Wasted...Again
Artist: Black Flag

Wasted...Again is a posthumous release that is an essential career summation. For those hearing the ear-searing sounds of early-'80s SoCal hardcore punk for the first time, Wasted...Again is an essential purchase. ~ John Dougan, All Music Guide Read More

The Best of Bow Wow Wow - RECEIVER
Artist: Bow Wow Wow
Awakening
Artist: The Last

If you wanted a history of power pop in one lesson, you could do worse than put on Awakening. The album starts out with two classics -- the Byrds-like blast of "No Love" and the punk-pop gem of "Assembly Line" -- and moves through nine more tracks of upbeat melodic brilliance. Joe Nolte was on an incredible songwriting streak here, and of those... Read More

Warehouse: Songs and Stories
Artist: Hüsker Dü
Community Score: 7.69

It's cleaner and more produced than any of their records, which is one reason why many Hüsker Dü fans have never fully embraced their second double album, Warehouse: Songs and Stories. Granted, Warehouse boasts a fuller production -- complete with multi-tracked guitars and vocal, various percussion techniques, and endless studio effects -- that... Read More

Tallulah
Artist: The Go-Betweens

Tallulah, the Go-Betweens fifth album, was supposed to be the band's breakthrough recording in America. That said, its sound is nearly a full-on break with the edginess that began to fade on 1986's Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express. More lush, rounded, polished, it sounds like a record made in the mid-'80s thanks in large part to Lindy... Read More

Life in Exile After Abdication
Artist: Maureen Tucker

Rock & roll is supposed to be a populist medium that provides a musical voice for anyone with the wherewithal to pick up an electric guitar and learn three chords. So how come the majority of its practitioners are physically and/or emotionally adolescent males who can't think of anything better do to than complain about girls? Maureen Tucker... Read More

History Never Repeats: The Best of Split Enz
Artist: Split Enz
Community Score: 10.00

Split Enz are probably best remembered in the U.S. for their new wave-era singles; History Never Repeats: The Best of Split Enz collects all of the major singles from the band's A&M albums in a single disc package. For the casual fan, there is no better starting point. The Australian issue is far superior as a career overview however, as it... Read More

Nonentity (Water III: Fan Black Dada)
Artist: Zoogz Rift

The cover photo of Zoogz Rift looking pensively through tree branches might lead you to wonder if the famously angry and eccentric guitarist had released a sensitive, low-key album. The surprising answer is yes, he did -- at least, by his standards. Throughout Nonentity, Rift sings in a more relaxed, conventional style than at any other point in... Read More

Thunder and Consolation
Artist: New Model Army
Community Score: 6.00

NMA proved that they were well worth waiting for. Thunder and Consolation begins grandly, keeping the keyboards from "White Coats" on "I Love the World," an anthem filled with bittersweet irony and sarcasm. Self-produced, the album never falters, and the single "Stupid Questions" made an impression on American college and modern-rock radio,... Read More

Post-Mersh, Vol. 1
Artist: Minutemen

The Minutemen's Post-Mersh is a valuable series, collecting all of the group's official discography, with the exception of Double Nickels on the Dime, 3-Way Tie For Last, and Ballot Result, over the course of three discs. Post-Mersh, Vol. 1 starts at the beginning, combining the trio's first two albums, The Punch Line (1981) and What Makes A Man... Read More

The Best of A Flock of Seagulls - JIVE
Artist: A Flock of Seagulls

Liverpool's A Flock of Seagulls are best remembered for lead singer Mike Score's hair (and their number ten hit "I Ran [So Far Away]"). The quartet actually scored three lesser hits aside from that archetypal '80s smash. The kinetic "A Space Age Love Song"; the cascading, multi-layered "Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You)"; and the sweeping... Read More

The Light at the End of the Tunnel
Artist: The Damned
Community Score: 9.50

Anyone expecting a fully organized compilation from this double-disc effort will be sorely disappointed; while the years for release dates are mentioned, the sources for many of the releases aren't, leaving neophytes to the Damned a bit high and dry. Happily, an appreciative and detailed essay from one Herb Fenstein (more likely Chiswick label... Read More

Field Day
Artist: Dag Nasty
Community Score: 4.50

For album number three, the band headed to Los Angeles, switched drummers along the way (with Scott Garrett taking over on the skins), and created a thoroughly and totally lost rock classic -- not just punk, but something more than that. Armed with all the fire and fervor of the music the members grew up with, but not content to simply do that... Read More

So Bright, So Strong
Artist: Nitzer Ebb
Community Score: 8.00

A German collection including all of Nitzer Ebb's early singles plus several remixes and B-sides, So Bright, So Strong is a good introduction to the band's early period. Four mixes of "Warsaw Ghetto" easily qualifies as overkill, though. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide Read More