29. Franz Ferdinand

After these fun-loving, tight-trousered Scottish boys became hipster pinups with their excellent 2004 debut, everyone was looking for the next Franz Ferdinand. Turns out they were just looking for Franz's second album, which streamlines their abundant charms -- namely those ramshackle disco beats that frame Sixties Brit-pop melodies and the pleasure principle that's never more evident than on the excellent single "Do You Want To?" Singer Alex Kapranos narrates twentysomething dramas on oblique rockers like "Walk Away," but he's more like a saucy host than a spotlight-grabbing frontman, overseeing arty dance-rock that seems so simple you wonder why no other young band can match it.

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