by Buzzcocks
United Artists, 1979

the sound: This is a punk rock classic. But as punk was incorporating a number of new sounds in the late 1970s, the album was a creative leap for the Buzzcocks. While maintaining the driving swagger for which they were known, the band went a little nuts: psychedelic guitar solos, some longer song lengths, and lyrics drawing upon sophisticated themes of alienation and existence, depression and agnosticism. The A-side, for the most part, is classic ’Cocks—punchy, obnoxious and pull-your-hair-out catchy. But the B-side, which features Pete Shelley compositions exclusively, is all of those things and also a bit weird. The whole side is a stunner. Shelley begins his descent into depression with “I Don’t Know What To Do With My Life” and devolves from there. On “Hollow Inside,” easily one of the best songs they ever recorded, Shelley repeats in a circular loop: “Hollow inside / I was hollow inside / And I couldn’t find out the reason why / Why I was / Hollow Inside / I was hollow inside...” and it continues. I don’t know, Pete, maybe it’s the daily acid trips? But one doesn’t get the sense that Shelley is unaware of what’s plaguing him; rather this track and much of the B-side are philosophical meditations on human malaise. When “I Believe” rolls in to essentially close the album, the bright melody provides false hope that the A-side’s lightness will return to wrap things up. But then Shelley chants over and over again: “There Is No Love In This World Anymore!”—and wow, is it awesome. Happy New Year!

the background: Their third and final album before disbanding, “A Different Kind Of Tension” was recorded while the Buzzcocks were in the midst of what could be called their breakdown phase. Troubles had begun within the band and Shelley was battling a crippling depression, treating it with daily cocktails of anti-depressants and LSD. Aside from some later, drug-fueled recording sessions with legendary Factory Records affiliated producer Martin Hannett, this was the band’s last output in its first incarnation. So this was their ship’s-going-down album. It’s unfortunate, but no secret that situations like these often produce a group’s best material.

the significance: The Buzzcocks were one of the first punk bands, but by 1979 punk was losing its edge. Post-punk was already a flourishing genre. This is an album that would define what it actually meant to be punk as the ’80s rolled in: doing whatever you want, to hell with conventions. Some of the harder stuff on here, like “A Different Kind Of Tension” and “Sitting Round At Home,” with their stomping rhythms and social critiques, were precursors to the American hardcore scene of the ’80s (the latter was covered by the Gorilla Biscuits at the end of that decade). Many of the songs—along with the album’s “that’s so ’80s” cover art of bright purples and yellows surrounding shadowy forms—are among the earliest examples of new wave. The title track, in fact, contains one of the first successful uses of a robot voice. And the influence remains. Green Day has always sounded pretty much exactly like the Buzzcocks, and every punk-sounding pop song on the radio owes a lot to the band’s combination of speed and ’60s pop jangle. It’s not surprising that this album sounds so young 30 years later.