Recently BBC Radio 6 celebrated the music of 1979 as part of My Generation, their year-long season of programmes presenting the history of pop music across the decades. Listening to The Sound of 1979 playlist reminded me that several of my all-time favorite albums were released on that year and although over the years I have compiled many "Best of" annual lists (all of which can be found here), I have never gone on record about my favorites from 1979 (or any other year of the '70s for that matter).
Time to change all that: what follows is a list of 40 excellent albums released in 1979 which I would gladly listen to over and over again today. Most of them have been a huge influence on shaping what we now refer to as the post-punk sound and are indicative of the innovations and transformations taking place in rock music at the late '70s as a result of the big bang caused by the punk explosion.
This short list, being of course a subjective collection of personal favorites, does not try to include everything that was going on in 1979, but in the near future we will publish in Cool Music Database an expanded and much more wide-ranging version that will cover all bases. But for now, here's our version of The Sound of 1979:
Top 40 Albums of 1979
1. Entertainment! - GANG OF FOUR2. Unknown pleasures - JOY DIVISION
3. Live at the witch trials - THE FALL
4. London calling - THE CLASH
5. Fear of music - TALKING HEADS
6. Setting sons - THE JAM
7. Armed forces - ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE ATTRACTIONS
8. Cut - THE SLITS
9. Second edition - PUBLIC IMAGE LTD.
10. 154 - WIRE
11. Three imaginary boys - THE CURE
13. The Undertones - THE UNDERTONES
14. Drums and wires - XTC
15. Specials - SPECIALS
16. Secondhand daylight - MAGAZINE
17. Join hands - SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES
18. Dragnet - THE FALL
19. 20 jazz funk greats - THROBBING GRISTLE
20. Colossal youth - YOUNG MARBLE GIANTS
21. Eat to the beat - BLONDIE
22. Machine gun etiquette - THE DAMNED
23. A different kind of tension - BUZZCOCKS
25. Real to real cacophony - SIMPLE MINDS
26. Reproduction - THE HUMAN LEAGUE
27. Reggatta de blanc - POLICE
28. One step beyond... - MADNESS
29. The Raincoats - THE RAINCOATS
30. GI - GERMS
31. Y - THE POP GROUP
32. New picnic time - PERE UBU
33. Door, door - BOYS NEXT DOOR
34. Rust never sleeps - NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE
35. Wave - PATTI SMITH GROUP
36. Tom Verlaine - TOM VERLAINE
37. A can of bees - THE SOFT BOYS
38. Quiet life - JAPAN
39. Life in a day - SIMPLE MINDS
40. Eliptical optimism - SPHERICAL OBJECTS
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