Paranoid & Sunburnt by Skunk Anansie

Paranoid & Sunburnt, the debut album from British rockers Skunk Anansie, came out on One Little Indian Records in 1995, and it hits like a brick through a window. Skin's voice goes from a whisper to a war cry in the space of a bar, Ace's guitar grinds and snarls, and Cass holds down the bottom end, while original drummer Robbie France played on the record even though he's missing from the cover.

These are protest songs, most of them aimed at politics and religion, and they don't bother with subtlety. Heavier than the Britpop bands of the day, the band got filed under Britrock instead, and the album climbed to 8 on the UK Albums Chart. "I Can Dream" and "Weak" show the range, one all bared teeth, the other the band at its most wounded. Stoosh followed, and in 2005 the album came back with a DVD of the videos.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.