Post-punk through the years: The 10 best vinyl deals available on Amazon this week
Welcome to Far Out’s weekly vinyl corner feature, where we look to bring you a tempting selection of records from some of our favourite artists, bargain vinyl deals to look out for, and unmissable limited-edition releases.
This week we’re celebrating post-punk, the era that started almost as soon as punk had begun. Contrasting with punk, post-punk has a more refined and nurtured sound, often with more precise, textured production and poetic lyrics. Below, you’ll find albums scattering the calendar from the late 1970s right up to the modern day, where we’re experiencing something of a post-punk revival – post-post-punk if you like.
Last year, the vinyl comeback enjoyed another milestone year as record sales surpassed that of CDs for the first time in three decades. The return to plastic has steadily climbed since the invasion of streaming services in the late 2000s. While the weightless, highly accessible and practical format is great for discovering and consuming swathes of new music while you’re out and about, there’s nothing like coming home to a bit of vinyl.
Fellow collectors out there will agree if there’s an artist or album you love, there’s always a good reason to have the turntable at the ready and a 12” slot reserved on the shelf for inevitable expansion. The sound quality of vinyl brings something more hearty and vibrant with its analogue warmth and crisp definition that there really isn’t a substitute for.
So if, like me, you have a soft spot for these groovy discs of plastic, allow me to walk you through ten hot picks for this week. We have some modern picks from Fontaines DC and IDLES, alongside some seasoned classics from Joy Division and Nick Cave.
The following selections have been handpicked by Far Out Magazine, and as a result, we may earn from qualifying purchases.
The 10 best vinyl deals available on Amazon this week
The Clash – London Calling (1979)
After Sex Pistols, The Clash were probably Britain’s second most influential punk group. The band began with their raw debut album in 1977 before their post-punk odyssey that increasingly ventured into external influences like rockabilly, ska, reggae and funk.
This 1979 classic double album brought the most refined example of The Clash’s early sound with enduring hits left, right and centre, including ‘London Calling’, ‘Spanish Bombs’, ‘Train in Vain’, ‘Guns of Brixton’ and ‘Lost in the Supermarket’.
Available for purchase here for £28.35.
Joy Division – Closer (1980)
Following 1979’s seismic debut album, Unknown Pleasures, Joy Division returned to the studio with producer Martin Hannett for another slice of gold to be pressed by the famous Factory Records. The album takes another step from the band’s early raw punk sound toward something more refined and absorbing while maintaining the classic Joy Division atmosphere.
While it’s perhaps not as iconic as Unknown Pleasures with its catchy cover art graphic, but among fans, Closer often surfaces as the overall favourite. With Joy Division essentials like ‘Heart and Soul’, ‘Atrocity Exhibition’ and ‘The Eternal’, this one deserves a place on the Christmas shopping list if you haven’t got it already.
Available for purchase here for £20.53.
Echo and the Bunnymen – Ocean Rain (1984)
Echo and the Bunnymen formed from the ashes of The Crucial Three, a band consisting of Julian Cope, Pete Wylie and Ian McCulloch. They were only together for around six weeks, but the members’ each set off on a path of their own that brought reverence to the name.
Of the three, the Echo and the Bunnymen frontman McCulloch was the most successful, with Julian Cope’s blinding solo run in the 1990s giving him a run for his money. Echo and the Bunnymen released a run of four albums over the early 1980s, which showed the band strengthening their sound to reach a pinnacle with the 1984 masterpiece, Ocean Rain. The mid-80s essential contains hits like ‘My Kingdom’, ‘Seven Seas’, ‘The Killing Moon’ and ‘Ocean Rain’.
Available for purchase here for £29.49.
Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation (1988)
Daydream Nation is often considered Sonic Youth’s masterpiece. Released in 1988, the album seemed to consolidate all the greatest aspects of their first four albums while paving the way for their most successful spell. Daydream Nation is home to the likes of ‘Teen Age Riot’, ‘Cross the Breeze’, ‘The Sprawl’ and ‘Silver Rocket’.
Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain listed Daydream Nation as his 17th favourite album of all time on a list he pulled together in the early 1990s. Sonic Youth were a pivotal influence on Nirvana, and the two bands formed a close friendship in the late 1980s before Nirvana became a household name of the grunge era.
Available for purchase here for £28.39.
Pixies – Doolittle (1989)
Pixies, the band before Nirvana, released their highly influential second studio album, Doolittle, in 1989. The group re-imagined alternative rock with their catchy guitar riffs, unique vocal styles and immersive lyrics. After their seminal debut, Surfer Rosa, which featured the fan favourite ‘Where Is My Mind?’, the band somehow managed to tighten up their formula for Doolittle.
The album is full to the rafters with seminal hits, including ‘Here Comes Your Man’, ‘Debaser’, ‘Hey’, ‘Gouge Away’ and ‘Monkey Gone to Heaven’. As such a timeless classic, this one is the perfect stocking filler for music lovers, young and old.
Available for purchase here for £21.33.
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds – Let Love In (1994)
Nick Cave is a unique icon of the post-punk realm. His impressive oeuvre of the past four decades has seen him cover the rungs with his wild, Iggy Pop-channeling beginnings with The Birthday Party to his sentimental and often haunting work with The Bad Seeds.
Throughout this varied catalogue is the constant swell of absorbing poetry and Cave’s dark, almost gothic aesthetic. Let Love In marks one of Cave’s mid-career highlights and boasts hits like ‘Do You Love Me?’, ‘I Let Love In’ and the Peaky Blinders theme tune, ‘Red Right Hand’.
Available for purchase here for £21.99.
Interpol – Turn On the Bright Lights (2002)
In the early 2000s, New York observed something of a rock scene comeback with post-punk and indie bands like The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and LCD Soundsystem emerging from the woodwork. In no small way, Interpol contributed to this burgeoning scene with a slice of brilliance in 2002 with their debut album, Turn On the Bright Lights.
The album established the band’s strong identity, which seems to draw from Pixies and Joy Division while giving something entirely novel thanks to Paul Banks’ soaring vocals. This album is home to classics like ‘Obstacle 1’, ‘PDA’, ‘Say Hello to the Angels’ and ‘Untitled’.
Available for purchase here for £20.99.
IDLES – Joy as an Act of Resistance (2018)
Following the success of their 2017 debut Brutalism, Bristol post-punk group IDLES smashed it out of the park with this second studio effort in 2018. Joy as an Act of Resistance, hears the group’s charismatic and provocative frontman Joe Talbot tell lyrical stories of a troubled past as he deals with personal and political grievances.
Joy as an Act of Resistance is an essential of the 2010s’ UK post-punk revival and is home to a scattering of fan favourites, including ‘I’m Scum’, ‘Danny Nedelko’, ‘Colossus’ and, of course, ‘Never Fight a Man with a Perm’.
Available for purchase here for £34.99.
Fontaines DC – Dogrel (2019)
Fontaines caused a stir earlier this year with the release of their third studio album, Skinny Fia, but today we’re taking it back to humble beginnings. Dogrel was released back in 2019 and showed the lads from Ireland at their most vivacious with hits like ‘Boys in the Beter Land’, ‘Liberty Belle’, ‘Sha Sha Sha’ and ‘Big’.
“There aren’t any bad Fontaines DC tracks; it’s just that I prefer some more than others,” The Smiths’ drummer Mike Joyce said in a recent interview with Far Out. “As far as I’m concerned, they can do no wrong. I’ve become a bit obsessed with them. I was quite nervous when I went to see them live because I just thought, ‘Are they going to be able to come up to my expectations after listening to the album?’ And they certainly did, more than that. So Fontaines DC are right at the top of the pile.”
Available for purchase here for £21.75.
LICE – Wasteland: What Ails Our People is Clear (2020)
Wasteland is Bristol-born post-punk group LICE’s conceptual debut album. The creative masterclass is structured as an experimental short story, taking cues from Brian Catling, William Burroughs and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. In a satirical allegory for crises in society and art, the moral, physical and temporal transformations of its characters are paired with the wordplay transformation: breaking from prose into cut-ups, soliloquies and even plays.
Framing the intensely evocative lyrics is a sea of industrial, entrancing soundscapes. For added flavour, the restless creatives even designed and built their own noise instrument using the conceptual plan for the Intonarumori. Highlights on the album include ‘Conveyor’, ‘R.D.C.’, ‘Persuader’ and ‘Clear’, the album’s brilliant closing track, which features vocals from Katy J Pearson.
Available for purchase here for £16.40.
