Rip It Up and Start Again
Since I’ve been reading the excellent SIMON REYNOLDS book about post-punk circa 1978-1984, I thought that I would list some favorite records of mine from the artists who are covered in the book.
What would any post-punk list be without The Fall? Since the book only covers their output up to 1982 in the chapter on Manchester, I’m choosing this 1982 classic. With titles like “The Classical,” “Jawbone and the Air Rifle,” “Fortress/Deer Park,” “Hip Priest,” “Winter” and “Who Makes the Nazis?”, almost every song on here is a classic.
This my favorite Joy Division record, though it’s a compilation of singles and rarities. I think it’s by far their most listenable record, though it doesn’t contain the iciness of Unknown Pleasures or the bone-chilling darkness of Closer.
Although Pink Flag is the favorite of most, this is my favorite Wire album. Although not everything on here works, songs like “I Should Have Known Better,” “A Touching Display” and “A Mutual Friend” ensure its classic status. Furthermore, I’ll bet that THE CURE had a copy of this in their collection. This album has recently been reissued by Wire’s own Pink Flag label both as an individual CD and as a part of a five-disc box set that combines their first three albums (sans bonus tracks) on one disc each with two live discs.
Although their debut Entertainment! is an unparalleled classic of the genre, at this point of my life I prefer their less-heralded second album. It’s darker and less immediate than its predecessor, but the payoff is greater with songs like “Paralyzed,” “Outside the Trains Don’t Run on Time” and “In the Ditch” permanently drilling their punk-funk agit-prop groove into your skull over time.
Although their debut Q:Are We Not Men? We Are Devo! seems to be most people’s favorite, I’ve always preferred their sophomore album. The sound is noticably thinner on this KEN SCOTT-produced effort than on their BRIAN ENO-produced debut, but it only adds to the icy, paranoid slant of songs like “Blockhead,” “S.I.B. (Swelling Itching Brain)” and “Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA”.
Originally released by Mercury imprint Blank Records in 1978 and reissued in the ‘90s by DGC/Geffen, this incredible debut album recycles the ROCKET FROM THE TOMBS song “Life Stinks” and others earlier Pere Ubu recordings like the title track and “Humor Me” with better, if only slightly slicker, production. This and their subsequent album Dub Housing were huge influences on UK post-punk bands like THE COMSAT ANGELS as well.
Mission of Burma’s finest hour, this is where they coalesced all of their up until then obvious UK influences (think WIRE) into their own unique, pulverizing wall of sound. Although “Academy Fight Song” and “That’s When I Reach for my Revolver” aren’t on here, other less obvious classics like “Mica,” “Weatherbox,” “New Nails” and the stunning opener “Secrets” are.
This is RODDY FRAME’s finest hour and perhaps the finest record that came out of Scotland’s early ‘80s post-punk scene. More melodic than his contemporaries, Frame fused the melodies of LOVE and THE KINKS with an ELVIS COSTELLO-like sense of wordplay on songs such as “Oblivious,” “The Boy Wonders” and “Walk Out to Winter” that mainly dealt with romatic disillusionment. All of this was topped with a slightly spiky, post-punk edge as evidenced by “Queen’s Tattoos”, which clearly owes a debt to IGGY POP’s “Lust for Life”.
Although some prefer the early punk attack of their first BBC session, I think that this 1979 debut album is their finest hour. Anchored by DENNIS BOVELL’s excellent production, this is where The Slits fully embraced reggae with singer ARI UP singing in her Jamaican patois and the spiky rhythms of future SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES drummer BUDGIE guiding songs like “Newtown” and the opener “Instant Hit”. Lyrically, they weren’t afraid to take on targets within the punk scene (“Instant Hit” being about the heroin habits of KEITH LEVENE and SID VICIOUS whereas “So Tough” critiqued the macho behavior of Vicious and JOHNNY ROTTEN) as well as ones outside of it like “Typical Girls”. All of that combined with songs of a more personal nature like “Ping Pong Affair” make this one of the best debut albums of its time.
Hands down one of the most primitive-sounding records I’ve ever heard, this 1979 debut not only influenced US bands like THE MINUTEMEN (who often cited The Pop Group as a big influence), but laid the groundwork for the furious assault that Australia’s THE BIRTHDAY PARTY would launch upon the world with albums like 1981’s Prayers on Fire and 1982’s classic Junkyard. It’s too bad that it’s currently only available as a Japanese import. A US or UK reissue of this seminal classic is long overdue.
