Damned Damned Damned
Artist: The Damned
Community Score: 9.50

While the Sex Pistols will always have a prominent place in the story of U.K. punk, the Damned did nearly everything first, including the first single, the smoking "New Rose," and the first album, namely, this stone classic of rock & roll fire. At just half an hour long, Damned Damned Damned is a permanent testimony to original guitarist Brian... Read More

Machine Gun Etiquette
Artist: The Damned
Community Score: 9.21

Rejoining forces without James, who pursued his own interests from then on (only hooking up with the band again for a late-'80s "farewell" show), the remaining three brought in young Saints veteran Ward on bass, recorded an album, and hoped for the best. That best proved much better than expected; while singles ended up on the charts, Etiquette... Read More

Generation X - UK
Artist: Generation X
Community Score: 5.90

Original Debut is a reissue of the U.K. version of Generation X's first album. Cocky and commercial -- and sporting some of Billy Idol's better lyrics -- Original Debut is more like glam or straight power pop with punk themes than pure punk. The guitar freakout at the end of "Youth Youth Youth" is the sort of noodly guitar jam you might not... Read More

In the City
Artist: The Jam
Community Score: 7.96

On their debut, the Jam offered a good balance between the forward-looking, "destroy everything" aggression of punk with a certain reverence for '60s beat and R&B. In an era that preached attitude over musicianship, the Jam bettered the competition with good pop sense, strong melodies, and plenty of hooks that compromised none of punk's ideals... Read More

Marquee Moon
Artist: Television
Community Score: 9.18

Marquee Moon is a revolutionary album, but it's a subtle, understated revolution. Without question, it is a guitar rock album -- it's astonishing to hear the interplay between Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd -- but it is a guitar rock album unlike any other. Where their predecessors in the New York punk scene, most notably the Velvet Underground,... Read More

Adventure
Artist: Television
Community Score: 6.75

Television's groundbreaking first album, Marquee Moon, was as close to a perfect debut as any band made in the 1970s, and in many respects it would have been all but impossible for the band to top it. One senses that Television knew this, because Adventure seems designed to avoid the comparisons by focusing on a different side of the band's... Read More

So Alone
Artist: Johnny Thunders
Community Score: 9.00

Following the drug-fueled implosion of the Heartbreakers, Johnny Thunders bounced back with his first solo outing, So Alone. Featuring a veritable who's who of '70s punk and hard rock -- Chrissie Hynde, Phil Lynott, Peter Perrett, Steve Marriott, Paul Cook, and Steve Jones, among others -- the record was a testament to what the former New York... Read More

Young Loud & Snotty
Artist: Dead Boys
Community Score: 8.07

Fellow Cleveland types Pere Ubu may have won the artistic kudos for their adventurous, surprising work, but if the goal was just to rock and rock again, the Dead Boys had them totally trumped. As both title phrase and capsule description, Young, Loud & Snotty accurately defines the predominating aesthetic so well that one could just leave it at... Read More

Live at Max's Kansas City
Artist: Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers