#17
Richard Hell & The Voidoids
"Blank Generation"(1977)
I think if I had made this list in 2006 rather than now, this album would have been #2 or #3, because I LOVED this album when I first heard it. And the reason why it's higher now isn't because it's gotten stale over the years-it's still just as fantastic as when I first popped it into my CD player-it's just that alot of albums that I wasn't listening to that year that were less immediate didn't get played as often, and only now have a realized how wonderful they are.
In any case, this is one of the best punk albums ever made. I absolutely adore 70's punk, but unforunately, it's more of a singles genre than one that put out great albums. Out of the hundreds of seventies punk bands I've listened to, theres maybe only 10-12 solid albums that I've heard, this being one of them. You have the obvious great songs here- the singles, "Blank Generation" and "Love Comes In Spurts", and if this was any other punk band, there might be one MAYBE two other good songs. Howver, of the ten songs on this album, only the last one do I have a distaste for, and it's more over the length, "The Plan" clocks in at over eight minutes, than the quality. No, you have "New Pleasure" one of my favorite Voidoids tunes, "Down at The Rock and Roll Club", and an awesome cover of "Walking on the Water" by CCR.
The Voidoids sound is basically a combination of Richard Hell's previous two bands, The Heartbreakers and Television. His songs have the basic rock and roll structure of the Heartbreakers, but the post-punk guitar workings of Television, thanks to Robert Quine, one of the best guitarists of the era. The guitar playing on this album really makes this album, along with the energy, which is one of the most important factors for me when listening to an album. To me, the Voidoids have much more energy than the Heartbreakers, while also having a much more unique sound, which is why I will always rate Richard Hell above Johnny Thunders.
Theres another reason why Richard Hell is better than Thunders-he's an absolutely brilliant songwriter. Take for example the song "Blank Generation", where Richard affectionately retells the story of his birth,
Triangles were fallin at the window as the doctor cursed
He was a cartoon long forsaken by the public eye
The nurse adjusted her garters as I breathed my first
The doctor grabbed my throat and yelled, "God's consolation prize!"
This is nt your average punk song, no, this is far wittier and more cerebral than 99% of what was out there in 1977. Don't forget Richard Hell was in Television, and good friends with Tom Verlaine, and that before punk rock came along, they wanted to be poets. This is one of the reasons why I f
ucking hate when people hear The Clash and The Sex Pistols, and dismiss punk rock altogether. Albums like this, that have almost nothing in common with the thick headed, 'I hate everything', three chord ramones/pistols rip off punk. This is not that. Listen to this album and tell me punk rock has nothing to offer, I dare you.
93/100