A select group of CL music contributors – Eric Snider, Scott Harrell, Joel Weiss, Evan Tokarz and Shawn Goldberg – have helped me put together this well-rounded list of the decade’s best albums from 2000 to the present. So far, I've revealed the first 25; over the few days, I’ll be revealing the rest in bunches of 25, in no specific order, but with our choicest picks presented at the climactic end (Part IV). Enjoy! And feel free to offer some of your favorites from the past 10 years in the comments section below.

Click here to read Part I.

1. Kings of Leon, Aha Shake Heartbreak (2004) Three brothers and a cousin filtered the contradictions of their family's tumultuous relationship with religion through musical influences ranging from gospel and southern rock to No Wave, and came up with something akin to The Strokes with soul. Beautiful second album Aha Shake Heartbreak found these disparate influences gelling, and paved the way for cult/critical fandom overseas and the eventual U.S. breakthrough of Only by the Night. –SH

2. Gogol Bordello, Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike (2006) The NYC collective’s third full-length brings a manic, multicultural party to your eardrums and succeeds where many bands fall short – they capture a frenetic live performance in a recording studio. If “I Would Never Wanna Be Young Again” or “Forces of Victory” don’t get you moving, you should check your pulse. –JW

3. Animal Collective, Feels (2005) The experimental electro rock ensemble produced a sixth album of wholly unconventional love songs, Feels as a whole maintaining a unique sort of appeal with choruses of whoops and shrieks that come off as melodious, and quirky cute, barely intelligible lyrics like in “The Purple Bottle”: “I like it when I bump you an accident's a truth gate.” –LP

Here's the video for the song "Grass."