20 Albums Turning 20 in 2023

Basic rock was hardly the style du jour in 2003, however a number of of its greatest names nonetheless made spectacular statements, whereas a handful of pioneering youthful bands took cues from the masters.

Southern rock legends the Allman Brothers Band issued their final studio LP, Hittin’ the Word, their solely album with out founding guitarist Dickey Betts. Singer-songwriter Warren Zevon additionally launched his ultimate album, the Grammy-winning The Wind, simply two weeks earlier than he died of pleural mesothelioma, most cancers that impacts the membrane surrounding the lungs and chest lining.

Different artists constructed upon their profitable reunions with new albums that solidified their longevity. Steely Dan adopted up their Album of the 12 months-winning Two Towards Nature with All the pieces Should Go, which reached the Prime 10 of the Billboard 200 like its predecessor. After reuniting with singer Bruce Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith for 2000’s Courageous New World, Iron Maiden struck again with Dance of Dying, a strong album whose standout tracks have been nonetheless overshadowed by an all-time stinker of an album cowl.

In the meantime, 2003 noticed landmark releases from a number of youthful rockers who have been indebted to their forebears. Radiohead made a return to their alt-rock roots with Hail to the Thief, which they recorded principally stay with minimal overdubs, in stark distinction to the multilayered, laborious Child A and Amnesiac. Anti-rock snobs acquired a fierce kick within the tooth from red-hot English rockers the Darkness, who mixed the blue-collar riffing of AC/DC with the stadium bombast of Queen on their audacious debut, Permission to Land.

And the White Stripes entered the higher echelon of rock stardom with their fourth album, Elephant, a Prime 10, double-platinum smash that yielded the perennial sporting-event anthem “Seven Nation Military.”

Revisit all of those albums and extra in UCR’s record of 20 Albums Turning 20 in 2023.