Scratched by the Rabbit
Artist: Glenn Phillips

These first-rate instrumentals feature Phillips's silly-putty guitar mangling. ~ Michael P. Dawson, All Music Guide Read More

A Can of Bees
Artist: The Soft Boys

One of the band's earliest recordings, featuring their signature tune "Give It to the Soft Boys," A Can of Bees includes a lot of the zaniness principal member Robyn Hitchcock would become known for in his later work, but the band had not yet jelled and found them still in search of their ultimate sound, an amalgam of new wave and psychedelia.... Read More

Eskimo
Artist: The Residents
Community Score: 8.00

The most rewarding, the most difficult, and the most accomplished of all the Residents' albums, this was their departure into the field of imaginary ethno-musicography that they had begun on "Six Things to a Cycle" on Fingerprince. Ostensibly a musical documentary on the Eskimo, this is an album of icy atmospheres, poetic electronics, and... Read More

The Commercial Album
Artist: The Residents
Community Score: 8.00

Here's the concept: The structure of most pop songs consists of only two parts, the verse and the chorus. Since the verse and chorus usually repeat three times in a three-minute song, a pop tune really only consists of one minute of music. Cut out the repetition and you can, therefore, fit 40 pop songs onto a 40-minute record. And that's exactly... Read More

The Return of the Durutti Column
Artist: The Durutti Column

More debut albums should be so amusingly perverse with its titles -- and there's the original vinyl sleeve, which consisted of sandpaper precisely so it would damage everything next to it in one's collection. Released in the glow of post-punk fervor in late-'70s Manchester, one would think Return would consist of loud, aggressive sheet-metal... Read More

Three Imaginary Boys
Artist: The Cure
Community Score: 7.65

Maybe it was youthful exuberance or perhaps it was the fact that the band itself was not pulling all the strings, Three Imaginary Boys is not only a very strong debut, but a near oddity (it's an admittedly "catchy" record) in the Cure catalog. More poppy and representative of the times it was made that any other album during their long career,... Read More

The Scream
Artist: Siouxsie and the Banshees
Community Score: 5.67

After building up an intense live reputation and a rabid fan base, Siouxsie and the Banshees almost had to debut with a stunner -- which they did, "Hong Kong Garden" taking care of things on the singles front and The Scream on the full-length. Matched with a downright creepy cover and a fair enough early producing effort from Steve Lillywhite --... Read More

Happy?
Artist: Public Image Ltd.
Community Score: 6.00

Happy? benefits from some relative stability in PiL's lineup, not to mention the undeniable fact that the band members' allegiance makes sense (in contrast to that of Album's crew). Keyboardist Lu Edmonds (the Damned and 3 Mustaphas 3), guitarist John McGeoch (Magazine and Siouxsie & the Banshees), drummer Bruce Smith (the Pop Group and... Read More

Album/Compact Disc/Cassette
Artist: Public Image Ltd.
Community Score: 9.00

Hot guitars and 4/4 time signatures make this sound more like a hard-rock album than anything Lydon's done since The Sex Pistols. And the hit single "Rise" is actually a catchy number, believe it or not. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide Read More

1985-1990: The A List
Artist: Wire

1985-1990: The A List is a fine 16-track compilation of the highlights from Wire's surprising and successful comeback. This material isn't quite as essential as their early output -- Wire doesn't sound as revolutionary on these sides, although the music is still high-quality. It bears some similarities to the sort of '80s college-radio... Read More