Year: 1978
Country: UK
City: London
Label: EMI
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 16
Time: 40 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Punk Rock
Perhaps the most utopian aspect of the U.K. punk scene was that it
offered creative, articulate young people the opportunity to express
themselves, and to kick up an exuberantly noisy racket in the process. X-Ray Spex certainly came from this wing of the movement, the brainchild of two female schoolmates who re-christened themselves Poly Styrene and Lora Logic. X-Ray Spex
was far from the only female-centered British punk act, but they were
arguably the best, combining exuberant energy with a cohesive worldview
courtesy of singer and songwriter Poly Styrene. As her nom de punk hinted, Styrene
was obsessed with the artificiality she saw permeating Britain's
consumer society, linking synthetic goods with a sort of processed,
manufactured humanity. Styrene's
frantic claustrophobia permeates the record, as she rails in her
distinctively quavering yowl against the alienation she feels preventing
her from discovering her true self. Germ Free Adolescents is tied together by Styrene's
yearning to be free not only from demands for consumption, but from the
insecurity corporate advertisers used to exploit their targets
(especially in women) -- in other words, to enjoy being real, imperfect,
non-sterile humans living in a real, imperfect, non-Day-Glo world.
Fortunately, the record is just as effective musically as it is
conceptually. It's full of kick-out-the-jams rockers, with a few
up-tempo thrashers and surprisingly atmospheric pieces mixed in; the
raw, wailing saxophone of Rudi Thomson (who replaced Lora Logic early on) gives the band its true sonic signature. The CD reissue of Germ Free Adolescents
appends both sides of the classic debut single "Oh Bondage Up Yours!,"
one of the most visceral moments in all of British punk -- which means
everything you need is right here (*review wrote by Steve Huey).
