R.E.M – Automatic for the People

After the band’s breakthrough album ‘Out of Time’ launched them straight into the public eye, the band decided to make their next release bigger and better. Their plan to make a heavy rock album didn’t get off the ground, but thankfully instead they created this melancholic masterpiece. It is about as haunting and beautiful as music gets and is one of the greatest albums of the 90s. It’s also thought to be the last album that Kurt Cobain ever listened to.

Radiohead – OK Computer

Even though their previous two releases were hardly what you’d call conventional, OK Computer is when Radiohead really started to experiment. Fiercely political and anti-capitalist, the dark dystopian tone was well received. It has been compared to Sgt. Pepper and Dark Side of the Moon for it’s dense layering and sonic innovation. It’s hailed as one of the greatest, most influential and most important albums ever made.

The White Stripes – Elephant

The White Stripes were the pinnacle of rock music in the noughties. The bare-bones approach, the furious blend of blues and punk, and their striking and mysterious aesthetic all added up to them being one of the last great rock bands and influencing all Garage bands that followed. Elephant is the band at their creative peak, featuring ‘Ball and Biscuit’, ‘The Hardest Button to Button’ and of course ‘Seven Nation Army’.

Red Hot Chilli Peppers – Blood Sugar Sex Magik

This album was the one that both defined RHCP and brought them into the mainstream. It drew together all their now famous traits; the funky bass, the psychedelic guitar, sex, drugs and plenty of tongue in cheek lyrics. The band blossomed into unique and energizing force in music, most notably in the hit singles ‘Under the Bridge’ and ‘Give it Away’.