Suicide

Album cover was cooler than any of the music. Tried to respect the experimentation aspect considering this was the 70's, but still not a fan. || I Would've given it a 2 but 'girl' and especially 'frankie teardrop' felt like something you would play on loop to drive someone mad. Certainly started to...

I award this album no stars and may god have mercy on your soul

At least it's better than dylan

I give 5 stars to anyone who was able to get through this album. This was a tough listen and I usually like the weird shit. I get that it was probably ground-breaking when it came out because I really back in 1977 but I can't see how anyone can get any pleasure from listening to this.

Music That Makes You Feel Feral But In A Good Way

The first note of the first song had me intrigued but it quickly got really bad after that. This seems to be a pattern with bands I haven't heard of on this list. Anyway, this whole album was awful. "Girl" might be the worst song I've ever heard. "Frankie Teardrop" was kind of interesting but still terrible. Unnecessary screaming everywhere.

I'm listening to the debut album by Suicide from 1977. I believe the album is called Suicide as well. I've been reading about this album and listening to the first song. So far it's right up my alley. "Musically, Suicide has been described as synth-punk, electronic rock, and synth-pop, while also being labeled electronic and minimalist." It's scratching the itch this morning. It's fun to hear some of the origins of the music I really enjoy. It's alien and pulsating and the words are spoken. Why have I never heard of this music? It goes to show that there will be always new music to discover in life. This doesn't sound like music that came out the same year Star Wars was released. It sounds very fresh and clearly the blueprint for a lot of the music I've loved over the years. I'm all in on this.

This album is so ridiculously ahead of its time. It honestly blew me away. The music builds gradually allowing the listener to hear the layers of distorted and electronic music. The vocal delivery seems punk and spoken word influenced.

Wow. This is... awful. The synth is annoying. The screaming is jarring. I mean, I totally get why this was ground-breaking for 1977, but it is just... annoying. I almost had to stop it at least twice, wondering if I wanted to continue. Yuck.

Spectacular. Original. Menacing.

The initial opening of Ghost Rider had me thinking this could be good, but fast went downhill from there. I did wonder if this could be one of those "so bad it's good" albums, guess that depends if your an experimental synth-punk sadist or not.

Man, that first track was awesome. The second track was... Well, it was good too. Kinda experimental acid rock bust still good. Then the whole thing went off the rails. Every track to the end of the record was worse than the one that proceeded it. Half-baked song ideas with repetitive sentence fragments thrown on top of them masquerading as "experimental" when, in fact, they were just banged out with no actual craftsmanship applied. Two stars. One for each track that was actually half decent.

kinda weird idk

This is the debut album from the New York-based band Suicide which is composed of vocalist Alan Vega and instrumentalist Martin Rev. The music is described as synth-punk, no wave, electronic rock, synth-pop and minimalist. The music is basically a repetitive rhythm, a few synthesizers sounding like an organ, xylophone or some other instrument and lyrics which are minimal, repetitive and sometimes screamed. The one thing this music does do is create an atmosphere which is very eerie and haunting. Hypnotic is also a good descriptor. This album is considered an electronic music landmark and was highly influential to a lot of artists...I hear that. By the way, this album and music totally work for me. To experience this album and music, it really needs to be listened to. How can I convince anyone that repetitive drums with random noises and screams is great music? Maybe I will. "Ghost Rider" starts out like electronic music and punk had a baby with a driving beat, amped up synthesizer and Alan Vega using very few lyrics in a very repetitive way and in a lot a ways felt like trying to translate a Wiliam Gibson novel (aka cyberpunk) into music. Early 90's Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails were listening. "Cheree" has a Kraftwerk-Autobahn-type synthesizer sound, is a love song and adds a nice xylophone to the chorus. It is very hypnotic and somehow, it works. "Frankie Teardrop" may be the scariest song I've ever heard. It starts with a repetitive synth-sound which sounds like it's stuck. The song is about Frankie who has a family, loses his job, gets a gun and very bad things happen after that. It's a 10-minute long song with the last four minutes being bloodcurling screams and random and weird synthesizer sounds. Bruce Springsteen based a song on his "Nebraska " album on this song and Henry Rollins described it as the most intense song he's ever heard. I'd agree. This album is not for everyone but it is highly influential and definitely an artistic achievement.

1977!? Are you freaking kidding me? 1977! So far ahead of its time! Pretty sure I didn't appreciate Suicide the first time I heard them, but they've really grown on me. Very much an acquired taste - I bet there are a thousand horrified one star reviews! 🤣 Fave track - "Ghost Rider" or "Cheree" for more casual listening, "Frankie Teardrop" for a listening experience that breaks into your house and tools you up with a lead pipe.

If only there was some sort of suicide prevention hotline that could have been called to stop this abomination from being made. RIP mum .

My kids’ imaginary band, “Electric Cheeseball”, is better than this.

Wow. Weird. But goddamn if it isn't tightly wound and experimenting in the right places.

Made me want to throw the rope up. Does exactly what it says on the tin 👍🏾

My Spotify friends probably think I'm a serial killer. All of them are out here vibing to their "summer vibes" playlist - Avril Lavigne, Harry Styles, whatever, and I've been on a 30 minute long binge of SUICIDE - SUICIDE. Look man, I understand that music taste is subjective but I seriously can't imagine anyone willingly listening to this in their free time. What enjoyment can you get from a guy mumbling random words from the bottom of a well over the Pac-Man theme song. "Frankie Teardrop" is the worst song I've ever heard in my life. I bet they really felt like they made art with that one. Yeah, let's sing about a guy killing his wife and then make goat sex noises for 3 minutes. It was supposed to be unnerving, but the only emotion I felt was annoyance. I think a Youtube comment I saw put it the best: "It’s like a bad horror movie that has a trash story and only relies on jumpscares lol" Do not check the Wikipedia page for "Johnny (Suicide song)". Currently listening to "10 hours of nails on chalkboard" to cleanse my ears.

From the first few seconds I already liked it. We'll see how the rest is. Old school electronic combined with punk. Very cool album! Added to my collection.

I hit play and through the first song felt like someone slipped something into my drink. Then the second song. Then the third song? Every song filled with sinister echo and fuzz forcing me forward with an incessant, demanding beat. So this is what we’re doing?! What to think about this? I didn’t dislike it. The grooves are interesting. The runtime is a manageable 32 minutes. This album is blazing trails today - hard to believe it has been around since 1977! I can see why I should listen to this before I die. But do I like it? I started a second listen and was surprisingly into this. After the first listen I doubted I’d ever want to hear this again. Now after the second I’m tempted to play it again right away and I’m not entirely sure why… I can’t get this off my mind. This is one of the most unique things I’ve heard in a while. Or ever. I think I love it.

Wow! Best of all 450 albums I already received in this list. Is what the late 70s and big part the 80s really felt like, not the 'back to the 80s' party bullshit but ununemployement, street mess, nuclear threat. The fascinating, repetitive rhythm in Cheree. The Velvet underground like song Johnny. And then the minimal, paranoid, manic songs Girl and Frankie Teardrop, pure beauty. Guess average will be low as you can't sing along or dance or have sex on it. But for those who also rated it with 5 stars: do listen to the Minny Pops album Drastic Measures, Drastic Movements and Young Marble Giants album Colossal Youth and more happiness is coming too you!

Love this, great organ sounds and atmosphere.

Never heard of this, but it's been great. Dig the electronic components.

This is one of my favorite albums. It's raw. And i think it rocks. Except for Frankie tear drop wtf Alan.

Big fuzzy all-encompassing synth is right up my alley so this album felt like something I could really sink into and let swallow me up. Suicide seems more like an artistic experiment in music than a straight up and down band you throw on to groove too. I feel like its definitely an act you had to see live to truly appreciate. Yes Frankie Teardrop is pretty unlistenable but I would say pretty damn successful at conveying the feeling and putting you in the headspace of a family killer who’s in hell. “Cheree” is dark and sweet and I loved it. Gonna plug my favorite podcast here too, No Dogs in Space. Great punk history show that does deep dive series on a bunch of early punk bands including Suicide. Check it out for these dudes wild story.

A classic- not for everyday listening but when I'm in the mood there is nothing else like it.

A really enjoyable and interesting experimental synth album with legitimately innovative and pleasing tracks like "Cheree" and frightening tracks essential yet you must only listen to once like "Girl" or "Frankie Teardrop." Sounds a lot like a more advanced and sophisticated Silver Apples. As an art piece, I'd enjoy the whole experience. On repeated listens, I might skip a few. But really, the album is so short that even just skipping "Frankie Teardrop", the 21-minute remainder flies by, especially with how the subtle changes in each song keep each track interesting. Let's hear it for Frankie.

Influential album, yadda yadda. Yeah, we all know this by now - but.. One noteworthy feature of this album is "Frankie Teardrop" - a demented little song of around ten minutes long - and probably one of the toughest listens from the album I've listened so far. Frankie kills his six month old baby and his wife with a gun at minute four. At that point - you have another six minutes of the song. At my many attempts over the years to get through the song, this was probably the first time I made it. Happy not to do it again. Which brings one to the point that this is a seminal record - nary a rudimentary drum machine - some occasional guitar and Alan Vega's echo-laden screaming and singing - a ghostly ethereal soundtrack from hell - truly one of the ballsiest and toughest punk album out there. Scarier than Iggy Pop on a drug binge - it's like what the Doors in a fever dream after a night in hell might sound like. Great great stuff, but a tough listen.

This is brutalist architecture in musical form. And just like brutalist architecture in Building form, it might be trying to say something, but it sucks and nobody likes it.

No. Just no. Nothing surprising here except for its inclusion on this list. Not brutal enough in execution be actually dangerous, not comprehensive enough to seem like anything more than a demo released before completion, and not lyrically deep enough to be more than high-school level nihilism rants. Maybe at the time it was revolutionary, but here it just seems boring and uninspired.

Essential

Super Gucci.

Wild!

At a complete loss for words. Who gave the whacked-out commies a synthesizer and a drum machine? Is it Post-Punk? Synth-Punk? Bloody madness? Either way, I really dig it. It gets a bit repetitive at times, but then when you pay attention to the lyrics things regain that fresh sense of “wtf is this?” Nothing. I repeat, NOTHING will prepare you for the sonic surprise attack awaiting you in “Frankie Teardrop”, which contains what is possibly the most blood-curdling scream ever put to wax. Just listen to it and see what I mean. Standout Songs: “Ghost Rider” “Rocket USA” “Franke Teardrop”

First two are classics so no need to write about them. Cheree precursors about a dozen Spiritualized songs which I love. Such a singular sound, 45 years later basically nothing else sounds quite like it. People not getting this, or just not liking this, is totally understandable, but it absolutely should not be dismissed. Also it's not on here but Dream Baby Dream is an absolute stunner, and far less confrontational than anything here, it's very gentle.

A simple formula but an effective one. I can't even imagine how intense a Suicide show at CBGB's would have felt like back in the day. These guys were fucking crazy for going the direction they went with electronic music and I admire their bravery. Only thing that I can think of that preceded them in this regard was maybe Silver Apples, but that wasn't nearly as abrasive. I am addicted to their stripped down sound. It is the genesis if so much that I love. Such an efficiency of sound, nothing is more punk than this.

10/10 one of my all-time favorite punk albums (shit’s so punk it’s practically post-punk)

Possibly the greatest album ever made. So minimal and yet layered. The songs are simple and effective. Frankie Teardrop is harrowing, and the 1970s' version of Sister Ray. Cheree adds a little light amongst the shade. Fabulous.

Unsettling, desolate, sexual, political, sparse. This album is a landmark. The vibe of the droning keyboards, synths, and drum machine and the off kilter crooning, leads to something other worldly. It is very punk in its attitude, it’s minimalistic and it’s edgy. I imagine there are many who would pick this up and hate it because of how eerie and unnerving it can be, but also because of the simplicity of the lyrics. But it is rarely about the lyrics. The lyrics are just enough to convey the framework for a song, as is the case with Frankie Teardrop, but it’s the playing and the mood that is created that really tell the story. This is always a fascinating one to come back to and get completely blown away by again.

UNBELIEVABLE! Such a unique sound! Love it. Standouts: Frankie Teardrop, Cheree, Ghost Rider, Rocket USA, Girl, Johnny, Che, I Remember. Cheree Remix 4.5/5

Now this is more like it. To be fair I have come across this before in other charts and polls but it's so up my street it's untrue. My family are pleading with me to turn Frankie Teardrop off but I love the screaming. There were other albums and bands before them that tried to experiment (Velvet Underground for instance) but I've always been a sucka for an early synth.

Really enjoyed this. Thoughtful with really experimental elements. Minimalist until the screaming kicks in. Clearly an influence on many sounds that followed.

In my opinion this is one of the truly great albums to come out of the New York punk scene. Originally bought a UK version back in the 1970s with slightly different track listing, after reading a ridiculously dismissive review in a HiFi magazine. It's a really fine debut album, and I think every track is great, but particularly Frankie Teardrop and Ghost Rider. More recent re-releases of this album include Keep Your Dreams. All excellent stuff and pretty infuential on later synth bands.

If you don't like this album, then you really have no business on this journey. This is experimental, different, and incredible.

Okay, so like, The Velvet Underground but more fucked up and with lots of screaming. I can vibe with that.

Hear me out. This album is the centre of all modern popular music. With only two ingredients, the 50s slapback reverb vocals look back to the start and the metronome keyboards look forward to the electronic future. Either that or it is just the coolest.

FRANKIE!!!!!!!

Intressant, lät inte som att det skulle ha kommit ut 1977.

Made me run over to the 1001 album website to check that Devo are on there (they are)

El nombre de Alan Vega me suena, así que no llego a esta banda tan desconcertado. Ya desde el primer tema los imagino como un proyecto explosivo, bailable, que me recuerda a muchos posteriores (haciendo un salto temporal, Sleaford Mods o, en mi país, Mueran Humanos). Darkie, sexy, seguramente fueron visionarios sin saberlo. Gran hallazgo para mis oídos, con la salvedad graciosa de que al buscar el nombre de la banda en YouTube, me apareció una advertencia de cuidado por autolesión.

Very progressive for 1977, especially with the use of synths and sounds to highlight the post-punk vibe

Imagine really liking this band as an early teen and asking your parents for the album? My mom thought Kiss were devil music so I would have been sent to the loonie bin. Anywho…. This first 2 songs are sort of trancelike. Not that it puts me in a trance but it reminds me of trance music. I do like this, 3 songs in. It would then pass the album buying quota. This is what Lou Reed would sound like if he had so positivity in his voice. This is decent in a slow moving spaces out way. Be high when listening to this

I've heard this album only once before, a few years back, and I recall immensely disliking it at that time. So imagine my surprise that it's really not that bad, and in fact is even sort of...cool! Certainly a divisive listen, but undoubtedly ahead of its time. I really enjoyed the way the songs felt as though they were building, without really going anywhere. Parts of the album -- namely "Frankie Teardrop" -- are pretty disturbing, but the amount of tension they conjure up more than justify their inclusion. Overall, don't think this will become a regular listen for me, but you can't say it's not atmospheric!

Not a big fan of these experimental punk albums but I appreciate their influence. Favorite Track: Relisten: No

Kind of a shame be cause most tracks have a good foundation, however never once is anything built upon or fortified. It's pretty bad

Suicide is right. Oh my god if this is the worst album in the world I wouldn’t be surprised. The one ☝️ okay thing is that it was only a half hour. One more second and I would have taken the artist literally. Good god.

if this came out in 2023 it’d be considered garbage and ignored. but it’s 1977 so everything slightly weird is extremely important. hypnotic, brooding minimal beats with probably off the cuff lyrics. sounds like something a couple of kids made in a garage while pulling an all nighter (realizing later that they were grown ass adults when making this) it’s the kind of thing that sounds so fuckin dumb you think you’re probably too dumb to realize that it’s actually genius. these songs are literally just half baked ideas. one drum loop with a dinky little synth riff and some shitty vocals. i will say though Frankie Teardrop….by far one of the eeriest things i have ever heard in my life. but ya if you were influenced by this good for you i guess.

It lives up to its name 1.5/5

ну ваще кайф, просто рил щит, монотонно, грязно, прям как и вся моя жалкая жизёнка

I am very excited to read the reviews on this one. Somehow I'm guessing that there's not going to be a lot of middle ground between love and hate. I'm one of the people that love this band, and this album in particular. Suicide was one of the bands that helped form the late 70s punk scene in New York. No one has ever sounded like them since. Suicide is a beautiful combination of idiosyncrasies that can never be replicated. The perfect people at the perfect time, with perfect ideas about music and perfectly shitty equipment 5/5

Really enjoyed this, way ahead of it's time.

cool

Stunning photo-punk.

Frankie Frankie

Ghost Rider is quite possible the greatest rock and roll song of all time, the rest of the album is close behind

GHOST RIDER MOTORCYCLE HERO.

I wish I could hear it for the first time again and have my mind blown all over again.

It's not a perfect album but goddamn if it isn't close. So much music I love sprung forth from this moment and these sounds.

Intense; terrifying; puslating; wounded; insane; baby murdering; sexual; animalistic; haunted; progressive; political; toxic; amazing. Best Tracks: Ghost Rider; Rocket USA; Frankie Teardrop

This is fantastic most of the people here are just stuck in their boring dad rock

Hell yeah! More fuzz!

This was new to me. It was stark and hectic. I liked it

The most essential punk album of all time.

WHAT AN ALBUM. Imagine Elvis filtered through nightmares and you're about 50% of the way to getting it's (overused word but appropriate here) genius. Withered electronica giving 50s surf rock riffs, with an 'it could only work in this specific situation' vocal delivery. A dark and beautiful thing.

A brilliant synth post punk masterpiece that has the centerpieces ominous and terrifying Frankie Teardrop.

my kinda freaks

I’d heard of this band and album many times but had never checked them out until now. Upon listening to this album I can see how huge of an influence they were on so many artists after them! Minimal instrumentation, but a solid listen if you want to hear where so many synth-heavy bands who came after got their roots. (And yes, Frankie Teardrop is CHILLING)

Pure noise

I imagine suicide’s debut album to have suffered the same fate as the velvet underground: not many people bought it, but all of them started a band. Still, songs like cheree and ghost rider are just gorgeous on their own, regardless of the historical significance of the album

"Natural born losers, shells of genuine human beings, Alan Vega and Martin Rev were first known for the way they haunted mid-seventies downtown New York--East Village, Bowery, Lower East Side--with all its sordid clubs blooming like so many decadent, proto-punk flowers. They were two half-tramps sticking out like a sore thumb (wine-stained leather on their backs, large sunglasses, an off-kilter beret), hanging around a city they knew by heart, surviving through tips given to bookmakers, and assembling a fanzine where horse-racing predictions and gynecologist pornography mingled. And when they had a little time on their hands, they drew minimalistic compositions out of a broken-down Farfisa organ they were too broke themselves to repair. Naming themselves Suicide--"because if we had named ourselves Life, no one would have bothered coming to our gigs"--, they also gave a couple of *concerts* once in a while. To put it in a nutshell, Martin Rev's fingers fidgeted around some prehistoric gear including a basic drum machine while Alan Vega, either sitting or standing up according to his whim of the moment, gave his mike the full torture treatment--beating, spitting and also singing on it when he suddenly remembered to do so. Most of the time, after throwing insults and unbearable hissing sounds at the pit, the outfit darted out of the scene without ever casting a glance at the appalled audience. Suicide's duo had been active since 1971, but they only started recording in 1977. The result is this seminal LP, which serves as *both genesis and apocalyptic end of the rock world*. "End of the rock world", because Suicide's music cuts through the melodic spine of the old rock'n'roll idiom to only keep two or three scrawny chords out of the butchery, repeated into loops by the organ and covered with static sounding like the beep beep of a vintage electronic game. Over that backdrop, Vega mumbles a pre-rap rant interrupted by cries of pain and bliss, the whole drowned into an unsettling echo whose origin is impossible to pin-point. And "genesis", because it is now impossible to number the acts--including some very commercial ones--who ripped off Suicide (from the *Nebraska*-era Springsteen to MIA, from the Jesus And Mary Chain to Young Fathers, from The Cars to The Kills, from LCD Soundsystem to Gilla Band). Industrial, Cold Wave, Techno, even some strands of Hip Hop all owe something to Suicide's electronic minimalism. It also offers one of the most evocative urban soundscapes from the time and place in which it was conceived, while sheltering one of the most heartbreaking love songs that has ever existed, "Cheree"." You can have trouble digging this record, sure. But you can't deny its importance. Review adapted and translated into English from the one Alexis Bernier wrote for French magazine *Rock & Folk". 4.5/5 for the purposes of this list of "essential" albums, rounded up to 5. 9.5/10 for more general purposes (5+4.5). Number of albums left to review: 70 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 401 (including this one) Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 231 Albums from the list I won't include in mine: 299

This is Ur-punk. It’s so punk that it manages to piss off people who like punk. You either get it or you don’t.

Absolutely incredible, and still influential. Plus Alan Vega sings like Elvis Presley!

Truly the kind of album this list was made for, just appears in the 70s out of nowhere and creates a whole new world. Frankie Teardrop is obviously what most people will focus on, and of course it's a masterpiece and one of the most difficult to listen to songs of all time, but the rest is incredible too. Repetitive droning synth-punk that manages to be catching and un-nerving at the same time. Mind melting stuff.

This is my kind of weird. Never listened to this group before. This is the type of stuff I was hoping to discover on this list. Interesting to say the least. I'll have to look into the rest of their catalog.

Some great tunes

Adding this. Going back for more too. I enjoyed the tones and just everything.

subversive and understated and pretty fucking great. love the doors-y and drone-y minimalist stuff going on here. "frankie teardrop" is really just a breath of fresh air

Instrumentals are amazing, some weird vocals. I wish it was a bit longer though.

STARTING OVER

Hi ha discos que en el seu moment van resultar molt revolucionaris, punts d'inflexió d'algun génere o noves portes obertes a maneres d'escoltar i entendre la música... però que amb el pas del temps la seva originalitat s'ha anat apaivagant a poc a poc per nous discos i géneres que els han superat. L'estrena discogràfica de Suicide és un d'ells. Malgrat tot, a dia d'avui, sinó amb la mateixa rellevància que quan va sortir, encara es disfruta com un disc força interessant. 'Frankie Teardrop' és clarament el punt de ruptura principal, amb els més de 10 minuts d'inquietant i ominós minimalisme. L'estètica musical de tota l'obra, la seva atmòsfera opresiva, especialment brillant en temes com 'Girl' o 'Rocket USA' el fan un disc encara molt digne i captivador

Heavy electronica, harsh sounds right from the beginning Aggressive textures with incessant ostinatos A bit alienating I liked the mellow melody in "Cheree"

Entrancing distorted punk/garage rock with a stimulating sound. It's a bit repetitive but the band make it work. The vocals have been processed with a reverb/effect that makes the vibe almost psychedelic. You can imagine these tracks being played at a decadent house party or an indie/alternative rock club. Great album, I enjoyed it more than I expected.

Absolute classic that I'm sure will have a pretty low rating on here.

Not easy listening, but I thought this was very original. 7.5/10.

Grata surpresa do uso de elementos eletrônicos envolvidos com a pegada “punk”.

Sometimes it sounds scary but in a good way with all these random squeaks and gasps and howls.

-The electronic drumbeats really keep the intensity going through the album -"Frankie Teardrop" is very Alice Cooper-esque. Or maybe Alice Cooper is very "Frankie Teardrop"-esque. Also the scream when Frankie kills himself is pretty crazy. (Spoiler alert)

Minimal magic, and the prototype for all the synth duos to come, though few would be as confrontational. Every time I play this it gets better and easier to listen to.