Ah, the noughties: when the 90s Britpop boom came to an end and hip-hop and R&B topped the charts, the still-infant nu-metal and emo pop-punk thrived, indie cemented itself as a cultural phenomenon, and Britney Spears became the world's biggest pop icon among a sea of emerging pop princesses. Napster changed music consumption forever and Music videos hit YouTube.
It was a wildly diverse decade, and hey, today's pop world seems to have gone back there, with Olivia Rodrigo's latest album channelling Avril Lavigne and Paramore, Charli XCX and Addison Rae being taking in all the 2000s inspiration, and Usher nailing his Superbowl performance of his noughties hits. We are joining the homecoming, simply for the exercise of collating what we believe are among the best test tracks of the decade. Enjoy!
Wilco – I Am Trying to Break Your Heart (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, 2002)
Words by Tom Wiggins
Until 2001, Wilco were known as a fairly straightforward alt-country act, but Yankee Hotel Foxtrot changed everything for the Chicago five-piece.
After collaborating with producer Jim O’Rourke the year before, Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy invited him to mix the band’s new record, and the result is perfectly encapsulated in the opening track, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart.
Simultaneously catchy and experimental, its basic guitar chords are a skeleton for a laidback bassline, various piano parts, and scattered percussion, while Tweedy’s lyrics are at once abstract and confessional. It collapses into layers of feedback, an organ drone, and a scruffily strummed guitar, but like the rest of the album, it never feels needlessly self-indulgent.
Not that their record label at the time agreed. They refused to release it, but Wilco never looked back.
Buy Wilco's I Am Trying to Break Your Heart on Amazon
Johnny Cash – Hurt (American IV: The Man Comes Around, 2002)
Words by Becky Roberts
"I wrote some words and music in my bedroom as a way of staying sane, about a bleak and desperate place I was in, totally isolated and alone," said Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor about creating the 90s hit. "Some-fucking-how that winds up reinterpreted by a music legend from a radically different era/genre and still retains sincerity and meaning – different, but every bit as pure."
Cash's swan song in retrospect, best listened to with the touching mini-biographical music video (above) playing in the background, is a glorious test track. For me, there is nothing quite like the trepidation of playing this unlikely cover by the king of country through a system and hoping it will do it justice because I almost need it to; I will it to every time.
The pensive acoustic chords, anchoring piano keys, and his unmistakably deep and gravelly and at times broken vocal as he gives lyrics like "everyone I know goes away in the end" and "you could have it all, my empire of dirt" a new profound sense of regret and nostalgia – his very humane rendition demands midrange and upper-bass expression of the highest order. If you aren't sad as hell, your kit isn't working.
Buy Jonny Cash's American IV: The Man Comes Around on Amazon
Radiohead – Pyramid Song (Amnesiac, 2001)
Words by Harry McKerrell
Instrumental as OK Computer and Kid A were in defining the sound of the 2000s and quite a lot beyond, the track that I’ve always come back to for testing is Pyramid Song from 2001’s oft-forgotten Amnesiac. As I (boldly) claimed during our rundown of the 12 best Radiohead tracks, Pyramid Song feels like Radiohead distilled to their purest form, stripping back all pretensions of grandeur to craft something of strikingly austere beauty.
There are no crazy time signatures or wilfully experimental instrument choices on display here – instead, it’s a two-part arrangement in which haunting, heavy piano chords gently build within a yawning, cavernous soundscape as Thom Yorke howls about “black-eyed angels” and “a moon full of stars and astral cars”. A peerless tune for discovering your system’s capacity for space and organisation, not to mention its ability to convey the weight and texture of those grand piano notes amid their sparse accompaniment.
Buy Radiohead's Amnesiac on Amazon
Dizzee Rascal – Dance Wiv Me (Tongue n' Cheek, 2008)
Words by Joe Svetlik
There’s so much to dislike about this track. Rascal’s letching over the object of his affections seems retrograde at best. The music video as a whole looks like it was shot in a student union on a student budget. And the less said about Calvin Harris’ hair the better. But sonically, it will put your system through its paces. It initially sounds like a light and airy dusting of poppy R&B, complete with soulful vocals. But once the bass drops it becomes clear we’re dealing with a proper club banger. Your system will need a nimble low end to keep up with that agile bassline, and be equally at home portraying Harris’ monotone drone as Rascal’s raspy, energetic vocal. It’s almost enough to make you forget about Calvin Harris’ hair.
Buy Dizzee Rascal's Tongue n' Cheek on Amazon
Disturbed – Down With The Sickness (The Sickness, 2001)
Words by Kashfia Kabir
It can be easy to dismiss heavy/nu-metal music as nothing more than a barrage of screaming vocals and disorganised loud noise. But there’s rhythmic drive, dynamic fluidity, organisation and precision all hiding behind every metal track to make sure it makes its impact, every time. Disturbed’s Down With The Sickness is a 00s metal staple, with lead singer David Draiman’s ‘ohh-wah-ah-ah-ah’ now an iconic vocal quirk and intro to a song that can be feral, tribal and heaps of fun all at once.
Yes, your system will need a good amount of wallop and muscle to flesh out this track’s powerful drumming and chunky guitar strums, but even more crucial is the ability to get across the ferocious energy and sense of drive and momentum that pounds through this exhilarating track. A poor system will make this song sound limp and not fill you with frenetic energy every time you hear it, and that would be a shame. You’ll want a strong handling of rhythmic patterns, precise stop and start to notes, and the ability to deliver fluctuating dynamics with verve if you want to relish this track’s mix of aggression and absurdity.
Buy Disturbed's The Sickness on Amazon
Snoop Dogg – Drop It Like It’s Hot (Rhythm & Gangsta: The Masterpiece, 2004)
Words by Tom Wiggins
The sparse production of The Neptunes was everywhere in the noughties. The duo from Virginia made memorable beats for Kelis, Jay-Z, Britney Spears, N’Sync, and Clipse, but Snoop Dogg’s Drop It Like It’s Hot took minimalism to another level.
Built on the most basic of drum tracks, percussion consists of tongue clicks, a hissing sound jumps back and forth between the channels, with a short keyboard riff that acts as sonic punctuation to introduce each chorus.
Drop It Like It’s Hot sounds like it’s from another planet, and in contrast to songs like Jay-Z’s 99 Problems or Outkast’s Roses, which were also released in 2004, it might as well have been.
Buy Snoop Dogg's Drop It Like It's Hot on Amazon
Midlake – Head Home (The Trials of Van Occupanther, 2006)
Words by Becky Roberts
From one of the most acclaimed folk-rock releases of its decade, and a perpetual masterpiece that comes to mind every year I first notice the leaves turning brown, this Midlake classic revels in the album's pastoral and long-lost-era imagery, its production warm and cosy like your favourite scarf or, indeed, 60s Americana tracks.
It opens with the breathy texture of frontman Tim Smith's flute above a simple drip-drop piano, before the band add the lush instrumental layers and melodic girth that define The Trials of Van Occupanther, and Smith lyrically leaves his lonely self for dreams of home comforts and a Leviathan-reading woman. That's before you get to Eric Pulido's free-wheeling guitar solo, which will test the elasticity of your system's dynamics, and the rich harmonising vocal arrangements, of which the members' inflections should be easily discernible. A true autumnal delight.
Buy Midlake's The Trials of Van Occupanther on Amazon
Elbow – Grounds For Divorce (The Seldom Seen Kid, 2008)
Words by Harry McKerrell
The great anxiety that pervaded the minds of many music fans since the end of the 1990s was that rock as they knew it had enjoyed its moment in the sun and was picking up its sunglasses and beach towel before heading back to the shelter of its metaphorical beach hut as newer, younger genres seized their chance to flex their musical muscles on the vacant sands.
Ok, it’s a tortured metaphor, but the 2000s did tend to see middle-of-the-road post-indie outfits such as Coldplay, Embrace, Travis and Keane take centre stage alongside pop princesses and rappers riding the coattails of Eminem, Jay-Z and Kanye. Thankfully, Elbow’s Grounds For Divorce, with its dirty, powerhouse central riff and Guy Garvey’s bluntly poetic vocals, showed that rock was at least willing to peak its head out of the door from time to time, treating listeners to a visceral belter of a track that remains unmatched for testing how a system conveys contrasting dynamics and a sense of pulsating, furious drama.
Buy Elbow's The Seldom Seen Kid on Amazon
50 Cent – In Da Club (Get Rich or Die Tryin', 2003)
Words by Tom Wiggins
Monster’s original Beats by Dre headphones might not have been the last word in sonic subtlety, but there’s one thing they delivered in spades: bass. That was intentional, and all down to the man himself tuning them using a track he produced: 50 Cent’s In Da Club.
While there’s a certain arrogance to that it also makes a whole lot of sense; In Da Club is exquisitely produced. It sounds urgent and dramatic, almost as if it was written specifically to be used on the soundtrack of a Michael Bay movie, all imposing string and synth stabs, and a beat that hits harder than Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson in Pain & Gain.
Buy 50 Cent's In Da Club on Amazon
Roots Manuva – Witness (1 Hope) (Run Come Save Me, 2001)
Words by Joe Svetlik
Keeping it real is a hip-hop cliche, but it’s always nice when British rappers don’t just ape the Americans. Rodney Smith stays true to his Roots in this track – with references to cheese on toast and pints of bitter, it’s as British as a wet weekend at the seaside. That squelching bassline was Manuva trying to imitate the Doctor Who theme – so British – and is complemented beautifully by those sparkling effects that sound like stars being born. Manuva claims his production aimed to single out the poor quality sound systems used in many clubs in the noughties. Let’s hope your system is up to the task.
Buy Roots Manuva's Run Come Save Me on Amazon
Slipknot – Duality (Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), 2004)
Words by Kashfia Kabir
Corey Taylor’s incredible vocal range is the focus here. Incredibly fast, ferocious drumming and heavy-but-nimble fretwork are all elements that deserve praise and a terrifically agile, precise and detailed system through which to enjoy this track, but Corey’s varied vocal abilities are what shines through. His mix of melodic singing, spoken verse, screaming and growls all have different textures, tones, distortions, volumes and nuances – and a great system should be able to differentiate all those vocal variations and subtleties to deliver the song’s full effect.
From the soft, intimate singing at the start that changes gear into a roar, to the deadpan rap-like spoken verses through to the rage-filled scream (“I’m not gonna make it”) – it takes quite a talented system to reveal the changes in tone and subtle details behind the raw screaming as well as the whispered lyrics.
Buy Slipknot's Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) on Amazon
Fleet Foxes – White Winter Hymnal (Fleet Foxes, 2008)
Words by Tom Wiggins
Want to know just how noughties Fleet Foxes are? Before they’d even signed to Sub Pop in 2008, their songs had racked up over 250,000 plays on their MySpace page. White Winter Hymnal has surpassed that by quite a distance now – on Spotify alone it’s hit well over 232 million – and it’s the voices here that are the real star of the show. As well as frontman Robin Pecknold’s lead vocal, there are dense, reverb-laden harmonies that sound like they were recorded in some kind of rural church.
If your system’s up to scratch you should almost be able to mistake White Winter Hymnal for something from the early ‘70s, rather than the age of MySpace.
Buy Fleet Foxes' White Winter Hymnal on Amazon
Gorillaz – Clint Eastwood (Gorillaz, 2001)
Words by Becky Roberts
I felt equal parts cheated and amused when Damon Albarn revealed to Zane Lowe last year that Clint Eastwood's iconic piano hook essentially originated from a preset called 'Rock One' on his portable Suzuki Omnichord synthesiser.
For the most part it is as straightforward as trip-hop arrangements come, but while the nodding tempo of the piano riff, drumbeat and Albarn's distinctive vocal can feel oversimple and perhaps even frustratingly subdued, a common blunder is kit rushing through it and it sounding sped up. Del the Funky Homosapien's rap allows a system to flex its midrange suppleness, though, while the melodica should come across true to its weird sound – a cross between a harmonica and accordion, high-pitched and thin but airy.
Buy Gorillaz' Gorillaz on Amazon
Jay-Z – Dirt Off Your Shoulder (The Black Album, 2003)
Words by Tom Wiggins
If you want to know what hearing the beat to Dirt Off Your Shoulder should do to your face, check out this video of producer Timbaland playing it to Jay-Z for the first time.
Along with The Neptunes (who also feature on The Black Album), Timbaland’s beats defined the sound of hip-hop and pop music in the noughties. The producer worked with everyone from Justin Timberlake to Bjork, but this track that he contributed to Jay-Z’s so-called ‘farewell album’ encapsulates everything that makes Timbaland’s tracks immediately recognisable.
Rather than sampling old jazz or soul records, Dirt Off Your Shoulder is built around a futuristic-sounding synth hook, hard-hitting percussion, and a handful of space-age effects. And if your face doesn’t look like Jigga’s when you listen to it, your system isn’t doing it justice.
Buy Jay-Z's Dirt Off Your Shoulder on Amazon
Explosions in the Sky – The Birth and Death of the Day (All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone, 2007)
Words by Becky Roberts
Because Massive Attack's Paradise Circus just snuck into the 2010s, the post-rock darlings from Texas get our nod when it comes to testing a system's timing and organisation.
Right from kick-off, your system is asked to obey the opening chords' ritardando timing before an earth-shattering shimmering of dissonant electrics dramatically erupts to disrupt the calm and floors you. It's little wonder the track has opened many of their gigs.) You're soon back on your feet as a softly thumping beat, various complementing guitar lines and the polite placement of shakers focus the melody, but before long the composition thickens and picks up the pace once again to drive its instrumental and dynamic complexity home.
It's a heavy storm for your system to endure, but boy does it need to be proficient in coordinating a soundstage and being punctual when it counts, because otherwise one of the band's (and genre's) great masterworks will sound no more agreeable than screeching tyres.
Buy Explosions in the Sky's All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone on Amazon
MORE:
Our complete list: the ultimate music tracks to test your hi-fi system
60 of the best hi-fi albums for audiophiles
More of a '90s child? 40 of the best 1990s albums to test your speakers
