2.
The Moon And Antartica-Modest Mouse
OK Computer set the bar high for late 90's alternative rock acts, making it both visible to a generation of artists that ambition would be rewarded, and that difficult, challenging music could find a massive mainstream audience. Modest Mouse surely bore both these revelations in mind when making The Moon And Antartica, a record which formed part of the successful mainstreaming of alternative rock in the 00's. In addition to being their breakthrough, it was also their major-label debut.
Whilst most alternative rock acts major label debuts previous to this had a somewhat mixed success rate(for every Sonic Youth, who thrived on Geffen, there was a Husker Du, who imploded), this album's clean production actually enchances the material contained therein, and makes it completely accessible. For a record consisting of existentialist despair, paranoia and experimental arrangements and instrumentation, that's quite a feat. Isaac Brock's contrary and alienated worldview has never cohered as well as it has here, with the group's ambition and desire to expiriment making this a fascinating statement on mortality, existence and identity, which manages to embrace styles as varied as indie rock(3rd Planet), alt-country(Brilliant Diguise) and extended symphonic suites(The Stars Are Projectors). That such an album at no point comes across as self-indulgent or pretentious is as sure a statement as is necessary to it's quality, and it will hold up for as long as people value intelligence and inventiveness in music.