B52s

Rip It Up, Issue 28, 1 November 1979, Page 15

852 s

The 852 s Warner Bros You should buy this record immediately. If, come the summer, it isn’t sitting prettily in your record collection you’ll be hopelessly uncool; absolutely no-one will invite you to beach barbeques anymore. The 852 s are as fashionable as Kate and Cindy’s go-go boots and you've got to be ’in' to win. The truth of the matter is that The Bs2s’ album is not all that the hype promises. It is new and fun and danceworthy; a knock-out it isn’t. Almost a year ago the 852 s three men, two women, from Athens, Georgia broke in the US with a single called “Rock Lobster”. It was an idiosyncratic but catchy bit of whimsy and seems to have formed the masterplan for this album. Repetition is not always a bad thing. Here, it means that ’’6o6-0842”, ‘‘s2 Girls” and “Dance This Mess Around" are all beaut little dancers. It also provides a_continuously pulsing drumbeat and hollow, but mostly appealing, Goldfinger-type keyboards throughout. On the other hand, the lyrics are repetitive and silly rather than funny. The delivery is flat and toneless: the girls are the worst offenders, at times sounding like a distorted hybrid of Kate Bush and Patti Smith. But, for all that, they’ve got some crazy sense of rhythm that taps those toes without even trying. Looking like they do bouffants for the girls, Yankee tourist get-up for the boys they've just got to be faddish, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be fun too. Louise Chunn

pll j| I |> IP X-Ray Spex Germ Free Adolescents EMI X-Ray Spex were my first live acquaintance with the new wave, during a brief visit to'London. I dragged an equally inquisitive mate along to Islington’s notorious Hope and Anchor, one of the birthplaces of the sound, to investigate this punk phenomenon. In the basement of the. Hope, which makes Zwines look like Mainstreet, we squeezed up amongst about 100 other.sweaty souls to be assailed by Poly Styrene’s vocals, backed by three-piece thrash combo and sax. It was here too, that I first experienced the Pogo. In such a confined space, you either join in or get flattened. Try doing it with a pint in your hand. Lotsa fun and a free shampoo to boot. At that stage, the Spex only had about six numbers in their repertoire, including the nowclassic "Oh Bondage, Up Yours’’, which they did twice to fill in time. An experience it certainly was. Ah, but that was back in 77, when punk was in its heyday. The Spex now have a string of. hit singles under their belt, they've played in the States, Poly’s had a nervous breakdown, barely at the age of 20, and it’s H 979.^^PHh^S Adolescents has taken too long to record, and so spiky-top faves like “Identity’’, “Art-i----ficial”, and “The Day The World 'Turned Dayglo” - sound a little dated now,Though they still retain all their original power. On the title track and “Warrior In Woolworths”, where a change of tempo is introduced, along with fresh ideas, X-Ray Spex show that they haven’t been left behind, unlike many of their contemporaries from the early days. This album, then,, provides.the Spex with a clean slate. Providing they follow the new directions evident . here, and Poly keeps her head together, Britain could have its own Blondie. ' . .. Duncan Campbell