Search - Various Artists :: Punk: The Jubilee

Great but not comprehensive

Pieter | Johannesburg | 11/14/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a great punk rock compilation. Not perfect, in that some of the most influential bands of the time have been omitted, but quite inclusive with a lot of the era's classic tracks by the rest. And of these there were plenty, like New Rose by The Damned, Into The Valley by The Skids, Blank Generation by Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Shot By Both Sides by Magazine and Oh Bondage Up Yours! by X Ray Spex. The contrast between the angry little anthems by Poly Styrene's band and the moody, brooding electronics of Howard DeVoto's Magazine demonstrates the magnificent variety of sounds and flavours that went under the umbrella of Punk.

There was the pop punk of The Buzzcocks, The Only Ones, The Vapors and The Undertones, the experimental edge of Devo, Wire and XTC, the hard but melodic rock of The Stranglers and Penetration plus various obscure gems like Jilted John's eponymous little tale of woe and The Flying Lizard's exquisite interpretation of the old classic Money. The Tom Robinson Band and Ian Dury and the Blockheads are well represented too. On the minus side, there are no proper tracks by those fathers of punk The Sex Pistols or by other seminal artists like Siouxsie and the Banshees or The Jam. This album should thus be complimented with Never Mind by the Pistols and the Best Of The Banshees for a truly representative view of the era and the style."