The Top 50 Albums Of The 2000s (Part 2)

Before choruses of 'Auld Lang Syne' start sweeping the country and unwanted christmas trees start lining the pavements, it's time to reveal the Triple Threat readership's top twenty albums of the past decade. So without further ado...

20. The Streets - A Grand Don't Come For Free
While it lacked the shock of the new that greeted 'Original Pirate Material', Mike Skinner side-stepped the potential pitfalls of following such a unique debut by launching into a full-blown concept album. Rich in narrative prowess, the album also gave us the heart-on-sleeve geezer anthem 'Dry Your Eyes' and 'Fit But You Know It', a perfectly observed follow-up piece to Blur's 'Boys & Girls'.
Download one track: Blinded By The Lights

19. Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights
Sometimes derided as mere Joy Division copyists, this New York band's debut actually bears influences from and, more importantly, a great understanding and appreciation of both the goth and post-punk movements, in particular bands such as Echo & The Bunnymen, Psychedelic Furs, Bauhaus and Magazine. In turn, these stylings went on to inspire a British revival in anthemic gloom, characterised chiefly by Editors and White Lies.
Download one track: Obstacle 1

18. Magic Numbers - Magic Numbers
Polling surprisingly high, given the subsequent plummet from sales and stardom that greeted second album 'Those the Brokes', their debut album was nonetheless a perfect pop record, albeit one that is as tied to the stormy summer of 2005 as to its myriad of '60s west coast reference points. A fleeting summer fling of an album which will always inspire a healthy dose of nostalgia upon future plays.
Download one track: I See You, You See Me

17. Outkast - Stankonia
Hinting at the stylistic differences between Andre 3000 and Big Boi that would characterise 'Speakerboxx/The Love Below', 'Stankonia' was epic in scale and ambition, but uncertain of what was lurking round the corner, culminating in a classic album that still sounds like the future. Propelled in 2000 by the massive chart success of the wonderful 'Ms Jackson', the high points were the post-millennial tension and paranoia of 'Gasoline Dreams' and 'Bombs Over Baghdad' - chillingly prophetic of a decade engulfed by conflict.
Download one track: Gasoline Dreams

16. Daft Punk - Alive 2007
Challenged at the death by Blur's Hyde Park release, 'Alive 2007' is still the greatest live album of the decade, even more surprising given that the live arena is meant to be the domain of the rock star, not the robot. Mixed immaculately with an extra thump to the beats, particularly on the underrated 'Robot Rock' tracks, all that's missing from 'Alive 2007' are the lights.
Download one track: Da Funk/Daftendirekt

15. LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver
After forming the DFA label and carving a niche as a trend-setting boutique specialising in the dance punk sound characterised by The Rapture, James Murphy really hit his stride with this second album under the LCD Soundsystem moniker. Taking in elements of Detroit techno, Talking Heads and Brian Eno, the album uses hipster irony as a stick with which to beat its protagonists. A beautifully-sequenced album, with 'All My Friends' its great pumping heart, an epic seven-and-a-half minute ode to getting older, which starts off all Steve Reich-minimalist before building immeasurably and emotionally to its climax.
Download one track: All My Friends

14. Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP
If the title implied we were to see a human, caring side to counteract the cartoonish violence and drug-fuelled naughtiness of 'The Slim Shady LP', then thirty seconds of the opening track 'Kill You' quickly dispel that notion. Adding depth and character to the verbal dexterity, savage slurs and murderous diatribes which account for most of the work here was, however, Marshall's real triumph as a writer, as evidenced on the poignant, gripping and completely unique 'Stan'.
Download one track: Stan

13. Kings Of Leon - Because Of The Times
The point where Kings Of Leon recognised that their ambition extended beyond rollicking, swampy rock in the vein of Creedence Clearwater Revival and towards conquering stadiums, 'Because Of The Times' was an accomplished document of a band in transition. Although it lacked the one knockout hit single that was just around the corner, the brooding intensity of 'Knocked Up' and delirious singalong of 'Fans' were ample compensation.
Download one track: Black Thumbnail

12. The Libertines - The Libertines
Challenging The Strokes as the most influential sound and vision of the decade, Pete Doherty and Carl Barat's motley crew made their true classic in this, their second offering of knockabout skiffle and punk, shot through with Doherty's poetic allusions and experience of London's sordid underbelly and Barat's knack for a great hook. The tension between the two is so rife, 'Can't Stand Me Now' constantly threatens to desend into a scuffle to the sound of bass, drums and fists.
Download one track: Last Post On The Bugle

11. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
Twenty years into their career and The Flaming Lips followed up on the huge critical adoration for 'The Soft Bulletin' by making this wondrous set of symphonic pop delights, rich in sadness and hope and dressed up in tales of Japanese girls, pink robots, hypnotists and magicians. 'Fight Test' borrowed the melody from Cat Stevens' 'Father And Son' and transformed it, while 'Do You Realize?' became one of the most worthy festival anthems of the decade.
Download one track: Do You Realize?

10. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Critics fell over themselves to tell the tale of how Justin Vernon retreated to a log cabin in the wilderness for months to pen this epic, emotional voyage of a break-up album, rich in the tapestry of yearning, isolation and heartbreak but glimmering with hope for the future. However, one review on Amazon read (hilariously) 'Man Sulks In Shed'.
Download one track: Skinny Love

9. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
With a sensational buzz causing an explosion of file-sharing by fans before they had any official releases, Alex Turner and crew made good on the hype with a whirlwind album of pinpoint social commentary in the grand tradition of The Kinks and Sheffield forefathers Pulp. Whether lambasting wannabe Yanks on 'Fake Tales Of San Francisco' or observing the ladies in various others, the band's playing was as taught throughout as Turner's tales were well-observed vignettes of modern Britain.
Download one track: Mardy Bum

8. Kings Of Leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak
Uproarious second album which caught the Followhill clan at their riotous best, before they set sail on the path to becoming the next U2. Their most exciting and cohesive album, the titles give away the album's primary obsessions - namely wine, women and song, and the band make good on their standing as the post-Strokes next big thing with big-hitters such as 'The Bucket' and 'King Of The Rodeo'.
Download one track: The Bucket

7. Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
Released on the same day as Conor Oberst's underrated electronica excursion 'Digital Ash In a Digital Urn', it's sister record was a moving, oetic country blues album, which made good on all the promise of the umpteen angsty albums he had offered thus far. Recruiting the classic harmonies of Emmylou Harris proved the album's master-stroke while Oberst's fierce intellect and political engagement shone through on opener 'At The Bottom Of Everything' and the stirring 'Old Soul Song'.
Download one track: We Are Nowhere, And It's Now

6. Antony & The Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now
Possessed of the most stunningly unique voice since Jeff Buckley, Antony Hegarty managed to create one of the decade's most unlikely successes with this stunningly beautiful set of songs, borne of gender anxiety, loss, hope and desparation. Opener 'Hope There's Someone' is the perfect introduction to Hegarty's bewildering, other-worldly vocal while 'Fistful Of Love' adds swaying horns and a spoken word intro by early champion Lou Reed to its dark tale of sexual violence.
Download one track: Hope There's Someone

5. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
Powered throughout by the mighty drumming of Matt Tong, Bloc Party's debut release timed with the arrival of a whole host of post-punk and new wave-inspired angular rockers such as Franz Ferdinand and The Futureheads, but has outlasted these peers in longevity. Gang Of Four's jerky rhythms steer 'Banquet' and 'She's Hearing Voices' but the majesty of Kele Okereke's song-writing shines through on 'Blue Light' and 'This Modern Love'.
Download one track: Like Eating Glass

4. The Killers - Hot Fuss
Self-confessed anglophiles, this Vegas quartet soaked up the cream of the UK's '80s musical achievements and sold them back to us as dramatic anthems, laden with arena-slaying hooks. While follow-up Sam's Town looked to Springsteen's America for inspiration, 'Hot Fuss's success can be attributed to the country that inspired and adopted The Killers. Anyone who hasn't sung "I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier" at least once is either a liar or has been living in Bon Iver's shed for the past six years.
Download one track: All These Things that I've Done

3. The National - Alligator
The real surprise of this list, Brooklyn's The National had been quietly putting out excellent material under the radar since 2003's 'Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers' without making much of a dent in anyone's end of decade lists until a chance encounter with the stirring, poetic and wonderful 'Mr November' led me, for one, to jump around the room uncontrollably and recommend them vigorously to more or less every person I met over the next couple of years. If you're wondering, the next National are Yeasayer, who hail from the same neck of the woods and are equally wonderful and considerably more weird.
Download one track: Mr November

2. The Arcade Fire - Funeral
Another unlikely triumph which heralded the rise of blog-rock (it had virtually no press and buzz grew via sites such as Pitchfork and net whisperings) these Canucks made grand, orchestral, almost baroque songs which told of children digging tunnels through towns, murdered Haitians and brothers bitten by vampires. suddenly the decade was about more than skinny jeans and taught basslines.
Download one track: Wake Up

1. The Strokes - Is This It
It had to be really, didn't it. While many may hate 'Is this It' for a multitude of reasons (the decline of baggy trousers, spawning a multitude of crap bands etc.) the reasons to admire it far outweigh them. Essentially rich upstarts with a passion for CBGBs-era New York, Julian Casablancas murmured his vocals in a deadpan, art-school version of cool and the band chugged out post-punk-inspired tunes which while indebted to the past, sounded incredibly fresh in 2001 after a few years of Travis, Coldplay, Limp Bizkit and Korn. Just put on the first few bars of 'Hard to Explain' to hear the sound of the decade.
Download one track: Hard To Explain

Thoughts? grievances? hate mail? Leave a comment and keep the debate raging into the new year!