Each Sunday, Pitchfork takes an in-depth look at a significant album from the past, and any record not in our archives is eligible. Today, we look back at Billy Idol’s first band, a combustible 1978 record with a punk sound and pop politics.
Stripped back to just Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson, the drone-metal titans explore the minutiae of microtonal vibrations on an album that sprawls like land art.
On the heels of viral success, the anonymous, polka-dotted math-punk duo takes the throne as the world’s weirdest party band.
On its second album, made in the wake of an apartment fire, the Vermont band confronts upheaval and disaster through a controlled chaos of noisy guitars, lurching rhythms, and oblique lyrics.