.
http://www.rollingstone.com/assets/images/album_review/9ae02971da183af7b1a2d89873e779c18f0edb6e.jpg A Different Kind of Tension (Reissue)

The Buzzcocks

A Different Kind of Tension (Reissue)

Mute U.S.
Rolling Stone: star rating
Community: star rating
5 4 0
May 11, 2010

The Buzzcocks were the Seventies U.K. punk band that sang about all the corny teenage fixations the other Seventies U.K. punks rejected: love, lust, orgasm addiction, cars, being 16. But they did it with just as much brutish intensity as anyone. Their first three albums — all reissued now — are underrated gems, setting Pete Shelley's overheated whine to the catchiest blurt this side of the Ramones. Tension, from 1979, is the best of these three: This reissue adds demos, live stuff and many of those great singles, including masterworks like the pop fan's anthem 'Harmony in My Head' and the throbbing 'Why Can't I Touch It,' a perfect summation of the 'Cocks worldview.

prev
Album Review Main Next

ADD A COMMENT

Community Guidelines »
loading comments

loading comments...

COMMENTS

Sort by:
    Read More

    Music Reviews

    more Reviews »
    Daily Newsletter

    Get the latest RS news in your inbox.

    Sign up to receive the Rolling Stone newsletter and special offers from RS and its
    marketing partners.

    X

    We may use your e-mail address to send you the newsletter and offers that may interest you, on behalf of Rolling Stone and its partners. For more information please read our Privacy Policy.

    Song Stories

    “Help Me”

    Joni Mitchell | 1974

    Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

    More Song Stories entries »