10 Most Innovative Rock Acts Of The 2010s

Alt-J's first record, An Awesome Wave, was a bold blending of all manor of genres and styes that just shouldn't work together. There's Gregorian style chanting, traditional english folk melodies, dubstep drops and rock guitar riffs. On top of that, you have Joe Newman singing in such an inaudible way that maybe 0.01% of the lyrics are discernible. But does that matter for a second? You better believe it doesn't.

There wasn't anything like these guys at the time, and it wasn't like this was an obscure band knocking about in the dark recesses of the underground, these guys were huge. Breezeblocks received significant mainstream airplay, showing that with enough skill and the right amount of acid, you could ignore all the conventions of mainstream song writing and still create a hit.

Over the years Alt-J have continued pushing the boat out. Their second album was equally as daring and although the tracks required more patience they still delivered the goods. The third record was undeniably less focused but it still contained some damn strong tracks. With a new album set for release early in 2022 it will be interesting to see where they're going next.