The best punk albums: 18 records from 1975 to 1984

The best punk albums are short, cheap to make and impossible to ignore. If you want the core in one sentence: start with Ramones (1976), The Clash (1977) and Never Mind the Bollocks (1977), then go sideways into Television, Wire and X-Ray Spex. The 18 records below run from Patti Smith’s Horses in November 1975 to Hüsker Dü’s Zen Arcade in July 1984. That span covers the first wave in New York and London, its spread to Belfast, Derry and Brisbane, and the American hardcore that grew out of it.

How we chose

Each album had to be released between 1975 and 1984, made by a band that came out of a punk scene, and still sound like a statement rather than a period piece. Influence counts more than chart positions. That is why a debut issued only on cassette sits next to a number one album. We list one record per band where we can, with one deliberate exception for The Clash. For the background, read our history of punk rock and the scene guide to London in 1976.

The list

1. Patti Smith, Horses (Arista, November 1975). Produced by John Cale and recorded at Electric Lady in New York, it came out before anyone had a word for what was happening at CBGB. Smith fused poetry readings with three-chord garage rock, and the album proved that a band from the Bowery could make a major-label record without sanding off its edges.
2. Ramones, Ramones (Sire, April 1976). Fourteen songs in under 30 minutes. The Queens band stripped rock and roll to downstrokes, bubblegum melodies and a count-in, and that blueprint still underlies most punk records made since. It sold modestly at the time; its influence on British bands that summer was immediate. More on the band in our list of punk bands.
3. Television, Marquee Moon (Elektra, February 1977). Strictly speaking the least punk record here: long songs, two interlocking guitars, a title track of about ten minutes. It belongs because it came from the same room and the same moment, and because it showed that the new scene had room for musicianship. It charted higher in Britain than at home.
4. The Damned, Damned Damned Damned (Stiff, February 1977). The first full punk album from a British band, produced by Nick Lowe in a hurry and on a small budget. New Rose, released the previous October, had already been the first British punk single. The album is faster and sillier than its rivals, which is exactly its appeal.
5. The Clash, The Clash (CBS, April 1977). Rough, political and very London. CBS in the United States judged it too raw and held it back until 1979, then issued a changed track list. If you collect, the UK original and the US version are two different records.
6. Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Blank Generation (Sire, 1977). Hell had been in Television and the Heartbreakers and helped define the look of New York punk. Robert Quine’s jagged guitar makes this record sound stranger and more modern than most of its contemporaries.
7. Sex Pistols, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols (Virgin, October 1977). Recorded after the band had been dropped by EMI and A&M, it went to number one in the UK anyway. The production by Chris Thomas and Bill Price is thick and heavy, which makes it sound bigger than the band was live. A shop manager in Nottingham was prosecuted over the word in the title and acquitted. Four of its songs had already been singles.
8. Wire, Pink Flag (Harvest, November 1977). Twenty-one tracks, many under two minutes, several of which simply stop. Wire treated punk as a set of rules to test, and that attitude pointed straight to post-punk.
9. The Saints, (I’m) Stranded (Harvest, February 1977). The Brisbane band released their first single themselves in September 1976, as early as anything from London. The album captures a fierce, isolated scene that developed largely on its own.
10. Buzzcocks, Another Music in a Different Kitchen (United Artists, March 1978). Pete Shelley’s songs are about doubt and romance rather than politics, and they proved that punk could carry pop hooks. For the singles, the compilation Singles Going Steady is the better entry point.
11. X-Ray Spex, Germfree Adolescents (EMI International, November 1978). Poly Styrene’s voice and Lora Logic’s saxophone on the early singles set this band apart. The album is about consumerism and synthetic everything, and still sharper than most essays on the subject.
12. Stiff Little Fingers, Inflammable Material (Rough Trade, February 1979). Belfast punk with real subject matter. It reached number 14 and is regarded as the first album on an independent label to enter the UK top 20, which mattered for everyone who came after.
13. The Undertones, The Undertones (Sire, May 1979). Five young men from Derry who wrote perfect two-minute songs about being a teenager. It shows the melodic side of punk at its most open.
14. The Clash, London Calling (CBS, December 1979). A double album sold for roughly the price of a single LP, and the place where the band’s reggae, rockabilly and soul interests came together. It is the most widely praised record any punk band ever made, which is a little ironic, because it is also one of their least punk records.
15. Dead Kennedys, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables (Cherry Red, September 1980). Jello Biafra’s satire and East Bay Ray’s surf-inspired guitar gave San Francisco its defining punk record. It was released in Britain first.
16. Black Flag, Damaged (SST, November 1981). Henry Rollins’ first album with the band, slowed down and heavier than the hardcore around it. MCA, which was meant to distribute it, refused to handle the record, and SST put it out through an independent distributor. Its self-run label SST became a model for American independents.
17. Bad Brains, Bad Brains (ROIR, February 1982). Issued only on cassette at first. The Washington band played faster and tighter than anyone and switched to reggae between songs. Without this tape the history of hardcore would read very differently.
18. Hüsker Dü, Zen Arcade (SST, July 1984). A double album from Minneapolis that tells a loose story and leaves the hardcore rulebook behind. It marks the end of our period and the start of what came to be called alternative rock.

What is missing, and why

The Stooges’ Raw Power, the New York Dolls’ debut and the MC5’s records are essential, but they were made before punk had a name and come from a different moment. We cover them in the history of punk. Blondie’s 1976 debut, which includes Rip Her to Shreds, came out of the same CBGB scene but leans towards girl-group pop and sits better on our new wave pages. German punk is under-represented in most lists, including this English one; Male’s Zensur & Zensur from Düsseldorf (1979) is generally described as the first entirely German-language punk album and is a good start for that side.

Listening order for newcomers

Play the list in this order: Ramones, The Clash, Never Mind the Bollocks, Buzzcocks, Pink Flag, Damaged. That takes you from the template, through the British version, to the melodic and the experimental branches and finally to hardcore in about three hours. If you then want the original pressings, our guide to collecting punk records explains what to look for and how to avoid reissues sold as originals.