Year Zero

Twelve of the best albums of 1977, the year punk declared itself year zero and set out to wipe away everything before it. Plenty of that everything had a great year anyway, so the set holds both.

It runs in two halves. First the new: the Sex Pistols' only album and the Clash's first, from London; Television's Marquee Moon and Suicide's first album from New York, at opposite ends of what punk could mean, two interlocking guitars against a drum machine and a cheap keyboard; Wire's Pink Flag, 21 songs that stop as soon as they have made their point; and Talking Heads: 77. Then the rest of the year. David Bowie put out two albums in 1977, Low and "Heroes", and Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe Express name-checks him and Iggy Pop in its title track. Bob Marley made Exodus in London after he was shot at his home in Kingston. Rumours became one of the biggest-selling albums ever, and Steely Dan spent months with a rotating cast of session players getting Aja exactly right.

If you only have time for one, play Marquee Moon. It is the year's best guitar record, and it shows how much room punk had in it before the rules set in.