Over what has already been many years, and will likely be a few more, I’ve been ranking and reviewing the top 5 albums - plus a fair few extras - according to users on rateyourmusic.com (think IMDB for music) from every year from 1960 to the present. If you want to know more, I wrote an introduction to the ‘challenge’ here. You can also read all the other entries I’ve written so far by heading to the lovely index page here.

And so we arrive in 2006: the year Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet, Italy won the World Cup after Zidane’s infamous headbutt, Montenegro declared independence, Twitter launched, and Tony Blair began edging towards the end of his premiership. Music wise, here’s what rateyourmusic.com users rate as the year’s best albums:

#1 J Dilla - Donuts
#2 Joanna Newsom - Ys
#3 Agalloch - Ashes Against the Grain
#4 My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade
#5 Brand New - The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me

And here’s a bunch more, because I can’t help myself.

#6 Tim Hecker - Harmony in Ultraviolet
#8 The Roots - Game Theory
#9 Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
#10 Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
#17 Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
#71 The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
#265 The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America

Let’s go.

“The Crane Wife is the fourth studio album by American indie-rock band the Decemberists. Inspired by a Japanese folk tale, the record features two song cycles: “The Crane Wife” and “The Island,” the latter drawing on William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. NPR listeners voted it the best album of 2006.” - Wikipedia

The Decemberists are a band I feel should have an album I absolutely love: literate, folky, melodic. The Crane Wife starts beautifully, with that lovely sense of myth and melancholy they do so well. It never steps in the mud as such over the rest of the record, but, for all its craft, it doesn’t make a particularly engaging display of staying on the grass. It’s very pleasant, often handsome, but not quite enticing enough to pull me fully in.

6.5/10

“Harmony in Ultraviolet is the fourth studio album by Canadian electronic musician Tim Hecker. The ambient and experimental album combines processed electric guitars, pipe organs and keyboards with distortion and samples. Its cover depicts the Monument to Fallen Partisans, an anti-fascist memorial in Bologna, Italy.” - Wikipedia

A landmark in Hecker’s catalogue, Harmony in Ultraviolet helped cement his reputation as one of ambient music’s great architects of beautiful unease. As always, Hecker’s aural world is enveloping, intricate, epic, and amorphous, all glowing static, distant collapse, and cathedral-sized fog. This one just didn’t grab me quite as much as some of his other work, though. Impressive, epic and immersive, but I was waiting to be swallowed whole, and it never quite happened.

7.5/10

“Ashes Against the Grain is the third studio album by American metal band Agalloch. Incorporating elements of post-metal, folk metal and black metal, the album places greater emphasis on electric guitars and heavier textures than its predecessor, The Mantle. It received widespread critical acclaim and was Agalloch’s final album for The End Records.” - Wikipedia

A post-rocky metal bombardment, Ashes Against the Grain is an absorbing and engrossing listen. It balances weight and atmosphere beautifully, with riffs that feel both windswept and punishing. There is a real sense of scale to it too - the album never just bludgeons, it stretches out, broods, and pulls you further into its glowing grey world.

8/10

“Back to Black is the second and final studio album by English singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse. Produced by Salaam Remi and Mark Ronson, the album blends the sound of 1960s pop and soul groups with contemporary R&B and neo-soul. Its songs explore guilt, grief, infidelity, heartbreak and romantic trauma. With more than 20 million copies sold worldwide, it is one of the best-selling albums of all time.” - Wikipedia

This is just really good songwriting, spot-on production, and timeless vocals. It’s all there, from the smoky, late-night feel to the sharp, economical arrangements, and her voice carries it with ease. You can hear exactly why it’s held up the way it has.

Something still keeps me at arm’s length, I find myself appreciating it more than connecting with it, but I don’t think there’s any denying this is great.

8/10

8. The Black Parade

My Chemical Romance

“The Black Parade is the third studio album by American rock band My Chemical Romance. It is a concept album centred on “the Patient,” a man with terminal cancer reflecting on his life as he approaches death. Its music encompasses emo, alternative rock, pop-punk, hard rock, punk rock and glam rock. The album received generally favourable reviews and reached number two in both the United States and the United Kingdom.” - Wikipedia

Memories of nights at the rock focused night-club at university flood my brain whenever I put this on: every melody belted out as if the world is ending, every chorus arriving with full ceremonial thunder. It is a well-crafted, epic journey of an album, and the sense of drama is palpable throughout, but it’s also just a little too theatrical for my tastes. That footballer who is beautiful to watch, but then dives over-dramatically.

8/10

7. Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not

Arctic Monkeys

“Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not is the debut studio album by English rock band Arctic Monkeys. Combining indie rock, garage rock and post-punk revival, its songs depict British nightlife, pub culture and young romance. The record became the fastest-selling debut album in British chart history and won both the 2006 Mercury Prize and the Brit Award for Best British Album.” - Wikipedia

There is bias here, no point pretending otherwise. I have lived in Arctic Monkeys’ native Sheffield for years now, and Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not was woven right through a lot of my formative sixth form years (though I didn’t live in Sheffield then).

That closeness probably makes it impossible for me to hear this album cold, but maybe that is part of its power. It still feels immediate: all cheap nights, bus rides, queueing outside clubs, street-corner observations and the cocky, funny, hyperlocal detail that made Alex Turner sound like he had nicked a notebook straight from the northern British youth culture I grew up in. Even now, it has a charge to it that most indie rock debuts never manage.

It is sharp, restless and vivid, and the songs come barrelling out with the kind of confidence bands spend whole careers chasing.

9/10

6. The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me

Brand New

“The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me is the third studio album by American rock band Brand New. Recorded with producer Mike Sapone, it marked the band’s major-label debut and a departure from its pop-punk origins towards alternative and indie rock. Its lyrics address existentialism, death, depression and religion. The record received positive reviews and has since been regarded as one of the most influential emo albums.” - Wikipedia

This one suffers a little from being so closely tied to a period of my life I don’t often want to revisit. Its explosive peaks and half-mumbled troughs soundtracked some real darkness, but that is also why it still lands with such force. Few albums make catharsis feel this raw.

There’s a constant push and pull, like the band can’t decide whether to whisper in your ear or knock the door off its hinges. When it swells, it’s tidal; when it shrinks back, it feels like the room’s gone oddly small. It keeps you on edge in a way that’s addictive.

Sometimes it’s nice to circle back, knowing you came out the other side intact. There’s something quietly satisfying in meeting those moments again and not flinching, like the album’s still screaming into the void but you’re no longer shouting with it, just nodding along.

A classic for me, even if it comes with some memories I’d rather leave boxed up.

9/10

“Game Theory is the seventh studio album by American hip-hop band the Roots. Their first release for the label, it adopts a darker and more stripped-down sound than the group’s previous work. Its lyrics address sociopolitical issues and pay tribute to the late hip-hop producer J Dilla. The album received widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album.” - Wikipedia

Here it is: my favourite Roots album, or at least so far. Game Theory feels alive in the moment, but never so burdened by its politics or mood that it forgets to move. It’s that politically aware, hyper-intelligent guy at the party who is pragmatic enough to still have, and be, a good time. Game Theory gets into your system through rhythm first, then lingers through atmosphere and detail.

The wholesome bass sound is a huge part of it. The whole record has this rich, warm low-end that gives even its darker tracks a kind of solidity and body. Around it, The Roots sound locked in and purposeful as always, pulling together neo-soul, jazz rap and a harder, more nocturnal edge without ever losing their groove.

A razor-sharp, deeply musical record that hits both the head and the body.

9/10

“Hell Hath No Fury is the second studio album by Virginia hip-hop duo Clipse, released in 2006 after several years of delays. Produced by The Neptunes, it was widely acclaimed for its dark, spare sound and sharp focus.” - Wikipedia

This is some of my absolute favourite hip-hop production: lively, strange, skeletal and luxurious all at once. The beats don’t just sit underneath the rapping; they stalk around the room, tapping glass bottles, slamming locker doors and occasionally doing something deeply unnecessary with a synth just because they can, and I love that.

Pusha T and Malice are excellent throughout, even if the rapping and lyrics don’t quite reach the gold-standard perfection of something like Illmatic. That’s no great insult, given very little does. What Hell Hath No Fury shares with Nas’s masterpiece is a certain soul: not in the warm, cosy sense, but in the feeling that every sound has been chosen with absolute purpose. It’s sharp and addictive.

The result is a record that feels endlessly replayable. Hip-hop as high-end machinery, polished until it gleams, then scraped along the tarmac.

9/10

“Donuts is the second studio album by American hip-hop producer J Dilla and the final album released during his lifetime. Stones Throw Records issued it on 7 February 2006—his 32nd birthday and three days before his death. The instrumental hip-hop album comprises 31 short, interconnected tracks built from samples of rock, jazz and soul recordings. Acclaimed for its dense and inventive sampling, Donuts is regarded as J Dilla’s defining work and one of hip-hop’s most influential albums.” - Wikipedia

Donuts feels like rifling through J Dilla’s impossibly cool musical notebook, only every half-finished thought turns out to have better rhythm than most people’s completed masterpieces.

It’s a sketchbook of soulful hip-hop ideas: brief, warm, strange, funny, mournful, and constantly inventive. Nothing hangs around too long, but almost everything leaves a little fingerprint on the brain. The whole thing is perfectly mixed and performed, full of tiny loops and chopped-up moments that seem casual until you realise how precisely they’ve been placed.

It works beautifully as background chill, the sort of record that can make washing up feel 68% cooler, but it also stands up to proper attentive listening. Lean in and there’s a whole miniature city of beats, samples, textures, and emotional left turns ticking away under the surface.

9/10

“Ys is Joanna Newsom’s second studio album, produced by Newsom and Van Dyke Parks, with orchestral arrangements by Parks. Made up of five long, intricate songs, it blends harp, voice and sweeping arrangements into something closer to progressive folk theatre than standard singer-songwriter fare.” - Wikipedia

Ys can be irritating unless you meet it on its own terms. The dynamic volume changes, unpredictable pitches and winding song structures make it a difficult album to half-listen to; put it on in the background and it might feel like someone has released a harp-playing woodland oracle into your kitchen. Give it proper attention, though, and it opens into a spectacular and unforgettable journey.

Part of that’s because attentive listening forces you to listen to the lyrics: they’re dense and poetic, but not just for show; they give the album its pulse, turning each song into something like a miniature play. But it’s also because it takes attentive listening to realise just how in the moment and alive Newsom’s vocal performance is here. Ys isn’t easy, and it doesn’t in any way demand to be liked, but there’s a huge reward in leaning in. A challenging record, but absolutely worth the effort.

9.5/10

1. Boys and Girls in America

The Hold Steady

“Boys and Girls in America is the third studio album by American rock band the Hold Steady. Preceded by the single “Chips Ahoy!”, the album brought the band wider prominence and received widespread critical acclaim. Its title comes from a lyric in “Stuck Between Stations,” which references Jack Kerouac’s 1957 novel On the Road.” - Wikipedia

The Hold Steady take their barroom mythology widescreen here, turning messy youth, bad decisions, and half-remembered nights into something triumphant and glossy.

This feels like a natural partner to Arctic Monkeys’ Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. Where that album is quintessentially British in its presentation of nightlife, parties, girls, cheap drinks, and pavement-level chaos, this one is very American: big, bold choruses, bar-band riffs, open-road romanticism, and the sense that every night out is the last of your life.

It helps that the playing is so full of life. Franz Nicolay’s sparkling piano is some of the most joyful instrument work of the decade, tumbling through the songs like someone has wheeled a pub piano into a college party determined to add even more energy to the already energetic proceedings. Craig Finn’s Kerouacian lyrics and gritty, half-spoken delivery blend perfectly with the more standard rock arrangements, giving the album a rough surface without sanding away its pulse.

It doesn’t have the serrated edge of Separation Sunday, but its smoothness fits the story perfectly. This is less a scrape along the kerb and more a glorious stumble down the boulevard, arms around your friends, shouting along to songs you all understand and feel completely. Another masterpiece.

9.5/10

Over what will likely be the next few years I’m going to be ranking and reviewing the top 5 albums - plus a fair few extras - according to users on rateyourmusic.com (think IMDB for music) from every year from 1960 to the present. If you want to know more, I wrote an introduction to the ‘challenge’ here. You can also read all the other entries I’ve written so far by heading to the lovely index page here.

Welcome to 1999, the year I started primary school, the year war started in Kosovo after Yugoslavia's president Slobodan Milosevic clamped down on the province, massacring and deporting ethnic Albanians, the year Nelson Mandela stepped down, the year everyone freaked out about the Y2K bug, the year everyone partied like it was… well….

Our lovely rateyourmusic.com masses rated the following albums as the year’s top five:

#1 Sigur Rós - Ágætis byrjun
#2 Fiona Apple - When the Pawn
#3 Mos Def - Black on Both Sides
#4 Gustavo Cerati - Bocananda
#5 The Roots - Things Fall Apart

And I’ll add a bunch from further down the list:

#6 Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile
#7 Opeth - Still Life
#8 The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
#9 Built to Spill - Keep It Like a Secret
#10 American Football - American Football
#23 Tom Waits - Mule Variations
#27 Advantage Lucy - Fanfare

And from NPR’s best female albums of all time list, we’ll take Sleater-Kinney’s The Hot Rock.

Let’s finish of the 90s in style.

“Still Life is the fourth studio album by Swedish progressive metal band Opeth. In 2014, TeamRock put Still Life at #83 on their "Top 100 Greatest Prog Albums Of All Time" list with Jordan Griffin stating that it is "still regarded by many fans as a career high point, Still Life’s deft blend of beauty and brutality was lauded by metal and prog fans. Opeth’s first true classic.". Loudwire placed the album at #54 on their "Top 90 Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Albums of the 1990s" list commenting that Opeth closed out the 90s with their strongest album yet.In 2021, it was named one of the 20 best metal albums of 1999 by Metal Hammer magazine.” - Wikipedia

Still Life is a concept album, following the narrative of someone banished from their hometown due to a difference of faith. This is quite hard to pick up on amongst the unintelligible roars that Mikael Åkerfeldt’s vocals generally consist of. The album is a great mix of brutal riffs, and more delicate clean and intricate guitar sections (Benighted a fine example of this). Once again, it’s never going to be my favourite album due to the roaring and overly theatrical vocals, but I did thoroughly enjoy this, and I can see how influential it is.

Song Picks: Benighted

7/10

12. American Football

American Football

“American Football, also known retrospectively as LP1, is the debut studio album by the American emo band of the same name. American Football was positively received by critics and US college radio stations, but the band split up soon after its release. The album has since received further critical acclaim and attained cult status and is today considered one of the most important math rock and Midwest emo records of the 1990s.” - Wikipedia

‘Never Meant’ is a masterpiece, the next three tracks are superb, and then it kind of meanders to a nice warm finish, with nothing else being particularly memorable. I feel like it’s an album to get lost in, but it’s just never quite pulled me in enough for that to happen. At times sublime, always pretty, but occasionally a bit unexciting.

7.5/10

“The Hot Rock is the fourth studio album by the American rock band Sleater-Kinney. The Hot Rock marks a considerable change in the band's sound, veering into a more relaxed and gloomy direction than the raucous punk rock style of its predecessors. The lyrical themes of the album explore issues of failed relationships and personal uncertainty. The album received positive reviews from music critics, who praised the songwriting and the vocal and guitar interplay between band members Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein.” - Wikipedia

This is a really dynamic album, with more vocal range and complex instrumental arrangements. The great riffs are still there, but they’re now backed by more intricate beats from Janet Weiss, more varied songwriting in general, and great guitar interplay from Tucker and Brownstein. It all adds up to another kick ass album from the band, but one with a bit more pizzazz. It also feels like the entirety of 2000s indie’s riffs were probably based off the ones on this album in some way. I still don’t love the more bellowed vocals, I find them a bit monotone, but it’s a minor gripe.

Song Picks: Start Together, Burn Don’t Freeze, God is a Number

8/10

“Bocanada (Puff) is the second solo album by Argentine rock musician Gustavo Cerati. The album, an eclectic mix of neo-psychedelia and trip hop with a variety of styles, is considered by critics and fans as a highlight in Cerati's career and one of his best albums. His first album release after the breakup of Soda Stereo, Bocanada followed Cerati's time with the groups Plan V and Ocio, two bands oriented towards electronic music. Bocanada is mostly an electronic music album, with an art pop, trip hop, and neo-psychedelia sound, making a huge change of Cerati's classic pop rock sound and influences. Similar to other artists of trip hop scene like Massive Attack or Portishead, several songs use one or more samples.” - Wikipedia

Considered one of the most important influences in Latin rock, Bocanada is an album that ties together his rock background and contemporary electronic influences. Tracks like Puente are fairly straight rock numbers (though very good ones), while most tracks lean much more into the electronic side of things, clearly taking influence from the trip-hop scene, with simple, tunneling beats. Cerati’s vocals have an enticing huskiness to them, but they also sound like some lost genius from the 60s, his Beatles influences being obvious. The production and instrumental variation doesn’t always feel that cohesive, but the variety is exciting, and Cerati’s enticing melodies sung with the slight haziness of that glorious album art are the wonderful glue that holds it all together.

Song Picks: Rio Babel, Perdonar es Divíno, Paseo Inmoral

8.5/10

9. Keep It Like a Secret

Built to Spill

“Keep It Like a Secret is the fourth studio album released by American indie rock band Built to Spill. After feeling burned out from constructing the lengthy songs on his previous album, Perfect from Now On, Doug Martsch made a conscious decision to write shorter, more concise songs for Keep It Like a Secret.” - Wikipedia

Keep it Like a Secret is Built to Spill cut up into more bite-sized chunks. Martsch’s twisting riffs are still there, the vocals are still infectious, and the the jam element is still evident, even if it has been cut down significantly. Speaking of which, the final track, Broken Chairs, has a jam outro which is one of my favourite ways for an album to end. If Perfect from Now On was standard Weetabix, Keep it Like a Secret is those bite-sized ones with chocolate in. Just as nice, some might even prefer them, but they’re probably a tad less wholesome.

Song Picks: The Plan, Center of the Universe, Broken Chairs, Sidewalk, Else

8.5/10

“Mule Variations is the thirteenth studio album by American musician Tom Waits. It was Waits' first studio album in six years, following The Black Rider (1993). Mule Variations won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album and was nominated for Best Male Rock Performance for the track "Hold On". It has sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide. In 2012, the album was ranked number 416 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Upon its release, Mule Variations received widespread critical acclaim. AllMusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine stated that "the album uses the ragged cacophony of Bone Machine as a starting point, and proceeds to bring in the songwriterly aspects of Rain Dogs, along with its affection for backstreet and backwoods blues, plus a hint of the beatnik qualities of Swordfish.” - Wikipedia

That bloke from AllMusic above pretty much sums it up. Mule Variations feels like a combination of everything that’s come before from Waits. It’s packed full of great songs; growling vocals; percussive, ramshackle production and a sense of sincerity. I think the fact it’s a Tom Waits melting pot means it lacks some of the distinct character that Waits’ albums from his famous trilogy had, but this is still the kind of album any songwriter would kill to write. I think you could also make a pretty strong argument that this features, as a whole, his best vocal performances on a single record. Basically, I can’t fault it other than by saying it’s not quite as good as Rain Dogs, but considering that’s now one of my favourite albums, that doesn’t mean much.

Song Picks: Hold On, Get Behind the Mule, Picture in a Frame, Georgia Lee, Filipino Box Spring Hog

9/10

7. Emergency & I

The Dismemberment Plan

“Emergency & I is the third studio album by American indie rock band the Dismemberment Plan. At its release, the album was met with critical acclaim, receiving praise for its instrumental performances and lyrics. Initially released on CD, Barsuk Records reissued Emergency & I in vinyl format for the first time on January 11, 2011 where it received further praise from critics and listeners, with many calling it a landmark indie rock album and the band's best release.” - Wikipedia

Emergency & I feels like a confluence of alt-rock, prog rock, emo and punk which then splits out again, influencing countless records well into the 2000s and 2010s. Although Morrison had aimed to make the album less wacky, it still has plenty of wackiness to it. It also has a refreshingly optimistic world view, something not all that common in this style of music. Apparently inspired by the birth of his sister's daughter, and the death of their father, Morrison was keen to get into more real life topics, but to address them in a less self-absorbed manner which is again, refreshing. Emergency & I gets crazier as it goes on, like a speeding car gaining a little too much confidence in the corners (and nearly crashing on Girl O’Clock in particular) finishing with a perfect mix of catchy choruses, bouncy riffs, restless time-signatures, and energetic. slightly unhinged vocals. It’s a ride.

Song Picks: Memory Machine, The City, Back and Forth, Girl O’Clock

9/10

“The Fragile is the third studio album by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released as a double album. Looking to depart from the distorted production of their previous album, The Downward Spiral, the album features elements of ambient and electronic music within a wide variety of genres. The album continues some of the lyrical themes from The Downward Spiral, including depression and drug abuse. The album notably contains more instrumental sections than their previous work, with some entire tracks being instrumentals. The Fragile is also one of the band's longest studio releases, clocking in at nearly 1 hour and 45 minutes long.

Upon release, critics applauded the album's ambition and composition, although some criticised its length and perceived lack of lyrical substance. However, in the years following its release, it has come to be regarded by many critics and listeners to be among the band's best work.” - Wikipedia

Pitchfork gave this a paltry 2.0 in 1999, and then an 8.7 in 2017, which I think is fine. Two different people reviewed it, which just re-emphasises (shock!) this is all subjective opinion, which, again, is fine. My subjective opinion is that this thing slaps. Maybe I’m mad, but this thing sounds very nu-metal to me. It’s 1 hour 44 of face-smashing riffs with simple melodies growled over the top through a very loud transistor radio. Trent Reznor essentially says it’s about the chaos of his existence when struggling with drug abuse and depression, but it sounds more like a cohesive statement than that makes out. As it’s final, simple and targeted chaos ends, I can just see Trent Reznor dropping his mic, exhausted that he’s let all his demons out. At the same time, he’s inadvertently rendered much of the heavier music that followed in the 2000s a bit redundant.

Song Picks: The Wretched, We’re In This Together, La Mer, Where Is Everybody, The Mark Has Been Made

9/10

“When the Pawn... is the second studio album by the American singer-songwriter Fiona Apple. In 2010, Spin named the album the 106th-greatest of the last 25 years, and Slant Magazine named it the 79th best album of the 1990s. The album received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Alternative Album. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked When the Pawn... at number 108 on its "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.” - Wikipedia

The album title, which is posted out below in full (yes, that’s all the title) is a response to an unflattering piece Spin wrote about her in 1997.

When the pawn hits the conflicts he thinks like a king
What he knows throws the blows when he goes to the fight
And he'll win the whole thing 'fore he enters the ring
There's no body to batter when your mind is your might
So when you go solo, you hold your own hand
And remember that depth is the greatest of heights
And if you know where you stand, then you know where to land
And if you fall it won't matter, cuz you'll know that you're right

When the Pawn... is an album that sounds unlike anything else, and yet features very accessible and mature songwriting. The production choices give space to Fiona’s deep vocals, and everything pulls in the same direction: just the right amount of embellishment and never over-dramatic. It is what it is. It feels like the musical equivalent of that hyper-realistic film about a slice of life that hits harder than the one with a million special-effects about the future of mankind. I’m not sure you’ll ever necessarily be singing along, but somehow - even though the songs are not particularly complex - it never loses its significant intrigue. It’s hard to describe - but you owe it to yourself to listen.

Song Picks: Limp, Paper Bag, Fast as You Can

It’s hard to find much about Advantage Lucy online, besides the fact that this is their debut album, and that they were initially called ‘Lucy van Pelt’ after the Peanuts character, but changed to their current name due to copyright concerns. I want to thank the rateyourmusic.com community for enlightening to me to this bundle of joy.

While it’s in no way ground-breaking it’s just so darn ‘nice’ that I have completely fallen in love with it. Much like reading the Peanuts comics that inspired their name, listening to their debut fills me with a nostalgic warmth, optimism, and the childhood innocence that the album’s cover portrays. The band’s melodies are happy, and just the right side of twee, with the instrumentation never being particularly attention grabbing and but always serving the song. Want a feeling of contentment? Get that gentle lighting on and put this on at a room filling volume. Sit back, maybe sketch some cartoon characters on a pad with a nice pencil, stare at the ceiling, whistle along, smile. Relish in the beauty that music, and the sheer amount of it us humans have made for each other, really is rather wonderful. I can see myself putting this one on regularly for as long as the world lets me.

Song Picks: Armond, Metro, So,

“Things Fall Apart is the fourth studio album by American hip hop band the Roots. Recording sessions for the album took place at Electric Lady during 1997 to 1998, coinciding with recording for other projects of the Soulquarians collective, including D'Angelo's Voodoo (2000), Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun (2000), and Common's Like Water for Chocolate (2000). According to Spin magazine, the album became a landmark moment for the Roots and the collective, as it "swelled the Roots clique into a movement-style posse." - Wikipedia

Thee album has been considered by music writers as the Roots' breakthrough album, earning praise from major publications and critics, while becoming the group's first record to sell over 500,000 copies. It includes the song "You Got Me", which won the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, while Things Fall Apart was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album of the same year, losing to Eminem for The Slim Shady LP. Rolling Stone called it a "top-flight record", while AllMusic cited it as "one of the cornerstone albums of alternative rap." The album takes its title from Chinua Achebe's novel of the same name.” - Wikipedia

The Roots are always known as a hip-hop ‘band’, and that’s definitely something that distinguishes them from many other hip-hop artists who are more apt to put together a bunch of samples than play instruments. But on Things Fall Apart, the Roots blend more into that more traditional hip-hop sound, with Questlove’s beats seemingly put through a food processor, while the bass lines wobble like something synthesised on Pro Tools, rather than played by the laid back maestro Hub, who sadly died in 2021. On the hit You Got Me (you’ll know it trust me) everything is so relaxed it’s impossible not to bop from side to side, lost in the groove as Black Thought raps in the pockets with the smooth flow of an angrier Nas. Questlove’s drums tap, tap, tap and skitter like the restless limbs of a being that is actually at its core very relaxed. Things Fall Apart is lyrically dense, but it’s the production that sets it apart. Questlove’s drum grooves are some of the best in hip hop, and the way they work with Hub’s chatty basslines has me hop-stepping on pretty much every track. They’re cut down to their essential elements, Questlove’s snare sounding almost like a clap, Hub’s bass so low it’s underground, the guitars and key stabs as precise as a laser. It’s perfect, and yet human.

Song Picks: You Got Me, Don’t See Us

9/10

“Black on Both Sides is the debut solo studio album by American rapper Yasiin Bey, then known as Mos Def. Released after his successful collaboration Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star, Black on Both Sides emphasises live instrumentation and socially conscious lyrics. Black on Both Sides received universal acclaim from critics.” - Wikipedia

Black on Both Sides feels prophetic, not since Nas’ Illmatic have I listened to hip-hop so buttery smooth and clever. The beats are laid back, the vocals more creamy than tart, and the lyrics deft and intelligent - written by a man who seems to see everything from a bird’s eye view. In an era of gangsta-rap and egotistical, self-interested rap (not that there’s anything wrong with those), it’s refreshing to have something like Black on Both Sides, which says it like it is. It being more or less everything - doing so in a manner that is pretty much irresistible, with beats that got me boppin’ like it’s 1994.

Song Picks: Hip Hop, Love, Speed Law, Rock ‘n’ Roll

9.5/10

“Ágætis byrjun (A good beginning) is the second studio album by Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós, Ágætis byrjun represented a substantial departure from the band's previous album Von, with that album's extended ambient soundscapes replaced by Jónsi Birgisson's cello-bowed guitar work and orchestration, using a double string octet amongst other chamber elements.”

Ágætis byrjun was a commercial and critical breakthrough for the band. It won numerous awards, and has appeared on multiple critics' lists of the best albums of the 2000s.” - Wikipedia

Ágætis byrjun sounds otherworldly. Birgisson playing the guitar with a cello-bow is probably the most famous aspect of Sigur Rós‘ sound, but it’s his falsetto singing and the general atmosphere they create that really pulls them apart. He hits some frankly daft notes, and his falsetto vocals give the whole thing an angelic, ethereal feel, but without the religious connotations that come with that. It’s one of those albums that changes the hue of the world when you put it on, but also seems to make everything float. It’s an anti-gravity album, a spiritual journey for those of no religion. I don’t believe in god, nor do I feel there’s any grand meaning to our existence beyond the one we give it and the effect we have on those around us, but I can listen to this and feel aconnection with everything around me. Not necessarily in a euphoric way, but just that, a connection. It feels like a reminder that everything and everyone is a minuscule cog in a ginormous, random machine. And I’ve always found that pretty glorious. It sounds like nothing else, it’s its own thing, a glorious, emotive gift.

I’ve said this before of other albums, but this feels like another where the word ‘magical’ feels completely appropriate.

Song Picks: Svefn-G-Englar, Staralfur, Flugufrelsarinn

9.5/10

2006 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

1999 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge