The Best Punk Albums Of All Time Ranked
Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced short, fast-paced songs with hard-edged melodies and singing styles, stripped-down instrumentation, and often shouted political, anti-establishment lyrics. Punk embraces a DIY ethic; many bands self-produce recordings and distribute them through independent record labels. The term “punk rock” was previously used by American rock critics in the early 1970s to describe the mid-1960s garage bands. Certain late 1960s and early 1970s Detroit acts, such as MC5 and Iggy and the Stooges, and other bands from elsewhere created out-of-the-mainstream music that became highly influential on what was to come. Glam rock in the UK and the New York Dolls from New York have also been cited as key influences. When the movement now bearing the name developed from 1974 to 1976, prominent acts included Television, Patti Smith, and the Ramones in New York City; the Saints in Brisbane; and the Sex Pistols, the Clash, and the Damned in London, and the Buzzcocks in Manchester. By late 1976, punk became a major cultural phenomenon in the UK. It led to a punk subculture expressing youthful rebellion through distinctive styles of clothing, such as deliberately offensive T-shirts, leather jackets, studded or spiked bands and jewelry, safety pins, and bondage and S&M clothes. Here are all of the best Punk albums of all time.
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15. Damaged – Black Flag
“Upon its release, Damaged was perceived as a public threat, and it’s easy to see why: The lyrics are unremittingly bleak, Henry Rollins rails like a caged animal and the cacophony of choked riffs and hyperspeed drumming makes prior three-chord punk bands sound like Julliard grads. California hardcore is born.”
14. Static Age – Misfits
“This album is so damn good! Danzig’s voice is so unique and his clear inspiration from Elvis Presley makes his voice sound almost bluesy. Some songs may be somewhat forgetable, (T.V. casualty, Return of the Fly, etc.) but the others are amazing! Hybrid moments, bullet, last carress, 138, come back and attitude are all great tracks that stick in your head from the first listen”
13. Pink Flag – Wire
“No album summed up the infinite possibility in punk’s radical simplicity better than this 35-minute, 21-song debut. R.E.M., Spoon and Minor Threat are just a few of the bands that have covered songs from Pink Flag, which ranges from the hardcore Rubik’s Cube “1 2 X U” to the 28-second tabloid nightmare “Field Day for the Sundays” to “Fragile,” punk’s first pretty love song. “A perfect album,” said Henry Rollins of Black Flag.”
12. Milo Goes to College – The Descendents
“L.A.’s Descendents thought their debut would be their only record because singer Milo Aukerman was, in fact, heading off to school. He earned his degree in biology, but the Descendents still managed to become a pop-punk institution, turning stunted rage toward their miserable middle-class existence on “I’m Not a Punk” and “Suburban Home” to pave the way for Green Day and every Warped Tour band that followed.”
11. Entertainment! – Gang Of Four
“Fusing James Brown and early hip-hop with the bullet-point minimalism of the Ramones, Gang of Four were a genuine revolutionary force in their pursuit of working-class justice. The Leeds foursome bound their Marxist critique in tightly wound knots of enraged funk and avenging-disco syncopation, slashed by guitarist Andy Gill’s blues-free swordplay.”
10. Dookie – Green Day
“Punk went Platinum with Dookie, and suddenly boredom and alienation weren’t just the province of high school’s freaks and geeks anymore; now every mall rat in America had a stake in adolescent angst. But Dookie is still a potent brew of insight, irreverence and ferocious rock & roll — everything punk’s supposed to be.”
9. Raw Power – Iggy & the Stooges
“The Stooges were the most dangerous band of their time, an unrelenting cyclone of destruction that left a trail of blood, broken bottles and dirty syringes in their path. Considering Iggy’s heroic intake of pharmaceuticals, it’s a wonder the band could compose itself long enough to make such a savage and succinct work.”
8. Double Nickels On the Dime – Minutemen
“Three blue-collar corn dogs from the port town of San Pedro, California, with zero pretensions and a gift for gab, and a hilarious taste for no-bullshit political analysis like the “The Roar of the Masses Could Be Farts.” All over this sprawling, 45-song double-album classic, guitarist D. Boon and bassist Mike Watt spiel back and forth about a lifetime of friendship rooted in shared punk values — as Boon says in “History Lesson, Pt. 2,” “Our band could be your life.” They also stretch out into jazz noodling and folkie picking, along with Creedence Clearwater Revival, Steely Dan and Van Halen covers.”
7. London Calling – The Clash
“One of the greatest albums of all time. The best punk album by far ever made! And I’m not the only one saying it! Rolling Stone magazine placed it at #7 in it’s 500 greatest albums of all time list! I know Rolling Stone is very often wrong but even so this album is pure punk brilliance!”
6. Insomniac – Green Day
“Contains all the classic elements of old school Punk Rock, and even adds a new edge to the genre. The sound is heavy and distorted, the lyrics are slick and well-written, and the bass lines are phenomenal. Truly one of the greatest punk record of all time!”
5. Walk Among Us – Misfits
“Glenn Danzig and his band of New Jersey mutants brought much-needed irony to the hardcore scene with anthems like “I Turned Into a Martian.” Ditching hardcore’s go-to politics to howl about B-movie stuff like zombies and seductive lady vampires, the Misfits’ ghoulish full-length debut, Walk Among Us, was the height of horror punk.”
4. Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables – Dead Kennedys
“America’s answer to the Sex Pistols — singer Jello Biafra sounded like Johnny Rotten on helium — Dead Kennedys assaulted religion, capitalism and the government with a double dose of rage and humor. “Kill the Poor,” “Holiday in Cambodia” and “Let’s Lynch the Landlord” are just some of the rapid-fire highlights of their influential 1980 debut.”
3. The Clash – The Clash
“On April 3rd, 1976, a London pub-rock combo, the 101ers, played a show with gnarly urchins the Sex Pistols. The future was “right in front of me,” recalled 101ers singer-guitarist Joe Strummer. A year later, Strummer was the battle-scarred voice of the Clash and in the U.K. Top 20 with his new band’s self-titled flamethrower debut, a brittle-fuzz volley of politicized rage and street-choir vocal hooks that transformed British punk from a brawling adolescent turmoil to a dynamic social weapon in songs like “White Riot,” “London’s Burning” and “I’m So Bored With the U.S.A.” Strummer and his co-writer, guitarist Mick Jones, were not born debaters; manager-svengali Bernie Rhodes pressed them to go topical.”
2. Ramones – The Ramones
“In an attempt to recreate rock & roll’s pre-Sgt. Pepper innocence, the Ramones pillaged the sounds of their childhood (surf music, girl groups and British Invasion pop) and distilled rock down to its three-chord essence while celebrating their own twisted culture in tracks about huffing, horror movies and hustling. In a perfect world, the album would have cut a swath through the treacle of the American Top 40, but instead it merely sparked an underground revolution, shaping the sound of punk and the attitude of all alternative music to come.”
1. Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols – The Sex Pistols
“Revolutionary, completely honest, and blistering. NMTB is everything that is great about punk. Johnny Rotten’s contentious/intelligent lyrics and raw vocals made me proud to be different. Made me stop being a sissy wanting to commit suicide and in turn, be a thorn in the side of those that have belittled me. Steve’s guitar playing made me play guitar a little differently and I dig his sound.”
