#956 Minutemen - The Punch Line

The first thing you need to know about this album is that it's 18 songs long, and only 3 of those are longer than a minute, including Tension, logging in at an epic 1:20 (and no, according to the band this isn't where they got their name). Each song is a whip crack of breakneck bass, stutterstop drums and stabby post-punk guitars played double-fast. And then gone. It's thrilling, gutwrenchingly tense, and then over, leaving you wanting more,a distilled, knife-edge version of the sprawling albums that were to follow, utterly fearless in its approach to sputtering songs rushing at you like fists 4/5