10 Perfect Rock Albums Of The 2000s

Soundtrack to the New Millennium.

By Tim Coffman /

Most of the charts coming out around the time of the Bush administration didn't really have time to cater to rock music. Around the time that we found our way into the new millennium, rock was out and was being replaced with everything from boy bands to gangsta rap on the charts. It would take a miracle to make rock relevant, but you forget that miracles can happen.

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In just under a decade, rock was back in full force thanks to a handful of albums, each of which took the genre into new and interesting places than you would normally expect. Outside of the usual throwbacks, there were also albums that took the time to make new and interesting sounds that pushed the genre that much further. Compared to the rules of blues tradition and authentic sounds of something like grunge from back in the day, this is where artists started having free reign and did whatever the hell they wanted to in order to break into the chart.

There are even a couple of records on here that could have gone toe to toe with the Led Zeppelins and Nirvanas from back in the day. You can call it stale...you can call it too flashy for its own...but for all of the rock fans out there, we call them great.

10. Is This It - The Strokes

All of the new ideas coming down the pipeline of rock circa 2000 tended to just feel old and tired. Since the sound of grunge already came and went back in the mid '90s, why the hell were we still dealing with bands like Creed and Nickelback stinking up the charts for no reason? There was no good reason to sift through that kind of mediocrity, so a couple of kids just threw on some guitars and reminded us of a simpler time.

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By the time that the public heard Is This It, it really felt like the glory days of '70s rock came back for a little bit, except with a few more twists than you probably expected. Although the Strokes were still fresh faced kids when they broke, you can hear them start to become something amazing on every track, from the Tom Petty rip off Last Nite to going straight up indie rock on The Modern Age.

The lyrics were also a change of pace. Whereas most people were still banging tracks like Nookie and How You Remind Me, this was a more intimate look into the nightlife of New York City and how sexual and ugly things could get at the best of times. It's not necessarily the most pleasing endorsement of the Big Apple to have ever been written, but the sounds of these songs make those dirty dancefloors feel new and exciting again.

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