Craig Manning’s Top 100 Albums of the 2000’s

Super well-written, and I love how much attention Matchbox Twenty/Rob Thomas and Something Corporate/Jack's Mannequin/Andrew McMahon got on this list. Those are by far my favorite 2 song-writers and I feel like they're both hugely under-appreciated in today's music world.

 

Wow @Craig Manning, this is an incredible piece of work. I'm surprised it only took you 6 months to put this all together, having tried to make a similar list a couple times in the past and failing miserably before getting anywhere close to the end.

I always knew we had similar tastes, but I had no idea how similar until I scrolled through this list. We have some of the same obvious bigger favorites on this website (JEW, The Killers, Bon Iver, Jack's, SoCo, Death Cab, etc), but also some similar less-popular ones (The Dangerous Summer, older John Mayer albums, the Once Soundtrack, Keane, the more recent 3EB albums). If I ever do end up completing my own list, it'll look a helluva lot like yours.

I can't wait to dive in and read your stories about some of my favorite albums, and to check out some of the ones here that I've never heard. Congratulations on an impressive piece of work!

 

This is really really cool. I’m only about 1/4th of the way through it but I’ll definitely finish when it’s slow at work tomorrow.

 

Thanks for checking it out! I wasn't sure anyone would read this when I was putting it together, haha. @Jason Tate is right that I'm insane.

Thanks! The key for me turned out to be not trying to do it quickly. Just doing one or two blurbs a night, it became a fun part of the routine instead of a burden. But I know what you mean, because I had a version of this list I tried to do in 2013 and only wrote about half the blurbs. Ended up scrapping almost all of them, because they weren't super well-written and didn't align with the more personal vibe I was going for here.

The coolest thing since I posted this has been hearing with people who share my love for some of the more unheralded bands or albums on this list. There are records here that I've legit thought I was the only person who loved them.

 

I luv u Krrg.

 

Luv u 2 chace

 

Have we ever discussed John Mayer before? I don't think I realized you were such a big fan. I just finally listened to The Search for Everything a month or two ago and I absolutely fell in love with it. I was spurred on to finally give it a spin after "New Light" really started growing on me. I also only ever heard Heavier Things for my first time about a year ago, and it's becoming quite clear that I've been foolishly ignorant of his discography.

 

Holy shit Craig, lol. These are really well written so far (a little over halfway through) and it's making me want to revisit a lot of the albums you listed with your descriptions in mind.

there are also a few I've never even heard of, so those will be fun to check out too

 

I just started reading through it (just checking out a few that catch my attention as I wait for food) but HOLY CRAP his relationship with More than you think you are by Matchbox Twenty is similar to mine. Like it was the exact same album for me and hearing his thoughts echo mine with a fairly obscure album was super cool

 

Hey @Craig Manning I was bored and realized I hadn't heard the majority of these so i made a spotify playlist. Feel free to edit it into your blog post if you want!!

It's missing 4 albums I couldn't find:

Black Lab - See The Sun
Jesse Malin - Glitter In The Gutter
The New Frontiers - Mending
Marvelous 3 - Readysexgo!

 

Great post. Lots of good albums in the mix here. I read a few of the write-ups for some of the albums that resonate the most with me and I really appreciated how well-written and thoughtful your reflection on each album was. Will dig in deeper this weekend and see if I can't go back and discover some albums I overlooked in the aughts.

 

Great post Craig, I know its your personal audiobiography but I am surprised by the lack of some albums. I thought reading this I would see at least an AFI, My Chemical Romance, The Used or Thursday album mentioned. I am shocked that not one Taking Back Sunday album was on this list.

 

Damn. Craig is goals. I also wish I had half the amount of memory power to remember things like him.

 

You know, I don't think we have talked about Mayer. Maybe because his last two are my least favorites of his? That said, I really like all his stuff, and thought he was especially on fire from 2001 through 2012. The Search for Everything grew on me a lot once I re-sequenced it, and I've been super into "New Light" as one of my summer playlist songs. You've heard Continuum, right?

Thanks for reading! Let me know if you find anything new that you dig. I feel like I don't really have a concept for how well known some of these are, haha

One of my favorite things about people reading and commenting on this so far has been people saying they had eerily similar experiences with certain albums. Pretty cool how that happens.

Thanks for making this! When I saw your tweet, I started trying to figure out what the four would be. I'm surprised the Jesse Malin and Marvelous 3 albums aren't there. The other two are less surprising. Though I guess Marvelous 3 was released amidst some pretty serious label strife, so maybe that's the reason there.

Awesome, thanks for checking it out!

"Audiobiography," I love that!

Of those artists, I can tell you that The Black Parade wouldn't have been that far off. The others I never really got into. I'm not sure I've listened to a full AFI or Used record. TBS, I've tried a lot of times and they've just never clicked beyond a few songs.

Ha, to be honest, I think the reason I remember things the way I do is because of the music. I remember a lot of the more mundane stories and details because of the records I was listening to when they happened.

 

Wow, this is super gratifying to see people responding to this so positively. I honestly didn't know if anyone would read this, because it's such a long post and I know we all have different favorite records. But it's been pretty rewarding to see the response so far, especially after so long working on it. So thanks to everyone who is reading some of the blurbs or making playlists and checking out some of the albums on Spotify. That's really awesome and I'm pretty humbled by it.

 

Awesome work, Craig!

 

this was really impressive. Lots of good stuff too that I’m gonna have to check out. Glad to see Illuminate on the list, even if it apparently almost killed you haha

 

Theres a reason why your opinion is well respected Craig!

 

Haha, it could be argued that it kept me alive! I think I would have gone into pure road rage if that album hadn't been playing.

 

Man, I miss The New Frontiers. Mending is an amazing album. I loved seeing that on this list.

 

Going through the list more and reading your experiences has made me not only revisit some albums on this list, but ones that were important to me that I haven't listened to as much lately. Music has helped shape my life in so many ways and sometimes I forget that. Thanks for making me really think about it that way again.

 

That's insane, Craig you're awesome! ;D I also have my music traditions and songs played for certain occasions, sharing a lot of those albums on my all time fav list, I guess! Funny, but I actually cried just seeing some of those covers, and reading some of the lines! "North" is possibly the most important record in my life.

 

I just skimmed this and look forward to taking a deeper dive, but this has some albums that I had forgotten about which were quite instrumental to my music listening during this period. Just looking at some of the album covers was a punch in the feels.