Alternative/Punk

To be punk is to refuse to conform to even rock's rules, to be the extreme of the extreme. "Alternative," on the other hand, is the word that turns the extreme into something widely palatable. A safety pin through the lip is punk; a clip-on nose ring is alternative. Within the distance between the two has grown the sound and sensibility of a rock & roll generation.

The albums listed below reflect the beautiful divide between the full-on punk and the merely alternative. Some lean more toward the indie side, cacophono...

I don't know if the Y in Robyn Hitchcock's name was there on his birth certificate, but I can't imagine it spelled "Robin." That Y is the same slightly odd Y that's present in the Byrds, in Syd Barrett and in Bob Dylan — arguably the three biggest historical presences behind his music. He's got an enormous, three-decade-long discography, but the early solo albums that have just come to eMusic include some of the sweetest and oddest psychedelia of the post-punk era.

Before Hitchcock went solo, though, he was...