It’s too easy to say the 00s ‘saviors of rock’ class merely retraced old paths - sure, Paul Banks sounds a lot like Ian Curtis, but Interpol is far lusher than the arid Joy Division. The Strokes may be indebted to Velvet Underground, but they play with a machine-tooled precision the Velvets would never dream of trying. (That’s no slam - the hole at the center of “Hard To Explain” is diamond-cut perfection.) The White Stripes, by contrast, made an art out of sloppiness and showing their rough edges, transcending their inspirations with a weirdo spark unique to Jack & Meg.