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Jul 13, 2016 · The 50 post-punk albums here were selected by a team of Paste writers and editors, looking at the original post-punk movement from 1977-1987, not post-punk revivalists like The Strokes or...
- Pin It100. Dog Faced Hermans – Those Deep Buds
- Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds – from Her to Eternity
- Pin It98. New Order – Low-Life
- The Waterboys – The Waterboys
- Pin It96. Sonic Youth – Bad Moon Rising
- Liliput – Liliput
- Flipper – Generic
- Pin It93. The Church – Starfish
- Pin It92. The Wake – Harmony
- Pin It91. Cocteau Twins – Garlands
(1994; Alternative Tentacles) The dividing line between post-punk and post-punk revival is a blurry one, though the ‘90s weren’t a fertile period for much of either. British anarchopunk/post-punk rabble rousers Dog Faced Hermans never seemed too concerned with what was in vogue, however, particularly since their far-left politics and chaotic approa...
(1984; Mute) Nick Cave is a storyteller. On some level all musicians are telling stories, but Cave taps into something eldritch and vicious, spins it forth in his voice, trembling and yelping, chanting in bellows like a prophetic drunk. From Her To Eternityis merely another narrative constructed by Cave, and its importance lies in more than just hi...
(1985; Factory/Qwest) The third album from the surviving members of Joy Division showcased a band that had forged a bright hybrid of hard guitar pop and dance music—even as their commitment to thematic darkness remained very much intact. Low-Lifeis a crash course in faith abandonment and grim recognition, kicking off with its most downcast lyric (“...
(1983; Chrysalis) Compared to the direction they’d eventually take with albums such as 1985’s masterful This Is the Sea, The Waterboys’ 1983 debut has a moodier tone. There is more christian imagery in the lyrics, providing a more gothic tone along with Mike Scott’s trembling vocal performance. In fact, it’s interesting to hear these themes in hind...
(1985; SST) Bad Moon Risingis fraught with dread, with worry, with terror; it’s at once anxious and aggressive, caught up in questions of sex and power and death and the lines between them. On this record, Sonic Youth are dissonant, disconnected, animated by noise, more interested in the space between songs than the songs themselves. It’s an album ...
(1982; Rough Trade) The Swiss band formerly known as Kleenex embodied a certain brand of post-punk that would also include under its umbrella Bush Tetras and The Raincoats; a freewheeling, headstrong blast of energy and bluster, undercut by screeching vocals and skronking saxophone. Like so many of their cult contemporaries, a full-length album too...
(1982; Subterranean) If there was ever an album that encapsulated nihilism with gleeful spite, it’s Generic. Which is also ironically, not generic at all, it’s just a heavy, dark and painful experience. Listening to Genericis actual aural masochism, like a long depressive sigh punctuated with apocalyptic musings, and with lyrics and vocalizations t...
(1988; Arista) Not Australia’s biggest export by any means—AC/DC, Kylie and coal have that covered—but the cult following The Church enjoy extends well beyond the coasts of down under, and Starfish was the landmark in their deserved breakthrough. Singles “Under the Milky Way” and “Reptile” are worthy jewels, but the true strength of Starfish lies i...
(1982; Factory) This Scottish band’s debut gathered seven tracks of dank basslines, bright guitar jangle, deep and bruising drums, and touches of wobbly synths. If that sounds like a shadow of Joy Division and New Order, you’d be right: New Order’s manager signed them to Factory Records before they left to play foundational twee on the Sarah label....
(1983; 4AD) Garlands isn’t the Cocteau Twins that most listeners know. It’s not the shimmering sheets of guitar from Robin Guthrie, nor the ethereal drift into beautiful inscrutability that’s made the band worthy of a hilarious meme. It’s something much more sinister and nightmarish—two adjectives that seem almost contradictory to the aesthetic tha...
- Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures. Rightly regarded as one of the most poignant and potent albums of all time, Joy Division’s debut effort redefined post-punk and offered up a brand new route for the anger and frustration that encircled Britain at the time.
- Television – Marquee Moon (1977) One of the most widely influential bands of all time, Television operate in their own atmosphere. They’re the archetypal New York City godfather of the post-punk sound, and they bring a blue smoke chill to everything they did.
- The Smiths – The Smiths (1984) The Smiths are a band who many now feel a little bit strange adoring so deeply. Not only do they have the, at best, polarising figure of Morrissey as their former frontman, but they’ve been so acutely attached to incels, simps and other social media defamation that it can feel a bit dirty to pick up a Smiths record with glee.
- Talking Heads – Remain in Light (1980) Acts like Blondie and The Jam had kept a degree of personality in the music scene; the real draw was Talking Heads.
- Joy Division. 913 votes. Joy Division stands tall as one of the most influential post-punk bands of all time, with their dark, melancholic sound setting the stage for many artists to follow.
- The Cure. 829 votes. The Cure are an unmistakable icon of the post-punk movement, easily recognized by Robert Smith's signature teased hair and smudged makeup.
- Siouxsie & the Banshees. 595 votes. Led by the captivating Siouxsie Sioux, Siouxsie & the Banshees both defined and defied the post-punk aesthetic with their unique blend of artsy experimentation, punk energy, and goth-tinged atmospherics.
- New Order. 369 votes. Born from the ashes of Joy Division, New Order took the post-punk blueprint and infused it with an innovative dose of electronic dance elements.
- The Birthday Party – Prayers on Fire (1981) Of all the artists to survive well beyond post-punk’s classic era, Nick Cave is probably the one who maintained the genre’s essence for the longest.
- LiLiPUT – LiLiPUT (1982) It took years for LiLiPUT to be recognized as an innovative force in post-punk, but listening to LiLiPUT, the first LP by this early Rough Trade act that most hear now as a part of the essential Kleenex/LiLiPUT compilation of their entire recorded output, it’s hard to imagine why.
- Public Image Ltd – First Issue (1978) John Lydon’s first record after forming Public Image Ltd (just one year after his last record, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, introduced punk to the wider UK) was just as egregiously provocative as one would expect, considering he just left the most controversial band of all time to pursue more personal musical interests, but First Issue went even further than Never Mind the Bollocks by abandoning all the commercial pretenses that punk had already begun adopting to serve his artistic message in all its dubious nakedness.
- Josef K – The Only Fun in Town (1981) Like so many bands of the post-punk era, Josef K’s influence far outweighs their output.
Sep 3, 2020 · The story of post-punk in 15 classic albums. Join us on a journey through the twisted genre, from the groundbreaking Suicide to the more contemporary – but no less exciting – sounds of ...
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Can we have some sort of guide for what is to be considered post-punk? I really don't think Sonic Youth or The Jesus and Mary Chain fit under the post-punk label.
