Last Updated on March 15, 2026 by Black Sunshine Media
It’s been a 10-year slog through the list of 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (edited by Robert Dimery), and I’m just now getting around to 1999–2000. The total album count is 1,083 albums, for those of you keeping track at home.
The list of must-hear albums gets exceedingly thin around the turn of the century.
My Beef With Modern Music
I’ve written several explainers—one here, another here—that shine light on my distaste for modern music (rock music, in particular), but the nutshell is simple: The advent and proliferation of digital technology put incredibly powerful tools in the hands of cavemen, women, and children. Modern music is mostly what I call “button-pushing.”
Be certain that I’m going to shit on many records you probably hold near and dear, and it’s nothing personal. Feel free to call me an idiot or whatever in the comments, as others have done previously. I kinda asked for it, you know?
During the late 1990s, I was a practicing indie rock musician and sometime, erstwhile indie rock music journalist, so I was exposed to plenty of music. At home, I listened to mostly art rock, experimental metal, Norwegian black metal, power pop, post-punk, prog rock, and the occasional psychedelic rock album.
1999–2000: By the Numbers
Here’s a breakdown of my exposure to the albums from the period.
| Never heard of the album or artist: | 9 |
| Heard of but never listened to the album or artist: | 13 |
| Heard a song or two from the album: | 23 |
| Listened to the whole album: | 4 |
| Borrowed a copy: | 0 |
| Own a copy: | 0 |
Something Different: A New Rating Scheme
In past essays, I relied on an ephemeral color coding and font style theme to delineate the albums between must-hear and not. Moving forward, I’ll be using a star rating and a Yes/No/Maybe scheme.
The Old System
The New System
Albums You Must Hear Before You Die…Or Not: 1999
Editor’s note: The albums are not listed in any particular order. The sequence has been designed for easy reading.
Khaled – Kenza (1999)
| Must-hear status: | Maybe |
| Overall rating: | ★★★☆☆ |
Khaled (Arabic: خالد) aka Cheb Khaled (شاب خالد) is an Algerian raï singer, musician and songwriter, and one of the most important Arab musicians, best-known African singer, and best-selling Arabic-language artist with over 80.5 million albums worldwide.
I don’t know much about Khaled or raï music, but I know enough that his second album, Khaled (1992), contains “Didi”, his signature cut and the “Right Here, Right Now” of Arabic pop music.
His fourth studio album, Kenza (co-produced by prog rock legend Steve Hillage), features an electronic worldbeat blend of funk, pop, and reggae with generic Arabian harmony. It’s got a “desert muzak” feel, like ambient music in a Turkish restaurant.
XTC – Apple Venus Volume 1 (1999)
| Must-hear status: | Maybe |
| Overall rating: | ★★★☆☆½ |
Apple Venus Volume 1 is XTC’s 13th studio album and the last with founding guitarist Dave Gregory. It’s also the first release on the band’s own Idea Records label, after freeing themselves from a bad contract with Virgin Records.
AVV1 leans heavily on the orchestral and psychedelic pop approach of the group’s previous LP Nonsuch (1992), a critical and commercial success—that didn’t make the 1001 Albums list, go figure. Led by Andy Partridge, Apple Venus was supposed to be a double album, but the band blew its recording budget on a single Abbey Road session with a 40-piece orchestra. The group decided release one album with the orchestral material (“volume 1”) and leave the rock songs for “volume 2” (released in 2000 as Wasp Star).
The making of Volume 1 was plagued by personal conflicts, financial stress, and numerous redirections. Most of the orchestral portions were edited over several months. Partridge no longer viewed XTC as a band, but a “brand” covering his and Colin Moulding’s music.
Do I think it’s an album you must hear before you die? That depends on how much XTC you have in your background. If you’ve never heard them, Apple Venus might not be the best introduction.
Incubus – Make Yourself (1999)
| Must-hear status: | No |
| Overall rating: | ☆☆☆☆☆ |
Pure, unadulterated garbage. With a turntable. Easily one of the worst 100 rock bands to release an album on a major label. They make 311 sound like the Mahavishnu Orchestra.
Make Yourself was co-produced by Scott Litt, the guy (partly) responsible for giving us “Shiny Happy People”.
Suggested Alternative: The Olivia Tremor Control – Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One (1999)
One of the defining neo-psychedelic albums of the era. Light years better than Incubus.
Skunk Anansie – Post Orgasmic Chill (1999)
| Must-hear status: | Kinda no |
| Overall rating: | ★★★☆☆ |
If you put all the prevalent genres of the era in a blender—heavy metal, riot grrrl, dub, reggae, electronica, hip-hop, alternative rock, alternative metal, hard rock, post-grunge, grunge, and nu metal—you’d come out with a slurry of something close to this stuff. I dunno, man. I’m glad I never heard of them until recently.
The Magnetic Fields – 69 Love Songs (1999)
| Must-hear status: | Some of it |
| Overall rating: | ★★★★☆ |
On one hand, it’s an amazing mix of well-written indie pop filtered through country, folk, jazz, psychedelic rock, and synthpop. If it were recorded 25 years earlier, we’d be calling it art rock. On the other hand, with a three-hour running time, it’s not an album you can take in one sitting. With three sets of 23 songs, I mean, you could make an evening of each volume.
The song titles alone make it worth a quick look-see or a scan (ex. “How Fucking Romantic” and “The Cactus Where Your Heart Should Be”). I’m partial to the songs sung by LD Beghtol, Claudia Gonson, Dudley Klute, and Shirley Simms.
Travis – The Man Who (1999)
| Must-hear status: | Flip a coin—heads: yes; tails: no |
| Overall rating: | ★★☆☆☆ |
…sounds like Coldplay?
Robbie Williams – The Ego Has Landed (1999)
| Must-hear status: | Nah |
| Overall rating: | ★★★☆☆ |
A compilation album of songs from Williams’ first two albums, Life thru a Lens (1997) and I’ve Been Expecting You (1998), geared toward North American listeners. Ten tracks of glossy alternative dance rock and orchestral pop. Went Gold in the U.S. (500,000 copies), but 9X Platinum in New Zealand (135,000 copies)! The lead single “Millenium” stalled out at #53 on the Billboard Hot 100 because the market was flooded with disposable pop music. Good on Williams for shedding the boy band skin.
Slipknot – Slipknot (1999)
| Must-hear status: | Yes |
| Overall rating: | ★★★★☆ |
The first wave of alternative metal (1987–1996) originated with bands like Fishbone and Bad Brains, who mixed metal with funk rock (aka funk metal). The genre evolved to include Faith No More, Soundgarden, Primus, Helmet, and dozens of bands that allowed the metal audience to embrace new variations on the heavy metal spectrum.
In the late 1990s, the second, more aggressive wave of alternative metal emerged, with more emphasis on groove and thrash metal, hardcore punk, hip-hop, and industrial influences. This branded “nu metal” almost immediately went mainstream, with bands such as Korn, Limp Bizkit, Deftones, et. al., many of whom worked with producer Ross Robinson.
You should hear the opening track of this Slipknot record, “(sic)”, and whatever happens after that is none of my business.
Beth Orton – Central Reservation (1999)
| Must-hear status: | Not likely |
| Overall rating: | ★★☆☆☆ |
Man, whatever happened to Beth Orton? She was the bee’s knees, the darling of cosmetic alternative pop, for a brief window in the late ’90s. I believed they called this music “folktronica” but I think she sounds like Sheryl Crow minus the fun personality. The songs present nice enough, but it meanders. Even the standout track, “Stolen Car”, ironically, doesn’t go anywhere. I kept waiting for something to happen, and it didn’t.
Nitin Sawhney – Beyond Skin (1999)
| Must-hear status: | No |
| Overall rating: | ★★★☆☆ |
Never heard of this person in 1999, and that wouldn’t have changed unless I started doing these reviews again. Now and again, the 1001 Albums editorial team picks some obscure record, and I take it as a sign of disrespect, like using vocabulary I don’t understand.
Death in Vegas – The Contino Sessions (1999)
| Must-hear status: | No |
| Overall rating: | ★★☆☆☆ |
A mix of electronica, neo-psychedelia, hard rock, and shoegaze with guest stars including Dot Allison, Bobby Gillespie, Iggy Pop, and Jim Reid. “Dirge” was featured in a Levi’s jeans commercial, which should tell you everything you need to know about Death in Vegas.
Moby – Play (1999)
| Must-hear status: | No |
| Overall rating: | What’s half of zero? |
To quote Eminem, “Nobody listens to techno.” Count me among those who wouldn’t listen to this bullshit for anything under $100 per track. I don’t need money that badly.
The Flaming Lips – The Soft Bulletin (1999)
| Must-hear status: | Yes |
| Overall rating: | ★★★★★ |
One of the best alternative rock albums of the late 1990s. Wayne Coyne & Co. found a seamless blend of electronic and psychedelic pop rock that still sounds great today.
Les Rythmes Digitales – Darkdancer (1999)
| Must-hear status: | No |
| Overall rating: | ☆☆☆☆☆ |
More techno by a British DJ.
Suggested Alternative: Ghost – Snuffbox Immanence (1999)
Not to be confused with the Swedish arena rock band of the same name, this Japanese experimental rock group released the most interesting baroque pop album of the decade on Drag City Records.
Le Tigre – Le Tigre (1999)
| Must-hear status: | Yes, all day |
| Overall rating: | ★★★★☆½ |
A sassy mix of 1960s pop, punk rock, lo-fi, and new wave with feminist political lyrics. Le Tigre’s debut studio album gives me hardcore B-52s vibes, and that’s a great thing because I love The B-52s (1979).
Eminem – The Slim Shady LP (1999)
| Must-hear status: | Yes |
| Overall rating: | ★★★★☆½ |
It wasn’t the final nail in the alternative rock coffin, but it closed the lid.
Metallica – S&M (1999)
| Must-hear status: | No |
| Overall rating: | ★★☆☆☆ |
How bad was the state of rock music in 1999? It was so bad that a third-rate thrash metal band’s collaboration with a symphony orchestra makes the list of albums you must hear before you die. This is a record I might listen to after I’m dead, and it leaves no room for argument with the assertion that Metallica sucks my balls, your balls, and all the balls in the world. I’m ashamed for liking Master of Puppets (1986) when it came out. I was young and foolish.
Suggested Alternative: Backstreet Boys – Millenium (1999)
I want it that way.
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – I See a Darkness (1999)
| Must-hear status: | Yes |
| Overall rating: | ★★★☆☆ |
Ooh boy, I sincerely didn’t like this indie folk music when it came out, and I genuinely don’t like it now. However, you should probably hear what the hype was about. “Death to Everyone” is a great song title.
Shack – H.M.S. Fable (1999)
| Must-hear status: | Nah, mate |
| Overall rating: | ★★★☆☆ |
The British versions of R.E.M. are interesting because they always sound better than Oasis, but wind up closer to the Americana of John Prine and John Cougar than anybody in America.
Basement Jaxx – Remedy (1999)
| Must-hear status: | Nope |
| Overall rating: | ★☆☆☆☆½ |
You can take this worthless house music outside and shoot it in the head for all I care. Fuck everything about this garbage.
Suba – São Paulo Confessions (1999)
| Must-hear status: | Not really |
| Overall rating: | ★★☆☆☆½ |
Mitar “Suba” Subotić was a Serbian-born musician and composer, and one of Brazil’s up-and-coming producers when he died in November 1999. A pioneer of electronic music in former Yugoslavia, his fusion of EDM and Yugoslav folk lullabies earned him a three-month UNESCO scholarship to research Afro-Brazilian rhythms in Brazil. He emigrated to São Paulo in the 1990s, where recorded his famous album São Paulo Confessions, a glossy collection of electronic, Latin, acid jazz, and downtempo.
Suba was working on the post-production of Bebel Gilberto’s Tanto Tempo when his studio caught fire. He died trying to rescue her newly recorded material, which went on to become the biggest selling Brazilian album outside Brazil.
It’s a tragic story but I still hate this upscale al fresco dining music.
Britney Spears – …Baby One More Time (1999)
| Must-hear status: | Yes |
| Overall rating: | ★★★☆☆ |
Henry Miller Sextet‘s first long-term practice space was a block away from AsiaSF, a pioneering San Francisco transgender resto-bar-cabaret on 9th Street in SoMa. The venue featured a “catwalk” bar where servers performed choreographed lip-sync routines. One night after practice, Matt Tucker and I decided to drop by for a drink.
We walked into this joint, a couple of dopes, and Britney Spears’ “…Baby, One More Time” exploded from the speakers, cueing the strobe lights. The hottest fucking transgendered person I have ever seen in my life appeared on the catwalk in a pink miniskirt and go-go boots, making eye contact. She put on a show, man. Matt and I stood frog-eyed. My hands were shaking. The ‘girl’ finished her set and climbed down from the bar, and we were finally able to order a couple of drinks.
That’s the kind of shit you don’t see when you practice at home and don’t get out very much.
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication (1999)
| Must-hear status: | No |
| Overall rating: | n/a |
This band can fuck all the way off.
Suggested Alternative: Mr. Bungle – California (1999)
One of the best alternative albums ever made. And “Retrovertigo” is one of the best songs ever. Mike Patton is a genius.
Sigur Rós – Ágætis byrjun (1999)
| Must-hear status: | Kinda |
| Overall rating: | ★★★☆☆ |
Led by Icelandic guitarist and vocalist Jón Þór “Jónsi” Birgisson, Sigur Rós pioneered a new genre post-rock psychedelic dream pop. Think: Spiritualized and My Bloody Valentine at half-speed. Jonsi was somewhat famous for playing guitar with a cello bow. Songs emerge from simple motifs, typically building to a controlled frenzy before settling back into a drone reverie.
Suggested Alternative: Potentiam – Bálsýn (1999)
I went through a Norwegian black metal phase in late 1999–early 2000. I was a big fan of Emperor’s Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk (1997). A friend turned me on to Icelandic black metal and burned Bálsýn to CD for me. No song titles or album credits, just “Potentiam Balsyn” in Sharpie on the disc itself. Potentiam’s music is more dynamic and digestible than most Norwegian black metal, which is typically an impenetrable onslaught of incessant grinding. I didn’t learn until much later that Bálsýn was co-produced by Jonsi from Sigur Rós. Small world up there in Iceland, I reckon.
Albums You Must Hear Before You Die…Or Not: 2000
Doves – Lost Souls (2000)
| Must-hear status: | It’s not bad |
| Overall rating: | ★★★☆☆ |
Indierockdreampopneo-psychedeliapost-Britpopshoegazingspacerock.
AIR – The Virgin Suicides (2000)
| Must-hear status: | Not really, but… |
| Overall rating: | ★★★☆☆ |
The score (not the soundtrack) for the 1999 film The Virgin Suicides, directed by Sofia Coppola. It routinely appears on “Best Movie Scores of All Time” lists, covering ambient, electronica, electropop, and a bit of progressive rock, too. I fail to see the point of listening to this as a standalone album, but it’s got a few good tracks. Good enough, I guess. I don’t hate it.
Ryan Adams – Heartbreaker (2000)
| Must-hear status: | If you like this kind of thing |
| Overall rating: | ★★☆☆☆½ |
I often wonder if all Americana is this white and dumb? It’s some of the most Caucasian music I’ve heard this side of Nickleback.
Bebel Gilberto – Tanto Tempo (2000)
| Must-hear status: | No |
| Overall rating: | ★☆☆☆☆ |
I’m sorry about the loss of her friend, Suba, but there has never been and there will never be a bossa nova record you must hear before you die. Again, this is the kind of shit you can hear after you’re dead, with eternity on your hands.
MJ Cole – Sincere (2000)
| Must-hear status: | No |
| Overall rating: | ★☆☆☆☆ |
It’s no coincidence that the album cover of Sincere is MJ Cole’s logo on a haute couture retail shopping bag.
Limp Bizkit – Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water (2000)
| Must-hear status: | Yes |
| Overall rating: | ★★☆☆☆ |
NOT listening to this album is akin to watching a wildlife documentary but turning away when a pack of lions start feasting on a gazelle carcass. No, it’s important to see the ugly truth. It’s important to hear what Limp Bizkit brings to music and culture. And honestly, “Nookie” is one of the funniest jams about sex I’ve ever heard.
Emmylou Harris – Red Dirt Girl (2000)
| Must-hear status: | Yes |
| Overall rating: | ★★★★☆ |
I mean, shit, yeah, you should hear at least one Emmylou Harris album before you die. Might as well be Red Dirt Girl.
Radiohead – Kid A (2000)
| Must-hear status: | Yes |
| Overall rating: | ★★★★☆ |
This is one of four albums from the 1999–2000 period that I’ve heard more than once and/or have listened for pleasure, i.e., not because I have to review it. A post-rock departure from the comparatively “alternative rock sound” of OK Computer (1997), Kid A drew influences from electronic music, krautrock, jazz and 20th-century classical music, with a wider range of instruments and effects. Co-produced by Nigel Godrich, the album contains one of my favorite Radiohead songs, “Everything In Its Right Place”.
Badly Drawn Boy – The Hour of Bewilderbeast (2000)
| Must-hear status: | Probably not |
| Overall rating: | ★★★☆☆ |
Baroque folk-pop from yet another sad, sensitive yet “cool kid” with a guitar. Drawing comparisons to Elliott Smith and Nick Drake, the melancholy occasionally gives way to sentimentality. Lyrics sound like journal entries. The late 1990s and early 2000s were flooded with this dreary shit.
U2 – All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000)
| Must-hear status: | No |
| Overall rating: | ★☆☆☆☆ |
The illusion of autonomy or choice is a cognitive bias where individuals believe they have more control, freedom, and decision-making power than they actually do. It’s a psychological tool often used in marketing, design, and governance to increase engagement or compliance by offering limited, curated options that feel empowering, even when the ultimate outcome is predetermined.
Humans associate having options with competence and freedom, which triggers reward pathways in the brain, increasing satisfaction even if the choices are superficial. It is a strategy to nudge behavior toward a specific, pre-selected result while making the individual feel they chose it themselves.
The Illusion of Choice
Examples of “illusory choice” in daily life:
- Choosing between similar brands owned by the same parent company.
- Voting for different candidates who serve similar interests.
- App interfaces that make users feel in control of their data, while the platform’s constraints dictate their actions.
While the illusion of choice can improve motivation and satisfaction, it can also lead to a false sense of hope, misplaced responsibility for failure, or a narrow range of experience. The concept is sometimes linked to the idea that true freedom comes from recognizing the limitations of the “self” rather than from exercising choices within a controlled system.
Coldplay – Parachutes (2000)
| Must-hear status: | No |
| Overall rating: | ★☆☆☆☆ |
I’m NOT saying “don’t listen to this album” because if I do, you might feel like I’m bossing you around, which is not the case. And you might go ahead and listen to U2 or Coldplay out of spite.
While people often describe this reaction as “anti-authoritarian,” the psychological reality is often more complex, involving a mix of hardwired survival instincts, personality traits, and emotional maturity.
The Science of “Don’t Tell Me What to Do”
Psychologists call this reaction psychological reactance. Reactance is an unpleasant emotional state that occurs when someone perceives a threat to their autonomy or choice—a threat to the illusion of freedom. This often leads to people doing the exact opposite of what they were told, also known as a “boomerang effect” not because they disagree with the instruction, but to prove they still have the power to choose.
Some individuals naturally have a higher “baseline” of this trait, making them more likely to see any advice or request as a personal attack on their independence.
Is it Anti-Authoritarian or Immature?
The answer depends on the motivation and the outcome of the resistance.
| Perspective | Characteristics |
|---|---|
| Anti-Authoritarian | Often involves a principled rejection of power. The person objects to the legitimacy of the authority or the logic of the rule. In films like Pulp Fiction, characters often operate in subcultures where maintaining a “tough” or “independent” image is a survival requirement. |
| Immature/Defiant | Characterized by a knee-jerk reaction where the person acts against their own self-interest just to “win” the interaction. This is similar to “counterwill”—an innate response in children to resist coercion, which adults are expected to outgrow as they develop better emotional regulation. |
Elliott Smith – Figure 8 (2000)
| Must-hear status: | Probably |
| Overall rating: | ★★★☆☆½ |
Smith’s fifth studio album is probably the one I’d listen to if given an ultimatum.
Erykah Badu – Mama’s Gun (2000)
| Must-hear status: | I don’t know |
| Overall rating: | ★★★☆☆½ |
Highly rated neo soul music. “Green Eyes” is about her breakup with Andre 3000 of Outkast. “Bag Lady” has a few unexpected turns. I’m pretty sure that’s Andre 3000s’ kid, Seven Sirius, at the end of the video. Didn’t see that comin’.
Madonna – Music (2000)
| Must-hear status: | No |
| Overall rating: | ☆☆☆☆☆ |
Music? That’s a fuckin’ stretch.
PJ Harvey – Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea (2000)
| Must-hear status: | Yes |
| Overall rating: | ★★★☆☆½ |
Not her best work but still better than 99% of rock music in 2000.
Mike Ladd – Welcome to the Afterfuture (2000)
| Must-hear status: | Probably not |
| Overall rating: | ★★☆☆☆½ |
Whatever happened to this guy?
Lambchop – Nixon (2000)
| Must-hear status: | Yes |
| Overall rating: | ★★★☆☆ |
An interesting mix of alternative country, chamber pop, and soul music that draws obvious comparisons to the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds (1966).
Linkin Park – Hybrid Theory (2000)
| Must-hear status: | Eh… |
| Overall rating: | ★★☆☆☆½ |
If I had any good ideas with commercial potential, I probably wouldn’t be sitting here, writing a pithy review of this ultra-processed cold cut electro-grunge bullshit.
Goldfrapp – Felt Mountain (2000)
| Must-hear status: | No |
| Overall rating: | ★☆☆☆☆½ |
Ethereal wave aka sophisti-pop bullshit.
Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP (2000)
| Must-hear status: | Yes |
| Overall rating: | ★★★★☆½ |
Eminem’s second album was a dagger to the heart of people like me who hoped he was going away (and taking hip-hop music with him).
Red Snapper – Our Aim Is to Satisfy Red Snapper (2000)
| Must-hear status: | No |
| Overall rating: | ★★☆☆☆ |
I thought this was a joke until I saw their Wikipedia page.
As an outspoken critic and hater of electronic dance music (EDM) and its mutant stepcousin intelligent dance music (IDM), there are times when I’m forced to make small capitulations. For example, Red Snapper incorporates acoustic and electric instruments, so I can’t call them button-pushers. There’s quite a bit of button-pushing involved on Our Aim Is to Satisfy; however, its blend of dub and acid jazz is made for lounging, not dancing.
Ute Lemper – Punishing Kiss (2000)
| Must-hear status: | Maybe |
| Overall rating: | ★★★☆☆ |
If you’re into cabaret or avant-baroque pop, or a fan of Scott Walker, Punishing Kiss is right up your alley. Lemper is an award-winning German actress and an equally acclaimed chanson française singer. This album includes songs written specifically for her by Nick Cave, Elvis Costello, Philip Glass, Tom Waits, Scott Walker, and Kurt Weill.
The Avalanches – Since I Left You (2000)
| Must-hear status: | It’s not even music |
| Overall rating: | n/a |
The Avalanches are an Australian button-pusher group, and the leading proponents of plunderphonics. A picture tells a thousand words, indeed.
OutKast – Stankonia (2000)
| Must-hear status: | Yes |
| Overall rating: | ★★★★½ |
Stankonia is considered one of the best progressive rap and hip-hop albums of all time, and it contains Outkast’s first #1 hit, “Ms. Jackson”, which is about Andre 3000s breakup with Erykah Badu.
Common – Like Water for Chocolate (2000)
| Must-hear status: | Yes |
| Overall rating: | ★★★★ |
Common’s major label debut received widespread critical acclaim and significant commercial success.
