2004

• Kanye West – The College Dropout (American hip-hop, debut album)
• Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand (Scottish indie rock/dance rock, debut album)
• Modest Mouse – Good News for People Who like Bad News (American indie rock)
• Arcade Fire – Funeral (Canadian indie rock, debut)
• Green Day – American Idiot (American pop punk rock opera)
• Mastodon – Leviathan (American heavy metal, loose concept album based on Moby Dick)
• Bjork – Medúlla (Icelandic (mostly) acapella experimental pop, featuring appearances by Rahzel, Mike Patton, Robert Wyatt and others)
• They Might Be Giants – The Else (American alternative rock)
• Dillinger Escape Plan – Miss Machine (American math-metal, first album to feature Greg Puciatio on vocals)
• Pig Destroyer – Terrifyer (American grindcore)
• Ratatat – Ratatat (American electronic rock, debut album)
• Nightwish – Once (Finnish symphonic metal)
• The Killers – Hot Fuss (American dance rock, debut)
• Feist – Let It Die (Canadian baroque pop)
• Madvillain – Madvillainy (American hip-hop, collaboration between rapper MF Doom and DJ Madlib)
• Morrissey – You Are the Quarry (British alternative rock by former The Smiths vocalist)
• DragonForce – Sonic Firestorm (British power metal)
• Iron & Wine – Our Endless Numbered Days (American folk-rock)
• Beastie Boys – To The 5 Boroughs (American hip-hop)
• Ministry – Houses Of The Mole’ (American industrial metal)
• Melvins with Lustmord – Pigs Of The Roman Empire (American experimental rock band collaborates with Welsh dark ambient musician)
• Descendents – Cool To Be You (American pop punk/ melodic hardcore)
• Prince – Musicology (American funk rock/r and b)
• Probot  - Probot (Dave Grohl collaborates with various heavy metal and crossover thrash vocalists as well as Jack Black and Kim Thayil)
• Velvet Revolver – Contraband (American hard rock super-group featuring Scott Weiland and members of Guns N Roses, debut)
• Kelly Clarkson – Break Away (American pop-rock)
• Sonic Youth – Sonic Nurse (American indie rock)
• Tom Waits – Real Gone (American experimental rock)
• The Go! Team – Thunder Lightning Strike (British alternative dance, debut)
• The Prodigy – Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned (British techno)
• Isis – Panopticon (American post-metal)
• The Streets – A Grand Don’t Come For Free (British hip-hop concept album)
• TV On The Radio – Desperate Youth Bloodthirsty Babes (American indie rock)
• Hecq – Scatterheart (German electronic music)
• Slipknot – Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses (American nu-metal. Fun fact: Actually their fourth album... But it is their third to feature lead singer Corey Taylor)
• Elliott Smith – From a Basement On The Hill (American singer-songwriter’s last studio album of all new material, completed by producer Rob Schnapf after his death)
• Sunn O))) – White2 (American drone metal)
• Scissor Sisters – Scissor Sisters (American disco/ glam rock)
• Fantomas – Delirum Cordia (American experimental metal)
• Secret Chiefs 3 – Book Of Horizons (American avant-garde rock/metal)
• Killswitch Engage – The End Of Heartache (American metalcore, first album with vocalist Howard Jones (but not that Howard Jones))
• Nellie McKay – Get Away From Me (American jazz-pop)
• Skinny Puppy – The Greater Wrong Of The Right (Canadian industrial)
• Guided By Voices – Half-Smiles Of The Decomposed (American indie rock)
• Amon Amarth – Fate Of The Norns (Swedish melodic death metal)
• Air – Talkie Walkie (French downtempo/electronic music)
• Wilco –  A Ghost is Born (American alternative rock)
• The Cure – The Cure (British alternative rock/gothic rock)
• Of Montreal – Satanic Panic In The Attic (American psychedelic pop)