25 Records Turning 25 in 2025

This year, records by Radiohead, The Avalanches, Deftones, Outkast, and more will be hitting their silver anniversary.
“I don’t think we’ve even seen the tip of the iceberg,” David Bowie famously said in a 1999 BBC interview about the internet. “The potential of what the internet is going to do to society, both good and bad, is unimaginable. I think we’re actually on the cusp of something exhilarating and terrifying.”
Bowie’s words proved prescient as the dawn of the new millennium marked the beginning of a seismic shift in the music industry. In 2000, physical media still dominated, with CDs and record stores reigning supreme. Yet Napster had already begun disrupting distribution models, exposing cracks in a seemingly unshakable industry. The iPod — and with it, the concept of portable, digital libraries — was just a year away, poised to accelerate the transformation.
Meanwhile, MTV reached its cultural peak, the boy-band boom swept the charts, and hip-hop cemented its place in the mainstream. Across genres, boundaries were dissolving, and artists embraced experimentation, creating a kaleidoscope of sounds that hinted at music’s rapidly changing future.
Twenty-five years later, the albums released in 2000 stand as timeless reflections of this transformative era. Balancing groundbreaking innovation with deeply personal expression, these records captured the spirit of an industry on the brink of reinvention. As Discogs celebrates 25 records turning 25 in 2025 (in no particular order), we honor their lasting impact on music history and their role in shaping a pivotal moment in the recording arts.
#1
Kid A
Radiohead
Released Oct. 20, 2000
Amid the chaos of a shifting millennium, Radiohead’s fourth album, Kid A, emerged as a transmission from a fractured future. Listener expectations were less sidestepped and more obliterated; for the first fifteen minutes, guitars are famously absent, replaced by glitchy electronics, free-jazz freakouts, and Kubrick-worthy string arrangements.
When Thom Yorke murmurs “this is really happening” on “Idioteque,” it feels less like a lyric and more like a warning. Capturing the unease of digital upheaval and cultural flux of the times, Kid A didn’t just defy conventions — it rewired them, reshaping how artists think about genre, technology, and the album form itself.
#2
Since I Left You
The Avalanches
Released Nov. 27, 2000
“Get a drink, have a good time now, welcome to paradise,” one of many cinematic samples announced on the title track of The Avalanches’ pioneering plunderphonic debut. Built from nearly a thousand samples, Since I Left You is a cornucopia of sound, stitching together disco grooves, orchestral swells, and dusty fragments of forgotten vinyl.
It’s a freewheeling, psychedelic odyssey that carries you on an unguided world tour of emotions, all without leaving the dance floor. The result is a sun-soaked magnum opus that transcends the boundaries of genre and time and flows with hypnotic precision.
#3
White Pony
Deftones
Released June 20, 2000
Despite the cocaine-addled connotations of its title, Deftones’ White Pony is the sound of a metal band daring to slow down, expand outward, and allow for aggression and vulnerability to coexist. Eschewing the machismo of their peers, the Sacramento-based band crafted a sonic landscape that was as ethereal as it was visceral, where crushing riffs and atmospheric textures coexist. Chino Moreno’s vocals embodied this duality, shifting effortlessly between whispered fragility and feral catharsis.
Twenty-five years on, “Digital Bath” stands out as a crash course in tension and release, merging introspection with unrelenting power. It hit a reset button for heavy music, proving that beauty and brutality aren’t opposites but partners in creating something timeless.
#4
D’Angelo
Voodoo
Released Jan. 25, 2000
The neo-soul polymath avoided the dreaded sophomore slump by taking his time. Retreating to Electric Lady Studios in New York City, D’Angelo spent five years crafting an unmistakable wellspring of sonic creativity, drawing deeply from the grooves of his heroes — Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix, and Prince.
Guided by Questlove’s loose, behind-the-beat drumming, Pino Palladino’s fluid basslines, and Roy Hargrove’s soulful trumpet lines, Voodoo oozed slow-burning sensuality. The artist’s multi-tracked vocals floated effortlessly between confessions, provocations, and an air of untouchable cool. He didn’t just honor the soul giants of the past, he joined their ranks.
#5
Figure 8
Elliott Smith
Released April 18, 2000
The final album Elliott Smith released during his lifetime stands as his most ambitious and expansive work, while still preserving the confessional quality of his early Tascam-tracked songs. Recorded at legendary studios like Abbey Road and Sunset Sound, the album showcases Smith at his creative zenith, weaving a rich tapestry of themes that span subjects as varied as the Hindu deity Shiva, the serial killer David Berkowitz and the Hawthorne Bridge in his native Portland.
A layered and intricate blend of analog production, poignant melodies, and deeply personal lyricism, Figure 8 invites speculation about where Smith might have gone next. Yet it also stands as a crowning achievement — one of the first timeless singer-songwriter records of the 21st century that cemented his legacy.
#6
Pop
Gas
Released March 28, 2000
As a teenager in Cologne, ambient techno pioneer Wolfgang Voigt often took LSD and wandered through the Königsforst, a dense forest on the city’s outskirts. These hallucinatory experiences became the foundation of his signature sound: sprawling, hypnotic compositions where loops of Wagnerian strings and brass dissolve into ambient haze, anchored by the faint pulse of a four-on-the-floor kick drum.
With Pop, Voigt infused the Gas project with a new luminosity. Unlike the darker tones of its predecessors — Gas, Zauberberg, and Königsforst — the textures here evoke sunlight filtering through a dense canopy. Blurring the boundaries between music and nature, memory and imagination, Pop challenges Brian Eno’s notion that ambient music should be “as ignorable as it is interesting.” It demands engagement, enveloping the listener in a dreamlike forest of sound at the edge of reality.
#7
Fantastic Vol. II
Slum Village
Released June 13, 2000
Assembled in J Dilla’s Detroit basement, Fantastic Vol. II stands as an early testament to his genius as one of the most influential sonic architects of our time. The album showcases the foundation of the house that Dilla built: dusty, off-kilter drums, lush, soulful samples, and an unparalleled ability to create compositions that feel both effortlessly organic and meticulously crafted.
With rappers T3 and Baatin weaving smooth, understated verses through Dilla’s textured beats, the album exudes a laid-back cool that redefined the sound of underground hip-hop. Collaborations with luminaries like Q-Tip, Common, D’Angelo, and Busta Rhymes only underscore the reverence Dilla commanded even in these formative years. It serves as the origin story of a master craftsman whose influence continues to ripple across genres.
#8
White Pepper
Ween
Released May 2, 2000
White Pepper finds the brothers Ween at their most refined, delivering a genre-hopping masterclass through classic rock’s sun-soaked melodies, the dreamy haze of soft pop, the trippy expanses of psychedelia, and the cheeky sophistication of lounge music. Their seventh album showcases Dean and Gene’s ability to inhabit each style with precision while infusing every track with their signature irreverence and charm.
Often hailed as their most accessible album, it balances heartfelt craftsmanship with moments of absurdity, such as the tropical escapism of “Bananas and Blow” and the tender, Beatles-esque harmonies of “Even If You Don’t.” Twenty-five years later, it stands as a shining example of their unparalleled ability to traverse genres with confidence, earning their rightful reputation as cult legends capable of making every style entirely their own.
#9
The Noise Made By People
Broadcast
Released March 20, 2000
Broadcast’s debut album, The Noise Made By People, feels like a glitch-free artifact from an alternate Y2K timeline, where analog warmth and futuristic experimentation harmoniously coexist. It showcases the British band’s meticulous craft, weaving haunting melodies, vintage synths, and electronic textures into an otherworldly soundscape.
Drawing inspiration from 1960s library music, avant-garde electronica, and the psychedelic pop of acts like The United States of America, Broadcast created a work both nostalgic and forward-thinking. The late great Trish Keenan’s ethereal vocals glide through tracks like “Come On Let’s Go” and “Echo’s Answer,” their understated delivery imbuing the songs with a haunting, timeless beauty.
#10
Vocalcity
Luomo
Released May 23, 2000
Under his Luomo moniker, Finnish producer Sasu Ripatti (also known as Vladislav Delay) reimagined the club as a contemplative space, combining deep, pulsing grooves with shimmering, kinetic production on Vocalcity. Tracks like “Tessio” unfold with hypnotic patience, their intricate layers blurring the lines between physical movement and emotional resonance.
Each sound feels meticulously placed, like a pointillist painting, yet the music breathes with an organic fluidity that transcends its digital origins. Vocalcity didn’t just redefine vocal house — it reshaped its boundaries, opening the door for a generation of producers to explore more nuanced, emotive, and textural approaches to dance music.
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