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25 Country Albums You Need to Hear (Even If You Hate Country Music)

2. HOME
Dixie Chicks
The Chicks started out as a frothy, good-time country trio and ended up as a fairly serious-minded rock band. Looking back, it's easy to see this 2002 smash as a transitional album, even though they considered it neither country nor rock but rather their ''bluegrass album,'' due to its acoustic orientation. What it really is is the Chicks suddenly blossoming into real artists — from the opening ''Long Time Gone,'' which laments the end of a rural way of life, to the shattering family drama of the closing ''Top of the World.'' The album and its Vietnam-themed ''Travelin' Soldier'' single both stood at No. 1 when Natalie Maines made her famous remarks about President Bush, and the rest is history — but Home would be a classic even if it'd never attracted any renown outside of the grooves.