10 Definitive Rock Albums Of The 2000s

Everything about the '00s rock scene seemed to be about bringing things back to a retro feel. The White Stripes had already kicked down the door with the garage rock revival, and bands like The Hives were springing up in their wake to make music that sounded right at home next to something like Iggy and the Stooges from back in the day. The Killers definitely had a fondness for retro rock sounds, but they ended up going for a bit of a different decade.

While everyone seemed to be vicariously living in the '70s, the sounds of Hot Fuss were right out of the electronic sounds of the '80s, with synth lines that seemed more than a little bit similar to everyone from The Cure to Duran Duran to Depeche Mode. This wasn't just sticking an old sound on some new songs and calling it a day though, as Brandon Flowers emerged as one of the greatest pop rock writers of his time, writing songs about relationships gone tragic like Smile Like You Mean It to questioning what it means to become an adult in the modern age on All These Things That I've Done.

While those themes would be explored on the next albums like Sam's Town, the desire for something better doesn't get anymore pure than the songs on here, like the pure angst going on in Mr. Brightside and the tragic end of the title character in Jenny Was a Friend of Mine. The sounds might have been pulled straight out of the Cure playbook, but Brandon was coming into synth rock with the heart of Bruce Springsteen.