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) Calexico Algiers (Anti-), 2012
4) Spoon They Want My Soul (Loma Vista), 2014
5) The Black Keys Turn Blue (Nonesuch), 2014
6) Arcade Fire The Suburbs (Merge), 2010
7) Guided By Voices Under The Bushes Under The Stars (Matador), 1996
8) The Strokes The New Abnormal (Cult/RCA), 2020
9) The Wrens The Meadowlands (Absolutely Kosher), 2003
10) Broken Bells After The Disco (Columbia), 2014
11) Death Cab For Cutie Codes And Keys (Barsuk/Atlantic), 2011
12) Frightened Rabbit Painting Of A Panic Attack (Atlantic), 2016
13) Manchester Orchestra A Black Mile To The Surface (Favorite Gentlemen/Loma Vista), 2017
14) Michael Kiwanuka Kiwanuka (Interscope), 2019
15) R.E.M. New Adventures In Hi-Fi (Warner Bros.), 1996
16) Interpol Turn On The Bright Lights (Matador), 2002
17) The Delgados Hate (Mantra/Beggars Banquet), 2002
18) Queens Of The Stone Age …Like Clockwork (Matador), 2013
19) Stars No One Is Lost (Soft Revolution/ATO), 2014
20) The War On Drugs Lost In The Dream (Secretly Canadian), 2014
21) Sharon Van Etten Remind Me Tomorrow (Jagjaguwar), 2019
22) …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead Worlds Apart (Interscope), 2005
23) Karen O & Danger Mouse Lux Prima (BMG), 2019
24) Tame Impala Currents (Interscope), 2015
25) Mogwai As The Love Continues (Rock Action/Temporary Residence), 2021
26) Against Me! White Crosses (Sire), 2010
27) Moby 18 (V2), 2002
28) Strand Of Oaks Heal (Dead Oceans), 2014
29) Beach House Bloom (Sub Pop), 2012
30) The Afghan Whigs Gentlemen (Elektra), 1993
