The Plasmatics’ ‘Coup d’Etat’: Is This as Bad as It Gets?

The Plasmatics’ Coup d’Etat could be it: the worst album ever released by a nationally known popular artist or group. True, some would grant this distinction to Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music, a two-record set that sounds throughout like a subway train screeching to a halt, but at least Reed knows how to do better and was only playing games. Wendy Williams and the Plasmatics, on the other hand, perform their grating noises in all seriousness and, as a bonus, they feature one of the decade’s most tasteless examples of cover “art.” Melt it down into an ashtray.