What is the best Post-Punk Album?
C’mon, tell us.
Punk sensibility, with real melodies. Costello, Pretenders, Blasters, Los Lobos, Dwight Yokum, Patti Smith, Meat Puppets, Mud Honey, Donnas, Nirvana?
My Vote; MOTELS: MOTELS!
I’m not even going to try to figure out what “Post-Punk” means, but since you mention the Meat Puppets…
Meat Puppets II is another* of my top ten all time favorites.
There’s nothing on the top
but a bucket and a mop
and an illustrated book about birds.
You see a lot up there
but don’t be scared
Who needs action when you’ve got words?
[sub]*I mentioned in the “Best Punk Rock Album” thread that the Minutemen’s Double Nickels on the Dime is on of my top 10 faves.[/sub]
The Birthday Party-Junkyard.
Jon
Anything Flogging Molly has done kicks in the teeth of any of those other bands. 'nuff said.
Closer - Joy Division
I’m not really sure what’s meant by “post-punk” in any context let alone one where both Patti Smith and Dwight Yokum are said to qualify, but now that Joy Division have been nominated I feel compelled to argue the superiority of Unknown Pleasures.
See now…Patti Smith was there from the VERY beginning. So I’m wondering about the “post”.
I’m guessing what you mean is, well, punk was designed to strip rock and roll back down to it’s bear essentials. Ramones, Sex Pistols…and then there were people after who took the basic sensibilty (and the DIY freedom) and did other stuff with it.
But the “real melodies” were also there from the begining, Patti Smith, Television, Talking Heads.
And Elvis Costello was an orginal punk, too.
All that said, I can’t belive we’re 6 posts into a thread about post-punk and Sonic Youth hasn’t come up.
And The Fall. For you English folk.
Ah yes. The Fall’s immortal “Seminal Live” rocks my world to this day.
I’ll go with **Rum, Sodomy and the Lash[B/] by the Pogues
joy division
Wire
The Fall
Cabaret Voltaire…
Yeah, post-punk is pretty vague so I’ll just throw out one of my all-time favourites from the 1980s:
Violent Femmes by The Violent Femmes. None of their subsequent albums lived up to the promise of their self-titled debut, but the debut is a fantastic record. Add It Up and Blister in the Sun were hugely successful singles at the time and still get airplay today. A college radio classic.
And I’ll second mungo’s suggestion of Rum, Sodomy and the Lash for a very close runner-up.
Does Devo count? Because they rule. Their coolest album is probably Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!
What about Lords Of The New Church’s Method To Our Madness or Killing Joke’s first few albums…Oh, and don’t forget about Gang Of Four’s first album.
Speaking of the Lords…Stiv Bators other post-Dead Boys band The Wanderers is a pretty obscure, but great record (Stiv fronts Sham 69), but Its too punk rock to be eligble for the “post” prefix.
Jon
Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come?
I can’t believe we’re 15 posts into a post-punk category and I’m the first to mention the Cure (albeit by chickening out and mentioning ** Standing on a Beach/Staring at the Sea **.
If Violent Femmes is considered post-punk, I want in. That and Throwing Muses eponymous 1st album.
And I lo-o-o-ve Sonic Youth. ** Daydream Nation ** is my favorite, but it’s less post-punkish than ** EVOL ** (my second fav).
Sure…they threw some fancy little drum and base samples in, but it’s still a hardcore album…hardly post-punk…
I heard a song on the radio last week by a band called HOT HOT HEAT doing a song called “Bandages”. It sounded just like the Cure’s early stuff.
I don’t know about SY though. IMHO they’re a little too artsy and YES-like for comfort. “Death Valley 69” Sure kicks some post punk nutsac though. 
Jon
I’ve heard of Hot Hot Heat but I’ve never heard anything by them. I’ll have to check out “Bandages” (“Boys Don’t Cry” is my favorite early Cure song, by the way).
Sonic Youth? Yes-like?! :eek: You can be arty without being Yes-like. “Death Valley '69” is one awesome song. And it has Lydia Lunch, so it automatically qualifies as post-punk. I still argue that EVOL is post-punk as well, though. 
yeah pretty tricky…
well you can quibble about the time frame and you can take me to task about the ‘compilation’ nature of the album but…
The Buzzcocks ‘Singles: Going Steady’ is my pure-post-punk-pop happy spot.
‘Just want a lover like anyother, what do I get?’
Hmmm. I’d definitely consider Buzzcocks to be first-wave punk, not at all post-punk.
And the lyrics are pretty depressing to be a happy spot, although the music itself it so upbeat.
- Ever fallen in love with someone you shouldn’t’ve fallen in love with? *