Review Reviewing My Favorite Albums Released From 2000-2016

[Prime]

There's been a lot of years over the past 15 years that have really set how the whole year would look in terms of music. In the early 2000's we had some great albums, and even recently we've had some great ones. I want to make a compiled list of 10-15 albums from each year for the past 15-16 years and choose one album from each of those years that stood out from the rest. This will take some time for me to put the list together, but keep in mind, this is all in my own opinion. I'm sure there'll be some disagreements, but again, it'll also be interesting to see how my taste has changed over the years. So...in the next post, you will see that I have started from the year 2000, and will be moving all the way up to 2016.

 

[Prime]

Top 10 albums from the year 2000.

10: Soilwork - The Chainheart Machine
9: Disturbed - The Sickness
8: Belle & Sebastian - Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant
7: Britney Spears - Oops! I Did It Again
6: Nightwish - Wishmaster
5: Iron Maiden - Brave New World
4: Deftones - White Pony
3: Elliott Smith - Figure 8
2: Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP


1: Nsync - No Strings Attached

The year 2000 was a pretty big year for music, especially for artists like Eminem, Elliott Smith, and many others. Unfortunately, it was really hard to choose which one I would put for my all time favorite, but I had to give it to Nsync for pure nostalgia value. Honestly, I would say it's a tie between the top 3 albums for which I would choose as number 1, because all 3 in the top 3 are some of my all time favorite releases. Belle & Sebastian unfortunately gets placed lower on that list, because at the time of it's release, I wasn't really familiar with the group up until a few years ago. Had I known about them back then, the album would probably place higher. I'm pleased with the decision on this one though.

 

[Riff Raff]

Cool idea that could catch on. I would do the same going back to my birth year. lol

 

[Prime]

Top 10 albums from the year 2001.

10: Alien Ant Farm - ANThology
9: Gorillaz - Gorillaz
8: Rammstein - Mutter
7: Tenacious D - Tenacious D
6: A*Teens - Teen Spirit
5: Opeth - Blackwater Park
4: Backstreet Boys - The Hits: Chapter One
3: Daft Punk - Discovery
2: Tool - Lateralus


1: Dream Street - Dream Street

Man, another poppy boy band takes the number one spot for this year as well. I don't plan to have it this way for every year, but I'm basing these lists on what I remember listening to the most during that year. Some of you are probably wondering why I put Dream Street before Lateralus, and that's more because I don't remember that album being released because I wasn't at the age where I could really appreciate Tool as a group. I remember listening to that Dream Street album over and over again when I was a kid, and I do have fond memories of it. That was a tough one though, because there are a lot of great albums that were released in 2001, so to narrow it down to just 10 that I absolutely love proved to be a bit more difficult than the previous year.

 

[Prime]

Cool idea that could catch on. I would do the same going back to my birth year. lol

I openly welcome people to do this as well. I was originally going to go all the way back to my birth year, but I don't remember many albums that were released that I fell in love with right away around my birth year.

 

[Prime]

Top 10 albums from the year 2002.

10: CKY - Infiltrate*Destroy*Rebuild
9: Thrice - The Illusion of Safety
8: Iron and Wine - The Creek Drank the Cradle
7: Red Hot Chili Peppers - By The Way
6: Dream Theater - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
5: The Decemberists - Castaways and Cutouts
4: Killswitch Engage - Alive or Just Breathing
3: Avril Lavigne - Let Go
2: Good Charlotte - The Young and the Hopeless


1: Linkin Park - Reanimation

For 3 years in a row, there were progressively more albums coming out that were nothing short of fantastic, and this list really doesn't do it justice for how many great albums were released that year. It was tough to narrow down my choices to just 10, and even with the 10 albums I display here, I could easily switch any of them out with the number 1 spot that is currently being taken up by Reanimation, but I chose the Linkin Park album more for nostalgia reasons, and I know for a fact that I spent most of that year trying to learn all the songs on that album. It really is a fantastic album, and one that I may need to revisit soon. I haven't given it a listen in what feels like 10+ years.

 

[Riff Raff]

My top 13 albums of 1986 my birth year.

13. Sepultura - Morbid Visions
12. King Diamond - Fatal Portrait
11. Motorhead - Orgasmatron
10. Boston - Third Stage
9. Metallica - Master of Puppets
8. Queensryche - Rage for Order
7. Possessed - Beyond the Gates
6. Licenced to Ill - Beastie Boys
5. Dark Angel - Darkness Descends
4. Metal Church - The Dark
3. Accept - Russian Roulette
2. Kreator - Pleasure to Kill
1. Megadeth - Peace Sells


Plenty of others that could have been mentioned like Sabbath's Seventh Star but these 13 albums are some of the best. Lot of thrash metal greatness in there but I also highly rated Boston's Third Stage record. In the end though Megadeth tops my list with arguably one of the best heavy metal records in Peace Sells. And Accept rule with a lot of their work. So much great music came out in 1986 but it was supreme for metal fans.

Possessed's second and to this date last album is under-appreciated and a very solid extreme release.

 

[Prime]

Top 10 albums from the year 2003.

10: From First To Last - Aesthetic (EP)
9: Cursive - The Ugly Organ
8: HIM - Love Metal
7: 50 Cent - Get Rich or Die Tryin'
6: Fall Out Boy - Take This To Your Grave
5: Children of Bodom - Hate Crew Deathroll
4: Finger Eleven - Finger Eleven
3: Lamb of God - As The Palaces Burn
2: Linkin Park - Meteora


1: Opeth - Damnation

Once we get into 2003, the year saw a lot of dud albums and a bunch of debut albums. It's also home to two notable albums such as Hail to the Thief by Radiohead and St. Anger by Metallica. This one was a tough list to make because although there are a lot of notable albums that I could mention, there's really not a lot of albums that I remember listening to as much as I listened to the number 2 slot. I didn't want to have Linkin Park take the lead for two consecutive years, so I went with Opeth's Damnation as the number 1 album for this year, especially since I really do love that album. It's what introduced me to the softer side of Opeth. Again, pretty good year for music, but nothing too crazy to write home about.

 

[Riff Raff]

1987 in music for me will have a top 15 list. Too many to leave off.

15. Twisted Sister - Love is for Suckers
14. Aerosmith - Permanent Vacation
13. Rush - Hold Your Fire
12. Midnight Oil - Diesel and Dust
11. Napalm Death - Scum
10. Anthrax - Among the Living
9. Testament - The Legacy
8. Celtic Frost - Into the Pandemonium
7. Overkill - Taking Over
6. Motley Crue - Girls Girls Girls
5. Helloween - Keeper of the Seven Keys I
4. Sepultura - Schizophrenia
3. Death Angel - The Ultra Violence
2. Motorhead - Rock n Roll
1. Mayhem - Deathcrush EP

Another really solid year in music although mostly for the metal side of it. Thrash metal was getting some under-appreciated gems especially from Death Angel and also Overkill. Sepultura I feel hit some of their best with the more death metal oriented Schizophrenia while also Napalm Death bringing Grindcore to the mix with Scum. Mayhem though with their EP really made the most impact from any of 1987's releases for me anyway as a primitive work for black metal. Helloween definitely deserves a mention for me as their Keeper albums are masterpieces but the first one particularly was a sign of their real power metal sound coming through. Rush some feel dipped in the 80s but I tend to disagree and really enjoyed Hold Your Fire a lot.

 

[Prime]

Top 15 albums from the year 2004.

15: Usher - Confessions
14: Breaking Benjamin - We Are Not Alone
13: Anathema - A Natural Disaster
12: Atreyu - The Curse
11: Underoath - They're Only Chasing Safety
10: Killswitch Engage - The End of Heartache
9: DragonForce - Sonic Firestorm
8: Jesse McCartney - Beautiful Soul
7: Mastodon - Leviathan
6: Green Day - American Idiot
5: Nightwish - Once
4: Lamb of God - Ashes of the Wake
3: Ayreon - The Human Equation
2: The Killers - Hot Fuss


1: Ryan Cabrera - Take It All Away

This year definitely takes me back to the prime time of my music involvement. 2004 not only was a great year for music, but a lot of albums that I have near to heart fond memories of came out this year. Even a lot of the best albums from artists people know about came out this year, and I'll tell you, choosing my #1 album for this year was really tough, which led me to making it a top 15 for that year. At first, it went to Nightwish - Once, then it changed to The Killers - Hot Fuss, then of course, I had to give it to Ryan Cabrera because I have some very fond memories with listening to that album. I remember listening to it for years, then I was given the opportunity to hear some of the songs performed live when I was really young. Definitely a strong year for music.

It's definitely a shame that I had to leave a couple of albums off this list. Such as, Dream Theater - Live at Budokan, Good Charlotte - The Chronicles of Life and Death, and of course, Elliott Smith - From a Basement on The Hill to name a few. Elliott Smith unfortunately didn't make the list for this year because I wasn't too hugely familiar with him during this year, or until in my later teen years, so it wouldn't feel right to include him.