33 of My Favourite 2000s Albums of All Time

Shôn Ellerton, August 29, 2026
So many records from the 2000s and beyond which I’ve enjoyed but choosing only 33 wasn’t easy!

You may have come across my previous articles listing out my favourite albums from the 70s to the 90s, but we have one final piece of the jigsaw missing.

My favourite albums from the year 2000!

This was a bit of a tough one I admit.

Why?

Because there’s a lot of material I like from the 2000s onwards. However, they’re scattered across hundreds and hundreds of albums, EPs, compilations, and remixes. Some of them have only been released direct to file circumventing the whole LP and CD process.

As for whole complete albums which I can listen to over and over again, I found this a difficult exercise. In fact, so thoroughly so, that I can only muster up a measly 33 albums, a couple of them being compilations, out of a staggering 26 years of music. If I were to list all the albums which contain some of my favourite pieces of music from the 2000s on, there would be something in the order of nearly 1,500 albums.

One thousand and five hundred albums!

What this all means that there is a vast quantity of music out there to listen to and much of it I picked up from friends, family, reviews on forums of music I like, and on rare occasions, what I pick up from the radio.

Audio streaming services Spotify and Tidal are powerful allies in exploring what’s good out there, although, there’s good material that doesn’t make it on these platforms but residing solely on platforms like Bandcamp, for example.

This reflects the sign of the times that the days of listening to entire albums is essentially over except for the few eccentric among us who enjoy or endure listening to the entire album at least once.

So, allow me to reflect on thirty-three albums or records, in order of release date, which I’ve listened to several times and continue to enjoy listening to them as entire pieces of music. And because I like them so much, I had to buy the physical CDs to complement my collection.

 

#1. Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil by Coil (2000)

This first one is an unusually punishing album to listen to. If you like Psychic TV and Throbbing Gristle, you may have come across Coil, and you’ll know what I mean when the duo who comprise Coil, make extremely dark and quite disturbing music.

My copy of this CD is a strange thing which doesn’t quite look like the image above but rather an image of sawtooth edges printed on the CD encased in a tight-fitting pink plastic case. There is even a warning on the label.

‘Warning: Do not play when using machinery’.

The music on this entire CD, apart from the weird and sinister I Am The Green Child, invoking images of The Wicker Man, is full-out hums, noises, electrical pulses and machinery in loop cycles designed to throw you into a trance-like state. Think of the weird tuning bars designed to be portals to another world in that weird sci-fi film, Phantasm.

I can’t qualify this album as music but it’s damned unnerving to the senses when listening to it loud.

But be careful and ensure you’re listening to it in a safe space.

And what about that awesome title for the album?

 

#2. Ibiza 99: The Year Of Trance by Various (2000)

This is not an album but a dance compilation with some of the best Balearic style dance tracks which were so popular during the early 2000s.

Unlike most compilation albums which tend to have too many of the usual number one hits which everyone gets tired of, this compilation is genuinely interesting, well mixed, and keeps its pace lively and engaging.

The compilation evokes memories of Ibiza, fun times, sunburns, drunken nights, lively nightclubs, and endless cocktails.

It sums up Ibiza and Balearic dance music in one compilation that you just have to have!

 

#3. Shango by Juno Reactor (2000)

Enter the Mayan civilisation adorned with exciting modern dance sounds of the 2000s!

Juno Reactor is renowned for producing larger-than-life dramatic music featuring heavy electronic beats fused with a variety of traditional and native musical instruments.

Shango is a collection of quite complex electronic material and I struggle to categorise what kind of music this is. Needless to say, it’s incredibly interesting, especially with a large hi-fi system.

The electronic soundstage comes across as being large and powerful, sometimes to the point of being menacing.

The fourth track, Badimo, is simply awesome and sounds like it should have been used for an action movie like Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto.

 

#4. Since I Left You by Avalanches (2000)

This is like mixing lounge music with upbeat music you might come across inside a trendy bar on a Saturday night.

Great lyrics, a continuously changing soundstage, and throwbacks to an era of 50s and 60s cocktails make this an enjoyable album to listen to.

And, unusually so in my collection, they come from Australia!

Check out the tracks, Since I Left You and Frontier Psychiatrist.

 

#5. In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country by Boards of Canada (2000)

Boards of Canada are an electronic music duo that come from, not Canada, but the far and bleak north shores of Scotland. Their music is often categorised as haunting, thoughtful, and, in a strange sort of way, inspiring. Much like the northern coast of Scotland.

This is not a full album, but rather a four-track EP, the first three being utterly one of my favourite electronic pieces of all time, but the fourth being, unfortunately, a boring washout not to waste your time listening to.

I guarantee that these tracks will be inspirational and, at the same time, raise goosepimples for being melodramatic and haunting. Especially the third track, In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country, which is especially creepy in places, but very musical.

This, in my opinion, along with the album, Geogaddi, mentioned later, is Board of Canada’s best pieces of work.

 

#6. Melody A.M. by Röyksopp (2001)

Röyksopp, a Norwegian electronic duo, came out with their first album during 2001.

The sound was quite new at the time, and I liked it immediately after the first few bars from its epic first track, So Easy. It incorporated an East Asian theme with a modern lounge-like easy listening rhythmic harmony or ballade. I worked for T-Mobile during this time and I remember when they used this track as part of their advertising campaigns at the time.

It’s not an exciting album to listen to, and it can get repetitive at places, but in essence, the album is a nice listen.

In general, Röyksopp can produce some incredibly catchy material and I must note a couple of tracks on one of their much later albums of 2022, Profound Mysteries, with tracks like Breathe featuring Astrid S and How the Flowers Grow featuring Pixx.

 

#7. Exciter by Depeche Mode (2001)

Depeche Mode is one of those prolific bands that consistently churns out great material. Every album sounds different with its own theme, and Exciter is no exception, the theme seeming to be centred around deep-seated love. The sound is deep and luscious and the vocals are strong being presented almost as if the vocalist was right in front of you.

My favourite tracks on this album are Freelove and Breathe.

 

#8. 10,000 Hz Legend by Air (2001)

Air can come across as being a little over indulgent at times, but their 10,000 Hz Legend album is a great piece of work worth listening to. Definitely a more bolder sound than their other albums.

It’s something I kept in my car CD player for weeks until I finally decided to change it for another!

Great tracks include How Does It Make You Feel?, Radio #1,Sex Born Poison, and Don’t Be Light.

 

#9. Double Figure by Plaid (2001)

IDM still lives on in the 2000s! That much maligned term, Intelligent Dance Music.

Plaid is a superstar in this genre and this album doesn’t disappoint.

If you like cool-sounding out-of-this-world electronica? Try Plaid.

Great tracks include Eyen, Light Rain, Sincetta, and Ti Bom.

 

#10. Vespertine by Björk (2001)

Björk’s Vespertine is absolutely lovely and one of my top ten albums of all time. Extraordinarily complex, seductive, paganistic in theme, and haunting.

This is an album that I listened to so many times and it’s always a fresh listen every time. There’s something druidic about the whole experience infusing Celtic music with all that harp-like sound with modern complex melodies.

An amazing work and, for me, Björk’s best work.

Best tracks include Hidden Place, It’s Not Up To You, Frosti, Aurora, Heirloom, and one of my all-time, if not my favourite song of all time, Pagan Poetry.

 

#11. Drukqs by Aphex Twin (2001)

Richard James (aka Aphex Twin) created this rather weird, and in some places, highly disturbing, album that sits in the odd periphery of IDM music. Obscure sounds and beats. Some tracks are quiet and peaceful, others odd and just plain weird, and some, a little assault-like on the senses.

It’s one of those albums that you should just zone out and listen to in a darkened room much like Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Vol II.

 

#12. Moon’s Milk (In Four Phases) by Coil (2002)

Coil is creepy. Full stop.

This is not really an album but a collection of, I believe, four EPs representing each season of the year. But in true paganist style.

The sound is quite dreamlike, almost like floating into an alien portal of another world. The music is designed to instil a sense of unease and alienation. The first track, Moon’s Milk or Under An Unquiet Skull is a slow track which builds up hauntingly as if it should be designed for worshippers of some malicious faith or cult. It almost seems Lovecraftian summoning the spirits of the Cthulhu mythos.

Then you have chilling tracks like North which brings to me images of an old abandoned hospital half buried in snow well beyond the Arctic Circle.

It’s not the most easy of listens, but I enjoyed this collection of EPs rolled together in an album compilation.

 

#13. Reset by Peace Orchestra (2002)

Peace Orchestra produced a very nice gentle sounding electronic album called Peace Orchestra back in 1999. For me, it was, yeah, ok. Nice, but not something I would listen to again in its entirety.

However, Peace Orchestra’s Reset, is an entirely different story.

This is the remix of the original album and it’s much more upbeat and interesting.

This music has a very sophisticated mix of jazz, 50s lounge, and electronica all rolled up into one.

Great tracks on this Reset album include The Man, Henry, and the delightful Double Drums, which has impressed all my friends who have listened to it.

I have to give my sister credit for introducing this album to me.

 

#14. Geogaddi by Boards of Canada (2002)

Geogaddi is, in my opinion, Board of Canada’s best full album.

It’s no doubt, a dark piece of electronica, but it’s not scary or dim either. If anything, it is intrinsically deep and introspective.

This is classic thinking-man’s electronica at its best.

Try out tracks, 1969, The Beach at Redpoint, and You Could Feel the Sky.

 

#15. The Eminem Show by Eminem (2002)

I’m really not into rap at all, but Eminem’s The Eminem Show somehow managed to enter the world of one of my favourite albums.

During the early 2000s, I had this CD playing in my car at full volume whilst travelling for work-related reasons. It’s fun. It’s powerful. The lyrics are quite interesting. And, although rap is quite repetitive in nature in terms of the music, the melodies weren’t bad, some of them reminiscing of some of the theme music titles in the original Doom 1 and 2 video games.

Great tracks include White America, Square Dance, Soldier, Drips, and My Dad’s Gone Crazy.

 

#16. Dirty Dancing by Swayzak (2002)

I’m not sure how to categorise this album, but it’s very catchy. It’s deeply rhythmic and dancelike but not suitable for the dance floor, if that makes any sense.

Give it a listen. Lots of good tracks including Buffalo Seven, In The Car Crash, Celcius, I Dance Alone, Take My Hand, and Sob 1.

The entire album is a great experience in combining dance music with darker alternative themes.

 

#17. Do You Know Squarepusher by Squarepusher (2002)

Tom Jenkinson, otherwise known as Squarepusher, created many albums during his illustrious career into the world of electronica. This album, Do You Know Squarepusher, sets the theme into how Squarepusher works out its music.

It’s a little bit of a hodge-podge of sounds, but it’s highly entertaining and original.

If anything, at least listen to the first track, Do You Know Squarepusher.

 

#18. Tino’s Breaks Volume 6: Hallowe’en Dub by Tino (2002)

Want to play some background music in the house when the trick or treaters knock on your door? Try out Tino’s Hallowe’en Dub.

For Halloween music, this is one of my favourites, and it is just a fun listen.

Who would think of mixing dub music with Halloween music?

Well. Tino did!

 

#19. Tour De France Soundtracks by Kraftwerk (2003)

I consider this Kraftwerk’s last proper album they ever made. And this album is no slouch, I can assure you.

My sister gave me a copy of the double vinyl record when it was released back in 2003. I tried it at home on my turntable and oh, what a rich and deep sound it produced.

This album is stunning and, like all of the other Kraftwerk albums, it had to have another mechanical or physical theme. In this case, the world of cycling and fitness.

The star feature of this double album is the twenty-minute track, Tour De France Etapes 1,2,3. Which adds nicely to Kraftwerk’s other whole-side mechanical wonders, Autobahn about roads and cars, and Trans Europe Express about the world of European high-speed trains.

 

#20. Reves Mecaniques by The Hacker (2004)

Anyone into Miss Kittin would probably have come across The Hacker.

This album’s got some great electro-techno tracks which are surprisingly catchy to listen to. It’s got that mix of classic Miss Kittin and that underground Euro techno sound emanating from late-night obscure haunts in the middle of the metropolis.

Great tracks include Village of the Damned and Traces.

 

#21. Delirium Cordia by Fantômas (2004)

Fantômas’s Delirium Cordia is one entire track over a seventy-minute CD and is about as dark and sinister as you can get. In essence, the theme of this CD is undergoing an operation at the hospital.

Listening to this with a pair of headphones or alone with a big hi-fi system will keep you on the edge not knowing what the next surprise will be. Fantômas, which includes Mike Patton of Faith No More and Mr Bungle fame, is at the hardcore edge of progressive experimental metal and electronica and takes no prisoners.

The piece transitions into many different elements from thrash heavy metal to odd singing chanting, from spooky basslines to unearthly howling and sounds which can only perceive to be somewhat alien. Some parts start benignly but very quickly becomes unstable morphing into malignant intent.

It is a deeply unsettling piece of work but an adventure to listen to. It is also extremely well-recorded and, no doubt, test your hi-fi to its limits.

The CD cover itself is jet black with a glossy booklet with close-up scenes of surgical procedures and other things.

Lovely.

 

#22. The Blue Notebooks by Max Richter (2004)

Where classical meets electronica, this is quite a beautiful album to listen to.

The music successfully blends classical themes with piano, violin and harp with lush and rich bass synth notes. It’s never in your face, this album. It’s introspective, haunting, and somewhat melancholic.

There is an overall melody throughout the album which keeps it coherent rather than a disjointed collection of works.

My two favourite tracks are Shadow Journal and The Trees, which builds into this most emotional crescendo which evokes the timelessness, isolation, and loneliness of an ancient forest.

 

#23. When I Was Young by Genesis P-Orridge & Astrid Monroe (2004)

Laden with theremin-sounding, and pulsating electronica along with mysterious vocals, this is an interesting album which sits somewhere on the boundary of dark electronica, IDM, and industrial.

If you like Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV, this should be listened to, although some of the more hardcore fans of Throbbing Gristle may deem this to be a bit of a let-down not being quite industrial enough.

I disagree.

Yes. It has a softness to it, but it’s exceptionally dark and mysterious and a worthwhile listen.

Good tracks include When I Was Young and I Want To Go. But saying that, after listening to it again, some of the tracks have become even better in my book.

 

#24. Romances by Kaada / Patton (2004)

This is one of my most-played and favourite albums.

Again, we have Patton here, but in this album, he’s working with another artist by the name of John Erik Kaada.

It’s very difficult to describe this music but it’s a crazy mix of electronica fused with a number of rather interesting instruments.

Beautifully recorded with large soundstages and clear separation of sound makes this an amazing listen on a good system.

Every track is worth a listen to, but it may not be for everybody!

 

#25. General Patton vs The X-Ecutioners by General Patton vs The X-Ecutioners (2005)

Mike Patton meets hip-hop.

This is a fun 45-minute mix of hip-hop, rap, electronica, funk, and Mike Patton’s bizarro influence to music.

For me, this is a bit like listening to Coldcut’s 70 Minutes of Madness which I covered in my article going through my favourite 90s albums.

 

#26. Hello Everything by Squarepusher (2006)

Squarepusher’s Hello Everything is a good example of IDM at its best and most approachable.

The overall theme of album is uplifting and catchy utilising a softer approach of experimental IDM than say, some of the weirder stuff that Squarepusher created in the past.

The big standout for me in this album is Planetarium, which is simply an awesome track mixing in jungle beats, a Rick Wakeman-kind of sound, and a lush melody which is both uplifting and mysterious.

Not all tracks are amazing, but in general, it’s a great album.

 

#27. Untrue by Burial (2007)

Burial’s Untrue album is an astonishingly beautiful electronica album which delves deep into the soul. It’s dark but at the same time, it’s surprisingly uplifting, never being malevolent or sinister.

The sound is comforting and has that late-night lounge sound. It’s also richly layered and far more complex than what many of us may perceive on the first listen. There’s lots going on.

I think this is a great piece album and, at the time, there was nothing quite like it.

 

#28. Third by Portishead (2008)

It’s funny that considering the huge influence Portishead had during the 90s, Third is literally only their third album.

When it came to the shops, I grabbed a CD immediately and anxious to try it out at home.

The first track, Silence, is anything but silence but a journey into paranoia which abruptly transitions into a beautiful melodic piece called Hunter. The last track, Threads, really caps this album off with quite a haunting and dramatic piece.

Certainly not disappointed.

But when will be the next Portishead album? It’s high time for another!

 

#29. Lazer Sword by Lazer Sword (2010)

Lazer Sword is not one of those electronic bands that many would know. My sister, one who also listens to often obscure music, introduced this to me.

This is glam sci-fi electronica set sometime in the future with funky beats and catchy electronic rhythms and sounds.

It could come across as being a bit cheesy, but I think it really holds its own as a wonderfully fun piece of rhythmic electronica to listen to.

 

#30. Memory by Lazer Sword (2012)

Having liked Lazer Sword’s debut album, I set out to purchase Memory.

This is quite different from the funkier and cheesier sound of the first album. It’s quite a bit more sophisticated and would not be out of place in an out-of-the-way very late night lounge nestled in the heart of the city but away from the craziness of the crowds and the noise.

The sound is infused with diminishing and augmenting minor chords giving it that spacey and drug-inducing feel. Along with the soft pulsing basslines, it can easily get one into a trance-like state.

Think of being sat in a comfortable plush sofa in a modern Art Deco styled lounge bar in the very early hours of the morning before the city wakes up.

 

#31. Leaving Babylon by Covenant (2013)

Covenant is a Swedish electronic band having made a number of quite catchy releases during the 90s. However, I think Leaving Babylon is possibly my favourite.

It retains much of the character of the earlier albums but there’s something else here. Something a bit spiritual and uplifting perhaps. More complexity as well.

The best track on this album, and in my opinion, of all of Covenant’s works, is Last Dance.

This track and many others embeds a strong sense of classical themes to modern electronic industrial music.

 

#32. Splinter (Songs From A Broken Mind) by Gary Numan (2013)

I’ve always like Gary Numan, but this album is very different from those he created back in the 80s.

Apparently, Numan suffered deeply from depression and this album is his way in describing his deepest and darkest feelings.

Splinter is my favourite piece on this album.

 

#33. Async by Ryuichi Sakamoto (2017)

Ryuichi Sakamoto created many pieces of great music but Async is a genuine masterpiece.

It’s a strange palette of sound and atmosphere which I’ve not come across before. Hauntingly beautiful organ sounds intermixed with distorted and wave-like sounds as if they were signals from an extraterrestrial world.

The first track, Andata, demonstrates this perfectly.

The second track is minimalistic in a Japanese way and comes across as being interesting and mysterious.

The we have tracks like FF, which are soft and mysterious soundscapes infused with layers and layers of sounds.

In a way, this is more like a great piece of classical music but using modern electronic sounds.

 

Choosing the top 10?

Choosing the top 10 records isn’t easy.

In no particular order.

1) Bjork Vespertine

2) Kaada & Patton Romances

3) Boards of Canada Geogaddi

4) Ryuichi Sakamoto Async

5) Fantômas  Delirium Cordia

6) Kraftwerk Tour De France Soundtracks

7) Juno Reactor Shango

8) Boards of Canada In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country

9) Various Ibiza 99: The Year of Trance

10) Burial Untrue