Suicide

A difficult album to listen to at first but you need to let it seep into you. Disturbing, unique and satisfying. A strong 4.5 stars.

If I somehow die before I can write a longer review, let me just say, this is the fucking bomb.

I had to sit through how many hours of Donald Fagen on this list? 3 hours of Christina Aguilera? U2? Korn? I'm really glad that this list includes Suicide self-titled at approximately a half-hour of runtime. A band that caused a literal riot after 23 minutes of playing. Inspired to exist by The Stooges and I would argue almost more of a condition of the time and place they were created. I do 100% think people should hear this before they die.

Definitely not my style, but an interesting album. Suicide somehow manage to make seemingly random electronic sounds, repetitive rhythms and strange vocals fit together. There's enough going on to keep the minimalism from becoming tedious, at least for a while. It's music that feels more suited to filling a room and creating an atmosphere than connecting with someone personally. Ghost Rider, Cheree and Johnny are songs I'd revisit. Frankie Teardrop, on the other hand, was quite an experience. I wasn't prepared for those screams! I wouldn't say I like it, but I think it fits. And that's pretty much how I feel about the whole album. A borderline 3/5.

Not my thing

Didn’t enjoy this one

It was different, but not always in a good way.

It's beyond me that this classic album gets an average rate below 2.5 and some shit like Van Halen gets 3.6. The only explanation is that the average user of this website must hate music... Anyway, Suicide were the Stooges of electronica and this stellar debut album displays that in full glory: minimal instrumentation, catchy rythms, menacing sounds, Alan Vega's haunting singing and his lyrics depticting an American horrorshow of disquieting characters (even the apparently soothing Cheree is not that comforting in her black leather...)

What was up with that Frankie Tears song?!? They had a lot of weird irregular rhythms in the background that drove me crazy. Not my jam

While “Frankie Teardrop” isn’t the worst song ever (contrary to a lot of what these reviews say), the shrieking was unnecessary. I wish they’d have cut it by 5 minutes and added another song instead.

Noise pollution, some of it was okay, the lyrical genius, yea it was booty

Tough album, I think you really really need to appreciate how influential this was at the time (birth of snyth pop, proto-punk). Not well received at 2.46 near the bottoml I think 3 but could go two or 4, feel like this needs like 10 more listens and I'm not currently able to give it that much time. It's only 31 minutes thoiugh

No

Great album for the most part. About a minute into the opening track, Ghost Rider, I was fairly sure I was really going to like it. The only thing that let it down was Frankie Teardrop went on a bit too long for my liking. I’m gonna give it another listen later on though and see if I feel differently second time around. Top Track - Ghost Rider

Too experimental for me

Its minimal, its striking, its a prototype for Electronic music. Its desolate, perhaps too desolate. I would have said mindless too, but Frankie Teardrop is anything but mindless.

Wow. Not sure what this was. Felt reminiscent of a bunch of other stuff. Maybe quite influential. Did not enjoy it though.

Pretty good, didnt know of this one before

fuck any band that thinks suicide is something name themselves.

not for me

Interesting! Weird! Don’t hate it but I certainly don’t love it. Could’ve done without the ten minute track where the guy screams into my ears randomly at the top of his lungs.

Vraiment cool

Synth punk...what a concept!

I understand there are many reasons why an album has a title, and I know there are seemingly more obscure reasons why a band is named as such, but it's not hard to be initially turned off by the band name, and they had the audacity to have a self-titled album. Anyway, it definitely had me hooked, even if they weren't the greatest songs to say the least(oh, this album has *that* sound, which is deliciously dark). If nothing else, you're in for a dark adventure. My favorite track: You know which song(THAT song).

Partway through I was thinking this would get 1 star, but it's honestly too boring to be actively bad

This is a 32 minute album which gives up TEN MINUTES for a spoken word track about someone killing a child and screaming a lot (“Frankie Teardrop”). Dark, disturbing, 70s drug addled nonsense which doesn’t qualify as music.

The great Suicide! A true inspiration. The pinnacle of avant-garde rock n roll.

This is a rough one. There are layers here that would go on to influence dark electronica and industrial music, and that's interesting to hear. "Frankie Teardrop" is the track everyone talks about, though: an audio exploration of desperation, anxiety, and psychological collapse. I mean, if you're going to name your band Suicide and your album Suicide, you're probably not aiming for puppies and sunshine. An important first step toward a lot of music that would come later, but not something I ever need to hear again. My rating: 2/5

Would be a 3 if Frankie Teardrop didn't exist. Horrible song, ruins the album.

I get it now. This is an album to drive the listener to suicide.

Not going to make the obvious joke, but I hope never to hear this again in my life. 'Girl' and 'Frankie Teardrop' are crimes against my ears. Rating: 1

This album was genuinely very fresh and innovative and a really interesting listen... until I got to Girl and Frankie Teardrop. These two songs were so horribly unpleasant to listen to (lyrically wise, the backing track was still endearing), that I considered abandoning the album at the halfway mark. Was going to be a three, now it's a two.

Commercial suicide

Now THIS is an album that MUST be heard. A record that is utterly indifferent to whether you like it or not, yet has a purity and passion so many others lack. You only have to look at the reviews to see how divisive this record is and I can imagine if you could crunch the numbers that the people that give this record 5 are frequently not on the same page as those who give it 1 because, again from the reviews, it provokes people. And it is easy to hear why. It is a blur of buzzing synths, needling repetitive drums and echo laden vocals that spiral of to nowhere. A love song 'Girl' that sounds both lust filled and psychotic. A similar tightrope is walked with the albums most accessible song 'Johnny' which stands on a similar knife edge to David Lynch's work were siultaneously it could be a simple wide eyed 50's apple pie rockabilly pastiche or the splintering mind of a serial killer. And then there is Frankie Teardrop This is an uncomfortable, intense listen. It is magnificent.

Dat dit 50 jaar oud is, maakt het cooler dan dat het is tbh. Wel een interessant, maar tegelijkertijd akelig album

Goede plaat voor de oktobermaand. Opzich wel een coole sound. Jammer dat het vaak neerkomt op 'man brabbelt over kabbelende synth-patroontjes'.

omfg I don't know how i could go through some songs (johnny for example) I could barely stand him lmaoooo

I couldn't even get through this one. Genuinely awful.

I started out thinking this is so far ahead of it's time, but ended up thinking it might be absolutely shit. I suppose it could be both, but I want to give it credit for how it started out.

(Light to decent 6/10) Okay... maybe I'm just not into this right now, but I really don't know how to feel about this overall. Musically, it's very minimalistic with very light synths and bass, the drum machine is very low in the mix like a rapid but faint heartbeat. There's organ sometimes (which actually takes me out of the music), and the vocals.. I think this is where it's losing me. On songs like "Frankie Teardrop" the vocals are incredibly potent. The hushed and frantic narration, the sudden shrieks that sound like they're coming from the depths of hell, it's a frightening track both in sound and subject matter. Definitely the album's highlight, although I don't know if I would willingly put it back on. The vocals on the rest of the album are very Lou Reed-esque, with a subtle and uncomfortable closeness to the ear that really gets under your skin. The song "girl" is probably the most uncomfortable song for this reason. If the instrumental was more funky this would be Porn groove lol. So yeah idk, I found the walking surf riff of "johnny" to clash with the mood of the record thus far, and I found songs like "rockin usa" and "che" to be kind of underwhelming. "Ghost Rider" was cool, but very short and the song didn't end up evolving into anything more than it's basic foundation. I would've liked it to build up into something. Yeah it's quite apparent this album was very influential for a lot of reasons, I think maybe I'm not personally in a dark enough headspace to fully grasp this, but thinking about it, it's the same reason I don't really enjoy Lingua Ignota records really. The unsettling and dark despair is only so effective, and eventually it becomes a conundrum with "do I even WANT to seek this out to listen to it?" It's not like I found catharsis in this music either. So yeah really all I can chalk this up to is: This is not hitting right now, and I'm not sure when it will.

These guys could be the pioneers of industrial metal. I don’t know much about the history of NIN, but these guys had to have been an influence. I didn’t love this, but it did hold my attention. I hated the actual screaming, though.

Heard it before. I absolutely adore Ghost Rider and appreciate the way this album is so innovative and influential (for Springsteen's Nebraska for example). But I can't say I'm crazy about other songs on the album. The screaming on Frankie Teardrop just spooks me hard 2/5

Post punk, electronic, experimental, industrial. Pretty sparse musically and lyrically. It’s interesting - you can hear the space in the recording. People seem to have a visceral negative reaction to this album, but I don’t think that’s warranted. Frankie Teardrop is a tough swallow, but the rest is at worst monotonous perhaps. Pretty solid 3 for me. I’ve heard way less melodic and musical stuff on this list.

Better than Coldplay

Reminds me a bit of the Doors. Bit too violent in places for me.

Hypnotic but stagnant - it’s an interesting listen but I don’t think I’ll come back to it

This album can be a tricky one to describe, so i'll just give my score. 4.5 bumped down to 4.

I’m at a 3.5 that I’d like to keep there, but I’ll bump it down to a 3. This album feels like an interrogation. It is not trying to be your friend. It’s repetitive, it’s a bit harsh, it’s not very melodic, and it includes every little awkward thing that would come with trying to make someone actively feel uncomfortable. Yes, that includes whatever the fuck “Girl” is. I think that man is by himself in that song. Poor guy. One’s rating of this album is likely to be influenced by how willing they are to accept being interrogated. I think it’s an album that succeeds in its atmosphere, especially in the final 2 tracks, but I think the execution in the first 5 just needed a little more of an organic bend as opposed to relying so heavily on synths. “Rocket U.S.A.”, for example, just doesn’t capture the intended tension to my ears, as telling the story of a high speed car crash should be a little more dynamic. If there was a guitar following the lead melody, I think it would add a bit more. “Johnny” feels like middling storytelling compared to something like “Frankie Teardrop”, and I couldn’t get the Donkey Kong 25m music out of my head. “Girl” is… kinda useless? I mean, it’s definitely uncomfortable, but not in the same way the last 2 tracks are. It just feels like I’m being forced to listen to this guy get himself off without evoking anything more claustrophobic or interrogatory. Even on the tracks I liked, I think “Ghost Rider”’s looping bassline is too noticeable & I think “Cheree” gets a little pitchy part of the way through, mostly from the reverb. I have no complaints whatsoever about “Frankie Teardrop” or “Che” though; the latter especially worked for me as a closer because there’s something that feels really confrontational about it that just immersed me. “Frankie Teardrop” being as abrasive as it is & as long as it is really works in its favor; I didn’t really enjoy listening to it, but I just admire the hell out of how intentionally disregarding it is, especially for 1977. Overall, it’s a 3.5, and why I briefly thought about going up to a 4, I just think “Girl” is the tipping point that leans me towards moving back down. I just don’t think it enhances the album at all. I’d prefer to keep it at a 3.5, if only because I think I understand what the album is trying to do & I really do admire it. I think people SHOULD listen to this as an exercise in uncomfortability. It’s musically compelling due to that uncomfortability, and I imagine a lot of artists who heard this could take pieces of it & incorporate a bit more darkness into their own soundscapes. It seems like Bruce Springsteen certainly did. As it stands, I’ll bump it down to a 3. It’s definitely not as bad as a 2.46 would suggest, though. Just a bunch of scaredycats.

At first I thought it was just a really mediocre album with specially horrible vocals, but as it went it got worse and worse and worse. After reading some of the positive reviews I do agree that it is in fact somewhat interesting seeing the way the sounds interact with each other and for such an early record is cool, but it just sounds like someone playing with synthesizer, which is something that is more fun doing it than listening to it. Frankie's teardrop is the most fun because at least it does something besides being boring.

I would rather slide down a razor blade naked and fall into a rat of vinegar, then listen to this again

“I’ll give 5 stars to anyone who can get through this album”. I’ll take 10 as I played it through twice. Probably 3 star for the music and another for how seriously ahead of its time it was

Keech!

Prime example of why doing this is so fun. As a huge Bruce fan, I'd heard about Suicide's influence on him, particularly on Nebraska. Always liked Dream Baby Dream, always respected and was petrified by Frankie Teardrop, and I'd heard other songs here and there. But I'd never listened to the whole album before this. Now on my second spin and, damn, it's fantastic. I hadn't realized the extent to which Suicide, like many 70s punk bands, were reimagining 50s rock. The 50s pastiche is what makes this album so cool. Ghost Rider, Rocket USA, Cheree, Johnny--really all of side 1--is much more fun than I'd imagined. Frankie Teardrop is still completely terrifying--it's isolation on side 2 makes an accidental listen impossible, thankfully. Listening now, it's so apparent how much this album influenced bands like Joy Division. However, many of the later bands they influenced, like Nine Inch Nails, seem less fun to me due to the lack of the rock and roll foundation.

hunh. This is influential because other people made music with these sounds later. To be fair, they did bait me into thinking a couple of these were going to be songs, but I guess this is just what it sounds like standing in the middle of a razor carousel. Or a large orbiting robotic bee. AEGH. Frankie looked at his wife, shot her, AAAAAAAH AAAAAH. That was funny. half a star for that. Okay maybe half a star off. That's really loud. Don't see it Bruce, sorry. 1/10 Also wtf are these lyrics.

Too bad I didn’t get this creepy album on Halloween

Great early electronica

Nothing like waking up, walking into the office at 9 am on a monday and typing "suicide" into the spotify search bar.

I admire the kinda low-fi grating dark horror vibe, but did they really have to be so annoying about it? it's like they deep fried all my least favorite parts of Soundracks to the Blind

1.5/10 Unlistenable I suppose that in itself makes it interesting, which in turn makes me almost a appreciate it.

I wish Frankie teardrop turned the gun on me. What a load of shit.

not nice to listen to

An album that ends my short streak of 2 positive reviews in a row, bummer. This one is certainly for the synth, artsy crowd which I know exists I'm just not a part of it. No need to post an invite either. I'm sure it had or has it's place but it's not a place I want to be. If the title of the band and the album causes instagram to prevent my account from getting views it was not worth it . Only positive from me is that it only took just over 30min to get through the 7 songs downside to that was that 10min is taken up by a contender for the worst song of them all.

I think I experienced Stockholm Syndrome with this.

Hard pass, on the title alone. Listened to first half minute of 2 tracks, and done. Why is this on this list??? DNF.

Definitely doesn't sound like something that would have been recorded in '77, which is why it made the list I reckon. Every track feels like a build up that gets about a third of the way to a great song, and then just stays right there. I appreciate the art here, just leaves me wanting to hear something more substantial.

Not what's traditionally seen as music, but could've been worse.

beautiful, timeless, and visceral Listen to "Cheree" from this album released in 1977, then listen to "Desire" by Dehd from 2020.

Fuck that.

idk man

I almost want to give this a 4, but I am going 3.5. It was okay...almost good.

Just shows how subjective music is. With the low score and one star reviews wasn’t expecting much. But I really liked the listen, 1977 that’s surprising. The rockabilly influence combined with the minimalist electronic sounds, yeah. Frankie Teardrop takes things to an extreme and not the easiest listen, and drops a star for me, but can see its influence. 3 Star

malísimo, porque canta así

se mi si disconnette il bluetooth è un bordello è troppo sensuale per il lavoro ahahah girl è crazy

Creepy. Intense. And really weird. I love it.

interesting sound although sometimes so intense i had to skip

so bad girl is the single worst song ive ever heard this album sucks

( °-°)

First song: okay, most likely not the best. Second song: ok is that a patern? Third song: did they really need to make a remaster? Please never again

Creepy, mean and kind of miserable

Huge letdown for a band named suicide

I will leave this one up to the experts to dissect. I like Bill Laswell - something with a bit more tonal depth, variety, melody, less droning. I am just not qualified to have an opinion on this other than I'm not the right customer for what this is selling.

I was surprised by how much I overall enjoyed this one. I don't know if I'll be revisiting anytime soon, but I was happy to hear it. A nice variety to the songs and you can hear how influential they were on other later groups; it's hard to believe this album came out in 1977.

Heavily inspired by Silver Apples, but missing the groove that made it enjoyable.

Well, I definitely listened to this before I died. Will I listen to it again anytime soon? Hell no! Just a bit rubbish!

I hated this.

I'm rating this a few days after the Ed Sheeran controversy so the idea of what the role of a musician is may be colouring my thinking. Unlike Ed, Suicide understand that the role of an artist is not just to sell concert tickets and offend no-one. They actively seem to want to alienate and disturb listeners and that's good, otherwise we get safe music that refuses to take a stand on anything. I know Dream Baby Dream and I'd heard Rocket USA and Cheree before, but Suicide were one of those bands I know of their influence but haven't really got round to listening go. I'd not listened to Frankie Teardrop before other than in part in the Springsteen biopic, and it was genuinely even more unsettling than I could have imagined. Perhaps Ed should consider covering it to prove he has a backbone.

I am over 500 albums into this. There is way too much bad stuff. This might be at the very bottom of the barrel. I'm too invested to quit, but this list is one disappointment after another. The only list this should be on is the list to destroy every copy ever made

I mean I guess this is ahead of it's time for 1977 but my god that does not mean it's a good album. It's experimental and slightly abrasive but the tracks go absolutely nowhere. It just sounds like white noise with dogshit vocals to accompany it; and don't get me started on the vocals, especially on 'Girls.' The less said about that the better. 2/10

Terrible

The minimal electronic sound is interesting. The vocals make it pretty uncomfortable though.

Markan 1 Sara 1

I'll keep this short, something album would've done if it didnt just have an absolutely bloated 10 minute borefest at the end. If this book is literally 1001 albums to listen to before you die..... what is gained by listening to this? I know that by the time I die that i hate it? if so mission accomplished. This did nothing for me. I understand that classics and pioneering albums for all genres should be included, and to some people this is under that umbrella. But i'll be damned, did this one just slip the cracks in terms of quality? If this book ever gets revised... i nominate this for removal. 1/5

Awful

The songs are basically spoken-word poetry on top of synthesizers. At times the album is wonderfully minimalist and hypnotic, but ultimately unsatisfying.

I liked this one a lot more than I thought I would. I didn't think I would care for the rudimentary synths and stream-of-conscious vocals. The Elvis (and The Doors?) influence was interesting. Frankie messed me up tbh, damn...

Have to say, the first time I was unprepared for what this actually was. This is another album that definitely benefits from multiple listens. Freaky as it is, with Frankie Teardrop being a standout as one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever listened to, and as a participant in this project I don’t need to say how much I have heard over the years, there really IS a development and world created by the album overall, so much so that this is moving into the 5 category for me. Alan Vega isn’t just shocking for the sake of being shocking. He’s telling a story. He builds up to Frankie Teardrop in a systematic way. Martin Rev is creating a world. It’s affecting and effective. So… yeah. That’s a 5. 5 Boolean: True - Glad I’m in for listening more than once

Punk before punk was punk. Seriously.

How did this band go from synth-punk to doo-wop in the span of 11 years? I can't reconcile how "Frankie Teardrop" and "Surrender" are from the same artist. I did not like this. I only remember the screaming in that one song.

Liked the first song but didn’t really vibe with the rest

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