20 Best Punk Albums of the Decade, 2000-2009

This short-lived Philadelphia band has a solid cult following -- and for good reason. They helped define the latest face of hardcore at the turn of the century. Shorter, Faster, Louder is comprised of 18 tracks that roll through in under 25 minutes, and the band punches you in the face with ‘80s-influenced hardcore that just tears it wide open, driven by the guitars of Dan Yemin, who perfected his sound with the seminal hardcore band Lifetime. While Kid Dynamite was gone all too soon, they left a pile of addictively great, if incredibly short, songs as their legacy and as a guiding light for hardcore bands to follow in their wake.

Essential Tracks:
"Living Daylights" Listen/Download
"S.O.S." Listen/Download

Oftentimes, a band approaching 20 years together has settled into a distinctive sound, which rarely promises any surprise. This is not the case with the Bouncing Souls, who continue to explore newer sounds and still are incredibly cohesive as a band, even after all these years. Whether or not it was meant to be a statement on the quality of its music, calling this album The Gold Record was appropriate, because it’s the best Bouncing Souls album yet. It's filled with fist-pumping punk anthems, melodic nostalgic-sounding punk rock, and even some acoustic guitars.

Essential Tracks:
"The Pizza Song" Listen/Download
"The Gold Song" Listen/Download

While the Pogues may have created the Celtic Punk sound, Flogging Molly was their stateside counterpart, separated by miles and years. The band’s sophomore release was more raucous and energetic than their debut, Swagger, and featured more memorable, varied songs that blended punk energy with traditional Irish song structures, all of which invite you to sing along.

For fans who are not Irish, there are some albums that make you wish you were, and there are some that make you feel that even if you're not, it doesn't matter, you're still welcome. This one is one of the latter.

Essential Tracks:
"Drunken Lullabies" Listen/Download
"Rebels of the Sacred Heart" Listen/Download

No matter your opinion on Green Day and what they have/haven’t done for punk rock, this album warrants a spot due to its commercial success alone. It debuted at number one on multiple charts worldwide, achieved multiple platinum albums, and won a Grammy for Best Rock Album.

Inspired by various musicals and concept albums, American Idiot is a “punk rock opera” that relates the story of the Jesus of Suburbia as he traverses a bleak landscape punctuated with the colors of the eccentric characters he encounters. It's heavy with the tight, fast pop punk that Green Day is known for, and the power pop sounds that they're progressing toward.

Essential Tracks:
"American Idiot" Listen/Download
"Holiday/Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" Listen/Download

This pure cowpunk album is packed tightly with punk rock restlessness and twangy rhythms that would fit well in either a punk club or a honky tonk bar, and draped in melancholy lyrics that make you debate whether you want to order another drink or just cry in the empty glass in front of you.

At the front of this great concoction is Ben Nichols, a poetic lyricist who sounds like a twangier, coarser version of Kurt Cobain, providing the punctuation mark at the end of a perfectly crafted paragraph.

Essential Tracks:
"Nights Like These" Listen/Download
"Chain Link Fence" Listen/Download

Andrew W.K. is classically-trained musician who chose to use his talents for good, and while he may not have invented the “party hard” punk rock sound, he certainly perfected it on I Get Wet. This is an album almost entirely composed of “party songs” -- upbeat, positive energy-fueled tunes that employ liberal use of said word in both song titles and lyrics.

It's not easy to pinpoint what makes this album so good; the lyrics are simple, and while the music is complex, it's complexity takes place well beneath the surface. The album's inherent greatness comes from the positive energy it exudes.

Essential Tracks:
"It's Time To Party" Listen/Download
"Ready To Die" Listen/Download

My Chemical Romance’s major label debut is an album that alienated as many of their old fans as it gained new ones. Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge is an album that found the band transitioning toward a more pop punk sound and image than they’d previous displayed. Despite the criticism from fans who called them sellouts over the change, Three Cheers is a stronger album than their first, showing a band that had figured out who they were, shedding some of their post-hardcore elements and creating a more complete sound, punctuated with snappy hooks and memorable choruses.

Essential Tracks:
"I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" Listen/Download
"Helena (So Long & Goodnight)" Listen/Download

While it’s not A3’s best album, it is their best release in this decade, before they started the abysmal slide into mediocre oddness that would plague them from them on.

Maybe I’ll Catch Fire captured the last time that Alkaline Trio was truly amazing, with perfectly written, introspective lyrics and the raw buzzsaw guitar sound mixed with screaming vocals that Matt Skiba has made his trademark. Later releases would find a band that was more melodramatic, less abrasive, and more commercial, catering to a much younger demographic. In short, they went from being their own blink-182 to Angels and Airwaves without breaking up.

At least we still have the old stuff, though.

Essential Tracks:
"Radio" Listen/Download
"Sleepyhead" Listen/Download

Perhaps the biggest argument for inclusion on this list would be for Against Me!; the point of contention not being their inclusion, but rather which album would make the cut. Against Me!’s anti-folk punk sounds and anarcho-punk politics have been a staple in the punk scene for the past decade, and their songwriting is consistently solid.

Searching For a Former Clarity was a breakaway album for the band. While it retains much of the passion, energy and punk rock anger of their previous records, Clarity found a band that was more musically diverse and disciplined, with their energy channeled into bursts rather than scattered in all directions.

Essential Tracks:
"Miami"
"Don't Lose Touch"

Like an Eastern European version of the Pogues, Gogol Bordello breaks out at frantic pace, blending punk with traditional Gypsy instruments. Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike is an incredible album that is both melodic and spastic, fueled with the raw energy that can only be created by combining accordion and fiddle with electric guitar.

At the forefront of the band is Eugene Hutz, an Eastern European immigrant who assembled a United Nations of stellar musicians and brought worldwide attention to a wide range of traditional sounds mixed with punk energy, and giving a name to the sweaty, exotic international dance party that is now know as Gypsy punk.

Essential Tracks:
"Start Wearing Purple" Listen/Download
"Immigrant Punk" Listen/Download