Best Album of 2001

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Previously: Best album of 2000 (Readers’ Choice & PMA’s Choice)

We’ve set out to find the 10 best albums of the decade, according to our readers as well as our own personal favorite. So this gives us a maximum of listing the 20 best albums of the 2000s. Though I haven’t ruled out the possibility that the Readers’ and PMA’s choices might be the same album. So we’ll play this by ear.

Like last time, I’ll list ten candidates for best album of 2001. These candidates are determined by their inclusion in various year-end lists from publications we trust, including, the Village Voice 2001 Pazz & Jop Poll, NME, The Onion, Mojo, Los Angeles Times, Spin, and Uncut. Please vote for the album you think was the best in 2001. If your choice isn’t on here, we’d love to see it in the comments section (though, we’d appreciate if you’d vote for your favorite on the list anyway).

A. Love And Theft by Bob Dylan
B. Is This It? by The Strokes
C. Amnesiac by Radiohead
D. White Blood Cells by The White Stripes
E. Vespertine by Bjork
F. Discovery by Daft Punk
G. Ágætis Byrjun by Sigur Rós
H. The Blueprint by Jay-Z
I. Things We Lost In the Fire by Low
J. Rooty by Basement Jaxx

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{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }

Knatterjak August 18, 2009 at 1:55 pm

Rush of Blood to the Head!…

no love for chris and the boys at all

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SerenityNow August 21, 2009 at 3:31 pm

That’s because A Rush of Blood to the Head was released in 2002. But I’d rather listen to Is This It than ARoBttH anyday, eventhough Coldplay are a great band.

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Will August 18, 2009 at 3:46 pm

hands down to the strokes

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Alex August 18, 2009 at 6:12 pm

damn, the strokes and daft punk are taking this one. head to head.

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FjfjfjSHIFT August 18, 2009 at 6:15 pm

Discovery is a CLASSIC. I wouldn’t call The Strokes’ Is This It a classic… just really great. I think the albums that should be remembered are the albums that changed the game. Daft Punk are dance music gods. They changed electro music, techno music, and pop music with Discovery, evolved it to something higher.

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ewf August 18, 2009 at 7:23 pm

Coldplay!

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Anonymous August 18, 2009 at 8:12 pm

stripes album for sure… such an awesome album!

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Tyler August 18, 2009 at 10:06 pm

Between Daft Punk and the Strokes, DP should take it all the way. Yet in that list, I think Sigur Ros’s 2001 drop had the biggest impact on music. As one of the artists pushing the limits on what music can sound like, what qualifies as an instrument, this album deserves more respect than it gets. Understand that I’m in the minority in this opinion. But nobody hear can tell me that its not a damn good album, powerful and emotionally trenchant.

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BK August 19, 2009 at 3:31 am

Amnesiac was a game changer

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caine August 19, 2009 at 3:38 am

Still going with my first thought Origin of Symmetry, the cd that made muse huge.

Plug in baby plus new born. Cant believe it wasnt on the list.

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Kasper August 19, 2009 at 4:55 am

A Rush of Blood to the Head!

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Axel August 19, 2009 at 5:11 am

Daft Punk- Discovery

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Thomas August 19, 2009 at 6:12 am

Discovery is epic.

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Anonymous August 19, 2009 at 8:01 am

Discovery is a nice dance album. Really changes that entire scene. And it’s fairly epic.

But it doesn’t hold a candle to Is This It. Remember, The Strokes came in and took the world by storm, because their teenage New York Attitude help define the world at the time. So many people that were looking for something different in music found it in that album. That sound was completely missing from the scene and The Strokes. We all know how amazing and epic and important The Strokes are, but I wouldn’t say any of their other albums really have the original impact that this one did.

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RaRaRadiation August 19, 2009 at 8:10 am

Picked Vespertine on your list.

But my real pick is the brilliant green’s Los Angeles. It’s epic. I’m by no means a music buff, but the band was heavily involved in the production, all the way down to mixing and mastering the album. The only other thing I can say is listen to it, NOW.

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RaRaRadiation August 21, 2009 at 12:23 am
PerlonKid August 19, 2009 at 9:26 am

Correct me if I’m wrong here (…it has happened once before, turns out downing 2 bottles port doesn’t give you the ability to smash an inch-thick concrete slab with your fist, and will in fact result in a bloody mess), but continuing down this route won’t give us the top 10 albums of the decade, it’ll give us the top album of each year of the decade. Discovery and Is This It are two of the top alums of the last ten years but one of them has to be omitted becasue it had the mosfortune of being released in a good year for music…

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Luis Tovar August 19, 2009 at 9:35 am

no, you are correct. well it’ll give us the two top albums of each year (Reader’s choice and then our choice). I was thinking that after this was all done, I could list the albums with the most votes period. So make sure you vote.

It’s not a perfect system, but either is any other system, but it’s the one we’re running with.

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Jared August 19, 2009 at 5:04 pm

Zero 7′s Simple Things. I will be listening to that album for decades to come.

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Eric August 20, 2009 at 9:15 pm

‘Is This It’ is unquestionably the winner because it saved rock music from the Limp Bizkit/Korn garbage and ushered in the “garage-rock revival” (which, by the way, makes no sense because The Strokes lived in apartments). While each song on the UK release of ‘Is This It’ is perfect, the record and its supporting tour had a much greater affect on today’s music than the other 10 albums.

‘Is This It’opened the doors for bands like Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Arctic Monkeys and Kings of Leon. Each of those three bands have stories about listening to The Strokes’ first record (Alex Turner, specifically) or checking out the supporting tour (Kings of Leon) and deciding to try to create something like The Strokes had (and continue to have).

The only bad thing about ‘Is This It’ is that it briefly made shit bands like Jet popular.

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Luis Tovar August 20, 2009 at 10:56 pm

I love Is This It? Maj Love.

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jjj August 21, 2009 at 2:13 pm

Any Nsync….. ?

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Krys October 11, 2009 at 6:55 pm

Daft Punk, Is this It, and THEN Blueprint? Is this real life?

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