400. The Only Ones - The Only Ones (1978)
















Track Listing

1. Whole Of The Law
2. Another Girl Another Planet
3. Breaking Down
4. City Of Fun
5. Beast
6. Creature Of Doom
7. It's The Truth
8. Language Problem
9. No Peace For The Wicked
10. Immortal Story

Review

This is an album which sounds surprisingly timeless, it is one of those rare things, which actually sounds as much part of an earlier age, its own age and today. There are of course their obvious influences of Velvet Underground and Lou Reed and Nico as well as the whole punk scene. But then there are the bands that they have influenced, like the Libertines for example or the Replacements, Blur, Nirvana. The list is endless.

Then they are unknown enough for you not to be saturated with their tracks, making it all fresh to listen to. And it is all great. Actually you turn it on and just the first three tracks would be enough to make this album a keeper.

But then it goes on and the 4th song is also quite good... and all the other ones as well. And suddenly you realise this is a pretty great album, it is punk with a post-punk sensibility, by people who can play their instruments, write their songs, make great arrangements and produce their own fucking album. And how many punk albums have you heard with a nice little Saxophone at the beginning?


Too bad the whole thing would later explode in a cloud of heroin dust.

Track Highlights

1. Another Girl, Another Planet
2. The Whole Of The Law
3. Breaking Down
4. No Peace For The Wicked

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Their musical proficiency distinguished them from most of their peers, although their dominant drug-related lyrical themes, on songs such as "Another Girl, Another Planet," and "The Big Sleep," fit in with the Zeitgeist of the era on both sides of the Atlantic. Perrett and Kellie caught the eye of Johnny Thunders, founding member of the New York Dolls and the Heartbreakers, and worked as sidemen on his solo debut album, So Alone, notably appearing together on the classic "You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory". However, drug addiction, particularly heroin use, derailed their career, and singer/guitarist/songwriter Perrett has only sporadically been heard from since, though he resurfaced in the mid 1990s with the album, Woke Up Sticky.

Another Girl, Another Planet: