Treble’s Top 100 Punk Albums

80. Murder City Devils – In Name and Blood
(2000; Sub Pop)

The use of organ on this album not only set Murder City Devils apart from other punk bands, it infused their music with a touch of evil. This is one of the darkest punk albums of all-time, with songs about suicide pacts and acts of drunken desperation. It’s a lot more sophisticated than just 1, 2, 3 go..! It’s punk, but it’s highly emotive and with honest tales of degradation set to music. It’s beefed-up psychedelic garage rock with the chaotic rage of a biker gang high on mescaline.  – Wil Lewellyn

79. Elvis Costello – This Year’s Model
(1978; Radar)

Let’s be clear—Elvis Costello was punk rock well before his second album, This Year’s Model. He packed his debut album My Aim Is True with more than its share of venom, but it took a year and a lineup change—swapping American pub-rock band Clover for The Attractions—for Costello to sound like a punk. Pete Thomas’ no-two-measures-are-the-same drum fills on leadoff track “No Action” set the tone for a double-speed race through breakups, fascism and tiresome culture. Later editions would include the single “Radio, Radio,” but this rebellion needs no extra push. The Angry Young Man’s already seething.  – Jeff Terich

78. Brainiac – Hissing Prigs in Static Couture
(1996; Touch and Go)

Brainiac’s story is a tragic one, the band’s frontman Timmy Taylor dying in a car accident in 1997 shortly after they had signed to major label Interscope. Yet in their all-too-short time together the band made some truly spectacular and wonderfully weird sets of noisy, jittery synth-punk, climaxing with this 1996 LP. Recorded with Eli Janney of Girls Against Boys, Hissing Prigs turned up the band’s idiosyncratic sound with punchier production, visceral stomps like “Vincent Come On Down” and no shortage of weird, unsettling effects. It’s punk at its most peculiar and left-field. – Jeff Terich

77. MC5 – Kick Out the Jams
(1969; Elektra)

Before punk was punk, the blues and garage rock-influenced MC5 was playing it loud and fast. Their first album, recorded live at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, was as much a call to political action as it was to get down—the original recipe of punk. The record’s energy is palpable, as Rob Tyner and Wayne Kramer’s entreaties to testify and kick out the jams are met with roars and applause from the crowd. – Andy Barton

76. Half Japanese – 1/2 Gentlemen 1/2 Beasts
(1980; Armageddon)

Depending on how you define punk this could very well be the most punk album ever made. That is to say Jad and David Fair gave absolutely zero fucks when they spread their zany dissonant sarcasm across 50 tracks and three CDs. Is it no wave? Is it Krautrock? Is it noise? It’s all those things and more. If punk is the utter embodiment of youth—messy, funny, anxious, manic—then ½ Gentlemen ½ Beasts is as punk as punk can be. – Wesley Whitacre

75. Green Day – Dookie
(1994; Reprise)

From the 1970s forward, artists who embraced punk and entered the mainstream were usually playing either punk offshoots (New Wave, grunge) or hyphenates (post-punk). Excepting The Clash, no band other than Green Day did so much to get actual, honest-to-goodness punk sounds and disaffectation onto pop charts and into big stadiums. “Longview,” “Welcome to Paradise,” “She,” “When I Come Around” and “Basket Case” formed the alpha and omega of the 1990s punk revival. – Adam Blyweiss

74. Mekons – The Mekons Rock ‘n’ Roll
(1989; A&M)

More than a decade after first debuting with a set of politically-charged post-punk, Leeds-based genre smashers The Mekons took a brief foray through major label territory with the aptly, slightly ironically titled The Mekons Rock ‘n’ Roll. A commercial flop but a critical favorite, Rock ‘n’ Roll is every bit its namesake, layered with big guitars and sardonic humor (that’s Elvis on the cover, if you couldn’t tell). But most of all it’s an album of massive guitars and rebellion through volume, big-label backing be damned.  – Jeff Terich

73. White Lung – Deep Fantasy
(2014; Domino)

Few albums outside of extreme metal, noise and industrial are as immediately pulverizing as the first several minutes of White Lung’s third album. (It doesn’t really let up at all during its 22-minute runtime, but “Drown With The Monster” and “Down It Goes” alone are an aural workout.) Lead guitarist Kenneth William’s riffs can, at times, go blow-for-blow with Kurt Baillou of Converge—it’s that intense; though the stylistic aims differ somewhat. Yet vocalist Mish Barber-Way is the real star of White Lung’s show, tackling rape, reproductive rights and numerous other topics little explored in such a male-dominated genre. – Liam Green

72. Sex Pistols – The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle
(1979; Virgin)

Malcolm McLaren’s revision of the Sex Pistols’ history as a long con produced a batshit crazy movie and a purposely uneven soundtrack album. After deflating the Johnny Rotten era with unrehearsed covers and outtakes, McLaren reinforced the Pistols’ standing as classically British agitators with an orchestral cover, a disco medley, an obscene sea shanty, a series of new lead-singer auditions disguised as the title song, Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs, and whatever the hell Tenpole Tudor was doing. It’s a tremendously fun, humorously self-aware achievement. If this is what being cheated sounds like, help yourself to my traveler’s cheques. – Paul Pearson

71. Joyce Manor – Never Hungover Again
(2014; Epitaph)

A bite-sized sonic blitz of emo-tinged punk, Joyce Manor’s Epitaph debut clocks in at a shockingly brief 19 minutes. During that time every hook continuously builds on the last, getting bigger and yet surprisingly more intimate as the album progresses. Like insight into a journal of youth and its perils, the album is not quite angry, certainly not quite happy, but occupying a wonderful middle space of ennui. Boredom and pain have never sounded so wonderfully joyful and catchy. – Brian Roesler