10 Best Rock Music Album Openers Of The 2000s
With a new millennium inbound, let's look at some of rock's best opening tracks from the era.
There is evidence to suggest that the 2000s was the last great decade for rock music as a mainstream genre. Bands like My Chemical Romance, Slipknot, and Limp Bizkit all topped the UK charts, pop punk burned through the cultural landscape with an uncontrollable rage, and indie guitar bands were so popular that they stopped being cool anymore.
After 2009, all of that disappeared. With that in mind, let's hang on to this decade and examine some of the great first songs on some of the greatest rock albums.
As per usual, this will be a list of opening songs on standard editions of studio albums by rock artists from 2000-2009. They will be ranked based on their qualities as a song, but also how appropriate they were an as opener.
Did they set the rest of the album up for success? Did they get listeners pumped up and ready to rock? Did they inspire life-changing actions and avert World War III? Okay, those expectations are a bit too high, so maybe let's bring them down a little bit.
Here are some of the best track ones from the era of rock's last hurrah.
10. Feel Good Hit Of The Summer - Rated R (Queens Of The Stone Age)
The second album from desert rock royalty Queens of the Stone Age promised a big summery tune and it more than delivered.
Rated R opened up with a song called Feet Good Hit of the Summer. That's nice; is it going to be about sunshine and friendship and walking dogs in the park whilst eating ice cream? Oh wait, it's about drugs.
The meaning of the word "hit" in this instance was literally spelled out on the song's single artwork; the title of the tune written in various pills, powder, and leaves. Subtle.
It is this precise murkiness that makes the song so good though. The constant driving beat makes everything feel frantic and paranoid, while Josh Homme delivers his usual brand of idiosyncratic vocalisation. There's also a guitar solo about halfway through that is very tasty indeed.
Though Queens of the Stone Age would arguably go on to write better stuff, this was one of the earliest examples of their greatness shining through.
Feel Good Hit of the Summer sets the stage for the rest of Rated R and stands out as a banging tune in its own right.