Looking for some music for your journey home, to share with your family when you get there, or just to curl up with and listen to on your own? Here are two classic albums from every year since 2000 to get you started.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
WTOP/Noah Frank
2000The Classic: Coldplay — Parachutes
You can rightfully blame Coldplay for their latter-day sins, but their debut album remains not only their best, but a triumph of small sound before the band outgrew it. Sure, you know “Yellow” and “Trouble,” but tracks like “Sparks,” “We Never Change” and “Everything’s Not Lost” have stood the test of time.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2000The Late Discovery: Modest Mouse — The Moon & Antarctica
I was not an early Modest Mouse adopter, but once I jumped on board, this record stood out as their best. Sure, most people probably think of “Float On” as their quintessential song, but for me it will always be “Gravity Rides Everything.”
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2001The Classic: Daft Punk — Discovery
It kills me that some people had never heard “Harder Better Faster Stronger” until Kanye West sampled it in 2007. This remains Daft Punk’s defining work, always worth spinning one more time.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2001The Late Discovery: Pinback — Blue Screen Life
Do you know Pinback? You should know Pinback, and if you only know them for “Fortress,” you should really give “Blue Screen Life” a listen. I didn’t discover it until 2004, but the intertwined melodies of songs like “Penelope,” “Seville” and “Tres” have never left my brain.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2002The Classic: Wilco — Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
I first discovered this album in a strange way — the front cover is a photo of my favorite buildings in Chicago, the flower petal-like Marina Towers. That turned out to be a welcome stroke of fortune, introducing me to Wilco through what I still consider to be their best and most influential album.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2002The Late Discovery: Spoon — Kill the Moonlight
Spoon continues to be the most indispensable American rock band that I’m always blown away by how many people don’t know. “The Way We Get By” probably remains their most popular single to this day, despite having released five (really good!) studio albums since. Honorable mention to both Beck’s “Sea Change” and The Flaming Lips’ “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” for making this the toughest decision on this list.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2003The Classic: The Postal Service — Give Up
It’s hard not to include Ben Gibbard’s other 2003 masterpiece — Death Cab for Cutie’s “Transatlanticism” here — but if we’re being honest, I only spun one CD so many times it developed bumps and scratches and wouldn’t play anymore. “Such Great Heights” endures, but this heartbreak album delivers from start to finish.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2003The Late Discovery: Jose Gonzalez — Veneer
Most people have probably heard some variation of Gonzalez’s “Heartbeats” by now. If you haven’t heard his particular version, rectify that now. If you have, get ready to be even more blown away by both his musicianship and songwriting on “Crosses.”
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2004The Classic: The Killers — Hot Fuss
I thought about going with Arcade Fire’s debut “Funeral” here, but the depth of this record really holds up better a dozen years later. Each of the first five tracks enjoyed their time in the sun, but “Andy You’re a Star” and “Everything Will Be Alright” have stuck with me as favorites over the years.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2004The Late Discovery: Muse — Absolution
It took a year before this release started making waves in the states, and a little longer before I really appreciated its depth as something of a concept album, often reduced to the popularity of its singles. Its ominous revolutionary, anti-authoritarianism themes might have hit me even harder than most, as I was reading “1984” at the time, but it worked then and it still does today.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2005The Classic: Bloc Party — Silent Alarm
It says something about a debut album when it is so good that you can remix the entire thing and have it be your second-best album. While “Banquet” ruled the day, tracks like “This Modern Love” and “So Here We Are” have endured the test of time.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2005The Late Discovery: Tapes ‘n Tapes — The Loon
Probably the least recognizable album on this list, I’ve given it more spins than a lot of the others here. Often more muted than contemporaries like The Shins, the Minneapolis group’s debut nevertheless delivers a quiet, driving intensity great for wrapping yourself in on a cold day.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2006The Classic: Yeah Yeah Yeahs — Show Your Bones
Those who forgot about the Yeah Yeah Yeahs after “Maps” missed out on their follow-up album. Gone is the longing from their most popular single, replaced by punchier, crisper melodies more evocative of The White Stripes’ “Elephant” era. If “Maps” is your only reference point, the tone of “Show Your Bones” is less “wait,” and more “they don’t love you like I love you.”
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2006The Late Discovery: Alexi Murdoch — Time Without Consequence
Murdoch’s Nick Drake-esque debut LP opens and closes with its strongest and most well-known songs, but his soothing melodies and heavy baritone permeate throughout, providing easy-to-listen-to tracks that stick with you.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2007The Classic: The National — Boxer
For a group that has churned out quality albums for 15 years, “Boxer” stands above as their best work. An album-long dabble into the struggles of early adulthood, it sweeps you into another world with its introspective melancholy.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2007The Late Discovery: A.A. Bondy — American Hearts
The first and still the best offering from Auguste Arthur Bondy drips with the southern folk rock influence of his Birmingham roots. His music feels like the band you saw in some dive bar one night long ago and swore it was the best show you’d ever saw, wondering every few years what ever happened to them.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2008The Classic: Bon Iver — For Emma, Forever Ago
If you’re going somewhere cold and snowy for Thanksgiving, wrap up and hide from the world with this album.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2008The Late Discovery: Jenny Lewis — Acid Tongue
Rilo Kiley left an impression on a generation of music listeners, but I didn’t really get into Jenny Lewis until recently, and I enjoy her solo stuff more. “Rabbit Fur Coat” drew the critical praise, but “Acid Tongue” feels less the collaboration its predecessor was and more of a distilled channeling of Lewis’ energy. The title track is timeless.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2009The Classic: Phoenix — Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Phoenix had been cranking out records for nearly a decade before their fifth studio album thrust the French rockers into the American mainstream. Even seven years later, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a stronger 1-2 punch to open an album than “Lisztomania” and “1901.”
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2009The Late Discovery: Dan Deacon — Bromst
The first of three Baltimore artists on the list, Deacon’s experimental style has been pushing the boundaries of complex sound for some time. That his tunes retain their infectiousness despite their many layers and even after all these years might be their most impressive quality.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2010The Classic: LCD Soundsystem — This Is Happening
We didn’t know that this would be James Murphy’s last (true) studio album when he recorded it, but perhaps the signs were there and we just missed them. The nearly 17 minutes of combined run time from the record’s epic opener “Dance Yrself Clean” and finisher “Home” bookend a classic and fitting final statement.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2010The Late Discovery: Band of Horses — Infinite Arms
You can make the argument for “Cease to Begin” or “Everything All the Time” being better albums, but this is the album where the band grew up into its major label clothes and corresponding sound. If there’s one track that demonstrates that in particular here, it’s “Older,” a simple, catchy repetition that could easily be sung in a cannon and has all the stickiness of any mainstream pop tune.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2011The Classic: M83 — Hurry Up We’re Dreaming
An electronic masterpiece, this booming, soaring double album spans nearly an hour and a quarter over 22 sprawling tracks. And while the sounds can envelop you and swallow you whole, transporting you to another place and time entirely, the album doesn’t lack for lyrical strength: “Send your dreams where nobody hides / Give your tears to tide.”
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2011The Late Discovery: Ben Howard — Every Kingdom
I was only about a year late to Ben Howard’s debut album, a collection of stripped down modern folk songs that showcase his fragile, breathy voice. There’s an urgency of youth in the beats that drive tracks like “Only Love” and “The Fear” which deliver an angsty edge different from most in his genre.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2012The Classic: Lord Huron — Lonesome Dreams
Even before 2015’s “Strange Trails,” Lord Huron captured some sense of the open American West, right from the intro to “Ends of the Earth.” The tracks almost feel like campfire tunes played under the desert stars that have been beefed up with studio backing. It’s great music for the drive home.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2012The Late Discovery: Conner Youngblood — Sketches
I didn’t stumble upon this album until the second half of this year (thanks, Discover Weekly!), but was instantly enthralled. The Dallas singer-songwriter demands your attention right from the get-go with “Australia,” but the tracks continue to deliver surprises from the syncopated rhythms of “A Summer Song” to the electronic anthem “Gold.”
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2013The Classic: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. — The Speed of Things
This relentlessly optimistic and whimsical electronic dance pop record comes straight from, of all places, Detroit. Unlike some of the quiet, introspective artists from the upper Midwest on this list, DEJJ keep things bright even when their lyrics are dark in this truly cohesive effort that feels natural to keep rolling back to the beginning over and over.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2013The Late Discovery: Chvrches — The Bones of What You Believe
It wasn’t until I saw Chvrches live that I really appreciated the energy and power of their music. You’d think Lauren Mayberry’s fragile soprano might get lost under the heavy power pop synths behind her, but it soars over the top. Chvrches’ anthems drive forward and bounce around your skull long after the last note is played.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2014The Classic: The Antlers — Familiars
Two records removed from their tragic concept album “Hospice,” The Antlers’ most recent effort brings much of the same ambient airiness to its methodic pace. Layers of sound float under a naked guitar riff on “Director” while horns deliver almost a second vocal track on “Parade.” It’s a work that flows through and past you, like a cool autumn breeze.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2014The Late Discovery: Future Islands — Singles
It’s not exactly that I was late to discover this album as much as I was late to fully appreciate it. If you just need to move, if you just need the musical spark to drive your body to dance, “Singles” grabs you by the hand from the opening bars of “Seasons” and never lets go.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2015The Classic: Beach House — Depression Cherry
As you could guess by the album’s title, this is not an upbeat record. But the distillation of the Baltimore band’s style, stripped down to its studs then built delicately back up, produces wonders like “Space Song,” an alternate reality for you to let your mind wander.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
2015The Late Discovery: Shakey Graves — And the War Came
One-man bands are capable of creating intricate layers of sound (see Jose Gonzalez above), but rarely will you find so many different musical styles and influences in the same track. Austin’s own Alejandro Rose-Garcia blends a swirl of electro-alt-country-pop-Americana into something unlike anything I’ve ever heard, and never does so better than on the addictive “Family and Genus.”
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
WASHINGTON — If our country can agree on anything right now, it’s that we’re having trouble agreeing on anything at all.
A seemingly endless and unprecedentedly negative presidential campaign has left many people angry, distrustful and fearful heading into holidays that are supposed to celebrate uniting in peace.
As a sports writer, I know very well the role sports play in helping communities come together in setting aside differences and finding common ground. But I also know sports can feel like an unwelcome and petty distraction in the face of real anxiety. One thing I’ve always found that helps, no matter how I’m feeling, is music.
We’re not quite ready for year-end lists and all that yet, but no matter your mood these days, we could all use some really good music to help us get through the days. That’s why I’ve compiled a list of music released since 2000, including both the album from each year that has resonated with me the most since its release as well as one that I didn’t discover until later on.
Hopefully this list will both remind you of some great music you’ve forgotten and introduce you to some fantastic stuff you have yet to hear. Share it with your family this week, or throw on some headphones and escape when you need to. If you’ve got some great tunes you’ve been rocking the last couple weeks, feel free to share them in the comments as well.
Note: A couple of the songs in the Spotify playlist below are different tracks from the ones listed in the gallery above.
