Buzzcocks Songs Ranked
Buzzcocks are an English punk rock band formed in Bolton, England in 1976 by singer-songwriter-guitarist Pete Shelley and singer-songwriter Howard Devoto. They are regarded as a seminal influence on the Manchester music scene, the independent record label movement, punk rock, power pop, and pop-punk. They achieved commercial success with singles that fused pop craftsmanship with rapid-fire punk energy. These singles were collected on Singles Going Steady, described by critic Ned Raggett as a “punk masterpiece”. Devoto and Shelley chose the name “Buzzcocks” after reading the headline, “It’s the Buzz, Cock!”, in a review of the TV series Rock Follies in Time Out magazine. The “buzz” is the excitement of playing on stage; “cock” is northern English slang meaning “friend”. They thought it captured the excitement of the nascent punk scene, as well as having humorous sexual connotations following Peter Shelley’s time working in a Bolton adult shop. Per the band, there is no “the” in Buzzcocks. Devoto left the band in 1977, after which Pete Shelley became the principal singer-songwriter. Shelley died on 6 December 2018, but the band has remained active with guitarist and co-founding member Steve Diggle assuming lead vocal duties. They are currently performing with new guitarist Mani Perazzoli. Here are all Buzzcocks songs ranked.
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17. Oh Shit! (Another Music in a Different Kitchen, 1978)
“Y’know for as snotty, anarchic, and society rocking as Punk rock was? I feel like they didn’t usually bust out the profanities, and certainly not as centrally as this! This is the kind of song I’d expect lyrically from a hip-hop act. In fact I remember the Pharcyde having a song with the same title! So does it work? It works! In funnily frank fashion. Shelley starts pretty much every line of the song with “Oh shit” before following it with his patented relationship drama. And yeah right there is why the Buzzcocks make a usually obnoxious topic so charming. Yeah, charming. And hell this does the trick for me that it’s a-side didn’t. It’s memorable on top of being catchy! Also short as heck, which makes what it does somehow even funnier. It blows by you, but leaves you going “whoa wait what?” and back you go to listen again.”
16. Why Can’t I Touch It? (Singles Going Steady, 1979)
“Ok from Beach Boys mixed with Punk… we go next to something totally fucking different. How about a nice steady attractive pop song…. built around Krautrock elements? Yeah sure! Why not! The strangest thing about this song is how somehow this combination of elements makes it sound almost ….90’s? Maybe it’s the melody? I dunno but it definitely partly brings to mind the more melodic Post-Hardcore type stuff being slung around the 90’s underground (so no thankfully this sounds nothing like Skate Punk crap). The Krautrock element if you’re wondering is almost entirely contained within the rhythm here, though no not motorik so much as Tago Mago era Can. The fact that the song is also like… six and a half minutes long also points the way to artier pre-Punk 70’s influences. Arty punk that sounds slightly retro is rare given how arty punk almost always sounded absurdly forward-looking.”
15. Time’s Up (Another Music in a Different Kitchen, 1978)
“If you’re at all interested in the early days of punk rock, you’ll need this. It’s raw, campy, snide, funny and very, very smart. The music is wonderfully compact and powerful, but moves in sputters and sparks whilst their contemporaries mostly bashed and roared.”
14. Moving Away from the Pulsebeat (Another Music in a Different Kitchen, 1978)
“Somewhat of a weird single choice, as it’s rather a long song and quite a lot of it is built around repetitive instrumental jamming rather than melody. It’s an awesome song, though, with a sick-ass drum beat that reminds me of the “tribal” drums on Joy Division’s Atrocity Exhibition. Really it’s a showcase for John Maher and Steve Diggle to rock out.”
See more: Buzzcocks Albums Ranked
13. No Reply (Another Music in a Different Kitchen, 1978)
The album opens with the show starting “Fast Cars. “No Reply” follows this in a similar fashion utilizing the dual vocals and repeating three-chord riff from guitar and bass.
12. Something’s Gone Wrong Again (Singles Going Steady, 1979)
“Further proof that Pete Shelley was tired of vanilla Punk right here. This sounds less Buzzcocks and more like something Wire would have done on the road from Pink Flag to Chairs Missing. Shelley even sounds a little Colin Newman like on this! …though maybe I’m imagining that. Anyway, the point is we’re entering the somewhat arty non-traditional Punk territory, without going too deep on it. The structure and melody of it are a bit off the beaten path, and it even features some sort of kooky distorted guitar solo at the bridge. But at the same time, Shelley gonna Shelley, and the main refrain of the song title is still a neat hook doing what hooks do best. It’s actually kind of adorable to think of Shelley trying to not be poppy, and accidentally still making it kind of catchy. That lovable scamp can’t help himself! So far I’m enjoying art-punk Shelley, the strength of the gold harvest that was their debut album was honestly just as much the insane hooks as it was a little extra something peculiar about each song (including the hooks sometimes). I know this is essentially a near dead end to be following… but that almost makes me more curious to see where the band would go before finally falling apart…”
11. Whatever Happened To? (Another Music in a Different Kitchen, 1978)
“Brilliant punk rock, with a quite poppy soft sound, but still very much attitude through the vocals and quite angry riffing (though with a soft sound). A quite unique sound within the punk from these days.”
10. Autonomy (Another Music in a Different Kitchen, 1978)
“The Steve Diggle-written “Autonomy” delivers a whirling dervish of a riff, pummelled by the drums and featuring one of the be guitar solos of punk. Love how it uses up almost all of its energy to just about expire by the end.
9. Breakdown (Love Bites, 1978)
“Brilliant punk rock, which to the sound is a bit on the pop side, but still clearly more to the punk side of things. Very nice bass grooves in most of the tracks and material wise it’s highly catchy. “
8. I Don’t Mind ( Another Music in a Different Kitchen, 1978)
“I Don’t Mind” is another wonderfully brief whizzbang pop song from Pete Shelley basting a typically whooshing Martin Rushent production. If you don’t mind, I don’t mind sums up the carelessness and devil-may-care attitude of our teenage years better than anything I can think of right now, from the top of my head.”
7. Love You More (Love Bites, 1978)
“Just nice. I feel basically the same about this one as I did “What Do I Get?”. I’d say this one is a bit stronger though, but that doesn’t save it from having essentially the same fate. The fate of being cool and good, but not great. Hey, you may like it more than me.”
See more: Ministry Albums Ranked
6. Boredom (Time’s Up, 1991)
“If you’re at all interested in the early days of punk rock, you’ll need this. It’s raw, campy, snide, funny and very, very smart. The music is wonderfully compact and powerful, but moves in sputters and sparks whilst their contemporaries mostly bashed and roared.”
5. Promises (Love Bites, 1978)
“Hmm, so when it comes to some Buzzcocks songs I find myself thinking a strange thought. Namely the ones where I find the melody good and even great, but the overall results ultimately not amazing. Not as great as the melody. On the one hand this is at odds with my frank description of basic Punk as being fundamentally pop. But I think while true, good Punk also works best with melodies that it can play really energetic and raw with. Not always, but usually. And in many cases this is how the Buzzcocks operate, when they aren’t operating like that they tend to be doing something or other in a memorable way.”
4. Everybody’s Happy Nowadays (Singles Going Steady, 1979)
“Buzzcocks off-record land so far was starting to become a story of lots of vanilla Punk. Some of it cool, some not. Some fast, some slow. Some this, some that. The most memorable thing so far was a song that repeated “Oh shit” a bunch. This one has an instantly memorable style about it, and that exact kind of ridiculously catchy construction that defines their great album material. The stuff that makes you stand up and recognize what sort of hook machine Shelley was in his prime. All that and it builds itself around a mixture of Punk’s speedy buzzsaw, and a very Beach Boys esque chorus of all things! Strange alchemy the way it ought to be. Constructed together so tightly and perfectly! Airtight! Just an efficient shining bullet of pop to the brain. Pure Buzzcocks magic like you come to them for. Only thing I might say “negative” is that it sound more retro than their usual highlights do, but who gives a crap.”
3. What Do I Get? (Another Music in a Different Kitchen, 1978)
“A real nice song that nevertheless fails to blow me away, and damn it I’m expecting to be blown away with something super catchy and head drilling! That is the expectation when it comes to these boys! It’s what they do! I almost think I’ve raised my standards too high or something? Is that a compliment to them? Maybe, maybe not. Regardless here I stand feeling pouty over what is a perfectly nice song that is actually kinda catchy. But it just isn’t…I guess I find that the best Buzzcocks material is not simply catchy as heck. But also distinct. That it has something to it that is memorable. A strange hook for instance! This one just doesn’t have any of those features! Other people might go gaga for it I guess, but not me.”
2. Harmony in My Head (Singles Going Steady, 1979)
“Ok so I don’t think I’ve talked enough about how Steve Diggle (the band’s lead guitarist) is actually pretty talented and not just a contributor of the occasional throw away track. Thus far he’s contributed some great stuff like Fast Cars, Autonomy, and one of the few memorable vanilla Punk tracks on the final album (Mad Mad Judy). And that actually covers like most of his limited output. That’s a darn good track record don’t you think? And here he delivered another gem to their songbook. The most notable thing about the track though is that he sings the lead vocals! This had only happened once before on the forgettable Love Is Lies on Love Bites, easy to not even remember that had happened! But here? There’s no not noticing it, he delivers a pretty cool gruff and muscular vocal performance that sounds closer to Joe Strummer than it does to Shelley.”
1. Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve?) (Love Bites, 1978)
“Musically speaking, the song is one of the most dynamic pop punk tunes ever recorded, thrilling, vigorous, infectious. A nice balance between the mod-ish guitar-driven thrusts and Shelley’s piercing vocals (that are never really high pitched, but piercing all the same with his desperation).”