Ramones - Rocket to Russia

Rocket to Russia is a better album than Ramones, but i don't think it's the 25k+ budget that makes it better. For starters, i generally set production off to the side because the sound of a record is totally not a level playing field. Packaging is a different story, this is the quintessential cartoonish drawings of all the songs lyric sheet, humorous mocking of traditional values we all know and love as Punk. 

Oddly enough, this album was an immediate angry response to the one and only Sex Pistols album. I've mentioned before that Never Mind the Bullocks... is not a fun album, but part of that really is that it feels like a mean spirited joke. I don't mean the songs are bad or that it isn't appropriately obnoxious, i mean that much like the Beatles you get the sense that they're kind of mocking you for enjoying it. 

Rocket to Russia, however, is actually fun. The difference is that Sex Pistols call everyone garbage, while Ramones make fun of the hypocrisy of "polite society." You're allowed to like and laugh along with Ramones, you have to decide whether you agree with Sex Pistols or not, and it's not a straight party kind of ballot. At the end of the day, Ramones have a sense of humor, Sex Pistols are somewhat relentlessly nasty about everything, and smarmy about it. 

At the end of another day, there's a reason Rocket to Russia is the best selling Ramones album: it's awesome.