Mainstream rock albums that actually don’t suck.

Mainstream rock is an area of music that often gets overlooked by critics, music snobs, and basically everyone outside high school students and those people that write “I like just about everything” in the music section of their Facebook pages. And usually for good reason, since mainstream rock has been associated with plain awful acts such as Boston, the Scorpions, Third Eye Blind, Alice in Chains, and modernly speaking, bands like System of a Down and Nickleback. There’s a lot there to dislike, and no one will blame you for completely writing it off as a whole and sticking to the independent section of your local music stores.

But writing off all mainstream rock as being horrible is like a mainstream rock fan writing off anything that isn’t on MTV just because it’s not popular. The ignorance can go both ways, like a drunken girl who needs some money. I mean, bands like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and the Beatles were and are mainstream rock bands, and the same group that will refuse to listen to anything modern that’s popular worships them.

And that is why I’ve decided to compile a list of mainstream rock albums that don’t suck. I’ve decided to not include bands such as Sonic Youth, R.E.M., Radiohead, or most bands that started out as underground icons before gaining mainstream popularity, because usually these bands ignore most mainstream rock trappings.

1.) Foo Fighters- There’s Nothing Left to Lose.

The Foo Fighters are one of those strange bands that are able to write some really good songs and then somehow be content with sandwiching them between forgettable filler crap. This is why the Foo Fighters only have one truly great album, despite having a handful of great songs that pepper every album they have.

There’s Nothing Left to Lose may not be as celebrated as the band’s self-titled debut, or the blockbuster The Colour and the Shape, but when it comes down to it, it’s the strongest of the three. Self-titled sounds like a bunch of leftover table scraps, despite occasional brilliance, and Colour’s flamboyant and unnecessary production kills the otherwise well-written songs on it by turning the whole thing into a generic post-grunge record.

But Nothing manages to avoid both of these frills, with a strong set of songs given minimal excessive production that keeps the album sounding grounded and natural. The songwriting itself is incredibly tight, with songs like “This Year,” “Aurora,” and “Generator” ranking as some of the best songs the Foo Fighters ever recorded. The natural feeling of the album makes even the harder rock songs like “Stacked Actors” and “MIA” sound somewhat peaceful and relaxing, making this a great album to listen to on a warm summer night, a kind of atmosphere that most mainstream rock albums would be lucky to have.

2.) A Perfect Circle- The 13th Step.

A Perfect Circle came around during what is possibly the darkest period that mainstream music has ever experienced. If you were a pop fan, you had nothing but boy bands and novelty rap songs. If you liked rock, you have nothing but nu-metal, which was essentially a bunch of privileged white kids who assumed that not getting to party last weekend, is the worst thing that could ever happen to them, not to mention what seemed like a contest to see which band could include the line “I don’t want to be what you want me to be” in the most songs possible. So far, Linkin Park has been in the lead.

So A Perfect Circle came out with their debut album, Mer De Noms, which sadly got lumped in with the other trash of the day despite the fact that outside of one of the singles, the album had little in common with the garbage that was on the radio. So it kind of makes sense that A Perfect Circle’s next album would be such a step in a new direction. 13th Step is a much darker, more atmospheric album that worked more heavily with soundscapes than it did catchy melodies and crunching guitars. And with that, they have us one of the few mainstream rock albums of that era to actually be worth a listen. Songs here range from gritty (The Package) to pretty (The Noose), with a unifying theme of addiction that is as emotional as it is difficult.

3.) Weezer- Weezer (The Blue Album)

Choosing between the Blue Album and Pinkerton is a difficult choice. Personally, I find Pinkerton to be the better album, but Blue fits better with the theme of the list. Pinkerton has much more in common with gritty underground alternative bands like Pavement and the Pixies than it does with the mainstream rockers of it’s day, but Blue fits nicely into the mainstream rock canon.

Blue is a lot like the first two or three Beatles albums. Nothing here is really that innovative, edgy, or deep, but there’s a real enthusiasm and raw talent driving it that makes it seem different than everything else around it. Blue’s giddy cuteness is exactly what makes it so good, it doesn’t take itself overly serious and it realizes that it’s just a damn good pop-rock album. That kind of self-awareness lets the songs breathe and allows the listener to sit back and have some fun. And having fun while listening to music isn’t a bad thing, despite what Pitchfork Media has been telling you.

4.) Green Day- Warning.

Most critics will tell you that Dookie is Green Day’s greatest accomplishment, and it is a good album. But Warning is, simply put, the best document of Green Day’s talent of any album they’ve released.

Most Green Day albums get bogged down by either taking themselves too seriously (Insomniac, American Idiot) or not taking themselves seriously enough (Dookie, Nimrod). Warning manages to find a delicate balance between fun and maturity and highlight the fact that at its core, Green Day is really just a good pop band.

On Warning, Green Day toss out the pop-punk that they’re known for and make a good old fashioned jangle-pop album, and album that sounds spirited and carefree while remaining intelligent. Songs like “Waiting” and “Fashion Victim” prove that Green Day are just a catchy band, while fun experiments in Beatles-esque rock ‘n roll (Hold On), Greek dinner party music (Misery), and a folk ballad (Macy’s Day Parade) keep it from getting redundant.

5.) Saves the Day- Stay What You Are

Emo is one of those genres that has become so diluted from its original form that you can barely tell that Rites of Spring and modern emo have anything at all in common. And most modern emo is tolerable at best. But every genre has its exception to the rule, and Stay What You Are is the qualifier for this genre.

Stay What You Are does at times fall into the lyrical trappings of modern emo, but luckily for the band, the songs have good enough music to make that fact irrelevant, while many of the other songs contain some really well-written lyrics to make up for the bad ones. Songs like “At Your Funeral,” “Cars and Calories,” and the beautiful “This Is Not An Exit” are easily some of the best modern day emo songs ever written, not that I’m saying they have stiff competition or anything. But be warned: despite the brilliance of this album, the rest of the band’s catalogue, minus In Reverie, is pretty unlistenable.

6.) U2- The Joshua Tree.

Say whatever you want about Bono being a prick, or  about U2’s recent albums being trash, but denying that The Joshua Tree is one of the best albums of the 80’s is like denying that pants are good to wear when it’s cold out. The Joshua Tree is everything that mainstream rock can be when it’s done right. It uses it big sound to create moods and feelings rather than just fist pumping anthems, it uses it’s lyrics to explain political messages and real emotions rather than just cheesy love songs. It shares things in common with the underground rock scene just as much as it does the mainstream scene. It seamlessly mixes genres like folk, blues, post-punk, new wave, and gospel into one blend of rock goodness.

Now listening to: Codeine- The White Burch.