Parallel Lines
Artist: Blondie
Community Score: 8.44

Blondie turned to British pop producer Mike Chapman for their third album, on which they abandoned any pretensions to new wave legitimacy (just in time, given the decline of the new wave) and emerged as a pure pop band. But it wasn't just Chapman that made Parallel Lines Blondie's best album; it was the band's own songwriting, including Deborah... Read More

Get Wet
Artist: Mental as Anything

The Mentals' debut album, predated by the single (and opening track) "The Nips Are Getting Bigger," is a terrific grab bag of influences melded together by five artistic heads, creating a unique and original sound that also sounds comforting and familiar. Blending classic rock & roll (from Elvis to the Beatles) with a new wave outlook, the... Read More

Tourists
Artist: The Tourists

The Tourists were a typical British post-punk power-pop group by the evidence of their U.K.-only debut album, The Tourists. Chiming guitars, quickstep martial beats (sometimes borrowing from Bo Diddley or the Ronettes), and the odd rude or belligerent remark ("Nothing means nothing to me," snarled in the first single, "Blind Among the Flowers")... Read More

Spark in the Dark
Artist: Alpha Band

Despite its obvious reference to "the light of the triune God," to which "this music is humbly offered," Spark in the Dark may be the most accessible of the Alpha Band's three recordings. At the same time, it lacks the consistency and flow of their excellent, yet offbeat debut. "East of East" is an auspicious opener, but a couple of near-misses... Read More

Talking Heads: 77
Artist: Talking Heads
Community Score: 7.89

Though they were the most highly touted new wave band to emerge from the CBGB's scene in New York, it was not clear at first whether Talking Heads' Lower East Side art rock approach could make the subway ride to the midtown pop mainstream successfully. The leadoff track of the debut album, Talking Heads: 77, "Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town," was a... Read More

Raspberries' Best
Artist: The Raspberries
Outlandos d'Amour
Artist: The Police
Community Score: 8.38

While their subsequent chart-topping albums would contain far more ambitious songwriting and musicianship, the Police's 1978 debut, Outlandos d'Amour (translation: Outlaws of Love) is by far their most direct and straightforward release. Although Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland were all superb instrumentalists with jazz... Read More

All Mod Cons
Artist: The Jam
Community Score: 9.38

The Jam regrouped and refocused for All Mod Cons, an album that marked a great leap in songwriting maturity and sense of purpose. For the first time, Paul Weller built, rather than fell back, upon his influences, carving a distinct voice all his own; he employed a story-style narrative with invented characters and vivid British imagery à la Ray... Read More

Dream Police
Artist: Cheap Trick
Community Score: 7.85
The Cars
Artist: The Cars
Community Score: 8.26

The Cars' 1978 self-titled debut, issued on the Elektra label, is a genuine rock masterpiece. The band jokingly referred to the album as their "true greatest-hits album," but it's no exaggeration -- all nine tracks are new wave/rock classics, still in rotation on rock radio. Whereas most bands of the late '70s embraced either punk/new wave or... Read More

Eat to the Beat
Artist: Blondie
Community Score: 8.62

Just as Blondie's second album, Plastic Letters, was a pale imitation of their self-titled debut, Eat to the Beat, their fourth album, was a secondhand version of their breakthrough third album, Parallel Lines: one step forward, half a step back. There was an attempt, on such songs as "The Hardest Part" and "Atomic," to recreate the rock/disco... Read More

High Times
Artist: Graham Parker & the Rumour