#150: Survivor
Ranking The “250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far” (2025)
In 2025, Rolling Stone released their list of “250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far.” I am working my way though the list, from #250 to #1, reviewing each. It’s a fascinating opportunity to revisit old favourites, and maybe discover new ones.
Destiny’s Child, 2001
Destiny’s Child’s penultimate album is a relic of a lost era, and sounds like it. 2001 was particularly rough for Pop music - the vocal groups of the late 90s were starting to age poorly in the midst of a transition, rock was reinventing itself, R&B and Hip-Hop were merging, and dance music was coming back to the fore. It wouldn’t be long before Pop music became all of these things. MTV was waning in influence but still tried to assert itself in the era of file sharing and digital downloads - even though fans could hear their music any time they wanted, MTV tried to create “must see” moments, giving rise to what would become viral clips from Eminem, Britney, JT, and more. But, like another empire, the more they squeezed, the more slipped through their fingers, and indie rock was creating another industry, DIY and easily accessible to listeners.
Still, Destiny’s Child was at the top of charts in 2001, with “Independent Women, Pt.1” leading the way on the Charlie’s Angels soundtrack (another relic of a lost era) in August of 2000, and landing as the lead track on Survivor in April 2001. It was a massive hit, breaking records and staying on the charts for months. “Survivor” followed in March 2001 as the lead single from the album, and then “Bootylicious,” featuring a sample from “The Edge of Seventeen,” became their final Billboard #1 hit. Sadly, the word “bootylicious” made it to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2004 as a result.
With all the drama surrounding Destiny’s Child leading to this album, it’s remarkable that it was made at all. But it wouldn’t have been made without Beyoncé, who co-wrote nearly all of the tracks (the lone exception being “Emotion,” a cover of a BeeGees-penned track). It’s Beyoncé’s rise to prominence that’s the story here - she became a modern Diana Ross leading her group by taking it over, intentionally or not. Her debut solo album was released in 2003, and the rest is history.
But for Survivor, it’s a mishmash of pop & R&B styles entrenched in 2000s production typical of MTV hits of the time. The hits are massive events, but the rest is mainly filler. It’s one of those albums that’s too big to be ignored on a list of 21st century albums, but it doesn’t sound fresh in 2026 like some of the other albums on this list do. Maybe that’s okay, though; it’s as reminiscent of 2001 as anything else of that time, and documents Beyoncé’s rise to the top with songs like “Dangerously in Love,” which becomes the title of her album.
Hard pass for me, but props to the pop music machine that worked the system perfectly and created a gargantuan hit for this group (and the Knowles family).