6. Blonde Redhead (1995)

Blonde Redhead truly harnessed their strength when they became a three-piece, but their self-titled debut (with then-bassist Maki Takahashi) is still a model statement about the band’s sonic texture and ethos. There’s the ferocious and kinetic (“Mama Cita”), the shriek-punctuated billowing clouds of sound (“Astro Boy”), and the tangoing guitar riffs (“Swing Pool”). But the best laid plans for delivering the BRH prototype come at the beginning and end, opening with menace that converts into a raucous noisy art-rock duet (“I Don’t Want U”) and closing with calming minimalism (“Girl Boy”). It’s a sound that holds up, and one they continued to build upon.