Is this the hardest punk album of all time, or the hardest post-punk album of all time? Three friends living in squats (at least some of the time), the Raincoats took the DIY part of punk and left the rest. Their cover of “Lola” is ostensibly the Kinks, but four women singing “I’m not the world’s most passionate guy” does a number on identity. Eliminating the violence and aggression of punk means these four self-taught people made an album that has aged beautifully. Kurt Cobain loved it so much he wrote the liner notes for the first of many reissues. (It’s worth Googling those for the story of Kurt meeting Ana da Silva and going full fanboy.)

– Sasha Frere-Jones