Zack: I think it’s fair to say that the big three of
punk are The Ramones, The Clash and the Sex Pistols in some order or another.
Technically, The Ramones were first, and The Clash had the longest stretch of
sustained excellence. But I’ll be damned if anyone did the whole punk rock
thing as hard as the Sex Pistols did. I mean, damn. The Ramones had a 22-year
career that included 14 studio albums. Since my first London Calling
experience, I’ve listened to every Clash album but their debut (on this list,
so I’ll get to it) and Cut the Crap (unanimously understood to be terrible) and
they really were just consistently great, even though they updated and expanded
their sound pretty much at every turn. To be put in the same level with those
two when you were around for two years and have exactly one album is an
impressive feat. And they definitely earned that spot. This album is so
consistent throughout. The instrumentals are more aggressive than The Ramones.
Even if I compare them to Give ‘Em Enough Rope (the most apt comparison I can
come up with within that era), there’s just a sharper edge, a certain violence,
that you don’t hear elsewhere. It’s something that we heard echoed in The Dead
Kennedys and The Germs, but the general attitude that they imparted in their music
sticks out from the contemporaries we’ve already experienced and shows just how
monumental their influence was, even though they only had one album to do it.
Favorite Tracks: Anarchy in the UK; Pretty Vacant; God Save
the Queen
Emily: Somehow, in all of my time listening to punk and punk-influenced music, I have never listened to the the entirety of the Sex Pistols debut (and only) album. I'm a bit embarrassed by this fact too, since essentially all of punk music and culture can be traced back to this album. It has the bouncing-but-sneering three-chord sound, the loud scream-sung vocals, the social and political commentary, and - most importantly, at least to me - the punk attitude. That angry, vocal, don't-take-shit-and-don't give-a-shit attitude that became an absolute staple of the movement that followed and its many revivals and iterations. The Sex Pistols embody punk because they created it, and everything that followed built and developed off it. So if you've ever been a punk fan, or a pop-punk fan, or a post-punk fan, or an alternative fan, or a grunge fan, give this album a listen. My guess is you'll be a fan of it too.
Favorite Tracks: Anarchy in the UK; God Save the Queen; No Feelings
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