'00s Alternative Rock 2

Another ’00s Alternative Rock set? Didn’t we just tear through a hefty collection of guitar-smashing hits? Well, yeah, but we couldn’t possibly cram every chord-chopping jam from the past decade into one playlist. So here we are, then, serving up the rich soundscapes of Coldplay and their partner in production Brian Eno (“Viva la Vida”), the catchy but caustic post-hardcore of Rise Against (“Savior”), and at least two Warped Tour vets who’ve been listening to a lot of Queen lately (My Chemical Romance and Green Day, who break out the drama-club tactics on “Welcome to the Black Parade” and “21 Guns,” respectively).

If that’s not enough to keep you guessing, there’s always our Next Steps, which shift from Weezer to Slipnot without breaking a sweat.

Familiar faces aside (the welcome irony of Weezer, the apocalyptic chords of Korn), there’s a revolving door of fresh blood in our ’00s Alternative Rock 2 Essentials breakdown. On the singer-songwriter side of things, Florence + The Machine and Feist burst onto the scene with two very different singles — the merry melodies and spare, plucked strings of “1234,” and the heavenly harp lines/absolutely ecstatic choruses of “Dog Days Are Over.” If you’d rather plunge into a mosh pit, we’ve got the perfect slam-dancing soundtrack, too, from the mascara-smeared mall-punk of AFI (“Miss Murder”) to the well-oiled garage rock of the White Stripes (“Icky Thump”).

Speaking of Jack White, two of the best tracks from his other bands also pop up in our Deep Cuts.

Nothing against the two other tiers in our ’00s Alternative Rock 2 Essentials, but Deep Cuts is where things get really interesting. For starters, we’ve got the two groups with whom Jack White cheats on the White Stripes — the Dead Weather and The Raconteurs, as heard, respectively, in the savage, organ-grinding strut of “I Cut Like a Buffalo” and the piston-propelled power pop of “Steady As She Goes.” And then there’s the sputtering drums of “I Bet You Look Good On the Dancefloor,” a sun-baked cover of the Cure (“Love Song”), and the dizzying solo debut of Serj Tankian (“Empty Walls,” which easily lives up to his schizophrenic songwriting in System of a Down).

While the ’90s was all about slacker revolts, the return of college rock, and such old-school revivals as ska and swing, the new millennium has given the guitar-guided charts a facelift on a monthly basis. So much so that we’ve been forced to compile not one, but two Essentials playlists devoted to the ’00s’ top alt-rock acts. You’re looking at the sequel right here — heart-wrenching emo with an erratic hardcore-punk pulse (Rise Against, New Found Glory, the Used), arena rock that’s ready for lighter-lifting and deafening sing-alongs (Red Hot Chili Peppers, 30 Seconds to Mars, Foo Fighters), nü-metal that actually sounds new (Korn, Slipknot, Linkin Park), and hard rock that reaches for the rafters, echoing the Stooges (the White Stripes) and Led Zeppelin (Wolfmother).