10 Classic Albums of the 21st Century which you should own: Part Two

After a long absence it's time to get back to our Top Ten. It must be a good idea, even Kerrang! have stolen it for this weeks issue, albeit in a more over-the-top manner as usual.

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And so on to numero six, an album which at the time crept onto the scene almost unnoticed, only to gradually increase the new band with a funny name: Kasabian.

Though they weren't the first 'indie' band, a title claimed by another contender who I will get to, they were the first band to make electronic-inspired indie rock and roll cool again, something the Killers continued in a poppier vein.

Their self-titled debut remains a thrilling mix of driving basslines and choral vocals, making the band an immediate live hit as well as a favourite for advert makers everywhere, with epic album opener Club Foot gracing screens the world over.

The album has a song, not for every occasion, but enough variety to ensure listening through the CD won't make your eyes glaze over or think the songs sound too 'samey'.

The standout track is Reason is Treason, a blistering combination of thumping drums and driving bass coupled with a brilliantly crafted chorus makes the song impossible to shake from your mind.

The overall quality of the album is what puts this above mediocre follow-up Empire, which may have had more commercially successful singles, but there's no denying they sounded very similar.

Whether you want to chill out or rave there are songs for you here and the musical arrangement is impressively daring for a first album, shame their later albums couldn't recapture their initial spark of originality.

Critical Tracks: Club Foot, LSF, Reason is Treason

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The seventh entry to the list is another well-know band, Arctic Monkeys, with their debut Whatever They Say I Am, It's What I'm Not.

The reason for this album making the list is three fold: first off, the album is actually good. When you forget about the hype and the band and everything surrounding it there are decent songs with a fun message and an instantly relatable lyrical style (particularly if you're a Northerner).

Secondly, the internet aspect of the Monkey's - no, not the Monkees - rise to fame was unprecedented at the time. This is before Myspace was spewing out a band a week and the group went from unknowns to headling the Reading Festival main stage in a year, a daunting prospect for anyone.

Thirdly, statistics (in this case at least), don't lie. The album surpassed Oasis' Definitely Maybe as the fastest-selling British album of all time when their second single I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor. The album shifted 360,000 copies in a week - that's almost 36 every minute - and sold more than the rest of the top 20 combined, eventually going Platinum four times over.

People heralded them as having as much impact as the Beatles, clearly a foolish brag even at the time, but undoubtedly the release was an event for the British music industry and unusually the music justifies all the fuss.

Tracks have a gritty down-to-Earth story element to them, such as Red Light Indicates Doors are Secure which is nothing more than a trip home in a taxi after a night out, but leading man Alex Turners bring it to life, and not in the cheesy way we've come to expect from the pop charts.

The style just works, and gives the North a band to be proud of now that Oasis are shockingly bad (/worse) *runs from angry Northern mob*

Critical Tracks: I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor, Dancing Shoes, A View From The Afternoon

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Another slice of British rock takes the stage at number eight with the long overdue induction of Muse to the list with Black Holes and Revelations.

Undeniably one of the heavyweights, Muse have shaken their Radiohead-inspired routes and become a band all of their own.

It was a close race between BH&R and Absolution, but in the end the cohesion of BH&R as an album wins the day for me, from the blissful melody of Starlight, the angered stampede that is Assassin to the air guitarist's dream that is THAT riff in Knights of Cydonia.

The album brings together Muse's best elements, which is why it works so well, and also provides the band with a number of impressive live songs, something which always enhance an albums impact, as was proven with the HAARP live CD/DVD.

What makes the album so special is that despite the fact it's undeniably a Muse album, there are songs which could easily slip into other bands' albums, particularly the B-sides packaged with the singles such as Crying Shame which has a strong Franz Ferdinand vibe.

The album tracks too share this variety, with the apocalyptic Map of the Problematique being juxtaposed by the quiet and heart-felt Soldier's Poem.

Overall though the album is energetic, and the trio's musical skill has clearly reached a peak, though the album doesn't quite seem complete without the standard Sergei Rachmaninov-inspired piano interlude. If you could swap the dreary Hoodoo for the fiery Butterflies and Hurricaines the album would be near-perfect.

As it is, the choppy changes in style may detract from listening to it all the way through, but when considered individually the tracks all hold their own and with a general standard so high it's acceptable that the band may have missed the mark with a song (or two, depending on who you ask).

Critical Tracks: Assassin, Knights of Cydonia, Starlight

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Now we return to the less well-knowns as we near the end of our list with Lights and Sounds from pop/punk specialists Yellowcard.

Dismissed as a gimmick when they first broke through with Ocean Avenue in 2003, the main talking point was, and still is to an extent, that the band has a electric violinist. This is considered something very unusual for pop/punk, but really these bands often synthesise violins and string arrangements so it's not ground-breaking to have a permanent member who fills the role.

What is significant is how it is used. Sean Mackin adds in violin sometimes so subtly it can hardly be noticed and other times it blazes over the top, carrying the song. It can completely change the dynamic of a song in seconds because it is used so well.

In Lights and Sounds the violin work is the best of any of the band's albums and it goes a long way to securing it a place on this list.

The album's blisteringly fast title track only makes such an impact because it follows the slow and tranquil string introduction that is Three Flights Up, and closing track Holly Wood Died trails off and back to a similar arrangement, giving it a cyclical feeling.

The track which sets this album apart is tear-jerking ballad How I Go, which is centred around the story of Tim Burton film Big Fish. The use of strings here is nothing short of genius, and unprecedented for a pop/punk band before or since, the band achieve real depth and feeling, helped along by guest vocals from Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines. The interplay of melodies between here and lead vocalist Ryan Key is truly astonishing.

The album is centred around fictional character Holly Wood who is both loved and hated in songs on the album and serves as the anchor to pull the songs together. The device is just sutble enough not to be noticed unless you look for it, and yet when you do you appreciate how well it works to keep the album cohesive.

Yellowcard came of age with this album, and it deserved more sales and critical success than it got, but that was to be expected after the success of their breakthrough effort, which, though a decent album in it's own right, doesn't reach the levels of excellence this album does.

Critical Tracks: How I Go, Grey, Down on my Head

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The last band on the list is a little Welsh band called The Automatic, and I know what you're thinking: "You don't mean that band that did that Monster song do you?!"

As a matter of fact I do, but the album which that constant radio spam single came from, Not Accepted Anywhere, is not the album that made the list. Instead, it's the band's follow-up, This is a Fix, which deserves the praise.

While their debut gave people a reason to have heard of The Automatic, it wasn't the limit of their potential. This is a Fix goes further and holds together better, you only need to look at the band's live performances during their early days to see the cracks were beginning to show by the time Monster became a hit.

Wailing keyboardist Alex Pennie parted ways with the band in 2007 after he found "the last year increasingly unenjoyable and growing apart from the rest of the band", according to an official statement.

With Pennie gone the band could focus on the new album and it seems without the friction they developed as a group and created their best material to date. They replaced their departed keyboardist with Paul Mullen from Yourcodenameis:Milo, since they were on hiatus, and recorded This is a Fix to be released in August 2008 just after the Reading and Leeds festivals.

The album's lead single, Steve McQueen, reached number 16 in the charts but all other singles and releases from the album were pulled after disappointing sales.

Critically the album was hit and miss, and suffered from high profile slating from the likes of The Guardian despite favourable reviews from Kerrang! and Rock Sound.

The band were quick to cut their losses and move on to album three, but the songs themselves are worth taking the time to listen to, since everyone is a prime example how synth pop/rock can be done well in the 21st century.

The music industry attacking Accessories voices the band's cynicism about music in Britain, and Magazines slates journalists in much the same vein, but despite the similar subjects the songs are quite different and distinct, which is one of the strengths of the album overall.

Critical Tracks: Steve McQueen, Magazines, This Ship

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So that brings us to the end of our top 10 albums of the 21st century, just to summarise:

1. Green Day - American Idiot

2. Adequate Seven - Here On Earth

3. Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory

4. Rise Against - The Suffer and the Witness

5. The Music - Welcome to the North

6. Kasabian (self-titled)
   

7. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, It's What I'm Not

8. Muse - Black Holes and Revelations

9. Yellowcard - Lights and Sounds

10. The Automatic - This is a Fix

All of these are albums which demand a listen, if not a privileged spot in your CD (or download) library.

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10 Classic Albums of the 21st Century which you should own: Part One

With 2009 speeding along nicely and a wealth of music having been produced since the Millennium, it's high time we stepped back a minute, past the X-Factor winners, past the endless re-releases, re-masters and greatest hits to appreciate the albums which have really defined the decade, and indeed the century.

Though I've picked out only 10 here, I could suggest dozens more which might be worthy for the list, but the important thing is not the album that's sold the most, but those that put quality over quantity and dare to be different and, dare I utter yet another cliché, break the mould - or is that just a VO5 advert...never mind.

So here they are in their divine splendour. You will definitely have heard of one or two, but really it's the ones you haven't heard of you should pay attention to. Every album here has a combination of bold ideas, impressive musical skill - whether it be technically or pop-hook-crunchingly - and contains songs which have made the awkwardly titled 'noughties' surpass critics expectations for brand new music.

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In no particular order, we begin with a more obvious choice: Green Day's American Idiot.

Now I'm not suggesting it was the best album they've ever produced (that right is reserved for 1,039), but there's no doubt that when it was released back on 2004 it caused a bit of a stir across the music world.

The idea of a 'rock opera' concept album is nothing new, with examples dating back to the 1960s and even earlier, but it had never been done with such flair and enthusiasm, or if it had then people must've conveniently forgotten about it.

Based around the failings of modern America, the album boasts two nine minute tracks and follows the story and issues of a boy, the self-proclaimed 'Jesus of Suburbia', as he leaves what he knows behind on a voyage of self discovery which is vaguely referred to throughout the album.

The video for the rock ballad track Wake Me Up When September Ends offers a little more clarity, portraying the boy as part of a couple who are quickly torn apart when he heads of to war.

Despite not being the Green Day fans were used to, it spawned an entire generation of new fans and saw the group play a two-day stint at Milton Keynes Bowl to a crowd of over 120,000, the biggest of their career.

This album will be talked about in years to come as a standard set for the modern concept album, and since Green Day themselves haven't been able to better it with latest effort 21st Century Breakdown, then it deserves some attention.

Critical tracks: Jesus of Suburbia, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Holiday

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Next up is a band you almost certainly will never have heard of. Why on Earth are they on this list you might ask? The reason is simple: pure musical perfection.

Adequate Seven were, surprisingly, a seven-piece band from Wales who released two albums and then faded into darkness.

While their first album: Songs of Innocence and Experience, may have made more impact, by the time 2006's Here on Earth was released the band had found their stride and put everything into it.

The diversity which came as a result is something almost unprecedented on a ska/punk record, showing elements of hardcore one minute and melodic duet the next.

Musically the arrangement is magnificent, with each instrument playing off the others as the Chili Peppers-esque lyrics dance over the top.

Slap bass has never been used so infectiously, particularly in recent years, and you can't help but get into the groove with this album as each song throws out a fresh hook to keep your attention.

The style is difficult to describe, and despite its similarities to early RHCP there is a lot more to offer here. Adequate Seven is a band which defines the term 'funk punk', an exquisite blend of the bouncing bass of jazz and the passion of punk.

The recording quality may not be top-of-the-line and the drums may come over a little quieter than they should in places, but all is forgiven when you immerse yourself in what the energetic septet (yes, I had to look it up) are trying to do.

Critical tracks: Foward Motion, Seven Mics for Seven Brothers, Gotta Stay Focused (re-record)

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Returning to more familiar territory with the next album, this release undoubtedly made nu-metal a household term. The genre may have broken free from the underground with Korn's Follow The Leader in 1998, but it wasn't until Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory was released that the world realised the genre had truely arrived.

Selling 24million copies worldwide since its release in 2000, the significance of this album is hard to ignore. Songs like Crawling and One Step Closer saw rap and metal collide in a way which the pop-listening public had never heard before.

The most significant part of that of course is that the public didn't like it, which may account for the genre's quick demise, but the most pop-friendly single: In The End, made it to #8 in the UK charts and took the top spot in the US Modern Rock chart, as well as #2 in the main US chart.

The band made significant use of the music video as a medium, putting time and effort into bringing the songs to life, often disturbingly so, and dealing with themes such as paranoia, violence, childhood abuse and isolation.

The video for Crawling was particularly powerful, depicting a child abused by her father, much as lead vocalist Chester Bennington was, and the blood pouring out of her as the video goes on until she appears fine by the end. The chilling beginning and ending sample of water (or what sounds like water...) going down a drain still has the power to make your hairs stand on end even today and encapsulates everything that the album is about.

The combination of Chester Bennington's distinctive screaming vocals with Mike Shinoda's rap creates a unique juxtaposition which gives the album it's unique sound. It's on fourth track Points of Authority that this comes across the most strongly, with Mike's vocals interwoven with Chester's pointed screams.

Critical tracks: Crawling, Papercut, In The End

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Continuing in the hardcore theme we come to the next entry, a little album called The Sufferer and the Witness by Chicago hardcore heavyweights Rise Against.

From the very album artwork your eyebrows immediately raise with this album, what do the patterns on the cover mean? Two figures? One the sufferer and one the witness? Like much art it's best to draw your own conclusions.

Their previous album Siren Song of the Counter Culture gave the band mainstream success, so now that pressure to succeed was lifted they were able to flex their musical muscles a little more on this album and produce something outstanding.

From the first few seconds of the album you know you are in for something special as a voice-over matter-of-factly announces: "This, is noise." From there the album keeps the accelerator down right until the end, tearing through every track, hardly pausing for breath.

Two songs where the album just take a break are the heart-felt Roadside and the depressing tale of loss: The Approaching Curve, which tells the story of a two people tearing each other apart as their relationships breaks down during a late night car journey, ending with the inevitability suggested in the title.

The album is full of memorable riffs, powerful choruses and overflowing with energy. Injection, which tells the story of a struggling drug addict battling his addiction, is a prime example of everything Rise Against is good at, and takes serious issues and combines them with the passion which only music can unlock.

The album also saw the first track to be launched into the mainstream on the back of the hugely successful Guitar Hero franchise, as Prayer of the Refugee began to tear up living rooms nationwide and introduce a whole new generation to the angered musical stylings of the band.

The album stands of one of the most complete and flawless of the decade, each track earning its right to be there and to such quality that it's impossible to skip a single one.

Critical tracks: Injection, Prayer of the Refugee, Under the Knife

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The fifth addition to our list comes from Leeds, a place well connected with good music thanks to its own counterpart to the legendary Reading Rock Festival, which began in 1999.

The Music, forever the enemy of the search engine, formed in the same year and released their self titled first album in 2002. Despite the album getting to number 4 in the charts, it missed out on snatching the title from its successor by not holding together as well as an album.

Welcome to the North, is one of the most complete 21st century albums you are likely to find. At just 11 tracks long the album takes listeners on a voyage in the only way modern hippies can. With 'love' and 'freedom' featuring heavily throughout it's not difficult to start feeling the flower power, albeit in a reserved and controlled way - very 21st century.

An effects laden guitar echoes expectantly as the albums' title track begins, from here is a sound which takes the slow pop rock ramblings of The Beatles and kicks them into gear. It may sound harsh to a band as epic as the fab four but when you compare the trudging beats of the 60s to the hard hitting tempo of the 00s from The Music, it's very difficult to ignore.

Every song has powerful bass grooves, drum beats riddled with hi-hat and multi-layered guitar, giving the music an almost hypnotic quality. Add to that Robert Harvey's simplistic but endearing lyrics, not to mention his mastery of manipulating nonsense words to create irritatingly catchy choruses, then you have something which is truly a sound to behold.

The album itself didn't do quite so well in the charts, with many hardcore fans criticising the newer, more reserved sound of The Music, but the band aren't really holding back, just are more focused on creating rounded complete songs, and succeed time and time again here.

Critical tracks: Freedom Fighters, Breakin', Welcome to the North

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So, that's the first five, five more still to come. Like my suggestions? Feel like sharing some of your own? You can leave a comment or two below, I don't pretend to know all the answers, and, as I said, this list of ten won't be the only important albums to come out of the decade.

Stay tuned for the next part of the list in the next few days...