In 2000 my pick for #1 album was Sonic Youth's polarizing NYC Ghosts & Flowers. They continued their uncompromising departure from pop stylings to a divisive point that saw the nascent Pitchfork give the album a rating of 0 out of 10, one of the most embarrassing blunders that site has made. Since I just posted Sonic Youth two days ago, for this round of 25 Years of Jam I am going with another contender for 2000's best album, PJ Harvey's fifth full-length of new material— Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. Harvey famously downplays this album in her catalog, writing it off as a pop experiment; in reality, it's one of her two finest works (the other being Let England Shake). It rightfully won the Mercury Prize and is generally recognized as a high water mark of her career. This song is particularly moving and its evocation of Manhattan rooftops and skyline became even more touching less than a year later following the terror attacks in New York.
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