New York Dolls

Limited edition Japanese pressing has been remastered and comes packaged in a miniature LP sleeve. Along with the Stooges, the New York Dolls were largely responsible for pioneering the sound and attitude of punk, and this, their self-titled debut, is one of the founding documents of post-'60s rock. Outrageous, shambolic, and bursting with energy, the Dolls borrowed from the amped-up, bluesy swagger of the Rolling Stones, the pop confections of Phil Spector, and the campy theatricality that would flower with the glam movement, yet brought it all together with a visceral impact that recalled the jolt of early rock & roll. Mercury. 2006.

In 1972, when rock & roll was all but dead in Manhattan, five cross-dressing glam punks from the boroughs convened and began hammering out crude, sub-Chuck Berry rock for the downtown in-crowd. It took another year before a record company dared to sign them, thus foisting The New York Dolls on an essentially uninterested world. Taking their cue from the band's guitarist/Keefalike Johnny Thunders, hardcore Dolls fans pooh-poohed Todd Rundgren's production as wimpy: twenty-five years after its release, songs like "Personality Crisis" and "Looking for a Kiss" sound more trashily invigorating than ever. With the Rolling Stones finished as a vital force by '73, the doomed Dolls were there to step into the void. A classic. --Barney Hoskyns