Eighteen albums from 20 years ago that you should not have missed

February

Max Richter - The Blue Notebooks

If there is a composer out there who pushed modern classical music into the realm of popular sounds, it is Max Richter, who by now has an extensive catalog garnished with a series of soundtracks.

This album though stands out as one of his breakthroughs, and presents the music that shows why listeners who usually shun away from classical music have easily embraced it.

March

TV on the Radio - Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes

Appearing out of nowhere with this, the band’s debut album, and fronted by vocalists Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone, this Brooklyn outfit showed all those on the indie scene that you can pick up musical pieces from anywhere you see fit and turn it into something new and fresh.

Twenty years on, it sounds as fresh and new as it did the day it was released.

Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans

Stevens is another artist who simply dropped out of thin air with his unique vocals and complex, detailed songwriting and arrangements.

For some, this subtly quiet album was a bit of a letdown compared to his debut Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lakes State, but it turned out to be an album that kept unfolding all it had to offer the more you listened to it.

Iron & Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days

Sam Beam, the man behind Iron & Wine became one of the artists that seemed to usher in the new era of singer-songwriters, with his music that relied on all old singer-songwriter forms but all meshed up and presented as a truly individual take on such sounds.

At the same time, Beam wasn’t afraid to add subtle, modern touches, that made the music on the album just his own.

Cee-Lo - Cee-Lo Green Is a Soul Machine

Hip-hop artists resorting to good, old-fashioned soul were not exactly a novelty, but Cee-Lo Green took that musical combination on a higher level here. Taking cues from over the soul and R&B spectrum, particularly that refined Philly sound, Green came up with an almost flawless album.