The 25 best debut albums of the 2000s, scored

1

The Strokes — Is This It (2001)

96 · Song 24 · Performance 24 · Production 24 · Consequence 24

Eleven songs, thirty-six minutes, nothing wasted. The writing is the surprise: every track has a melody that would work on an acoustic guitar, which is not true of most records that get called influential. The production is deliberately small, the vocal deliberately distorted, and both choices have aged better than the expensive records around them. Consequence is a 24 because the sound it launched was copied for a decade, and the point comes off because so much of the copying was of the surface.

2

Kanye West — The College Dropout (2004)

95 · Song 23 · Performance 23 · Production 25 · Consequence 24

Judged purely on the beats it is the best-produced debut of the decade, and the sped-up soul sample became a vocabulary the way melisma had a decade earlier. The rapping is the weakest component and it is still a 23, because the persona, a striver who is funny about being one, was new and complete on arrival. Consequence is enormous and specific: a generation of producers who rapped, and rappers who produced, came out of this record.

3

Amy Winehouse — Frank (2003)

94 · Song 24 · Performance 25 · Production 22 · Consequence 23

The second album is the one everyone owns and the first is the one that shows the singer. The jazz phrasing is already complete: behind the beat, conversational, with a lyric that is specific about people and places in a way British pop had stopped attempting. Production is the deduction, a mid-2000s neo-soul sheen that dates it. Performance is a full 25 because the voice on this record is the reason she is sixteenth on the vocalists list.

4

Arctic Monkeys — Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006)

93 · Song 24 · Performance 23 · Production 22 · Consequence 24

The fastest-selling debut in British chart history at the time, and it earned it: the lyrics are reportage, the riffs are hooks, and the record documents a Saturday night in a northern English city more precisely than anything since the Jam. Production is thin by design and scores accordingly. Consequence includes the fact that it arrived through file-sharing before the label had a plan, which changed how every label after it thought about a first album.

5

Norah Jones — Come Away with Me (2002)

92 · Song 22 · Performance 25 · Production 24 · Consequence 21

The quiet record that sold like a loud one. Performance is a 25 for a vocal that never pushes, never decorates and never misses, over piano playing that is better than it needed to be. The production is a lesson in leaving room. Consequence is the lowest score in the top ten because it launched a market, the adult jazz-pop crossover, rather than a style anyone could build on, and the imitators mostly produced furniture music.

6

Arcade Fire — Funeral (2004)

92 · Song 24 · Performance 23 · Production 22 · Consequence 23

A record about grief that sounds like a celebration, made by a band that appeared to have no idea how a rock group was supposed to be sized. The songs are built to be sung by a crowd, which is why they still are. Production is a 22 because the record was made cheaply and the mix knows it. Consequence is the ten years of large, earnest, string-and-accordion indie that followed, most of it worse.

7

Alicia Keys — Songs in A Minor (2001)

91 · Song 22 · Performance 24 · Production 23 · Consequence 22

A classically trained pianist writing R&B records in 2001 was a genuinely odd proposition, and the debut single sounded like nothing else on the radio because it was built on a piano figure rather than a beat. The singing is controlled and warm rather than showy, which was a choice, and it is why she is thirty-first on the vocalists list rather than fifteenth. Consequence is the piano-led R&B ballad becoming a category.

8

Adele — 19 (2008)

90 · Song 22 · Performance 24 · Production 22 · Consequence 22

Judged as a debut and not as the prologue to the biggest-selling records of the following decade, which is harder than it sounds. The voice is already the voice, and the best songs are the plain ones, sung without ornament over a guitar or a piano. Consequence is scored on what this record started rather than on what its successor did, and on that basis it is a 22: the British soul-pop singer-songwriter as a chart proposition, a lane that stayed open for years.

9

Interpol — Turn On the Bright Lights (2002)

90 · Song 22 · Performance 23 · Production 24 · Consequence 21

The most complete sound on a debut this decade: guitars that chime and grind at once, a rhythm section that plays like one instrument, a baritone that never raises its voice. Production is a 24 for a record that sounds exactly as intended and has not dated. Song is a 22 because the melodies are atmospheres more than tunes. Consequence is a 21; the band it most resembled had already been influential for twenty years.

10

Justin Timberlake — Justified (2002)

89 · Song 22 · Performance 22 · Production 25 · Consequence 20

The solo debut that made the boy-band graduate a credible proposition, and it did it on production: the Neptunes and Timbaland at the peak of their powers, building tracks that were rhythmically stranger than anything else at the top of the chart. The singing is light and clever and slightly anonymous, which is the deduction. Consequence is a 20 because the record was a demonstration of its producers more than of its artist.

11

Beyoncé — Dangerously in Love (2003)

89 · Song 22 · Performance 24 · Production 23 · Consequence 20

A solo debut from the lead singer of the biggest girl group of the era, and the first evidence that the solo career would be larger than the group. The singing on the ballads is the best on the record and the reason she is fifteenth on the vocalists list. Consequence is scored as a debut: it established the artist, but the sound that would define her came later.

12

Franz Ferdinand — Franz Ferdinand (2004)

88 · Song 23 · Performance 22 · Production 22 · Consequence 21

Art-school rock you could dance to, with a lead single built on a tempo change that every band in Britain tried to copy within a year. Song is the high score: the record is a set of hooks arranged as songs rather than the reverse. Consequence includes the angular guitar pop that filled British radio through 2006, which is both a credit and a warning.

13

Dizzee Rascal — Boy in da Corner (2003)

88 · Song 21 · Performance 24 · Production 23 · Consequence 20

The first grime album to reach a wide audience, made by a teenager who produced it himself on equipment nobody would call adequate. Performance is the rapping, which is unlike anything American hip-hop was doing: fast, high, cornered. Consequence is scored at 20 because the genre's commercial breakthrough took another decade, though every record in that breakthrough owes this one.

14

The Killers — Hot Fuss (2004)

87 · Song 24 · Performance 21 · Production 22 · Consequence 20

The debut with the most singles anyone still sings, which is a Song score of 24 by definition. The performance is a 21 because the band was still learning to play the songs it had written, and the vocals are enthusiasm before they are technique. It remains the record that taught a generation of American bands that synthesisers and glitter were allowed.

15

Bloc Party — Silent Alarm (2005)

86 · Song 22 · Performance 23 · Production 22 · Consequence 19

Rhythmically the most interesting British guitar debut of its decade: the drummer is the lead instrument and the guitars are arranged around him. The songs are urgent and slightly interchangeable, which is the Song score. Consequence is lower than the record deserves because the band never quite followed it up and the field moved on.

16

Vampire Weekend — Vampire Weekend (2008)

86 · Song 23 · Performance 22 · Production 22 · Consequence 19

Preppy, precise, and much better written than the arguments about it suggested at the time. The melodies are the point; the borrowings from African guitar pop are the decoration. Consequence is a 19: the record was a one-off that other bands admired and could not usefully imitate.

17

M.I.A. — Arular (2005)

85 · Song 20 · Performance 22 · Production 23 · Consequence 20

A record that sounded like the internet before the internet sounded like anything: dancehall, grime, Brazilian funk and cheap electronics cut together by someone with no interest in the categories. Song is the deduction because the hooks are chants. Consequence is the whole global-pop collage that followed, which is more than a 20 suggests and less traceable than the score demands.

18

Kings of Leon — Youth & Young Manhood (2003)

84 · Song 21 · Performance 23 · Production 21 · Consequence 19

Southern rock played by people who had heard the Strokes, which was a better idea than it sounds. The performance is a 23 for a band that could actually play, loudly and in time, which was not universal in 2003. The songs on this record are not the ones that made them famous, and the score reflects the debut rather than the stadium act.

19

Yeah Yeah Yeahs — Fever to Tell (2003)

84 · Song 21 · Performance 24 · Production 20 · Consequence 19

Performance is the score here: a singer who used the voice as a weapon, a guitarist who played two parts at once, and no bass player, which turns out to be a feature. Song is a 21 because the record's one ballad is better than its ten fast songs put together, and everyone knows which one.

20

Lady Gaga — The Fame (2008)

84 · Song 23 · Performance 21 · Production 21 · Consequence 19

Scored as a debut, which is a discipline: this is a well-made dance-pop record with two enormous singles and a persona still under construction. Song is a 23 because the singles are built as well as any of the decade. Consequence is what the record started, and what it started was mostly an appetite; the achievement came on the records after it.

21

Gorillaz — Gorillaz (2001)

83 · Song 21 · Performance 20 · Production 24 · Consequence 18

A cartoon band was a gimmick, and the record underneath it was a genuinely good dub-pop album with one of the decade's best singles. Production is the high score. Performance is low because a record designed to have no visible performer scores as one.

22

Bon Iver — For Emma, Forever Ago (2008)

83 · Song 21 · Performance 23 · Production 21 · Consequence 18

The cabin record, and the origin story is the least interesting thing about it. The falsetto and the layered vocals are the performance, and they are the reason the record works at all, because the songs are fragments. Consequence is a wave of hushed, bearded, multi-tracked melancholy that this record did not ask for.

23

Lily Allen — Alright, Still (2006)

82 · Song 22 · Performance 20 · Production 22 · Consequence 18

Ska-pop with lyrics that were funnier and crueller than the tunes let on, delivered in a speaking voice that made a point of not being a singer's. The writing is the score. Performance is a 20 for the same reason, and the record knew exactly what it was doing.

24

MGMT — Oracular Spectacular (2007)

82 · Song 22 · Performance 20 · Production 22 · Consequence 18

Three singles that soundtracked the late 2000s and an album around them that is stranger and less consistent than the singles suggest. Song is a 22 on the strength of those three. Consequence is the psychedelic synth-pop that spread through festival line-ups for the following five summers.

25

Corinne Bailey Rae — Corinne Bailey Rae (2006)

81 · Song 21 · Performance 23 · Production 20 · Consequence 17

The gentlest record on the list and the one Cove reviewed most warmly at the time, a soul debut sung with a light touch that never asked for attention and got it anyway. Performance is the score. Consequence is the lowest on the list, and it is included because the singing is worth more than the number.