15 Essential Post-Punk Albums
A primer on the genre that bridged punk and the avant-garde.
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1. Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Talking Heads are one of my favorite bands of all time, and Remain in Light is their crowning achievement. It's such a fantastic album that it makes their first three (absolutely brilliant) albums seem like little more than warm-ups for the funky, neurotic main event of Remain in Light. David Byrne's vocals and lyrics are as anxious and spastic as always, the rhythm section of Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth is ridiculously tight and funky, Eno's production is spacious and dreamy, and the afrobeat influence is executed tastefully and perfectly. One of my favorite albums of all time.
2. Mass - Labour of Love
Labour of Love, Mass' sole studio album, is a dark and gritty masterpiece. Post-punk is a genre that melds punk and the avant-garde, and Labour of Love falls much more on the avant-garde side of things. It's a noisy, cacophonous album through and through. The guitars sound like weapons, the drums are pummeling, and the album as a whole has a very eerie and desolate atmosphere that's hard to resist.
3. The Cure - Pornography
Pornography is the absolute pinnacle of The Cure's post-punk years. Seventeen Seconds, Faith, and Pornography work to form a perfect trilogy of the most desolate, depressive post-punk under the sun, and Pornography is a spectacular coda to that particular period of the band's career. The cold, eerie atmosphere of the album is pretty typical of the genre, but the songwriting is beautifully lush and occasionally rather catchy. This style of songwriting works as a perfect dichotomy to the sound of the record, and it set the Cure apart as one of the most intriguing and daring post-punk bands.
4. The Chameleons - What Does Anything Mean? Basically
Sandwiched in between Script of the Bridge and Strange Times, the two most popular albums by the Chameleons, What Does Anything Mean? Basically is often overlooked, even by the most extreme of post-punk aficionadoes. That's an absolute shame because it's one of my favorite post-punk albums ever recorded. Not only is the album's sound immensely forward-thinking, but the lyrics are also brilliantly poetic and the songwriting works exceptionally well with the dreamy, poppy sound.
5. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
The mid-2000s were absolutely swarming with insufferably hip post-punk revival bands. From New York groups such as Interpol, The Strokes, and The National; all the way to English groups like Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand, and Arctic Monkeys, rock music in the 2000s revolved around post-punk and dance-punk revival. Of all these bands, LCD Soundsystem standout the most. They were the only band that leaned into their hipster personas, sort of satirizing the whole scene. Behind the tounge-in-cheek nature of James Murphy's lyrics lied Sound of Silver, a melancholic album that tackled the perils of lost friends, lost youth, and the horrors of a swiftly changing New York City.
6. Chrome - Half Machine Lip Moves
The earlier you go, the weirder the genre of post-punk gets. Early purveyors of the style were avant-garde bohemians who felt alienated by the stagnation of the punk scene, creating the style of post-punk by melding their artsy, avant-garde leanings with the raw power of punk rock. Chrome are one of the earliest post-punk bands, and they are very strange. 1977's Alien Soundtracks is one of the earliest post-punk albums ever recorded, but Half Machine Lip Moves is the duo's crowning achivement. It's incredibly avant-garde and experimental, utilizing incredibly strange, industrial soundscapes, but the album still retains that raw, playful punk atmosphere that makes it exceptionally enjoyable.
7. Wire - Chairs Missing
Wire's first three albums collectively form what is quite possibly the best musical trilogy of all time. Pink Flag, Chairs Missing, and 154 are all exceptional albums. They all play around with different styles without forgoing the raw, urgent sound that Wire excels at. I could pick any three of those albums for this list, but Chairs Missing stands as my favorite. Chairs Missing was one of the first albums to prove that punk can be so much more than aggressive songs that rarely go over a minute. It can still convey aggression and anger, but it can do so in much more progressive, experimental fashions.
8. Devo - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!
The silly, nerdy nature of Devo's legendary debut album masks feelings of anger, unrest, and political strife. The band's founders were all students at Kent State University, witnessing and feeling the effects of the police shootings that killed four of their fellow students. This was the point that the group's concept of "de-evolution" became serious, and they worked for years to produce Are We Not Men? We Are Devo?, a blisteringly satirical album that takes aim at violence, consumerism, and the blights of American society as a whole. Even without all that, it's just an absolute blast to listen to.
9. Swell Maps - ...In "Jane From Occupied Europe"
...In "Jane From Occupied Europe" is yet another album that seems unfairly forgotten. Sandwiched in between Swell Maps debut record A Trip to Marineville and the more commercially viable work of founding member Nikki Sudden as a part of the Jacobites, Swell Maps' sophomore effort is one of my personal favorite post-punk records. Taking influence from genres as varied as krautrock, noise rock, surf rock, new wave, industrial, and noise, the record stands apart from similarly avant-garde post-punk releases due to the absolutely brilliant, immediately catchy songwriting underneath all the noise.
10. Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth
As much as I love the genre of post-punk, the 1980s saw the genre somewhat stagnate. Most records in the genre were gloomy, gothic rock influenced affairs, a joy to listen to but not very unique. Colossal Youth, the first and only album from UK trio Young Marble Giants, is an exceptionally unique album and one of the catchiest, most simplistic post-punk records out there. There is very little percussion on the album, most songs are built around simple metronome clicks or incredibly primitive drum machine beats, but that's part of the charm. The songwriting stands well enough on its own, it doesn't need anything more than what the trio presents.
11. Yanka - Anhedonia
Yanka Dyagileva was one of the most popular and influential figures within Russia's underground punk scene. Her work with Grazhdanskaya Oborona was legendary enough, but her sadly short solo career is, for lack of a less hyperbolic word, absolutely perfect. Her six solo albums are all absolutely fantastic for entirely different reasons, with the singer/songwriter covering genres from folk, punk, and blues, all the way back to bard music. Anhedonia is my personal favorite. It's her most cohesive solo album, the album where all of her varied influences come together incredibly well to create something immensely original and breathtakingly personal.
12. Lizzy Mercier Descloux - Press Color
After releasing a brilliant EP with the hypnotic, desolate Rosa Yemen, French musician Lizzy Mercier Descloux embarked on a solo career. Press Color, her first solo record, is as funky and danceable as it is desolate, noisy, and artsy. Press Color is a perfect example of the more danceable side of "no wave", a post-punk genre that sought to do away with melody, harmony, and just about any other form of conventional song structure. The songs on Press Color are often static, droning, and relatively odd, but Descloux's energy and the percussive nature of the record make it an incredibly fun record through and through.
13. This Heat - Deceit
It's hard to believe that this brilliant record was recorded all the way back in 1981. This Heat only put out three records throughout their short lifespan as a band, and every single one of them is absolutely brilliant. This Heat is their most experimental, Health and Efficiency is their most droney, and Deceit is their all-around best. It's still incredibly experimental and out-there, incorporating elements of krautrock, industrial, and sound collage, but the moments where these experimental moments mix with more typical post-punk songwriting that the album truly becomes something special. I've been actively listening to post-punk for half a decade at this point, and absolutely nothing is like Deceit.
14. Liquid Liquid - Liquid Liquid
Choosing this could be considered a bit of a cop out, considering Liquid Liquid is a compilation, compiling the dance-punk group's entire discography. That aside, this is possibly the best dance-punk release of all time. The EPs that compile this record are of varying quality (Optimo being my personal favorite), but the entire compilation is filled to the brim with brilliant percussion, excellent basslines, and an incredibly fun atmosphere. It's not often that post-punk is influenced by batacuda, a form of samba music, but Liquid Liquid pulls that influence off incredibly well.
15. Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
Here it is: the crown jewel of post-punk. I personally prefer Closer and the Les Bains Douches live record, but Unknown Pleasures is the prototypical post-punk album. Ian Curtis' baritone vocals and macabre lyrics are the most notable part of this record. He's famously one of the gloomiest figures in rock music, and his personal life and battle with mental illness are both reflected perfectly in the record. Bernard Sumner's guitar licks are simple, but they work perfectly, and Peter Hook and Stephen Morris work together to form what is quite possibly the best rhythm section of all time. A classic record for a good reason.
