10 Most Underrated Rock Music Albums Of The 2000s
The Millennial Hidden Gems.
At the turn of the century, rock was getting just a little bit unsure of what it wanted to be. Since we had a whole influx of great music populating the charts up until 1999, but the start of the decade felt like the beginning of something...we just weren't sure what it was yet. Hell, once we did actually manage to find our footing, some fans still couldn't see the forest for the trees.
Across each respective style of rock music, there were always a few albums that tended to get overlooked by the masses in favor of the next offerings from bands like Limp Bizkit or Creed. In between the more mainstream stuff though, there was some legitimately great artists who put out some of the best material that the rock scene had to offer. From albums that totally up ended the genre to people that were doing it better than a lot of their contemporaries, these were the albums that should have been a lot bigger than your average radio rock act.
Even some of the bands from the old guard came back with a vengeance here, making great albums in their twilight years and exposing a whole new generation to their sound. No matter whether the radio wanted to play these or not, these albums deserve a lot more than just a passing glance.
10. The Red Album - Weezer
In the Weezer camp of fans, there's always that lingering question of when the band started to downslide. Though it would be pretty easy to put the blame on an album like Raditude for being the point of no return, others feel that 2005's Make Believe was a bit of a mixed blessing, giving them some of their biggest hits while also having some of the most uninspired songwriting from Rivers Cuomo. On the next record though, we at least saw a little bit of course correction.
That's not to say that the Red Album is a knock down drag out masterpiece. Alongside the great singles like Pork and Beans, you do have some of the more cringy songs in the Weezer songbook like Troublemaker and Everybody Get Dangerous. What no one brings up with this album is how risky it is, like when Rivers steps behind the drum kit and lets the rest of the band take the lead on some songs like Scott Shriner's Cold Dark World or Brian Bell's Thought I Knew.
Compared to the lack of ideas on Make Believe, there's a lot more heart behind this record, especially when you hear Heart Songs detailing Rivers' journey to pursue a career in music. The Weezer enterprise may have been heading for a gigantic brick wall after this, but for a few shining moments, this at least looked like a decent next chapter, right?