X-Ray Spex - Germ Free Adolescents - The Anthology

As with most of Britain's early punk bands that received any press and distribution in the States, I bought this LP when it first came out and loved their wild, sax-dominated, consumer-centric punk rock'n'roll. Poly Strene's day-glo concept and wildly shrieking (in a good way) vocals captured me immediately and this album is still as strong as ever more than 40 years later, with lyrics at least as relevant and a sound that is still cutting edge.

Although this release diminished the value of my copies (I had more than one by this time, not that I had any plans to sell them!) of the original LP, I still sought out this 2001 2-CD set for its boatload of extras - demos, live cuts and even reunion songs - along with the fact that I didn't have to wear out the vinyl any longer!

With her original whoop'n'squeal introducing "Oh Bondage! Up Yours!", the sax squalls and the high energy punk'n'roll band blasting behind her, Poly and company set the punk scene on fire and became instant idols. Along with tunes like "I Am A Cliche" (she was anything but) and "I Am A Poseur" (again, not a true description of herself) critiquing the scene and the majority of the others tunes dissecting the commercial world in a fun'n'funny way, she rose to fame and became a spokesperson for the new genre. This led to innumerable difficulties and an untimely and all-too-soon demise of the group, but for a short period, they were as exciting and new-sounding as they come.

After Bondage's battle cry, there's the frantic "Cliche", the fantastically melodic buzzsaw stomp of "The Day the World Turned Day-Glo" (the sax takes most of the leads on the album and is particularly excellent on this one, with harmonies and squawks alternating throughout), the anti-anthem sing-along "Poseur", "Identity" is a minor-key, bouncy riffer, "Let's Submerge" is almost Pistols-like with a damn catchy "going down-own-own-own-own" chorus and they practically do an electronic, new-wave number is the slow, hypnotic title cut.

I don't believe that the original album had the fairly nondescript "Age" on it, but "Obsessed With You" is another great, frenzied piece of punk rock'n'roll, while "Genetic Engineering" is memorable as hell, as is "I Live Off Of You" ("really gotta be exploited by somebody") and "Art-I-Ficial" continues is the same hip, happenin' punk rock vein with more great lyrics, although few can top "I Can't Do Anything" and it's line "Freddy tried to strangle me with my plastic popper beads, but I hit him back with my pet rat" and "Plastic Bag" with "I dreamt that I was Hitler, the ruler of the sea, the ruler of the universe,  the ruler of the supermarket", but "Highly Inflammable", again, I don't think was on the American version, possibly with good reason, but "Warrior In Woolworths" was a terrific closer with the the great chant "he's a rebel on the underground".

Amazing songwriting throughout, with solid playing by everyone and the saxophone really bringing a new flair to the instrumental segments while Poly's stridently melodic vocals and creative lyrics soar over the top. Poly had a flair for hooks, and this phenomenal record is jam-packed with sing-along classics.

The extras here include a rough mix of "Prefabricated Icon" (instrumentally, with gleefully blatant steals from "You Only Live Twice"), vocal-less backing tracks of "I Can't Do Anything" and "Warrior in Woolworths" that are not all that enthralling, followed by much more interesting rough mixes of "Genetic Engineering" (sounds like different vocal track), "Art-I-Ficial", "I Live Off You", "Obsessed With you", "Let's Submerge", "Identity", and "The Day The World Turned Day-Glo" that show that the songs were completely formulated before the album and while the differences are not exceptional, these are fun variations.

When I first got this, I was probably most excited for the Live at the Roxy cuts, but unfortunately, for the most part these are not all that exceptional. While the opening "Bondage" is pretty good (other than the flubbed beginning - drumsticks dropped and guitar unplugged), "Identity" starts to slip a bit, although it's still pretty rockin', "Let's Submerge" gets a little wonky but "Plastic Bag" loses it completely and falls apart almost immediately and everything ends up wildly out-of-tune - this is kinda painful, frankly and a real mess, I'm sad to say. They pull things together more for "I Live Off You" and an ultra-frantic "I'm a Cliche" but go wildly out of tune again for "I Can't Do Anything" (bad monitors or just instruments going out and no time to fix them?) but another "Bondage" (a different show?) is pretty solid, other than Poly's voice cracking. I have read rave reviews of their live shows and I'm sure this was great to experience in person, but the recordings are not something that you really wanna listen to very often, I'm afraid. The last few tunes are 1995 "reunion" songs (only a couple of the original members were represented), but the songs are pretty solid through'n'through - "Cigarettes", "Junk Food Junkie", "Peace Meal" - with Poly's vocals sounding exceptionally strong, although the tunes are a bit more new wave than punk rock. Still worthwhile additions to their heritage, though.

The album is absolutely essential, but the extras here are really just for the fanatics, but it's a fun anthology of a fantastic group.