winning debut, which bore the stamp of producer James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Simian Mobile Disco) and his late-decade midas touch.
Download one track: Two Receivers

47. The Streets - Original Pirate Material
A stunningly original set which replaced two-step and UK garage's bling and champagne with everyman tales, told through a thick fug of weed in an irrepressibly homegrown accent.
Download one track: The Irony Of It All

46. Bat For Lashes - Fur & Gold
The first in a sequence of two knockout albums from Natasha Khan, and one which chanelled Kate Bush's more accessible, inspired moments through tales of enchanted worlds and wizards.
Download one track: Priscilla

45. Red Hot Chili Peppers - By The Way
The mega-selling follow up to the mega-selling Californication which saw the Frusciante-bolstered line-up deliver their most cohesive album, before the bloated and disjointed Stadium Arcadium ruined their purple patch.
Download one track: Tear

44. Interpol - Antics
Moody basslines, motorik beats and deadpan vocals saw this lot accused of pilfering from Joy Division, before going on to inspire Editors and White Lies to follow suit. Contained more bona-fide hits than their acclaimed first.
Download one track: Evil

43. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven
Four twenty-odd minute, vocal-less compositions of breathtaking scope and composition, earning the band's fans post-rock bragging rights at ATP for years to come.
Download one track: The first one (whereas Sigur Ros go for the no title approach, GYBE make them so long they'd take up the whole article!)

42. Cold War Kids - Robbers & Cowards
Christian rockers with a nifty line in family-based, narrative songwriting, evoking misguided but welcome comparisons to the likes of Radiohead.
Download one track: We Used To Vacation

41. Razorlight - Up All Night
A bawdy night out in skinny jeans of an album, whose punk overtones were stripped away by the time Borrell and co regrouped for their commercial breakthrough.
Download one track: Vice

40. Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News
Ie. the one with Float On. The group's signature tune was one of the best tracks of the decade and the album veered wildly from Tom Waits-style skronking jazz to more streamlined blog-rock, acquiring them the services of one Johnny Marr for their next outing.
Download one track: Float On

39. Tool - Lateralus
Third album of pioneering, sprawlingly-ambitious art-metal from Maynard James Keenan and his motley crew. Opener The Grudge is a rhythmic masterclass in tension and relief.
Download one track: The Grudge

38. Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly - Confessions Of A Bohemian Teenager
The bedroom project of Southend's Sam Duckworth allied laptop beats to Billy Bragg-esque political musings and occasional trumpets, creating a sleeper hit in the process.
Download one track: Call Me Ishmael

37. Sufjan Stevens - Come On Feel the Illinoise
Setting the bar too high for Stevens to ever possibly complete his album for every US state project, this alt-folk meditation on Illinois' history was a wonderful and impeccably-researched patchwork of topics from serial killers to Superman.
Download one track: Chicago

36. Hot Chip - The Warning
Winning second album of ear-worming tunes from the London collective, mixing dancefloor nous with affecting vocals and a great understanding of pop history.
Download one track: Over & Over

35. TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
The Brooklyn art-rockers came up trumps on their second major label album, effortlessly melding the impressive, densely-layered studio trickery of Dave Sitek with the soaring gospel-inflected harmonies of Kyp Malone and Tunde Adebimpe.
Download one track: I Was A Lover

34. Jay-Z - The Blueprint
The then-unknown Kanye West supplied a steady stream of classic soul sampling beats which Jay-Z took to the cleaners with his wit, pathos and massive vocal charisma. Verbally slayed New York rivals Nas and Mobb Deep on the Doors-sampling The Takeover in the process.
Download one track: The Takeover

33. Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
The highest ranking female-fronted album had all the hallmarks of a classic upon release and the three years of tabloid headlines have done little to dim its greatness. Producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi recruited The Dap Kings to spice up Amy's torch-song prowess and belting Motown impressions with sharp horn-playing.
Download one track: Love Is A Losing Game

32. The Kooks - Inside In/Inside Out
Massively successful, critically-savaged debut album that fired out a sequnce of lightweight indie-pop smashes along the way which the band proceeded to blow with their massively unsuccessful, critically-savaged second album.
Download one song: Naive

31. The Libertines - Up The Bracket
Ramshackle, vibrant and defiantly English, the combination of Pete Doherty's pre-crack swagger and poetic leanings with Carl Barat's riffs and melodic focus provided one of the most memorable debut albums of the decade.
Download one track: Time For Heroes

30. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
Wearing their Ivy League pedigree as a badge of honour, these preppy east coasters assembled an array of instruments to construct this impeccable set of African-influenced power-pop which worships heavily at the altar of Paul Simon's Graceland.
Download one track: Oxford Comma

29. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
The most recent release to grace this list, AC's ninth album saw a pulsing, electronic bounce underpinning the fragments of melodic genius which characterise most of their output. Singles My Girls and Brothersport are notable highlights but opener In The Flowers is key, exploding from Floydian whimsy to a carnivalesque riot, accompanied by one of the most rousing chorus harmonies in recent memory.
Download one track: In The Flowers

28. Kasabian - Kasabian
Lairy, groove-led dynamics from the Leicester band, who claim to be influenced by all manner of obscurist psychedelic rock but still wind up sounding like Primal Scream covering The Stone Roses on every album.
Download one track: Club Foot

27. Radiohead - Kid A
The mother of all sonic u-turns saw these national treasures taking risks and indulging in a boundary-pushing collection which experimented at every turn, inspired by vocalist Thom Yorke's love of avant-electronica mainstays Warp records.
Download one track: Idioteque

26. Wolf Parade - Apologies To the Queen Mary
Lauded by fellow Canucks Arcade Fire and produced by Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock, this debut saw dual-frontmen Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner wailing plaintively over a ruminative, electrical storm of keyboards and drum-heavy tracks.
Download one track: I'll Believe In Anything

25. The White Stripes - Elephant
The primitive, sexually-charged blues-rock that The White Stripes had already been excelling in over the course of their previous three albums bore commercial fruit this time around via the ubiquitous Seven Nation Army and Jack White's howling take on I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself.
Download one track: Seven Nation Army

24. Daft Punk - Discovery
Dispensing of the minimal techno which characterised previous release Homework, these two French maestros replaced this with vocodered vocals and potentially cheesy samples to create a modern disco masterwork.
Download one track: Harder Better Faster Stronger

23. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
With three hit singles which defined the festival season of 2008, MGMT's debut was a woozy trip which arrived fully-formed of melodic prowess and psychedelic aspiration. Best of all is Electric Feel's wonderfully silly lyrics and meshing of the Scissor Sisters and Prince.
Download one track: Electric Feel

22. The Postal Service - Give Up
Sub-Pop's biggest selling album since Nirvana's heyday was a collaboration between Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello, named in honour of the method they used to complete the album. Stand-out Such Great Heights was covered to the delight of soundtrackers and advertising execs everywhere by Iron & Wine.
Download one track: Such Great Heights

21. Sigur Ros - Takk
The Icelandic group's fourth album continued to trade in soaring orchestral magic, embued with a geophysical heartbeat and natural beauty.
Download one track: Hoppipolla

The Top 20 will be published soon. Watch this space.