10 Best Genre-Blending Rock Albums Of The 2010s

Gone are the days when rock artists dominated the music charts, with no. 1 singles more likely to be coming from your Harry Styles and Ed Sheerans of the world. In the last decade, however, rock proved that it wasn't ready to throw in the towel.

As ever, it managed to evolve, incorporating more varied sounds and styles, blending genres, drawing from past incarnations of the movement, and discovering new territory to exist in.

The creative innovations resulted in some truly unique sounding records, making it even harder to define what rock music is. But, this was certainly no bad thing.

Having music that's harder to pin down only adds to the enjoyment of it. Whether it's the excitement of recognising an obscure influence, or if you're just having a healthy debate with your music-loving friends about what elements are needed to constitute a psychedelic rock album, these records are sure to tick those boxes.

At the start of the last decade there was an influx of musicians from Down Under, riding the wave of experimental rock into the US and UK music scenes. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Tame Impala and Pond, all pioneered the revival of heavy guitar-lead music.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra was another such band. The combination of carefree melodies, trippy guitar sounds and lo-fi recording aesthetic resulted in a dreamlike, fuzzy ambiance to their second record. But, despite the over all uniformity of the album, each track had a unique melody or guitar hook that resulted in some particularly standout numbers.

So Good At Being In Trouble, was a strange mix of upbeat drums and bass lines, set against the somewhat melancholy, vocal performance of Ruban Nielson. Although the lo-fi, psychedelic aspect remained at the forefront of this track, there was definitely a hint of old school rhythm and blues, which injected a healthy degree of soul into the song.

Monki was another great number, with squelchy guitar progressions that steadily drove the song along. The amount of reverb on this track made it feel as though it was recorded in a decompression tank at the bottom of the ocean, but that's no bad thing in this case.

Anyone into fuzzy, experimental rock is sure to love this record.