The Top 10 Albums
Our critic's ranking, best first.
My Beautiful Dark Twisted FantasyMaximalism as a moral argument: every excess on the record is also its subject, and it never once buckles.Read the review
good kid, m.A.A.d cityA short film about a teenager, a van and one very bad night, and the best constructed rap album of its decade.
The Dark Side of the MoonForty three minutes on money, time, madness and death that plays like one continuous piece and never sags.
GraduationHe swapped the soul loops for stadium synths and won the argument about where rap was headed.
BlondeAlmost no drums, almost no structure, and the best written album anyone released in that decade.
The College DropoutSped-up soul, a wired jaw and more jokes than any rap debut needs. The myth starts here and mostly earns it.
PiñataGangster rap over dusty soul loops, and one of the great pairings of a rapper and a producer in any era.
RevolverFourteen songs, no two alike, none of them longer than they need to be. The best thing they ever made.
The DocumentaryMore than half a million copies in its first week and the West Coast back in the national argument.
RumoursFive people falling apart in the same room, making the most listenable album of the decade about it.
