Artist	Song
Gang of Four	I Found That Essence Rare
The Fall	Prole Art Threat
Brian Eno	Third Uncle
Pixies	Break My Body
The Cure	Grinding Halt
Dead Milkmen	Dean's Dream
100 Flowers	Horizontal
Franz Ferdinand	Take Me Out
Oh-OK	Guru
Minutemen	I Felt Like A Gringo
Talking Heads	Animals
Swell Maps	Read About Seymour
XTC	Burning With Optimism's Flames
Helium	Pat's Trick
Wire	Men 2nd
Beatles	Everybody's Got Something To Hide (Except Me And My Monkey)
Public Image Ltd.	Death Disco
Young Marble Giants	Constantly Changing
Interpol	Obstacle 1
Pere Ubu	Cloud 149
Television	Friction
Pylon	Beep
U2	Stories For Boys
Pavement	Debris Slide
Joy Division	These Days
Soft Boys	Sandra's Having Her Brain Out
Modest Mouse	The View

Comment:

"Angular" is one of those words that rock critics throw around like crazy despite its lack of a clear definition (see also "seminal," "plangent," "post-punk," "Beatlesque," etc.). Google it and you'll find, like, a billion album reviews (most of which will also compare the music to Gang of Four or maybe Wire). For the most part, I think the most widely accepted understanding of "angular" contemplates a staccato guitar sound, a sharp, jagged, and largely clean, non-distorted guitar attack with little or no sustain or reverb. Secondarily, the music generally strays from traditional blues-based riffing and standard 3- and 4-chord hooks, instead opting for more jarring chord and key changes. Finally, the term gets used as a sort of catch-all for minimalistic post-punk music cha-racterized by a rough, unpolished studio sound. Of course, variations on all of these concepts can be found.

As noted, Gang of Four is probably the most widely-accepted purveyor of the style, though a lot of the punk/post-punk bands of the late 70s used an "angular" style (presumably out of a rejection of the more dense, studio-polished hard rock and prog popular at the time). I also included some pre-punk predecessors, as the Brian Eno song is such a great example of angular guitar playing (and, of course, because I like to think the Beatles are ultimately responsible for everything that's ever happened in rock & roll).

Some 80s and 90s bands revisted this sound (though bands like Pavement and the Pixies mixed a more traditional distorted-guitar sound with less traditional chord structures), and in recent years its made an even stronger comeback with bands like Franz Ferdinand and the like.

Shout-out to Rob Conroy for the Pere Ubu and Swell Maps tracks.

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