10 Perfect Garage Rock Albums With No Bad Songs

When you want to cut out all the nonsense and strip things back to its purest form of rock, there's only one genre to turn to. Garage rock can be defined by its distinctly unrefined qualities. Never mind about staying in tune, and you can do away with proper recording equipment; it's all about capturing the unfiltered and impassioned energy of musicians, who are playing for the sheer joy of it. And, if you can stick to the man while you're at it, that's only a plus...

This might be the best form of rock to inspire a young kid to pick up an instrument and start exercising all those teenage angsts. Simple, often crude and always fun, it's music that sounds like anybody could play it.

Raw guitars, punchy bass lines, production value that doesn't sound in the least bit professional, and a genuine earnestness for rock: these albums will help you kick out the jams, and awake your inner rebel. Before you know it, you'll be plugging in your old guitar and causing your neighbours to curse the day you moved in.

By the time The White Stripes released their third album, they were already on the way to rock royalty. The hype surrounding them was massive. Jack White's frantic take on the blues, coupled with Meg's constantly crashing cymbals, created enough noise to get peoples attention.

Although the band gave us a number of classics during the 2000s, this album was a highpoint. The White Stripes took a remarkably simple approach to writing rock music. Apart from a handful of appearances from a piano and an organ, it was all about the guitar and drums. The distinctive riff work on tracks like I'm Finding It Hard to Be a Gentleman and I Think I Smell a Rat served to drive everything along, with no need for a bass guitar. Jack White's bratty vocal delivery, pierced through the cacophony of sound, as he ruminated about an estranged lover.

Meg's drumming was less about keeping rhythm and more about punctuating songs with enough ferocity to keep the energy levels high. But the record wasn't all smash and grab. Tracks like The Same Boy You've Always Known and Hotel Yorba, showcased White's ability as sensitive song writer. Even so, Meg didn't hold back, giving even the softer numbers a sense of youthful excitement.