15. Gorillaz

When no one was looking, Gorillaz managed to sneak a very cool mix of hip-hop, Brit rock and experimental pop onto the American charts. Blur frontman Damon Albarn's switch in collaborators from Dan "the Automator" (who produced the outfit's 2001 debut) to mixmaster DJ Danger Mouse results in even stranger musical combinations that somehow retain their fundamental funkiness -- a creepy childlike choir animating "Dirty Harry," De La Soul rocking old-school on "Feel Good Inc." and ex-Happy Mondays hooligan Shaun Ryder ranting through "DARE."

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