So, this article is slightly outside of the SOFREP wheelhouse, but nevertheless, here it is.  Your intrepid author is getting a jump on the competition with this one, as we can fully expect in two years’ time to see various lists come out, laying out the “best albums of the 2010’s” or the “best of the century so far,” or what have you.  Well, I am preempting that stuff, and putting one out now, in the waning months of 2017, in which I lay out what I think have been the best 50 albums to come out since 2000.

Your author is an avid music fan and amateur music critic. Since I have this platform, and the bosses are willing to indulge me every once in a while, I figured I would use this space to share with you all the albums you should listen to from the last 18 years.  I do not rank them here, since that is so highly subjective (as is a list at all, really), but instead, I have broken them out by year. 

Surely, I will have left out some worthies, or included some albums that some of you consider garbage.  No matter.  Music is not a science, nor is judging album quality even remotely objective (unless, of course, you go by sales numbers or some such thing).  At any rate, I am excited to see what you all will include as your own additions to the list, in the comments section below. 

I am sure there will be plenty of country, R&B, rap, and metal albums that I have overlooked, and that you all believe should be included here.  That is not even to speak of jazz, reggae, latin, electronic, dance, or the countless other genres to which I have minimal exposure.  Enlighten us with your additions!

Without further ado, here are my picks for the best 50 albums to be released since the turn of the century, so far.

2000

U2 – ”All that You Can’t Leave Behind”

The Strokes – “Is This It?”