The New Class of 5-Star AllMusic Albums

The AllMusic 5-star rating is not easy to come by. This best-of-the-best ranking should be seen as being among the best of that genre. This is an album that is one of the top recordings within a genre or is an historically important work. It is an album that every listener interested in the genre and its history should hear. This rating is used very sparingly -- not every artist has a 5-star album.

It's worth noting that sometimes a 5-star album may not be an artist's Album Pick (the flag indicating the best place to start with an artist, or the most representative of that artist's sound), but is more like an award for an album that serves as a landmark within a genre.

From time to time, our editors go over the albums that may have come up in the estimation of the listener, and made a larger impact on the genre than was initially received upon its' debut, and then the albums are re-evaluated with a decent number getting bumped up to the coveted 5-star rating. We asked our writers to pick out some of their favorites from this recent pass, and to tell us a bit about their reasoning.

Hot Fuss - The Killers

No disrespect to the greats that have come before us, but it just seemed right to honor unlikely "modern" classics that are overlooked in favor of the usual critical darlings from decades past, as well as spotlighting artists/genres that are typically dismissed as guilty pleasures or just flat out dismissed.

While it might seem like Y2K was just yesterday, we're now over two decades past the turn of the millennium. That all-time favorite of yours (and mine) from the early 2000s is now being played on oldies stations, those artists have joined legacy tour lineups, and they're likely 7-8 albums into their catalog (at least). So it was about time some 2000s "indie" got the recognition that usually goes to The Strokes, White Stripes, and Interpol. At the top of my list: The Killers' flawless, no-skips Hot Fuss, which was long overdue, as were the full-length debuts from Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Franz Ferdinand, and the Postal Service.

Elsewhere, it was about time we put some respect on classics from certain genres that usually don't get the flowers they deserve. From Warped Tour-adjacent, punk-subgenre icons (AFI, Jimmy Eat World, Avril Lavigne, My Chemical Romance) to (nu-)metal stalwarts (Rage Against the Machine, Korn, Tool, Deftones), these are albums that mean so much to so many, regardless of critical "merit." Indeed, with each passing decade, some of these names are somehow getting bigger, becoming venerated "legacy" (gasp) acts who sell out arenas and stadiums, both on the power of older fan nostalgia and the enduring relevance discovered by younger fans.

On the other end of the spectrum from those aforementioned rock records, some contemporary pop classics certainly deserved some credit for shifting the culture and inspiring the next generation. If you've had a chance to read any of my reviews, you know pop is near and dear to my heart. Especially pop made by women. Icons, divas, cultural giants. These are works that stand out in their respective catalogs, ones that might have been just popular at the time but have gone on to be regarded as landmarks in both the genre and their respective discographies. Alicia Keys, Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Kylie Minogue, Lady Gaga, and Shakira: all classics, all some of the best albums of the 21st century, all deserving the love and recognition that a 5 star reevaluation means.

As we welcome all of these albums into the 5-star club, it's also worth mentioning more "obvious" efforts whose ratings bump was long overdue, so let's raise a glass to Hounds of Love, Boys for Pele, Garbage, Rio, Lemonade, Disintegration, and Daydream as well. - Neil Z. Yeung

Roxy Music - Roxy Music

1972's Roxy Music showed that rock & roll didn't just have to be about anger, rebellion, or hedonism. Au contraire mon amour, it could be about anything, including conjuring one's own dream rock fantasy of golden age Hollywood glamour. With singer and ersatz matinee-idol Bryan Ferry on one side and keyboardist and kohl-eyed studio-mad scientist Brian Eno on the other, Roxy Music's was a dream built on the cheap, out of cut out fan mag collages, weird synthesizers and atonal saxophone squawks. It was wildly post-modern and yet full of hooks, sparked by the same glitter rock alchemy that gave birth to the Rocky Horror Picture Show. While icons like David Bowie would remain the patron saint of pop weirdos, and bands like Velvet Underground and Pink Floyd perhaps had a more robust influence in pushing the sonic boundaries of rock, Roxy Music set the template for how to make your personal passions and small niche fandoms the driving force of your art. - Matt Collar

Souvlaki - Slowdive

Though it was initially panned by critics and not a huge commercial success, Slowdive's second album gradually earned a cult following and is commonly regarded as one of shoegaze's definitive statements. Much of the album was written in reflection of the breakup between bandmembers Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell, and the songs are both blissful and absolutely devastating. "Souvlaki Space Station" delves into the dub and ambient influences which the band would fully explore on their most experimental album, Pygmalion, while "Alison" and "When the Sun Hits" are two of the catchiest and most memorable dream pop songs ever written. - Paul Simpson

Disintegration - The Cure

Could Disintegration be the last great '80s goth album? Perhaps. It's certainly the apotheosis of everything the Cure built during the decade. Released in 1989, it found leader Robert Smith returning to the darkly-lit introspection of the band's early work, yet still marrying crisp pop songcraft with an epic, stadium-sized production that feels like night sky constellations crashing to earth. Each of the album's singles, "Lullaby," "Fascination Street," "Pictures of You," and "Lovesong" (the latter a number two Hot 100 hit) were immaculate classics, helping push the album to number 12 on the Billboard 200. They also ushered the group into the alt-rock '90s, codifying their status as rock icons with established staying power; a reputation that would continue to carry them even as Grunge and electronica usurped the sound of alternative radio over the coming years. While 1986's Kiss Kiss Me Kiss Me was also a stone cold pop classic and latter efforts, including 1992's Wish also contained bright spots, Disintegration remains the group's dark star. - Matt Collar

Cosmogramma - Flying Lotus

Don't get me wrong Los Angeles was a great album, but, perhaps unfairly, I had lumped it in with a bunch of other great post-dubstep records that came out around the same time. Then along came Cosmogramma, serving as a wake-up call that Flying Lotus was entirely its own beast. Equal parts messy, concise, and drenched in weirdness, tracks such as "Zodiac Shit " switching up midway, the moments of serenity on "MmmHmm" and the sheer groove of "Do the Astral Plane" are just a few examples of an artist mastering his own space. The Thom Yorke feature was just the cherry on top. - Liam Martin

Rossz Csillag Alatt Született - Venetian Snares

The biggest crossover success associated with the breakcore scene, Aaron Funk's magnum opus draws from sorrowful classical pieces by composers including Stravinsky, Mahler, Bartók, and Elgar, as well as a sample of Billie Holiday's rendition of the infamous Hungarian suicide song, "Gloomy Sunday." Combined with spoken passages about pigeons and remembering happier times, as well as the producer's usual whiplash breakbeats and obtuse time signatures, the entire work is both beautiful and terrifying, and hits unbelievably hard. - Paul Simpson

Dirt - Alice in Chains

Arriving just as grunge was overtaking the mainstream in 1992, Alice in Chains took their second album Dirt somewhere altogether separate from their Seattle peers. Though lumped in with the post-metal distortion and cynicism of the grunge movement, Dirt is far more personal and grasping, written from pits of addiction with first-hand perspectives from band members dealing with heroin's destructive powers during the making of the album. Far darker and more anti-social than grunge, often heavier than metal, Dirt was a tortured howl when it came out, and remains one of the most lasting records of its kind more than three decades later. - Fred Thomas

Niagra - John Southworth

The impeccably-written Niagara arrived midway through John Southworth's career, effectively elevating his cult status from minor to middle. A Canadian-dwelling Englishman, it was his first release for U.K. label Tin Angel, which crucially helped him find international distribution. More importantly, the double album — generously split like its namesake between a Canadian Side and an American one — was a triumph of style and substance, consolidating Southworth's many assets into a signature style that would characterize his catalog from that point forward. A heady cocktail of folk, jazz, and chamber pop, Niagara may have been too smart and eclectic for the masses, but its songwriting and arrangements are built for the ages. Even more impressive is the consistency of Southworth's catalog since then, culminating in 2025's woefully unsung gem, The Red Castle. - Timothy Monger

El Mal Querer - Rosalía

I used this score bump – my first and only since writing for AllMusic – to focus mainly on giving our Latin and Rap scenes some long-overdue love. Reggaeton got the first spotlight: having worked extensively to cover its dramatic resurgence over the last decade, it was great to finally crown Pa'l Mundo and Barrio Fino as the stone-cold genre classics they are, alongside giving overdue plaudits to landmark releases from Balvin (Vibras) and Benito (Un Verano Sin Tí). Outside of urbano, I pushed score lifts for Rosalía's El Mal Querer and Soda Stereo's Canción Animal, two albums that need no introduction for any lover of forward-thinking Latin music. - David Crone

Lincoln - They Might Be Giants

Even though major-label debut Flood is TMBG's most famous and commercially successful release, their previous album Lincoln was where everything great and unique about the band's sound came together, from the clever wordplay and unexpected lyrical and melodic twists to the offbeat instrumentation and non-rock influences. Singles "Ana Ng" and "They'll Need a Crane" are both hook-filled and affecting, pairing themes of unrequited or dysfunctional relationships with jaunty instrumentation, and short bursts of weirdness like "Shoehorn with Teeth" and "Cage & Aquarium" are far too complex and satirical to be written off as jokey filler. Even the singles' B-sides are every bit as genius as the tracks that made it onto the album. - Paul Simpson

After Laughter - Paramore

Having endured the emo-rock battles of the '00s and found themselves on the brink of calling it quits more than once, Paramore emerged from their Nashville cocoon with 2017's After Laughter, not only their most cogent and stylistically coherent album, but one that found them having transformed into the dominantly influential pop outfit they always hinted at being. If you really loved Paramore and couldn't stop singing their utterly hooky anthems — a run that peaked with 2013's "Ain't it Fun" — then After Laughter was the moment they came fully into themselves as a mature pop entity. Paired down to the core trio of singer Hayley Williams, guitarist Taylor York and returning original drummer Zac Farro, they embraced artful, '80s-inspired post-punk and synth-pop stylings, infusing every melody with the heartfelt emotion they were known for; a sound and ethos exemplified by the lead-single "Hard Times;" an aesthetic that had as much of an influence on the sound of indie-pop as Brand New Eyes did with emo. - Matt Collar

Love is a Stream - Jefre Cantu-Ledesma

One of many brilliant albums released by the much-missed experimental label Type, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's Love Is a Stream is an astonishing blend of searing feedback and frayed melodies, melting shoegaze, drone, and noise into something powerful and magical which exists in a class of its own. - Paul Simpson

Twin Cinema - The New Pornographers

The third time truly proved to be the charm for Carl Newman and his band of rogue power pop-loving Canadians. After establishing the blueprint for their taut, Coffe Crisp confections on Mass Romantic and Electric Version, The New Pornographers entered Twin Cinema operating at full strength. Whether they were "Listening too long, to one song" on the vibrant "Sing Me Spanish Techno" or providing goosebumps to future movie trailers with the full-throated outro of "Bleeding Heart show," the band delivered a timeless album that not only fulfilled the promise of its potent predecessors but set the 2000s indie rock bar far too high for anything that came after. - James Monger

Atrocity Exhibition - Danny Brown

On the rap side, I noticed a major grey area around the turn of the century: on the '90s side, I gave my love to the vital sounds of Outkast's ATLiens, The Roots' Illadelph Halflife, and Deltron 3030's self-titled. The post-2000s side of this offering led with some of the decade's most potent wordsmiths: Lupe Fiasco, for his criminally overlooked 2006 classic Food & Liquor, Jay-Z's producer-focused The Black Album, and the late MF DOOM's food-themed concept record, MM.. FOOD. To close things out, I ventured into the 2010s for a pair of flawless picks: Travis Scott's Rodeo, the pinnacle of the 2010s' defining trap sound, alongside Danny Brown's wild and corrupted modern classic, Atrocity Exhibition. - David Crone

Hot Dreams - Timber Timbre

Soothing and threatening is a hard needle to thread. Still, Timbre Timbre did it with aplomb on Hot Dreams, a dizzying music box of inventive art-pop splendor and nightmarish Lynch-ian discord that lacks a single inessential moment. Taylor Kirk's tales of sex, suicidal ideation, menace, and melancholy are as wry and engaging as they are skewed and upsetting, and it's his chimerical approach to songwriting and the band's absolute command of mood that make Hot Dreams a classic of multiple genres. - James Monger

Plastic Beach - Gorillaz

While many of the records covered in these two avenues are among my all-time favorites (I crowned Un Verano Sin Tí my album of the year in 2022), I wanted to close things out with a few personal classics that deserved their overdue flowers. Among these final picks were Frank Ocean's generational Blonde, Dua Lipa's nostalgia-pop joyride on Future Nostalgia, a second straight classic from the Gorillaz, Weyes Blood's grandiose Titanic Rising, and La Dispute's grief-penned diamond, Wildlife; all records that deserve their place in the halls of history. - David Crone

What's missing? What absolute classics have still not gotten the 5-star treatment? Let us know in the comments and your suggestions may be taken into consideration on our next pass.