Best New Wave/Post-Punk Albums

| PERE UBU: The Modern Dance (1978)
| SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES: The Scream (1978)
| JOY DIVISION: Unknown Pleasures (1979)
| THE FALL: Dragnet (1979)
| ADAM AND THE ANTS: Dirk Wears White Søx (1979)
| PUBLIC IMAGE LTD: Metal Box (1979)

 

Juju by Siouxsie and the Banshees

 

It sure is an impossible task to objectively define any music genre, because we individually set the rules and boundaries in our own heads. When it comes to this one, I dismiss the term new-wave as it seems to cause the most confusion, but I can deal with an idea of post-punk in this way...

Punk records are the first wave of releases from 1977 and therefore include Sex Pistols, The Damned, 1st Clash album, Ramones, Buzzcocks, Stranglers, Wire (pink flag), Adverts, The Jam, The Saints, and other assorted singles.

Post-punk records are any that are outside that first wave and are released from 1978 to 1981, where the musicians are of that generation that have been inspired by punk and may be doing different things musically (experimentation goes rife and electronic sounds become as prevalent as guitars) but punk was the spark that gave them a chance to get going. In 1982 the music becomes too far removed from the initial starting point of punk and a new generation of musicians become involved so it seems irrelevant to refer to anything past that date as post-punk. Of course, we then get more recent bands who take inspiration from those 1978 to 1981 post-punk sounds, but I don't think they need to be included as part of the original definition.

Anyway, apologies to the original poster as this does not answer their question. So, some favourite post-punk records of mine would be:
Gang of four: entertainment
Banshees: the scream/kaleidoscope
Pil: metal box
Magazine: secondhand daylight
the slits: cut
The cure: 17 seconds
Wire 154
Killing joke 1st
Talking heads: fear of music
Ah, there's far too many...
Fall
Cramps
Devo
Omd
Human League
Gary numan
Joy division
Simple minds
Only ones
Cabaret Voltaire
Suicide
Could go on and on.

 

Joy Division - 'Closer'
Killing Joke - s/t (and even more the EP 'Turn to Red' before, miles ahead of everything)
Echo & the Bunnymen - 'Ocean Rain'
The Fall - 'The Wonderfull and Frightening World of...'
Simple Minds - 'Sons and Fascination'
The Cure - 'Three Imaginery Boys/Boys Don't Cry'
Visage - s/t
The Specials - s/t
Japan: 'Gentlemen Take Polaroids'
Gary Numan – 'The Pleasure Principle'
The Sound - 'From the Lion's Mouth'

 

I agree that the boundaries are very hazy and almost impossible to define, eg. are the New Romantics allowed if Gary Numan is? Regardless, anything and everything by Siouxsie and the Banshees and Joy Division should qualify and would be my automatic choices.

 

FWIW, my definition of New Wave vs Post Punk is pretty simple but probably too reductive for most people (this is just for my brain, not meant to be a "definitive" definition as it were):

Post Punk: Strictly UK and European music that followed the initial UK Punk movement. For me, this is basically any UK and European music from roughly 1977 through the early 80s that was influenced by UK Punk, North American New Wave, Glam, and 70s European synthrock. Includes all gothy Post Punk, all UK synth pop, New Romantics. Officially begins apx late 1978 with The Scream and PiL's "Public Image," but as many here have mentioned, earlier records by people like Ultravox were already ahead of the game. Ends with The Smiths s/t.

New Wave: Strictly North American phenomenon that began sometime in the mid 70s with avant garde rock bands like New York Dolls and Pere Ubu. Includes CBGB's scene, USA synthpop, and anything North American influenced by those bands or UK Punk or UK Post-Punk. Ends with R.E.M. Chronic Town.

 

Too many to name.....
There was a big Rhino comp. of tunes from the era.... probably as close as one can get to the "Nuggets"-style!

 

The whole series is fantastic.

 

It is, But there are quite a few questionable choices on those disks, for example a Red Hot Chili Peppers song. I don’t know in what galaxy anyone would refer to RCHP as new wave.....

 

Tears for Fears...The Hurting and SFTBC.
Saw the tour of the latter.
Thompson Twins were a guilty pleasure.

Drumhead

 

Echo & The Bunnymen - Any of their first four records but Ocean Rain is a favourite with Porcupine a close second.
Psychedelic Furs - Same deal as Echo - first four albums.

 

New romantics would fit into my definition; Visage, Duran Duran, Spandau; but all music produced after 1981 becomes it's own thing and I no longer think of any record or band as post-punk after that cutoff point.

 

Where to start?

Joy Division, obviously! Both albums.

Bunnymen: any and all of the first 4 albums.

Teardrop Explodes: both albums.

Magazine, especially Second Hand Daylight and Real Life.

Cure: Seventeen Seconds.

Pretty much anything by Public Image.

Do The Only Ones count? If so, their first 2 albums.

Iggy Pop: Idiot and Lust for Life were post-punk BEFORE there was punk!

 

Goddam, I forgot about The Fall. Perhaps the definitive post-punk band.

 

This Year’s Model, Elvis C.
The Cars
Look Sharp, Joe Jackson
Eat to the Beat, Blondie

 

Favorites:
Joy Division. Cure and lots of other Great Titles that I love a lot that mentioned here by members .

I will add The Irish Post Punk band ---- VIRGIN PRUNES

Virgin Prunes- If I Die, I Die
Virgin Prunes -A new form of Beauty
Virgin Prunes - Virgin Prunes ‎– The Moon Looked Down And Laughed
Virgin Prunes - Heresie

 

If I had to pick a top 5 I'd replace Minutemen with Joy Division's Closer. Had a slip of mind and forgot that one when I posted.

 

When Elvis Costello arrived in 1977 he was labeled New Wave & with 1978 TYM he was then known as the supreme leader of the genre...

After 1978 his music had grown by leaps & bounds away from the fafisa organ sound of New Wave & was actually replaced by Joe "King" Carrasco & The Crowns...

So you are half right & half wrong , but you have your opinions regardless

 

I'd say even at 1980.. UK bands whose previous work or debut album would now be called post-punk, their 1980 album certainly isn't regarded as post-punk in the UK, as the "best" artists had moved on by then: In the Flat Field: Bauhaus, Closer: Joy Division, Kaleidoscope: the Banshees, Kings of the Wild Frontier: Adam and the Ants... all 1980, all had changed or expanded their sound, and were almost too genre-defying by 1980 to be called post-punk now, despite their post-punk 1978-9 work.

The heart of Kaleidoscope and Closer for example is pioneering early electronica or even trip hop, and have more in common with Low era Bowie and Kraftwerk than punk. Kings of the Wild Frontier is Burundi centred, with funkier tracks having a late 70s Roxy Music influences, who Ant and Marco were huge fans of. In the Flat Field and the Banshees 1981 JuJu are the foundations of dark, experimental rock which would give birth to the goth rock term and came more from Iggy's The Idiot and the darker work of Lou Reed and John Cale than punk.

etc etc!

 

U2 and Mark E Smith of The Fall both rated Virgin Prunes didn't they, it's odd they're so semi-forgotten with friends as high profile as that..

 

I clearly remember the day I bought that LP in 1980, driven by nothing more than a strong review in Rolling Stone (which seems to have been scrubbed from the web now, despite a now-dead link persisting in a later RS piece). Ate lunch at a restaurant next door to the record store while perusing the album jacket. After returning home and cueing it up on the turntable, I instantly became a fan, and still have that same LP to this day.

 

BlueSpeedway did you like the Virgin Prunes? New form of Beauty is very experimental Compared to If I Die I die
and the The Moon Looked Down And Laughed
New form of Beauty , Heresie and over the rainbow are experimental and strange ( in a good way)
but I wouldn't play them during an extended family Dinner

I love all their albums during the short existence of the band.


It's interesting that U2 and virgin Prunes were friends and each one of the bands created such a different music style.

 

I’ll try your recommendations, thanks. I heard the band only many many years ago. U2 were fans of Pere Ubu too!

 

Wire - Chairs Missing, 154
Pere Ubu - The Modern Dance, early singles as released on Terminal Tower
Gang of Four - Entertainment
Echo & the Bunnymen - Their first four albums are each excellent in their own way
Magazine - Secondhand Daylight - their first three are all excellent, as are the BBC Sessions
Siouxsie & the Banshees - Juju, Kaleidoscope
XTC - Drums & Wires
Devo - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!
The Fall - Our Nation's Saving Grace, Wonderful & Frightening World. . . such a body of work with this band.
Television - Marquee Moon
The Only Ones - Even Serpents Shine, BBC Sessions
Talking Heads - Fear of Music, Remain In Light
The Stranglers - Black & White
Elvis Costello & the Attractions - This Year's Model
Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady
Joy Division - Closer, Substance

And there are countless other greats, depending on how you define your terms. I guess that I'm cheating a bit by including compilations, but in some cases with these bands, the studio albums don't tell the whole story.

 

Good point - so many of the most beloved or influential tracks by what get called the post-punk greats, were non-album tracks:

Hong Kong Garden
The Staircase (Mystery)
Dark Entries
Bela Lugosi's Dead
Kicker Conspiracy/Wings
Totally Wired
Transmission
Dead Souls
Final Solution

etc!