To celebrate our 30th anniversary and all the great music that made the past three decades special, MAGNET contributors past and present chose their 30 favorite albums released between 1993 and 2022. The only rules were that each record has to be a full-length and that no artist could be represented more than once in the same incarnation. We’re posting these lists throughout the rest of the year.
Chris Sikich, contributing photographer
1) R.E.M. New Adventures In Hi-Fi (Warner Bros.), 1996
2) Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (Nonesuch), 2002
3) Hans Zimmer The Thin Red Line (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) RCA Victor, 1999
4) The Decemberists The Hazards Of Love (Capitol), 2009
5) Robyn Hitchcock Jewels For Sophia (Warner Bros.), 1999
6) Moby Everything Is Wrong (Elektra), 1995
7) The Cranberries Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? (Island), 1993
8) Sufjan Stevens Seven Swans (Sounds Familyre), 2004
9) Le Butcherettes Sin Sin Sin (Rodriguez Lopez Productions), 2011
10) PJ Harvey Let England Shake (Vagrant/Island), 2011
11) Ryuichi Sakamoto Little Buddha (Music From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (Milan), 1993
12) Radiohead In Rainbows (XL), 2007
13) Old 97’s Too Far To Care (Elektra), 1997
14) Los Lobos Colossal Head (Warner Bros.), 1996
15) Sleater-Kinney Dig Me Out (Kill Rock Stars), 1997
16) The National Boxer (Beggars Banquet), 2007
17) Tori Amos Boys For Pele (Atlantic), 1996
18) Anaïs Mitchell Young Man In America (Wilderland/Thirty Tigers), 2012
19) Michael Nyman Gattaca (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (Jersey/Virgin), 1997
20) Drive-By Truckers American Band (ATO), 2016
21) Nirvana MTV Unplugged In New York (DGC), 1994
22) Tired Pony The Place We Ran From (Mom + Pop), 2010
23) Okkervil River Black Sheep Boy (Jagjaguwar), 2005
24) Hole Live Through This (DGC), 1994
25) Mary Gauthier Rifles & Rosary Beads (In The Black), 2018
26) Wild Flag Wild Flag (Merge), 2011
27) Our Native Daughters Songs Of Our Native Daughters (Smithsonian Folkways), 2019
28) Irreversible Entanglements Who Sent You? (International Anthem/Don Giovanni), 2020
29) case/lang/veirs case/lang/veirs (Anti-), 2016
30) Screaming Females All At Once (Don Giovanni), 2018
