Ahh,  Indie Rock. Good old independently organized, emotionally volatile, spiritually vacant, depressingly-uplifting, guitar-based-but-synth-infused Indie Rock. While there’s no shortage of amazing albums, and though we’re not clairvoyant, it’s safe to say that the golden age of Indie Rock, that time when the genre was at the forefront of musical counterculture, has passed. So in memory of that special time,  we’ve decided to compile a brief list of our favorite albums from the era. Just please don’t bash us too much for our tastes!

Radiohead – Kid A

Never ones to stick to what already worked, Radiohead didn’t let the success of their previous album, the esteemed OK Computer, get in the way of their musical experimentation. In Kid A, Radiohead had succeeded in going where no band went before, traversing into the depths of their own imaginations, into a vacant wasteland of ideas where nothing seems to grow, Radiohead delivered a bleak, apocalyptic, yet stunningly beautiful and unique musical experience.

Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot sounds as if someone had taken Rock music apart, broke it down to its elementary particles and wave-functions, only to masterfully MacGyver it back together, creating a clunky masterpiece made out of nuts and bolts and scrap pieces. The instrumentation is at once familiar and utterly strange, the songs cryptic and heartwrenching. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is for sure one of the greatest albums in Indie Rock’s history.

Destroyer – Destroyer’s Rubies

In Destroyer’s Rubies,  it seemed as though the hopelessly sly and cynical Destroyer was about to burst. He injected his compositions with a tremendously lethal dose of lavish, velvety, jazzy sophistication, finally bringing forth a work that matched the outlandish finesse of his lyrics on a musical level.