Two thousand arguments and a few bruised egos later, we arrived at our final list.
This seminal release a lyrical and aural maelstrom was a 911 call to America.
No one picked up.
Illustration by Cristiana Couciero for EW
Few records have felt as lush, sharp, or hilarious since.
SR
Nine Inch Nails The Downward Spiral(1994)
A menacing whisper.
A palette that spans black to pitch-black.
The perfect soundtrack for scribbling weepily in your diary and then leaping off the bed to bang your head.
Outraged?Trent Reznorhas your back.
Icing on a delicious cake of rage.
Spencer Elden, the ‘Nevermind’ cover baby all grown up, is refiling his suit against Nirvana.
Listeners will still want it that way in a thousand years.
SR
D’Angelo Voodoo2000
For a moment, it was the most famous six-pack on the planet.
You could listen a thousand times and still discover something new.
Entertainment One
SR
Fiona Apple Extraordinary Machine(2005)
Recorded, rerecorded, reconfigured.
AS
Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy(2010)
Can we get much higher?
But he was just starting to defy convention, bending and shaping R&B in unique new ways.
Still the Louvre.)
SR
Billie Eilish When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
(2019)
Pop’s great new hope?
LG
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Sony Legacy
Big Machine
Lava Records
Kacey Musgraves Twitter
Darkroom/Interscope Records
