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

In the City/This Is the Modern World
Artist: The Jam

Polydor repackaged the Jam's first two albums, In the City and This is the Modern World, as a single-cassette release in 1980. It's not necessarily a bad way to purchase the albums, but the presentation and fidelity are a little shabby, and the vinyl records and subsequent CD reissues are a much more preferable way to acquire these albums. ~... 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

Count Bishops
Artist: The Count Bishops

Kicking off with a great cover of the Kinks' "I Need You," this solid, unpretentious debut album belongs in the home of every fan of English R&B from the Yardbirds to the Pretty Things to Dr. Feelgood. Guitarists Johnny Guitar and Zenon de Fleur keep it tight and simple, never wasting a note, and vocalist Dave Tice is so macho, it's enough to... Read More

The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
Artist: The Sex Pistols
Community Score: 8.55

A wildly inconsistent but often entertaining collection, the soundtrack to the Sex Pistols' pseudo-documentary contains great music, wacked-out novelties, and flat-out tripe in approximately equal proportions. Some formative recordings are included -- mostly covers like "(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone," plus a demo of "Anarchy in the U.K." that... Read More

Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols
Artist: The Sex Pistols
Community Score: 8.28

While mostly accurate, dismissing Never Mind the Bollocks as merely a series of loud, ragged midtempo rockers with a harsh, grating vocalist and not much melody would be a terrible error. Already anthemic songs are rendered positively transcendent by Johnny Rotten's rabid, foaming delivery. His bitterly sarcastic attacks on pretentious... 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

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

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

No More Heroes
Artist: The Stranglers
Community Score: 7.75

Rattus is hardly a punk rock classic but still is a pretty good chunk of art-punk. Hugh Cornwell's testosterone level is very high here, and the macho preening gets a bit much, but it's still an enjoyable bit of noise that holds up better than anyone would have guessed at the time. Still, it's odd to think of this as a part of the punk rock era... Read More