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.
Kimberly Merritt, art director
1) Radiohead OK Computer (Capitol), 1997
2) The National Boxer (Beggars Banquet), 2007
3) The Black Keys Turn Blue (Nonesuch), 2014
4) Spoon They Want My Soul (Loma Vista), 2014
5) Calexico Algiers (Anti-), 2012
6) Guided By Voices Under The Bushes Under The Stars (Matador), 1996
7) Arcade Fire The Suburbs (Merge), 2010
8) The Strokes The New Abnormal (Cult/RCA), 2020
9) Broken Bells Broken Bells (Columbia), 2010
10) Manchester Orchestra A Black Mile To The Surface (Favorite Gentlemen/Loma Vista), 2017
11) Michael Kiwanuka Kiwanuka (Interscope), 2019
12) Frightened Rabbit Painting Of A Panic Attack (Atlantic), 2016
13) The Wrens The Meadowlands (Absolutely Kosher), 2003
14) Interpol Turn On The Bright Lights (Matador), 2002
15) Death Cab For Cutie Codes And Keys (Barsuk/Atlantic), 2011
16) Stars No One Is Lost (Soft Revolution/ATO), 2014
17) Sharon Van Etten Remind Me Tomorrow (Jagjaguwar), 2019
18) The Delgados Hate (Mantra/Beggars Banquet), 2002
19) Queens Of The Stone Age …Like Clockwork (Matador), 2013
20) Against Me! White Crosses (Sire), 2010
21) R.E.M. New Adventures In Hi-Fi (Warner Bros.), 1996
22) The War On Drugs Lost In The Dream (Secretly Canadian), 2014
23) Karen O & Danger Mouse Lux Prima (BMG), 2019
24) …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead Worlds Apart (Interscope), 2005
25) Tame Impala Currents (Interscope), 2015
26) Moby 18 (V2), 2002
27) Beach House Bloom (Sub Pop), 2012
28) The Afghan Whigs Gentlemen (Elektra), 1993
29) Shout Out Louds Ease My Mind (Merge), 2017
30) Strand Of Oaks Heal (Dead Oceans), 2014
