It seems like just yesterday that America was involved in an illegal and immoral war in Iraq. While kids you knew from high school were in the Middle East getting their legs blown off you were trying to figure out your favorite brand of clove cigarette and dabbling with cocaine. Today we revisit the soundtrack to those carefree days with 20 indie albums that came out 20 years ago, that’s right, it’s been two decades.

The Killers “Hot Fuss”

The Killers are to millennial indie rock fans what Shania Twain is to women wearing cowboy boots, in that hearing the first two seconds of one of their hits is enough to make a person want to kick down a door. Between “Somebody Told Me,” “Mr. Brightside,” and “Smile Like You Mean It,” this debut album solidified that The Killers are without a doubt the best British rock band to come out of Las Vegas, Nevada.

 

The Libertines S/T

If you’ve ever fantasized about being at a party in London, where a couple guys who are several pints deep grab electric guitars and start slurring along to some songs, but are actually good, then boy is this album for you. With lyrics like, “to the man who would be king I will say only one thing: la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la,” this is indie Brit rock at its drunken finest.

 

Tegan and Sara “So Jealous”

You’re probably not ready to hear this considering it seems like just yesterday that you were crying in your car listening to “The Con,” but this Tegan and Sara album—their fourth—is older than your cousin Ricky, and that kid is hufe now. Luckily, everyone’s favorite Canadian indie-punk-lite-playing twin sisters are still making new music for you to enjoy as you reckon with middle age.

 

Kings of Leon “Aha Shake Heartbreak”

These days Kings of Leon are about as mainstream rock as it gets, but back in 2004 they were just a modestly known band making somewhat Southern-y rock music while wearing striped shirts and weird jackets, which is by definition very indie.

 

 

Modest Mouse “Good News For People Who Love Bad News”

This album was Modest Mouse’s first big commercial success following a lineup reshuffle, being certified platinum and earning two Grammy nominations. Nonetheless, it stays true to indie ethos, with plenty of fringe instrumentation, semi-histrionic vocals, and a nine-second horn intro that’s just as nonsensical today as it was twenty years ago.

 

Feist “Let It Die”

Outside of her time performing with Broken Social Scene, Feist released this chill, jazz and lounge-inspired indie-pop album of half originals and half covers. The bouncy track “Mushaboom” was included on the “500 Days of Summer” soundtrack, which is basically the mid-00s indie music version of winning Olympic gold. Today’s youths would call this one a “vibe,” and they would be correct.

 

Interpol “Antics”

Given the members of Interpol have been dressing like middle-aged corporate finance associates since the band’s formation in the late ’90s New York City, it’s only natural you’d still be listening to this album twenty years later, while commuting to your very own corporate job and thinking to yourself “This is all part of the plan.”

 

Blonde Redhead “Misery Is A Butterfly”

Not many bands can blame a four-year gap between albums on their singer getting trampled by a horse, but Blonde Redhead sure can. This record, produced by Guy Picciotto of Fugazi, marked a departure from their noise rock-inspired sound into a dreamier and math-ier brand of indie. Let it inspire you to cross horseback riding off your list of midlife crisis hobbies.

 

Regina Spektor “Soviet Kitsch”

The 2004 version of Regina Spektor’s major label debut was technically a reissue, as its original release was in 2003, but either way, you’ve gotten a lot older since her mesmerizingly audacious voice and spirited piano playing first graced your ears. Here is yet another album with a track featured on the “500 Days of Summer” soundtrack (some Millennials consider this the “Casablanca” of their time), rendering it immune to any arguments over whether it is or isn’t indie.

Electrelane “The Power Out”

This indie melting pot of an album by British girl group Electrelane is largely instrumental, with choral-inspired sequences, lyrics in foreign languages, and literary references thrown in for good measure. To the uninitiated, it could be a guessing game of whether it came out in 2004, 1974, or 2024. But if one thing is for sure, it’s that Electrelane walked so HAIM could run.

 

American Music Club “Love Songs For Patriots”

After an eight-year hiatus, American Music Club regrouped to record this dark and croony keyboard-centric record. They were all properly middle-aged in their late forties and early fifties at the time of its release, meaning by now they’re eligible to collect social security. With that in mind, this is a great listen for when you want to momentarily feel young and full of life.

 

Luna “Rendezvous”

If you want to talk about indie alpha moves, here’s an album that was recorded live to analog two-track. Not only that, but Rolling Stone once referred to Luna as “the best band you’ve never heard of.” This was their last release before dissolving a year later, then reuniting in 2015 to become even less heard of and all the more indie for it.

 

Rilo Kiley “More Adventurous”

Rilo Kiley seems to be another one of those bands that could have found just as much success twenty years before or after the time that they did, but 2004 was the year their fanbase started to rapidly grow. In retrospect they were something akin to indie-emo pioneers, and this album, with its story-like lyrics, is somehow even more relatable as a Middle-Aged than it was as a Young.

 

Elliot Smith “From a Basement On The Hill”

Smith’s very last album, released a year after his passing, became his highest charting record to date. It was originally intended as a double album and had to be finished by his former producer and ex-girlfriend; every track is so deeply and uniquely sad. You probably don’t need any more reminders of your own mortality these days, but if you do, put this one on.

 

Arcade Fire “Funeral”

Some would say Arcade Fire’s debut was a wildly influential indie rock album, while Rolling Stone says it’s number 500 on their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. It’s got everything one could want from an early 2000s indie release—danceable riffs, folky melodies, four songs with the same name, and a certain Canadian je ne sais quoi that’s stood the musical test of time even if some band members have not.

 

Franz Ferdinand S/T

If in 2004 you got anywhere near a television tuned to Fuse, the music video for “Take Me Out” by Franz Ferdinand was likely on the screen. Apparently this album has other songs, even some that rose to the top of UK charts, but our brains are too busy yelling “I want you—to take me out!” to remember anything else. If the track came out today, there’s no doubt that hook would become part of some TikTok trend.

 

The Veils “The Runaway Found”

This part-dark-and-gothic, part-dreampop debut album by The Veils was released exactly two months before the group disbanded over artistic differences. So, while frontman Finn Andrews would go on to make several more albums and EPs with different line-ups under the same band name, this one remains something of a one-off that’s good to revisit when your ears are craving melodramatic indie sounds.

 

TV On The Radio “Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes”

One can’t possibly talk about experimental Brooklyn-made indie art-rock without mentioning TVOTR. Their music is like if a retro-inspired street photographer’s Instagram grid had a sound—and to think they were writing these songs a decade before Instagram was even a word. This debut album was awarded the 2004 Shortlist Music Prize, and with its underground energy, it’s impossible to not feel very cool while listening to it.

The Von Bondies “Pawn Shoppe Heart”

Lest we forget that under the early-00s indie umbrella there was a garage punk revival, The Von Bondies are here to remind us. This loud and crunchy-ass album came out seven years into the band’s career, following a previous release produced by Jack White, and a subsequent street fight between White and The Von Bondie’s singer, Jason Stollsteimer. Ah, to be young.

 

Pinback “Summer in Abaddon”

The San Diego duo-and-friends known as Pinback pulled an 8.1 rating from Pitchfork with this album, which features rich guitar parts, piano layers, and stream of consciousness vocals. They recorded it right in their home studio, so, if playing and recording music is on your midlife crisis bingo card, go for it—someone might end up writing about it twenty years from now.