Man, what a world turned upside down moment. The Whole of the Law always felt like such a _perfect_ Yo La Tengo song, but hearing its original, unexpectedly, 40 years later, is a _trip. Between that and the bracing Another Girl, Another Planet, this gets off to a staggering start.
The Only Ones are officially on some unofficial list of my underappreciated artists. God damn, this sounds like the best of the 90's and 00's, spawning out of a late 70's punk scene they share little with, arguably the 5th best album of 1978*. It's unevenly paced, Breaking Down in particular is a mistake of sequencing, leading with TWotL is a weird move, and the end falls off a bit, but still -- goddamn glorious. John Perry's guitars are the sweetest thing I've ever heard. So so so far ahead of their time, so so so much better than everything else happening. An album made all the more disorienting the more you think you know, packed to bursting with great ideas, glorious execution.
How is this not topping lists. Fuck us all, especially me 4.5/5
* behind, say, Parallel Lines, Some Girls, Chairs Missing, All Mod Cons, give or take, befitting from The Damned dodging to a year on either side
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