Previous Entries:
Albums 50-41
Albums 40-31
Albums 30-21
Albums 20-11
Albums 10-6
Author's Note: "Is a pop album born or made?"
5 -- CONFESSIONS ON A DANCE FLOOR, Madonna (2005)
Given the name of the album upon its release, most people were expecting a superficial pop/dance collection of radio-friendly songs from Madonna, but what came out of Confessions is one of the highest quality pop albums of all time. Already seven years old, the modern-ness of Confessions still has a more progressive and futuristic sound than most pop releases that followed it. This is an album that does a remarkable job of crossing over FROM pop to other genres, specifically electro-house and trance. Most mainstream albums cross over from neighboring genres, but Confessions is revolutionary in its ability to provide legitimacy to the dance-pop field, which had otherwise never been given much credence or even respect by music enthusiasts. The master-class production on Confessions is one thing, but more spectacular is its enigmatic nature. There’s an obscene amount of eclectics and allusions throughout, and it’s obvious that the project rose out of the mind of someone with a great deal of references. Madonna wasn’t new to avant-garde pop at the time, but even for someone as unexpected as her, nobody expected Confessions to be as transcendent and unique a record as it became. It invoked inspirations from all kinds of genres, from calypso to mid-east seductive chords, and fused them with our modern understanding of pop. Confessions on a Dance Floor stands today as one of just a few privileged albums that perfectly define the word “perfect.” This album, coupled with another incredibly unique offering from Madonna, established the musician as someone who can garner the respect of her musical peers without losing focus of the fundamentals of pop music.
Brightest moments: Hung Up, Future Lovers, Isaac
4 -- BACK TO BLACK, Amy Winehouse (2006)
An album that stood so poetically with the public destruction of its artist, Back to Black is an album that was spicy and bold at its release but harrowing and piteous in hindsight. Its placement on this list is of course due to its overwhelming quality and incredibly vibrant tracks, but what pushes it so high in the list is the commentary on how music can teach us so much about the people that make it. The material on Back to Black reek of hidden despair, being misunderstood, even being delusional about love and oneself. Furthermore, its vernacular is so focused on being raw and even crass instead of intellectual, but its ability to paint a picture so vividly makes it especially intelligent. The irony of its content seems to be that Winehouse is very much self-aware in her own despair and overwhelming number of flaws, but even so, it teaches us that even the most vibrant minds can be fragile and easily defeated by a series of unfortunate decisions. Its commentary on the artist (and the pain and delusion that’s somehow necessary in creating art of this caliber) is so immensely powerful and heart-rending, and her hauntingly raw and beautiful vocals are nothing short of breath-taking. The tracks themselves are so soulful and diverse, and even though Winehouse’s tenure in the mainstream was short-lived, her legacy is shown overwhelmingly in the success (and music) of acts like Adele and Bruno Mars. This is the best pop-soul album of the past fifteen years.
Brightest moments: Back To Black, You Know I'm No Good, Me and Mr. Jones
3 -- B’DAY, Beyonce (2006)
Some albums are high-concept, story-driven or thematically deep. Other albums can be politically charged or rich in social and cultural context. Many of those types of albums are listed here and are obvious in their influence on the music industry, pop culture, and perhaps culture in general. But sometimes a pop album is great because it’s just a really fucking great pop album. B’Day isn’t trying to change the world or music. What it brings to the table is an delectable pop offering that’s rich in R&B, motown and hip-hop roots, and its modernness is something that will keep this album completely timeless to listeners and fans. The album that knighted Beyonce as the musical titan she is today, B’Day is fun, goofy, bold, fierce, diverse, mainstream, and just has all the characteristics that today’s Rihannas and Katy Perrys try to emulate with their work. It’s not meant to be a revolution in its content or sound, and that’s perfectly okay. Its pseudo-feminist content set the trajectory for Beyonce in becoming the powerful female figure she is today (even though some choice words in “Upgrade U” sort of turn the clock back on female empowerment by a few decades - a smudge on an otherwise perfect consistency), and it established her as an artist that can be current but also referential and aware of her historicity and place in R&B. At the end of the day, B’Day remains the model for consistent radio-pop quality that very few albums this decade have managed to simulate. A truly fabulous pop event.
Brightest moments: Get Me Bodied (extended mix), Suga Mama, Ring The Alarm
2 -- RAY OF LIGHT, Madonna (1998)
One of the most unexpected musical releases ever, Ray of Light is a shining exemplar of a musician’s maturity and artistic ambition. With a delicate production that sounds almost other-worldly, Madonna presents the most nuanced musical approach of her career, as well as by far her best vocals. It’s probably the biggest pop music anomaly of all time, due mostly to its unexpected ability to inspire a listener on the most deep level. It cements the fact that pop music can carry a value that’s generally attributed to meatier genres, without having to sacrifice the accessibility of its pop roots. Furthermore, every song on Ray of Light is its own little world, and the album constantly shifts in musical styles that somehow gives it more cohesion than most albums that stick to a similar delivery. It takes a great deal of musical charisma and genius to make Ray of Light what it is, and Madonna deserves a great deal of credit for providing the world with an album that’s almost far out of our leagues as pop listeners. If anything however, Madonna deserves the greatest credit for providing the most inspiring and high-quality pop music of the last 15 years (just like she did the decade before it). And between this and Confessions, there’s no doubt that Madonna’s ability to shape-shift and turn pop music on its head over and over again so seamlessly is a talent no other musician in our history has ever come close to matching.
Brightest moments: Frozen, Ray of Light, Sky Fits Heaven
AND PRESENTING THE NUMBER ONE MODERN POP ALBUM...
1 -- BLACKOUT, Britney Spears (2007)
It's quite fitting for a countdown about modern pop to be headlined by its most established mascot. The story of Britney Spears’ slow public destruction is one for the ages, and it was a testament to the harshness of celebrity, especially when paired with the naiveté of the woman who suffered through it. Britney Spears was simply an impressionable girl who was catapulted into obscene superstardom, and whose warped perspective of herself and the world led to a slow descent into madness. It’s a story that you can’t help but feel terrible about, considering that we all played at least some part in her public demise. That feeling is made especially poignant when listening to Blackout for the first time. It’s sort of like the story of Frankenstein. We, the scientist, slowly created this monster that would end up serving itself and the world pretty poorly. Finally witnessing that final product, that monster, with your eyes and ears can be a powerful epitome. With Blackout, listening to her descent in the form of her music is absolutely jarring. There’s a diabolical feeling throughout the album, a sort of “this is what you turned me into,” "is this what you wanted?" mantra that’s oozing with broken and wonky productions and a spookily synthesized vocal. Songs like “Gimme More” perpetuate her (very real) victimization as someone who was beaten down by the world, and “Piece of Me” is a dangerously confrontational track that introduces us to a brand of hostility never before seen from the entertainer. It’s a new sharp edge to a person that was never really considered that edgy before, and that change (elevated by her real-life situation) creates a product that’s as devastatingly tragic as it is absolutely fucking legendary.
The songs themselves are out-of-this-world production-wise, and Britney’s newfound “give no fucks” swagger is incredibly charismatic and even a little bit scary. One can argue (accurately) that the individual songs on Blackout may not be revolutionary or intellectual pieces of poetry, but the power and influence of pop music tells us that that’s not what really makes for good music. What makes a song or album resonate is context, which is what shapes our expectations and draws out our conclusions. By that barometer, Blackout is contextually powerful to any listener who doesn’t live under a rock, and every song is expertly woven to reinforce that feeling over and over again. Blackout is a pop package that has the best production of the last decade, and is contextually iconic in its representation, power, and theme. Going by those and a thousand other criterion, it’s no wonder that Blackout is, as it stands right now, the best modern pop album of our time, and one of the most significant pop moments in history.
Brightest moments: Gimme More, Get Naked (I Got A Plan), Heaven On Earth
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