Best Punk Album in The World...Ever

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Each night before taking to the stage The Interrupters prepare for their show by watching the British film Dance Craze. Featuring music from The Specials, The Selecter and Madness, among others, the documentary from 1981 gives a clue as to the young LA band’s motivation when it comes to finding a groove. Described by Beastie Boy Adam Yauch as “the best hardcore punk album of all time,” the first full-length release by Bad Brains is a creation of such precision and power that its game-changing qualities are revered to this day. A compelling live draw in both New York and Washington DC, the Rastafarian quartet’s home city, Attitude… captured the group’s energies without spilling a drop. It’s fearsome stuff, too; such was the pace of its songs that in 1982 the listener might have been forgiven for believing they were playing them at the wrong speed. Perhaps with this in mind, ROIR Records decided to release the collection only on cassette. 10. The Offspring, Smash (1994) Sometimes I’m a bit jealous of the certainty that we had in the nineties, the way we said ‘this is the way things are,’” Lyxzen said, five years after the Swedish group had re-formed. “Now I’m more like, ‘I think this is the way things are.’” 5. The Clash, London's Calling (1979) Partly political, conceptual, supple, ambitious – the record features not one, but two nine-minute songs – catchy and complete, American Idiot is the sound of a group testing both themselves and the boundaries of the genre they so capably represent. This is what Telegraph readers said:

best pop-punk albums of all time - Alternative Press Magazine Fan poll: 5 best pop-punk albums of all time - Alternative Press

They were the unlikeliest of saviors. Suffer was the band’s first album for five years – its predecessor had sold in the hundreds – and their singer, Greg Graffin, was a full-time student at UCLA (today he is a lecturer in evolution at Cornell University). His co-songwriter, Brett Gurewitz, had spent years learning to produce music; when the time came to record his own band, the results were powerful and rich. While Johnny Rotten sang about anarchy with all the comprehension of a child playing with a hand-grenade – although not even a child would have considered rhyming the word ‘anarchist’ with ‘antichrist’ – for Crass such matters were far more serious. During a career of infamy and provocation, the Epping collective produced a homemade tape that purported to contain a private conversation between Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan – the Prime Minister was made aware of its existence – and had their music criticised in the House of Commons. With The Feeding Of The 5000, they laid down a marker for hardcore militancy for generations to come. 26. Social Distortion, Somewhere Between Heaven And Hell (1992)

Propelled by the melodic and mischievous songwriting of Glen Danzig, the Misfits played songs about Martians and zombies with the kind of revelry that Ed Wood Jr. might have brought to The Beach Boys. Silly, yes; a classic, certainly. 13. The Damned, Damned Damned Damned (1977) On an LP that can barely contain its own fury, singer Dave Dictor sings about animal rights, transvestite rights, police oppression – “what you gonna do? The mafia in blue, hunting for queers, n_____s, and you” – the craven morality of slumlords, and, even, the idea that John Wayne was a Nazi. The past tense is important, cos he’s “not any more”, not since “life evened the score”, anyway. In receipt of GBH of the earhole from the ol’ good-cop-bad-cop routine, Muir was instructed to sign a form giving access to his medical records, to submit a sample of his handwriting, and to provide prior notification if ever he planned to visit Washington DC. “It was a real experience,” he said. It’s a wonder that Millions Of Dead Cops never runs out of steam, let alone targets. As the album ends with the words “and there’s no God in Heaven, so get of your knees”, the sensation is of being beaten bloody by something close to perfection. 6. Refused, the Shape of Punk to Come: A Chimerical Bombination in 12 Bursts (1998)

The Best British Punk Albums | GQ The Best British Punk Albums | GQ

Beloved of everyone that has heard it, …And Out Come The Wolves is the finest American punk record of the nineties. It also happens to be only the third native release of its kind to have attained platinum status in its country of origin. It can surely only be a matter of time before the question "what is punk?" enters the lexicon of philosophical head-scratchers. It’s a sound, for sure, as anyone who has heard the Ramones' first album will know. But it’s also a quality, something that might loosely be termed "attitude", a nebulous vapor that can be attributed to many, from Billie Eilish to Dominic Cummings. What a puzzle.

My tastes run mainly to Wagner, Strauss and Mahler but I agree that American Idiot is an absolute 'must have' album. It's superb from start to finish."