Rolling Stone's 40 Greatest Punk Albums of All Time

It’s all harmless but still gnarly enough to foment the kind of anti-everything rebellion that spawned rock & roll way back in the day ... Blink-182 have the formula down, and for that, if nothing else, more power to ’em.

By the time of their first LP, Unknown Pleasures, Joy Division had tempered their style, planishing it down to a doleful, deep-toned sound that often suggested an elaborate version of the Velvet Underground or an orderly Public Image Ltd.

Now they just rock out, stripping New Wave and metal and rockabilly down to primal thrust and blare. There are half a dozen songs under three minutes on Fever to Tell, and they sound absolutely complete.

Marquee Moon, Television's debut album, is the most interesting and audacious of this triad, and the most unsettling.

Too often, underground bands squander their spunk on records they're not ready to make, then burn out their energy and inspiration with uphill touring. Nevermind finds Nirvana at the crossroads — scrappy garageland warriors setting their sights on a land of giants.

To say that their second album, Fun House, is one of the greatest rock & roll records of all time risks hyperbole, but the evidence is inescapable.

Musically, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols is just about the most exciting rock & roll record of the Seventies.