The Clash
Artist: The Clash
Community Score: 7.62

Never Mind the Bollocks may have appeared revolutionary, but the Clash's eponymous debut album was pure, unadulterated rage and fury, fueled by passion for both rock & roll and revolution. Though the cliché about punk rock was that the bands couldn't play, the key to the Clash is that although they gave that illusion, they really could play --... 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

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

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

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

Horses
Artist: Patti Smith
Community Score: 8.33

It isn't hard to make the case for Patti Smith as a punk rock progenitor based on her debut album, which anticipated the new wave by a year or so: the simple, crudely played rock & roll, featuring Lenny Kaye's rudimentary guitar work, the anarchic spirit of Smith's vocals, and the emotional and imaginative nature of her lyrics -- all prefigure... 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

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

London Calling
Artist: The Clash
Community Score: 8.12

Give 'Em Enough Rope, for all of its many attributes, was essentially a holding pattern for the Clash, but the double-album London Calling is a remarkable leap forward, incorporating the punk aesthetic into rock & roll mythology and roots music. Before, the Clash had experimented with reggae, but that was no preparation for the dizzying array of... Read More

The Clash - UK
Artist: The Clash
Community Score: 10.00

The Clash's self-titled U.K. debut sees the band in its most primal, punk form. Despite Mickey Foote's low-key, lo-fi production, Strummer, Jones, Simonon, and Chimes mesh and unite with a snarling ferocity and energy. Raw, bouncy edginess pours out of each song, with new hooks popping out at odd angles by the second. The band isn't satisfied... Read More