60. Mark Mulcahy – In Pursuit of Your Happiness

On In Pursuit of Your Happiness, Mark Mulcahy discovers the perfect balance between his youthful Miracle Legion days and his more mature solo work. Infectious pop songs like “Cookie Jar” juxtapose moodier tracks like “Can’t Find a Reason to Let You Go”, creating a record that is as fun as it is thoughtful. -Matt Melis

“Cookie Jar”

59. Beastie Boys – To The 5 Boroughs

When this 2004 bomb dropped, it boomed with the raw, dirty explosions of “3 the Hard Way”, “Rhyme the Rhyme Well”, and even touched the Apple’s heart with “An Open Letter to NYC”. 5 Boroughs is a harsh edge on the Boys that never fail to surprise and re-funk the scene with warped beats and white-hot verses. -Maria Murriel

58. Wolf Parade – Apologies to the Queen Mary

Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug don’t sound good on paper. Both sing with hoarse, warbly voices, gargling most of their cryptic words atop their blend of noisy, mathy prog-pop. But somehow, the result of these chaotic, off-kilter ingredients makes for indie pop perfection. Wolf Parade leave nothing to be sorry for with their Apologies, but create a unique record that’s as danceable as it is philosophical. -Drew Litowitz

57. Spoon – Kill the Moonlight

The most popular track on Kill the Moonlight, “The Way We Get By”, was featured on pretty much every major TV show of the early 2000′s, propelling the band to a brief stint with popularity. The rest of the album, though, is dense with Spoon’s signature sound; “All the Pretty Girls Go to the City” and “Something to Look Forward to” exemplify Spoon’s to-the-point, snappy nature. -Shayna Hodkin

56. Tool – Lateralus

“Schism” holds a Ridiculously Awesome credit; “The Grudge” is arguably Tool’s finest musical arrangement; Lateralus represents amath-master progressive metal, a puzzle box with artful sonic staying power and death marches aplenty. To not give this magnum opus a full listen from beginning to end defies all logic, and your very sanity shall indeed “spiral out”. -David Buchanan

55. Postal Service – Give Up

Sometimes… when an electronic musician of the more experimental kind and an indie rock musician of the more poppy kind meets, sweet music appears seemingly out of nowhere. Sub Pop probably didn’t expect that this underground pop record would blow up this big, but frankly it couldn’t make any more sense. -Jesper Persson

54. Green Day – American Idiot

The group’s most rewarding effort — commercially and critically — since their 1994 mainstream debut, Dookie. From epic trials of musicianship (“Jesus of Suburbia”) to witty and concise pop (“Holiday”), American Idiot demanded the group’s fanbase return and with their jaws dragging on the floor. -Michael Roffman

53. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists – Tyranny of Distance

“Timorous Me”, “St. John the Divine”, and “The Gold Finch and the Red Oak Tree” make Tyranny of Distance one of Ted Leo/Pharmacist’s most notable releases. Focusing less on politics and more on musicianship, the album clocks in at 49 minutes with twelve upbeat, danceable tracks that have, since the album’s release, carried the band’s live show with their energy and positivity. -Shayna Hodkin

52. The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

The greatest album about a Japanese girl fighting pink robots ever! It’s also one of the band’s finest, with the mysteries of “Fight Test”, that bassline in “In the Morning of the Magicians”, and the official rock song of Oklahoma, “Do You Realize??”. -Justin Gerber

51. Tom Waits – Blood Money

Tom Waits has always been a notorious eccentric with a love for the skeezy and downtrodden side of life, but give him the revolutionary 19^th century German working class tragedy, Woyzeck, to base a body of work on, and you summon a demon of decay and human suffering. Eerie sea shanties and circus dirges meld with melancholy jazz and maddening laughter- if a dockside hangover was a beautiful thing, this would be it. -Cap Blackard

50. The Decemberists – The Crane Wife

Progressive rock has taken a back-seat for the past three decades, but no longer. With The Crane Wife, The Decemberists, embrace full on the tradition of musical storytelling and return modern rock to the timelessness of bygone days fused with the present tense. The album features a diverse collection of single songs interspliced with an interpretation of the Japanese folk tale of The Crane Wife. Top that off with a 12 minute epic based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest and you’ve got prog-rock magic not seen since times long past. -Cap Blackard

49. Nine Inch Nails – Year Zero

On his fifth studio album, Trent Reznor moves Nine Inch Nails from the personal to the political. A concept album set in a dystopian America in 2022; Reznor offers one of the best musical critiques of the politics of the Bush administration. The frantic, slippery bass of “Survivalism”, the destructive, mechanical sound of “My Violent Heart”, and the stuttering instrumentation of “Zero-Sum” create an environment of paranoia that leaves a bigger impact on the audience than any of his efforts since The Downward Spiral. -Joe Marvilli

48. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago

It’s unbearably cold outside as you walk home from an intensely traumatizing breakup. Snow floats around you, coating the rock hard soil beneath your stiff legs. As you walk, your shaky breath dances around your head in warm vapor. In many ways, Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever ago is the sound that mist would make if it only could. It expresses everything you feel in that exhalation, but can’t put to words. It’s a record that acknowledges the downright miserable circumstances of the situation, but also recognizes that there’s some beauty to be found in the moment. As Justin Vernon belts out line after cryptic line, through layer upon layer of soulful, gut wrenching falsetto, you feel his pain like it were your own. It floats around your ears in tear-jerking bliss. It’s an impeccably crafted bedroom record that, through its honest sound, says everything about the conditions under which it was made. You can’t help but take pleasure in a misery that sounds this perfect. -Drew Litowitz

47. Beck – Guero

Beck returned in 2005 with a throwback to the days of Odelay. Much more than a rehash, the album is the highest charting that he’s ever released. From the infectious funk guitar riff of “E-Pro” to the acoustically flavored “Girl”, it’s easy to see why. While not as radical as some of his other work, Guero proves to be one of the most eclectic albums in his catalogue. -Joe Marvilli

46. The Mars Volta – Deloused in the Comatorium

The musical genius of the Mars Volta is an unfettered mastodon force that redefines progressive rock with piles of climbing virtuoso riffs, tastefully manipulated Latin undertones, and unimaginable stories. It’s safe to say this album was the first of its kind, spawning a new style of experimental, jazz, or psychedelic rock music that would inspire hordes musicians in the following years. Begetting one of the best guitar songs of all time (“Drunkship of Lanterns”, via Rolling Stone), and introducing the world to behemoths like “Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of)” and “Cicatriz ESP”, De-Loused… was a milestone in the evolution of music into this 21st century, and boy, are we glad we reached it. -Maria Murriel

45. The Arcade Fire – Neon Bible

After Arcade Fire closed the casket on conflicted nostalgia, they were ready to tackle some more heated issues. With Neon Bible, a new, more mature, more ruthless Arcade Fire introduced itself to the world. Using church motifs, Arcade Fire viewed mankind’s most controversial piece of literature as a neon sign; an advertisement for a commodity that they believed the world could really do without. Regardless of your values, there’s no denying that the Arcade Fire got at least a few things right with their sophomore effort. -Drew Litowitz

44. Girl Talk – Feed the Animals

It would have been easy to write off mashup DJ Girl Talk (Gregg Gillis) after 2006′s breakthorugh Night Ripper as a catchy, one-off festival of choice slices from pop, rock, rap and beyond’s biggest hitmakers.  But with 2008′s Feed the Animals, Gillis brought the hypersonic mad-dash of sounds to a more streamlined setting, mixing intricate background beats and the slickest lines and hooks together in something that was as much his own as bits of pieces of other musical hotness. From bridging Elvis Costello into Shawty Lo in “Here’s the Thing” to burners like “Shut The Club Down” and the truly diverse, even by his own standards, track “Give Me a Beat”,  Girl Talk proved music had forever changed with the emergence of file sharing and a more global larger culture. It also showed us that the sum is definitely better than its parts, regardless of how good those are. -Chris Coplan

43. Radiohead – Amnesiac

Let’s say up front what this album is not: a collection of Kid A b-sides. Equal parts follow-up and companion to Radiohead’s seminal 2000 LP, Amnesiac was immediately viewed as b-sides and leftovers, but it ended up being an album just as challenging and cohesive as any other Radiohead release before or since. The New Orleans jazz of “Life in a Glasshouse” will crush your spirit, while the schizophrenic “Pull/Pulk Revolving Doors” taps into the paranoia surrounding the new millennium’s digital age. -Anthony Balderrama

42. The Knife – Silent Shout

Following the success of “Heartbeats”, a bittersweet pop number that became an instant classic, you wouldn’t have blamed Swedish brother-sister duo The Knife for trying to repeat the formula. Instead they released Silent Shout, an icy electro-pop album so steeped in drum loops and androgynous voice manipulation-not to mention musings on gender roles and sexual identity-that you feel as if you’re listening to the coolest psychology thesis ever. The title track and manic dance number “We Share Our Mother’s Health” are as cryptic as they are catchy no matter how many times you listen to them. -Anthony Balderrama

41. Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP

Before Eminem had to put Mariah Carey in her place and before 8 Mile, there was The Marshall Mathers LP you nervously and quite gleefully bumped in your car in the summer of 2000. While The Slim Shady LP made you think Em was a jokester, this album here took the knife attacks and drug use to a much darker and more sinister level. A level, by the way, you hated yourself for loving. But visceral reactions aside, this album earned legendary status for its raw, in your face attitude, slick beats, and even deadlier wordplay. To this day, nothing beats awkward head bopping to “Kim” or “The Way I Am”. -Chris Coplan

#40-21

TAGGED AS: Arcade Fire, Beastie Boys, Beck, Bon Iver, Eminem, Girl Talk, Green Day, Mark Mulcahy, Nine Inch Nails, Postal Service, Radiohead, Spoon, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, The Decemberists, The Flaming Lips, The Knife, The Mars Volta, Tom Waits, Tool, Wolf Parade