10 Greatest Garage Rock Albums Of The 2000s

Before they got a song on the radio, cut their hair, and started playing to hundred-thousand crowds, Kings of Leon were contenders in the early 2000s garage rock scene. And, while their debut album Youth & Young Manhood is as valid a pick as any for one of the garage greats, their follow-up record Aha Shake Heartbreak is our pick for this top 10.

Sounding a lot like the indie/garage of the band's UK contemporaries, minus the English accents and with an edge drawn from southern rock roots, Aha is an outlier in the Kings' discography, managing to keep these influences balanced while honing the very first inklings of the kind of Top 40 rock act they would become by decade's end.

But Aha appeared in 2004, long before they went stadium-size with the likes of "Sex On Fire", and it brought with it sounds drenched in alcohol and sweat, with a punchy rhythm section, a heft of treble, unrefined and stuttery vocal phrasing, and nigh-indecipherable lyrics that only add to the album's garage credentials.

Not short on killer tracks, highlights abound, from stone-cold fight song "Four Kicks" to elegiac, waltz-tinged closer "Rememo". This certainly isn't the Kings of Leon your mum sings on karaoke.