Ramones

Ramones (1976)

BSD

Hey, fucks, it's the Ramones. One could argue that they play Beach Boys-esque 60s rock and win. Their influences are firmly rooted in the British Invasion and before. On this, their first album, they play old fashioned rock/pop with cranked distortion and plenty of speed. Joey Ramone sings in a mock-British accent, Johnny's guitar is a fucking buzzsaw, Dee Dee perfectly follows the beats, and Tommy supplys them aptly. They invent horror rock on songs like "Chainsaw", and songs like the closer "Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World" show them being politically un-PC before Johnny Rotten had been wailing that he wanted a holiday in the sun… This is the "new" rock. If only every group they spawned had been as great or original as them, the punk scene might be a lot bigger and less isolationist.

The reissue adds a few demos and the UK single version of Blitzkrieg Bop (which you teeny bop fukkkers may recognize as that song with "hey ho, let's go!"). So many of you are so pathetic.

The score counts. This is a perfect album.