10 overlooked classics from the indie boom
The 1960s had rock and roll. The 1990s had Britpop. Then, in the 2000s, the world had indie as the latest instalment of guitar music took hold of music fans everywhere. It took many forms, from more punk-leading ragers to twee indie-pop tunes, but from all corners of the sound, catchy tunes were popping up week after week as the indie boom was big and bright.
Some subsects of the indie scene have been studied to no end. The indie sleaze era of New York City was a phenomenon in itself, birthing major acts like The Strokes, Interpol and LCD Soundsystem. But under the exciting buzz of new noise, some great tracks slipped through the cracks as underrated treasures. Elsewhere around the States, all different brands of hipsters were putting out their take on the sound, from folk-twanged tracks to more classic rock and roll-influenced indie offerings.
Over in the UK, early indie settled into different camps, too. Arctic Monkeys and The Cribs felt like Britain’s answer to sleaze, creating songs that sound like messy nights down the local pub. Elsewhere, acts like The Maccabees and Mystery Jets were more clean-cut, singing in strong British accents and looking like the kind of boys that your mother would approve of.
As such a vast and varied moment, the sound of the indie boom is tough to pin down. It’s been captured in greatest hits lists, celebrating the top tracks of the moment. But what about the underrated gems that might have been forgotten in time? These ten songs demand a revisit.
10 underrated songs from the indie boom:
‘Sofa Song’ – The Kooks
The Kooks are a band doomed to live in the shadows of one great anthem. ‘Naive’ became one of the most defining tracks of the whole period, marking their entry into the music world at a dizzying peak they’ve struggled to climb to ever since.
But their debut album, Inside In / Inside Out, is an absolute treasure trove. It’s as messy as you’d expect a record made by a bunch of teenagers to be, packed with silly lyrics and immature moments (‘Jackie Big Tits’), but there is gold there. ‘Sofa Song’ is a gem especially. It’s catchy as anything, packed with a youthful attitude and full of the kind of spontaneity that the Kooks had nailed on this debut release.
‘Young Love’ – Mystery Jets and Laura Marling
The second Mystery Jets linked up with a young Laura Marling; it is like the door opens at the next indie age. Right on the cusp of the early 2000s period and the later 2010s, twee-tinged indie pop, ‘Young Love’ is an energy shift.
But together, Mystery Jets and Marling, who was fresh on the scene and shaking it up with her new indie-folk sound, created something special. It nails the almost innocent fun of the early indie scene with sweet lyricism about teenage love and a clear 1960s influence.
‘About Your Dress’ – The Maccabees
If you wanted to figure out the blueprint of 2000s British indie, you could listen to this track for a good listen. It has the opening lyrics, sung with a harmony of boyish, strong accents. Then comes the band, with big drums and obnoxious electric guitar, meandering through different melodies but always coming back to one big chorus.
The Maccabees were another act leading the charge as indie melded further into a poppier direction. While the US scene was firmly sleaxy, as set by the New York crowd, the UK sound was morphing into something different, more clean-cut and hooky, and The Maccabees nailed it early and set the tone from then on.
‘What Katy Did Next’ – Babyshambles
However, there were still some acts keeping the UK crowd as sleazy and grimy as anywhere else. Pete Doherty was putting in an absolute shift at that, almost single-handedly partying enough for the whole music crowd. In fact, he was partying so hard that his original group, The Libertines, couldn’t hack it, so he started Babyshambles to continue the chaos with a more indie sheen.
In The Libertines, ‘What Katy Did’ became a genre-defining anthem, written for Kate Moss as the model and the musician became the early 2000s ultimate indie it-couple. But on Babyshambles 2005 record, Down In Albion, Doherty continued the story with a follow-up, chasing up the original heartbreak tune with an imploration of love, declaring, “If you love her, then tell her you love her.”
‘Date With The Night’ – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
In the indie boom, Karen O was leading the charge for the ladies. As with most music scenes, early indie was male heavy, packed full with boys in bands. But when the Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer got up on stage, she not only asserted herself as a powerful player in the 2000s crowd, but as an enduring force in the broader music industry.
Sure, everyone loves ‘Maps’, ‘Y Control’, or later tracks like ‘Heads Will Roll’, but ‘Date With The Night’ deserves more life. It swells and breaks, throwing their listeners through a series of climaxes and collapses that always got their crowds going crazy back in their early days of warehouse parties and small venue gigs on the New York circuit.
‘Ragged Wood’ – Fleet Foxes
If New York was sleazy and the UK was poppy, there was also a third subsect of early indie, taking note from folk and country for a kind of cowboy-tinted take on the genre. Fleet Foxes ruled that roost, meaning a lot to a certain brand of hipster that wore wide-brim hats with a feather on it and loved other acts like Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. It was a new kind of hippie, and they had ‘Ragged Wood’ on repeat.
But with hindsight, Fleet Foxes were doing something genuinely interesting with their early sprawling, adventurous instrumentals. Led by the vocals of Robin Pecknold, the band’s early line up was a cast of some incredible musicians, including one Josh Tillman on drums who is probably better known through his stage name, Father John Misty.
‘Hang Me Up To Dry’ – Cold War Kids
On the opposite coast from the sleaze scene of New York, Cold War Kids were keeping the sound going all the way over in California. Upon the release of their debut album, Robbers and Cowards, critics slammed the effort for a lack of intelligence which, in hindsight, is the sign of a truly great 2000s indie release.
Packed with big singalong moments, faux metaphorical lyrics and a catchy instrumental, ‘Hang Me Up To Dry’ has all the makings of a foolproof tune that feels like a timepiece from the ear. It also achieved the ultimate glory of any early indie tune by bagging a soundtrack feature on Gossip Girl’s debut single when the cast of teenage rich kids scandalised television.
‘I Follow Rivers’ – Lykke Li
It’s easy to forget that Lykke Li released ‘I Follow Rivers’ way back in 2008. It feels like ever since the song has come back around and around, either refreshed by some new remix or merely remembered as the timelessly great tune it is.
But back in the 2000s, this was the soundtrack for Topshop-clad indie girls, swaying to the sounds of Lykke Li’s mysterious indie-pop like a manic pixie dream girl in a movie. In the same sort of class as Uffie and the ‘bloghouse’ circle, this is a song that soundtracked a thousand MySpace profiles.
‘Bigger Boys and Stolen Sweethearts’ – Arctic Monkeys
Imagine the scene. It’s 2005, and you’re 18 and living in Sheffield. Your mates from school have a band; they’re busy handing out homemade demo CDs and playing gigs at all your favourite local spots. You grab a cider and push to the front right as a young Alex Turner and his band launch into ‘Bigger Boys and Stolen Sweethearts’, one of their most underrated B-sides.
There’s arguably no early 2000s indie act who made it as big as Arctic Monkeys. They road the genre all the way to the top while also managing to escape the trappings of the stunting one-hit-wonder brush that tarnished so many of their peers. Instead, they moved with the times and have evolved a long way since here. But it doesn’t change the fact that this tune is a banger.
‘You Were Always The One’ – The Cribs
The Cribs are another band where you can almost smell the cheap cider and feel the side fringe on your face the second it starts up. The buzz around the band was so high that in 2008, The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr even asked to join their lineup, clearly seeing them as the next coming of indie royalty.
But when listening back to their 2004 self-titled debut album, it’s easy to understand why. Even as that indie sound has staled on the old albums of some of their peers, something about The Cribs take on it has remained as electric as ever. ‘You Were Always The One’ is a highlight as a track that would still sound just as great blaring out of sound systems in basement venues today as it did back them.
