#99) Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady (released in 1979, I bought a used CD of it at City Lights around my senior year of high school. Someone wrote the word BUTCH above Steve Diggle's head in the liner notes)

Yeah, these guys weren't really anything more than Paul McCartney on speed (instead of luhv it's LAHV! and instead of yeah-yeah-yeah it's ohhh-ohhh), but louder faster rules, you know? And it's not like I've had enough of silly love songs, especially when they're naughty, blitzing, treble-icious and catchy. The irony of praising the Buzzcocks for goosing the Herman's Hermits template with speed and violence is that my favorite song here is the slowest and most incandenscent. "Why Can't I Touch It?" bounces about like Wire doing Television doing reggae for six minutes of gorgeous yearn while Shelley pines for the security of tangibility, something that life (and especially romance) will rarely provide. Singles Going Steady is pretty sweet for something so sharp (and vica versa).