Songfactor's Choice

10. Kid A - Radiohead (2000)

Key Tracks:

• Everything in its Right Place


• Idioteque (in video)


• The National Anthem

"Kid A" was the name of a setting on one of their sequencers when they were making the album, which explains the title. There was very little guitar on the album.
Nominated by Viaene


9. Raising Sand - Robert Plant & Alison Krauss (2007)

Key Tracks:

• Please Read the Letter


• Killing The Blues (in video)


• Rich Woman

Produced by T-Bone Burnett, this won a Grammy for Album of the Year, where Robert Plant said: "When we started this project together, the whole game was a mystery. We gave ourselves 3 days, and we said if it doesn't work, we'll just take lunch, and I'll go back to Wolverhampton."
Nominated by Lucky


8. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand (2004)

Key Tracks:

• Take Me Out (in video)


• Darts of Pleasure


• Michael

This was the band's first album. Five years later, they released Tonight: Franz Ferdinand. The band got the idea for their name when they saw a racehorse called "The Archduke Ferdinand."
Nominated by Jenny


7. Is This It - The Strokes (2001)

Key Tracks:

• Hard To Explain (in video)


• NYC Cops


• Last Nite

NME thought this was the best album of the decade, and Rolling Stone had it at #2. Explaining the album title, lead singer Julian Casablancas said: "I thought it sounded cool in more ways than one. It's deep without being pretentious."
Nominated by Bertrand


6. Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not - Arctic Monkeys (2006)

Key Tracks:

• When The Sun Goes Down


• I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor (in video)


• Riot Van

Arctic Monkeys' debut album, it was huge in the UK, selling 120,000 copies the first day it was released.
Nominated by Farin


5. Songs for the Deaf - Queens of the Stone Age (2002)

Key Tracks:

• Go With The Flow


• No One Knows (in video)


• First It Giveth

Dave Grohl played drums on the album. In 2009, he and lead singer Josh Homme formed Them Crooked Vultures with former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones.
Nominated by BlueAngel


4. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below - Outkast (2003)

Key Tracks:

• Hey Ya (in video)


• The Way You Move


• Roses

This is a double album, with each member of Outkast contributing half. The Hip-Hop album went mainstream fast, and won a Grammy for Album of the Year. "Hey Ya" was the most downloaded track on iTunes the first year Apple started the service.
Nominated by Tenacious Peaches


3. Stadium Arcadium - Red Hot Chili Peppers (2006)

Key Tracks:

• Dani California (in video)


• Snow (Hey Oh)


• Tell Me Baby

Their first album in four years, Flea said it was, "By far the best thing we've ever done." 20 years earlier, the band would wear nothing but (strategically placed) socks on stage; now they were basking in critical acclaim.
Nominated by MindCrime


2. Demon Days - Gorillaz (2005)

Key Tracks:

• Feel Good Inc. (in video)


• Dirty Harry


• DARE

A cartoon band with something deliciously different. It was produced by Danger Mouse a year before he teamed up with Cee-Lo to form Gnarls Barkley.
Nominated by BlueAngel


1. Elephant - The White Stripes (2003)

Key Tracks:

• Seven Nation Army (in video)


• The Hardest Button To Button


• Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine

Honest Rock and Roll makes the top of our list. On the album, it states: "No computers were used during the writing, recording, mixing or mastering of this record."
Nominated by cs 1987