The 50 best punk albums of all time

If the late 1960s were a time when the youth of America and the UK put a flower in the hair of the elder generation, entreating them to chill out and join them in peace and love, then 1976 was the year they took that flower right back, snapped its stalk and stamped on it. No longer were kids going to blithely conform to societal rules, or authority figures, or organised education.

That year, almost simultaneously on both sides of the Atlantic, something changed. In the US, there was a complete distrust of politicians thanks to Watergate, Nixon and the Vietnam war, while in the UK there was total economic crisis and rampant inflation while the country baked in a (then) unprecedented heatwave. Conditions were ideal for righteous anger and indignation, and the younger generation responded by picking up the traditional weapons of the non-criminal — electric guitars.

Punk was born, and with it came a volley of spit in the face of five years of soft rock and masturbatory solos, replaced by two or even three chord exclamations of outright dissatisfaction and a rejection of corporate greed. The spirit of punk has lived on for fifty years now, and has produced some of the most vital, exhilarating and ‘quick, turn this up right now’ music in history.

Here are half a century’s worth of glorious albums that capture it all, in no particular order, all shot through with the kind of vitriol that Johnny Rotten would approve of.

Put them on at full volume. Get pissed. Destroy.

50) MC5 - Kick Out the Jams (1969)

There’s ahead of their time, and then there’s MC5. Summoning the violence of Altamont and the death of hippies, the Michigan band released a live album as their debut, a mix of garage rock, metal and punk before anyone knew what it was, the title track featuring vocalist Rob Tyner screaming ‘Kick out the Jams, motherfuckers’. The upscale department store chain Hudson’s promptly banned it. MC5 took out a full page ad in the national press stating simply: “Fuck Hudson’s.”

49) New York Dolls - New York Dolls (1973)

New York City in the early 1970s was not a safe place to be; Manhattan was practically bankrupt, violent crime spiralled. Out of this backdrop came the New York Dolls, a hard-drinking American counterpart to the Rolling Stones, with songs about kids feeling repressed and like ‘whipped dogs’, all spiky guitars and shouted choruses, while the band would dress in full drag and make up amidst a culture of rampant homophobia.

48) Television - Marquee Moon (1977)

If ever there were a more thoughtful side to punk, this is it — an album that is packed full of gloriously accomplished music, complex guitar lines, stunning melodies and poetic lyrics. Graduates of lower Manhattan’s infamous CBGBs club, Television’s Marquee Moon would go on to influence the likes of U2, R.E.M and Pavement.

47) Stiff Little Fingers - Inflammable Material (1979)

Formed in Northern Ireland as the country was reeling from the violence of the Troubles , Stiff Little Fingers swallowed up the brutality and deprivation of daily life, vomiting it back out with vengeance on this scorching debut. Within one minute of the opener you’ll hear the roots of Green Day’s Welcome to Paradise. “It’s time the bastards fell” screams the frontman Jake Burns. Furious stuff.

46) The Runaways - The Runaways (1976)

Godmothers of punk is a very cool title to have, and a deserved one for a ‘no f**ks given’ all female group led by Joan Jett who grew up playing the Whiskey a Go Go in LA and produced a fantastic, hard rocking debut that featured Lou Reed covers, plus the incendiary, rebellion-on-record, Cherry Bomb.

45) Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime (1984)

Double albums are not often punk albums, more often associated with the excesses of prog rock. But inspired by Pink Floyd, Californian trio Minutemen went against that and combined jazz, punk, poetry and country with lyrics that explored war, violence, the American day to day graft, but mostly, brilliantly, just driving different cars around.

44) Public Enemy - Yo! Bum Rush the Show (1987)

Punk in genre they may not have been, punk in mentality they certainly were. Chuck D et al basically threw a political hand grenade of a record into capitalist, ‘80s greed-obsessed American culture and didn’t care less who it upset. Angry, confrontational, it was a debut rap album that won the traditionally guitar-obsessed NME’s album of the year.

43) Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady (1979)

A compilation album put together to introduce Bolton’s Buzzcocks to the US it might have been, but such was the strength of songwriting on display from Pete Shelley here, it ended up forever sitting with LPs like London Calling and Setting Sons as a bone fide punk classic. Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve) is one of the finest pop songs in all history.

42) Green Day - Dookie (1994)

As the 1990s began in California, Billie Joe Armstrong was taking most of the records you’ll read about here, ignoring the grunge all around him, and writing his own breakneck skate punk anthems - fiercely melodic tunes that just worked perfectly on the radio. He zeroed in on his own anxiety and boredom and in doing so found an empathetic audience of millions - the album went 20 times platinum.

41) Husker Du - Flip Your Wig (1985)

A decade that was summed up by corporate greed, cocaine and shoulder pads was always going to need a counter-measure, and in Minnesota Husker Du were trying to make hardcore punk rock into a viable living, adding a far more melodic element while turning down major label attention. On this album you can hear all the signs of singer-songwriter Bob Mould’s defining Sugar album Copper Blue, seven years early.

40) Black Flag - Damaged (1981)

Black Flag were the band that noticed Husker Du, and would sign them to their label, but in 1981 they were busy taking several attempts to record their own debut album because none of them had been in a recording studio before. Once they managed it, they produced an angry, hardcore classic that influenced everyone from Nirvana to Soundgarden to My Chemical Romance.

39) The Misfits - Misfits (1986)

Another compilation, this time from Glen Danzig’s New Jersey horror punk rockers, Misfits is a twenty-song burst of fuzzy guitar on which you can hear elements of almost every remotely similar band ever since. The group had already split up by 1983, but did enough that Green Day and The Offspring cite them as a massive influence.

38) The Jam - All Mod Cons (1978)

Nobody worked faster in the UK in the late ‘70s than a 20 year-old Paul Weller, and he’d already written two superb Jam albums by the time this one came around. But the tracklist on this is just frightening frankly. Brilliant song after brilliant song, with highlights including To Be Someone, David Watts, English Rose and Down in the Tube Station at Midnight.

37) The Stooges - Fun House (1970)

Not a commercial hit when it came out, probably because nobody knew what on earth it was, Iggy Pop and his mates continued in the vein of fellow Michigan-ers MC5 and tried to make everything sound as loud as possible on this second album. Two minutes into this and you know they succeeded in some style. Raw, primal, a true predecessor of punk.

36) The Distillers - Coral Fang (2003)

LA punk rockers The Distillers didn’t last long in their first iteration. But it was long enough for Aussie export Brody Dalle to front three albums with her growling snarl, including this foot to the floor effort that featured breakthrough single Drain the Blood which was championed by Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme. Dismantle Me and the title track are the real highlights though.

35) Patti Smith - Horses (1975)

The story of punk is littered with trailblazers, and Smith is undoubtedly one of those. Horses was her first album, a combination of poetry and punk, with a man steeped in anti-establishment garage rock at the controls in the shape of Velvet Underground’s John Cale. “Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine” is the opening line, and it continues in that vein.

34) Fugazi - Repeater (1990)

Fugazi were a band you would hear a lot about in the early ‘90s amidst the Pearl Jams and Nirvanas, but not one that ever quite broke through. One listen to this however will underline why they were so often referenced by the bands that did. Underpinned by an awesome rhythm section, songs that speared consumer culture and the annoyance of having to work for a living made for an album that gets better with each passing year.

33) The Who - Live at Leeds (1970)

Pete Townsend has a decent shout for being the original punk; nobody else in the mid 1960s was trashing their own equipment and this album captured his band’s pure on-stage adrenaline like nothing else. Keith Moon is gloriously unhinged behind the drums, Townsend’s guitar a wall of noise. My Generation is a stuttering punk anthem spun out to an astonishing 15 minutes here.

32) Devo - Freedom of Choice (1980)

If you ask anyone to come up with a Devo track they’re going to say Whip It, and this is the album it comes from, written under pressure from their label that if it didn’t succeed they would be dropped. They responded by making a collection of songs with an ironic title that, alongside Talking Heads, crossed punk energy with unusual arrangements and lyrics about how bizarre working life could be.

31) Velvet Underground - Velvet Underground and Nico (1967)

Widely considered the first ‘proto-punk’ album, this is New York garage rock, heroin chic, dark sunglasses, talk-singing, and playing so laid back it's basically horizontal; Lou Reed and Nico with the coolest vocals of all time. Plus that peelable Andy Warhol banana sleeve. This is the sound of telling someone “sorry, you’re in our seat, we pre-booked it”, and getting a response of just a silently raised middle finger.

30) Blondie - Blondie (1976)

Along with the Velvets, Blondie were yet another New York City product, another CBGB standard, and in Debbie Harry had a truly generational icon up front. Their debut, while not featuring many, if any, of the hits that would make them globally famous, is still stacked with melodies and attitude, like the opener X Offender and their first UK single, Rip Her To Shreds.

29) Idles - Joy As An Act of Resistance (2017)

Anyone who saw Idles breakthrough with their festival appearances in 2018, the year this album dropped, will have recognised, as Joe Talbot prowled the stage mic in hand, the air of danger that outlined them as modern day punk royalty — a band ready to take on all comers. It felt like anything could go off at their gigs, and this record reflected that uncertainty perfectly, especially on Never Fight a Man With a Perm.

28) Meat Puppets - II (1984)

After their debut album proved too scuzzy and too hardcore to bring them any attention, California’s Meat Puppets tried pretty much everything on their second, including a Stones cover, country, rock, punk, bluegrass and more (including what some called ‘cowpunk’.) The result was an album that inspired the really big bands to come - hence their on-stage invitation in the middle of Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged.

27) Amyl and the Sniffers - Comfort To Me (2021)

If you want female-led punk rock with attitude to spare, then head down under and share a stubby with Amy Taylor and her group, whose gigs have become legendary. In 2021 they threw this into the mess of Covid, led by the brilliant Hertz, which combined Electric Six’s ‘Gay bar’ with the desperate wish we all had to get the hell out of dodge.

26) Turnstile - Glow On (2021)

And the spirit of punk continued on to yet another generation; Turnstile made that same trip as their forefathers in going from hardcore to something more accessible, in the process making an album that earned Grammy nominations and topped many album of the year polls. Semi-shouted vocals, genre mash-ups, urgent, slammed drums and shades of the ‘90s in Jane’s Addiction made this a must-download for tens of thousands.

25) At the Drive-In - Relationship of Command (2000)

If you want to see modern (if 2000 counts as modern) punk in action then a quick google to witness ATDI perform One Armed Scissor on Jools Holland will do the trick. The Texans put all of that energy and more into their third (and best) album, which starts off thunderous and basically continues in that mode without ever letting up.

24) Rocket From the Crypt - Scream Dracula, Scream! (1995)

Much of the 1990s was not a big time for punk in general, but in the middle of it Rocket from the Crypt appeared from San Diego, armed with the superb single On a Rope which was everywhere for a while, putting on outrageous live shows at which anything could happen, from fire breathing to prize raffles. The album is similarly unpredictable, with sax, violas and chaotic riffs galore.

23) The Offspring - Smash (1994)

Together with Green Day, The Offspring emerged from California in ‘94 and brought with them an army of skate punk teens who snapped up their albums in the millions. Smash was packed with tunes, providing three hit singles, and guitar-wise sounded like the natural progression to where the heaviest of grunge bands had left off a year previously.

22) Bad Religion - Stranger than Fiction (1994)

The same year as punk went mainstream in the US, LA’s Bad Religion, who had been going for 14 years already, did their best to sound like the originals doing it in the UK in the 1970s, especially on the title track. In doing so they had their biggest hit to date, getting certified gold.

21) The Pogues - Rum Sodomy & the Lash (1985)

Shane MacGowan was a punk at heart, a man who belied his private school background by fully embracing the folk songs of Ireland and allying them with table smashing, drink-fuelled live performances. On this second album the recipe was perfected, MacGowan putting all of himself into the laureate level lyrics, twinned with inspired covers like Dirty Old Town.

20) Gallows - Orchestra of Wolves (2006)

When hardcore punks Gallows unleashed the single Abandon Ship on the UK it was with a music video that summed up their live shows; within five seconds lead singer Frank Carter simply launches himself bodily into the crowd. The album was huge, it sounded like it could be American, Warner Bros duly handed them a million quid to make another.

19) Rancid - ...And Out Come the Wolves (1995)

This is punk played as it should be played — breakneck tempo, spiky three-chord guitars, vocals spat rather than sung, and impossible to stand still to. The single Ruby Soho was the song that gained them MTV exposure, and Rancid remained the cool underground California cousins to Green Day and The Offspring in the mid-90s.

18) Siouxsie and The Banshees - Juju (1981)

Formed exactly fifty years ago in London, the Banshees released their first record right in the midst of punk, then used their live experiences and burgeoning musicianship to make two fantastic albums at the start of the new decade, including Juju, which featured the superb Spellbound and Arabian Knights.

17) Rise Against - The Sufferer and the Witness (2006)

While in the UK Gallows sounded distinctly US in their music, the same year over in Chicago, Rise Against were doing American punk rock better than they had in all their seven years on this fourth album, which demanded radio play. Injection is an absolutely brilliant song, Roadside might be even better.

16) Wire - Pink Flag (1977)

If you thought Connection by Elastica was an original composition, then have a listen to track three on this album and report back. Britain’s Wire were seen as post-punk barely a year into punk and this stands as their epitaph; 21 songs smashed into 34 minutes, not a second wasted on it.

15) Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables (1980)

Like New York City, California proved fertile ground for punk bands and the Dead Kennedys were one of the first out of the traps in 1978. Their debut album echoed the sound of the Sex Pistols from over the pond, and if artwork makes a statement, theirs featured several police cars on fire.

14) Bad Brains - Bad Brains (1982)

So many punk bands were initially hardcore groups, and Washington D.C.’s Bad Brains were pioneers of the genre, across nine albums proving also masters of almost limitless artistic directions. On this, their first LP, they attempted to capture the insanity of their CBGB live performances.

13) Descendents - Milo Goes to College (1982)

Yet more Californian punk alumni, Descendents added surf rock elements and never sounded better than on their first album, a yardstick of pop-punk that is referenced by the likes of Fall Out Boy, The Offspring and Blink 182, whose drummer Travis Barker has a Descendents tattoo.

12) The Replacements - Let It Be (1984)

The Replacements had been going for five years by the time they released this album, and the band had grown out of their punk roots, wanting to find genuine success with more complex songs. They did so in spades, creating a catchy tune-filled record that often features in greatest of all time lists — perhaps the only time they managed to hold it together long enough not to totally self-sabotage.

11) Fontaines DC - Romance (2024)

Fontaines DC’s earlier albums certainly sound more ‘straight punk’ than this, the album that took them from side stages to main arenas, but what they did here was go in a completely unique direction against all expectations. Starburster sounds like absolutely nothing else around.

10) Parquet Courts - Wide Awake (2018)

And still, in the 2010s, New York City continued to produce bands that tapped into the sound of the underground and brought it to everyone’s attention. Parquet Courts were eight years in when they made Wide Awake! And yet it sounded as fresh as a debut, topping end of year lists and prompting one reviewer to state it was ‘the most woke punk-rock record since the heyday of The Clash’.

9) The Strokes - Is This It (2001)

A millennium needed a completely new musical movement and The Strokes duly provided it, reaching to steal the best of Tom Petty and the Velvet Underground, sticking on leather jackets and making a New York album that influenced pretty much every guitar band on the planet at the time.

8) Blink 182 - Enema of the State (1999)

Often unfairly derided as simply American locker room fare due to the humour present in their work, Blink were in fact very, very clever and accomplished musicians, and this was packed with punk-pop-rock tunes that swept the radiowaves and sold 15m copies.

7) The Wipers - Is This Real? (1980)

Nirvana were probably the closest to punk in ethos of the mainstream early ‘90s guitar bands, and Kurt Cobain would at one point opine that everything they knew they learned from The Wipers. This album is raw, scuzzy, and poorly recorded, but the melodies shine through regardless.

6) Gang of Four - Entertainment! (1979)

Slotting into the void left by the explosion of the Sex Pistols, Gang of Four introduced British punk to more musical styles, at times sounding similar to The Jam. Heavily political, they might have been even more famous had they not cancelled their own Top of the Pops appearance when the producers wanted them to change a lyric about condoms.

5) The Clash - The Clash (1977)

One of the most influential bands in history, The Clash’s debut was recorded over three weekends and marks a total shift in guitar music — Hate and War providing a direct rebuttal of peace and love, White Riot telling the story of British race politics and London’s Burning doing what it said on the tin. Angry, frantic, urgent, it is all of Joe Strummer and Mick Jones’ talent unleashed on the world.

4) Bob Dylan - Bringing it All Back Home (1965)

If you want an early example of someone facing pearl-clutching anger at his actions and doing whatever he wanted anyway, this is it. Amid cries of Judas, Dylan ignored the acoustic folks fans and plugged in to an amp, managing to heavily influence not just The Beatles, but the Stones, The Who and therefore The Sex Pistols and Ramones in the process.

3) The Undertones - The Undertones (1979)

Feargal Sharkey might have been naff as anything by the 1980s, but at the end of the decade he and his band had gone from their Irish bedrooms to making a proper, timeless punk anthem with Teenage Kicks, a classic that focused on youthful frustrations rather than the troubles that went on all around them. Plus Jimmy Jimmy, which is just as good.

2) The Ramones - Ramones (1976)

And again from New York City, in April of 1976 came the birth of punk in the United States thanks to four leather clad young men singing about violence and drug use across 14 songs, none of which made it to three minutes in length, most of which are north of 160bpm. “Hey! Ho! Let’s go!... The kids are losing their minds” shouted Joey Ramone, and they duly did just that.

1) Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols (1977)

The album that completely changed the culture of the UK. Suddenly, it was not a strange sight to see young people on the high streets with green hair and safety pins through their noses. The band were on the telly, swearing and smashing sets up. The record itself was a call to arms, huge guitars, thunderous drums, that nasal whine of malcontent. Nothing was the same afterwards.

• 50 years of punk: A Shortlist celebration

Skip the search — follow Shortlist on Google News to get our best lists, news, features and reviews at the top of your feeds!