'00s Alternative Rock 2

The first decade of the 21st century has delivered too much great rock of the alt persuasion to confine it to just one set of Essentials . . . so here's another. Brooklyn's MGMT, one of the most imaginative leftfield bands anywhere, lights the touch paper with the electro-squelching "Kids", Arctic Monkeys put us in mind of people dancing like robots from 1984 with their still-fizzing calling card from 2005 ("I Bet You Look Good On the Dancefloor"), and with "Mykonos" Seattle-based Fleet Foxes prove that pastoral, hymn-like harmonies can be life-changing. Some of the bands in Next Steps are really saying something.

"England has nothing more to offer me," sings Edward Larrikin on 2006's "Downing Street Kindling", one of the decade's most memorable protest songs, while Weezer takes a pop at online video culture en route to bagging 17 million-plus YouTube hits for "Pork and Beans", and the Brian Jonestown Massacre weighs in with its with own slab of dissent, "Bring Me the Head of Paul McCartney . . . ". Zooey Deschanel puts Hollywood on the backburner, and proves her chops as a songwriter, alongside M. Ward on "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?" Familiar alt outfits from the '90s reappear, stronger than ever, in Deep Cuts.

Among the fresh faces here — like Jamie T, who debuted with Mercury Prize shortlisted Panic Prevention in 2007, as did Glasgow's 1990s, following up with 2009's Kicks (title track included here) — are a bunch of familiar mugs from the '90s: PJ Harvey, a vital alt presence since 1991, teams up with John Parish for the dark, beautiful "Black Hearted Love", lead track from 2009's A Woman a Man Walked By, while the bulk of Scotland's Beta Band (formed 1996) reassembled as the Aliens in '05: "Setting Sun" signals their deviation into psychedelic garage rock.

Alt-rock aficionados have been gifted an abundance of pegs on which to hang their hats in the '00s, and these Essentials have pulled in the most prominent of them — sounds and voices that have defined the decade and offered us something triumphant, fresh, and vital. It might be the whistling from Peter Bjorn and John's "Young Folks" that grabs your fancy, or the strong but spectral vocal of Robin Pecknold from Fleet Foxes . . . or how about the air-splitting entreaties of James Allan from Glasvegas on "Geraldine"; the passion-cracked howls of Caleb Followill on "Fans"; or Cat Power's gently strummed autoharp on "Sea of Love"? These are just some of the excellent reasons to keep exploring the decade of alternative rock alleyways.