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The Scientists' 1981 wild debut bewildered Perth, Australia's punters with its charging anthems centered on themes of young love and alienation. Obvious in its rebellion yet more pop than punk, the self-titled "Pink Album" deftly embodied the tough-yet-danceable outsider aura of The Ramones, and its unheard of, feverish clip shook the shores of the geographically confined Swan Coastal Plain of down under. Recorded just as the lineup of guitarist-vocalist Kim Salmon (The Cheap Nasties), drummer James Baker (The Victims) and bassist Ian Sharples were breaking up, the album stands as a testament to the contagious chops of Perth's swelling pool of musical talent, and to the promise of Salmon's unwavering vision that would become one of the most celebrated acts of the Aussie underground.
Our take: Reissue of the Scientists' brilliant debut LP from 1981. While I think the Scientists went on to much bigger fame and notoriety as a kind of swampy proto-grunge band, this first LP is pure '77 punk. Indeed, even though the band were from Australia this sounds very much of a piece with the poppier end of '77 UK punk. In particular they sound quite a lot like the Boys (who are incidentally, one of my absolute favorites), but also wouldn't stick out in a lineup consisting of the Soft Boys, the Boys, the Adverts, and the Buzzcocks. I could see someone being hyper-critical and saying this LP is a little uneven, but there are at least 3-4 total hits and the whole thing is super solid. At the end of the day this is probably my favorite style/era of music ever so you might want to take what I say with a grain of salt, but I've listened to this at least a dozen times since it came out and it still hasn't gotten old.