Shake Appeal is Pitchfork deputy news editor Evan Minsker’s ongoing survey of garage rock and punk records. He returns for a year-end blowout of rock’n’roll scuzz.

The year’s most visible guitar music may have come courtesy of introspective newcomers, indie-rock institutions, and the reprehensible ginger man, but it was also a hell of a year for grimy rock records. Established favorites like Ty Segall, Sheer Mag, Oh Sees, and King Gizzard continued putting out good stuff; so did underground mainstays like Timmy’s Organism, Sick Thoughts, and Sweet Knives. New guard weirdos like Uranium Club and Aquarian Blood released defining statements, while Feral Ohms and Wiccans put out belligerent wreckers.

There’s plenty from the last 12 months that’s worth investigating, but these 10 records—with their aggression and weird tics and enormous hooks—sit at the top of the heap. This list is alphabetized and unranked. Enjoy responsibly.

BB Eye: Headcheese Heartthrob [Fish]

After an impressive 7” and cassette earlier in the year, BB Eye followed up with an even better album. The Missouri-based power duo featuring the leaders of two other essential punk bands, Warm Bodies' Olivia Gibb (“Miss Lady”) and Lumpy and the Dumpers' Martin Meyer (“John Doogle Melonclam”), made one of the year’s most exhilaratingly strange punk records. Gibb’s yelps and Meyer’s xylophone keep things feverish, and to curb some of their frantic impulses, there’s surprisingly paced and thoughtful material. Don’t be fooled by the title—“Cops With Indigestion” is a genuinely chill effort.

Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys: Rot [What’s Your Rupture/R.I.P. Society]

Four years after their strong debut LP Ready for Boredom, this Sydney foursome returned with a mature sophomore LP. The ragged power-pop outfit are still sloppily anthemic, but even more than last time, their new collection is an emotionally complex opus about love, loss, and getting older. The Boys’ dependably sick guitar solos, big propulsive hooks, and coarse vocals remain, but through the piss and vinegar, they’re singing compellingly about regret (“Victoria”) and falling out (“Company”). It’s a potent combination of force and substance, and it’s their best work yet.

The Cowboys: The Cowboys [HoZac]

You can’t fake talent, and the Cowboys’ swaggering garage pop prowess comes pouring out of them every time they put out a new record. The Bloomington band’s new one follows four volumes of cassettes between 2014 and 2016 (largely represented on this 2016 compilation), each of which was stuffed with snarling rock‘n’roll that seemed to take cues from proto-punks and retro garage greats like Billy Childish. Their latest is similarly stuffed with impressive songwriting, but this time, they rely less on speed, volume, and theatrics. There are genuinely pretty moments, like the piano melody of “Like a Man” and the delicate strum of the closing ballad “Say Hello to the Sun (For Me).” And don’t worry, there are barn burners and beefed-up bangers, too.

gSp: 12" [Thrilling Living]

All hail girlSperm, the new punk trio comprised of three venerable vets: Tobi Vail (from Bikini Kill), Layla Gibbon (who’s been in a bunch of bands and worked at Maximum Rocknroll), and Marissa Magic (from Wet Drag, Stillsuit, and more). Their debut is defined by its dueling guitars, shouted gang vocals, and duh, Tobi fucking Vail. It’s a record where power comes from shouting about disappointment (“WHAT DO WE WANT? TOTAL LIBERATION! WHAT DO WE GOT? A TOTAL DRAG!”) and slipping into “social death.” gSp’s songs are crucial reminders that it’s easy to be crushed by mundane day-to-day bullshit, unless you’re willing to pick yourself up and do the work. Also, they rhyme “hippies on cocaine” with “it’s just not my thing,” which means they're also responsible for some of the year’s best poetry.

HARAM: بس ربحت, خسرت “When You Have Won, You Have Lost” [Toxic State]

The debut from this New York foursome is an end-to-end thrilling listen of kinetic, combustible hardcore. Mirroring the band’s enormous drum and guitar sound, vocalist Nader Habibi wields his instrument with blunt force as he shouts in Arabic. Habibi has been through some shit—the album comes in the wake of a dropped investigation by the FBI, who apparently interrogated him over suspected ties to ISIS because of their Arabic imagery and lyrics. Songs have titles like “يست ارهابي ‘Not a Terrorist,’” and while translations aren’t readily available, the music’s speed and ferocity plainly illustrate the personal and political nature of these songs.

Lumpy and the Dumpers: Those Pickled Fuckers [La Vida Es Un Mus Discos/Lumpy]

St. Louis punks Lumpy and the Dumpers—whose frontman runs Lumpy Records and co-heads BB Eye—have been releasing rapid-fire slime since 2012, and it’s a sound that they own pretty much entirely. There was no real need for them to evolve—their approach was decidedly niche and consistently entertaining—but on their new mini-album Those Pickled Fuckers, the band do the unexpected. They find a new approach. Horns and fried electronics are brought into the fold. Lumpy’s vocals, usually this goblin shriek, are downright conversational on “Clatter Song.” It almost feels ridiculous to ask this of the band whose previous opus was called Huff My Sack, but: could Lumpy and the Dumpers be maturing?

Obnox: Murder Radio [ever/never]

Bim Thomas—the Cleveland singer, guitarist, rapper, and noise monster—has built a prolific reputation around his Obnox project. This year, he released his seventh and eighth albums, Niggative Approach and Murder Radio. If you have to pick one (and you definitely don’t), give Murder Radio a try. As usual, it’s a dense album of impressive guitar heroics slathered in noise. Beneath the whorl of distortion and feedback, Thomas stuffs in legitimately catchy vocal melodies. For a record this overwhelmingly beefy, there’s nothing ramshackle about it. Another expertly crafted slab by an artist who already has quite a few to his name.

Patsy: LA Women [La Vida Es Un Mus Discos]

New Orleans quartet Patsy made one of the best 7" punk records of the last few years with their careening 2015 jam “Tuley Tude High,” so their mini-album LA Women arrived as an instant priority listen. True to that track’s promise, the band’s power chord-driven garage punk attack is both shambolic and spry, where frantic percussion, guitar solos, and Candice Metrailer’s vocals trip over each other. It’s natural to gravitate toward high-speed jams like “The Red Door,” but the star turn is “For the Sake of the Song,” where a series of false starts shift suddenly and wholeheartedly into searing speed punk.

Vanilla Poppers: Vanilla Poppers [Blow Blood/Lumpy]

Vanilla Poppers hail from Cleveland, and their debut album is extremely good. Its members got their pedigree in Midwestern grindcore, hardcore, and punk groups, and their leader is native Australian Christina Pap, who stands up front screaming about being dead inside over burly earworms. Pap is an undeniably powerful presence, spitting that her motorcycle is a better ride than you before ordering you on your hands and knees. When she’s barking so boldly over such intense hooks, you can’t help but pay attention.

The World: First World Record [Upset the Rhythm/Lumpy]

After a handful of singles and assorted releases in 2016, Oakland’s the World came through with their first (and quite literally titled) album. “Loser” is arguably the best song here—a buoyant earworm where saxophones pair with razorwire guitars and funky bass grooves—and it’s followed by the feverish minute-long jam “Chet Baker.” There’s definitely a sharp sense of humor, too, like the song about how they fell in love with a slumlord. The World do a lot on First World Record, making it an album that rewards both repeat listens and spur-of-the-moment dance parties.