20. Travis Scott
As an artist, Travis has become a creative centre of gravity, filtering the finest contributions out of all collaborators. His ability to synthesise and refract influences and shades of detail have rendered his own albums exponentially superhuman, while his notorious live show, which went digital to wide acclaim during lockdown, further fosters a youthful solidarity and community from the jaws of the lurid debris of capitalism. He is now a fully-fledged crossover star, as evidenced by Rosalía’s current hit “TKN”.
Most recent: “Astroworld” (2018)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight” (2016)
19. Kanye West
Where to start? For seven albums across 15 years, West lived up to his controversial billing as a musical genius, constantly challenging audiences with the most sublime, trend-setting records in pop and hip hop. Few in history can claim to have influenced so many disparate movements and generations with every release. Recent albums, while still confrontational and surprising, suggest his exceptionally high peak is in the rearview, but he continues to shine sparingly as a producer.
Most recent: “Jesus Is King” (2019)
You’ll also need to hear this: “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” (2010)
18. Tool
Los Angeles alternative stalwarts Tool have been a towering act in metal and rock with only four more momentous albums since the 1993 debut “Undertow”. After a 13 year hiatus, 2019’s “Fear Inoculum” may feature the best individual work from all members. Over a decade, my doomed quest to locate the motherlode of Tool’s amplified aesthetic, summoned by guitar pyromancer Adam Jones, has sent me down a who’s-who spiral of seminal alt bands from Melvins to Helmet, Failure to Primus, and back again.
Most recent: “Fear Inoculum” (2019)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Lateralus” (2001)
17. Radiohead
Radiohead would have contended to top this list for a decade or more following the release of the 1997 landscape-altering warhead “OK Computer” through 2007’s gorgeous “In Rainbows”, as they repeatedly released the finest, most fascinating albums in popular music, gateways to the experimental reaches of countless genres for generations of music fanatics. They continue to be compelling, appointment-listening every five years or so; true guardians of the form.
Most recent: “A Moon Shaped Pool” (2016)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Kid A” (2000)
16. Kate Tempest
England’s Poet Laureate-in-waiting already boasts a catalogue of rewarding albums of steadily fizzing musicality and playful, rhythmic wordplay, but to call her such assumes anything other than disdain for establishment. Contrarily, Tempest yearningly rues societal decay at every turn. 2019’s “The Book Of Traps & Lessons” is a masterpiece of engaging musical scores and barely-veiled Brexit metaphors, climaxing in the devastating career-best crossover “People’s Faces”.
Most recent: “The Book Of Traps & Lessons” (2019)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Let Them Eat Chaos” (2016)
15. Lil Uzi Vert
Lil Uzi has risen to the apex of a group of exciting young rap artists blurring the lines between hip hop, pop, rock and emo, partly because most of the others died before reaching 22. That said, his hyperspeed, technicolour “Eternal Atake” and the accompanying “Luv vs. The World 2” tape see him largely abandon some of those previous emotionally fraught leanings for a saucer-eyed freakout of breakneck rapping and accelerationist consumerism. The results are head-spinning.
Most recent: “Eternal Atake” (2020)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Luv Is Rage 2” (2017)
14. Sleaford Mods
The Nottingham duo’s no-holds-barred insights into austerity Britain are the most critical update to punk since it was first scraped off the walls of 70s London. The glorious alchemy of Jason Williamson’s excoriating, oft-hilarious lyricism and Andrew Fearn’s knuckle-dragging bass beats has hit enough chords to entrench the Mods as unlikely repeat occupants of the UK album chart top 10. The pair are indisputably one of music’s most essential, unique contemporary acts.
Most recent: “Eton Alive” (2019)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Divide & Exit” (2014)
13. Everything Everything
Manchester’s pre-eminent prophets of poptimism are quietly building one of the finest canons in contemporary rock-based music while subsuming influence from everything but. Brandishing a baton yielded by Radiohead, the band are fuelled by Jonathan Higgs’ ear for maximalist melodies and eye for a wicked sociocultural take to ram into his regularly madcap lyricism. These dispatches from the new model island are equal parts academia and dystopian entertainment.
Most recent: “A Fever Dream” (2017)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Get To Heaven” (2015)
12. Meshuggah
Hailing from the rich metal heritage of Umeå in the Swedish north, the progressive metal titans may boast the most definitively signature sound in all of music. Nobody but nobody sounds like the palm-muted landslides and polyrhythmic tidal waves of Meshuggah’s monstrous compositional mania. Pioneers of the djent sub-genre, their albums have been untouchable explorations of seriously deep groove and syncopated insanity for decades now.
Most recent: “The Violent Sleep Of Reason” (2016)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Koloss” (2012)
11. Björk
The chameleonic Reykjavik siren songstress is nine albums deep, and her most recent, 2017’s “Utopia”, may be her most blissful yet. Although she never truly missed a step, her recent partnership with electronic trailblazer Arca has, somehow, brought even more illuminating scope, panorama and scale to Björk’s experimentation. Hers is one of the most vibrant, enriching and consistent discographies of any artiste out there.
Most recent: “Utopia” (2017)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Homogenic” (1998)
Roads To The North 