The Old Grey Cat’s Top 25 of the First 25 (Years, That Is, of the New Millennium)

When does a decade begin? When does it end? Western scholars lean on Western logic by pointing out that the Anno Domino (A.D.) era starts with the loneliest number, 1. There is no Year Zero, just Before Christ (B.C.) and after. As a result, they posit that decades start on the one. The 1960s, for example, officially began on Jan. 1, 1961 and ended on Dec. 31, 1970. The same 1-to-10 logic applies to centuries and millenniums; experts say that the 21st century and current millennium clocked in on Jan. 1, 2001. The popular mindset, on the other hand, leans close to the construct of the Hindu and Buddhist calendars, which—as with age—do feature a Year Zero (elapsed). As many of us alive back then can attest, for instance, the flip from 1999 to 2000 featured millennium-themed everything. It didn’t matter what the stuffed shirts said—we wanted to party!

Then there’s the matter of social paradigms. Returning to the 1960s: Many historians cite JFK’s assassination in ’63 as the kickstart to the decade and point to Nixon’s resignation in ’74 as their thematic end (though, to be fair, more than a few cite the breakup of the Beatles in ’70, too). The bellbottom days of the 1970s, meanwhile, didn’t sway into focus until ’75, when disco hustled up the charts, and faded into radio static with the launch of MTV on August 1, 1981. To jump forward 20 years, many of those same experts say that the Aughts—and New Millennium, for that matter—started on the tragic day of September 11, 2001.

I turned 36 that year. I was, as now, music-obsessed; one end of our living room was overrun by CDs, as we’d outgrown our racks. I’m talking stacks upon stacks upon stacks upon more stacks, with more stacks of CDs throughout my home office, which was a second bedroom about the size of a walk-in closet. The original Old Grey Cat website was my primary outlet for my musings, which were mostly focused on Neil Young’s unofficial oeuvre (i.e., bootlegs). The “All the Mews That’s Fit to Print” GIF and JPEGs that I sometimes use to color my posts date to about then; I created the original from royalty-free clip art in Paint Shop Pro and later used Bryce3D to place it into cool-looking (to me, at least) scenes.

I have never stopped listening to new music in the years since, though I have leaned—and still lean—on old favorites. There’s catharsis to be found in them. Jackson Browne’s Late for the Sky still takes me places, for example, as does many Paul McCartney and Neil Young albums. The same’s true, however, of the albums below; I turn to each and every one of them on a regular basis. They may not be “the best,” per se, but they are “the best” for me.

Unlike my Albums of the Decade (2010s) list, where I ranked my picks, I’m listing these in chronological order. Where possible, I’ve linked to something I’ve written about them…

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