Time's Up!

Entertainment Weekly - "...Finds the band honoring the hormone-crazed legacy of the Troggs with a cover of 'I Can't Control Myself', along with a lo-fi take on their own seminal anthem, 'Orgasm Addict'." - Rating: B+ Q - 3 stars out of 5 - Included in Q's "100 Best Punk Albums" - "...The only album-length documentation of Howard Devoto's time as a Buzzcocks frontman...it's a hugely evocative mix of febrile urgency and high-concept sloganeering." The Wire - "...A much bootlegged album of songs from the SCRATCH sessions...covering the same ground...while various other songs making their first appearances....Nostalgia for the ages to come..." Q Magazine - (5/02 SE, p.135) - 3 stars out of 5 - Included in Q's "100 Best Punk Albums" - "...The only album-length documentation of Howard Devoto's time as a Buzzcocks frontman...it's a hugely evocative mix of febrile urgency and high-concept sloganeering." The Wire (4/00, p.63) - "...A much bootlegged album of songs from the SCRATCH sessions...covering the same ground...while various other songs making their first appearances....Nostalgia for the ages to come..." Entertainment Weekly (3/24/00, p.103) - "...Finds the band honoring the hormone-crazed legacy of the Troggs with a cover of 'I Can't Control Myself', along with a lo-fi take on their own seminal anthem, 'Orgasm Addict'." - Rating: B+

Whilst many archive recordings are best left in the can, the Buzzcocks' first demos--previously widely available as a bootleg--are an exception to that rule. TIME'S UP marks the brief moment that Howard Devoto fronted Buzzcocks, before forming Magazine and passing the reins to Pete Shelley. The group's subsequent flurry of perfect, lovelorn punk-pop singles is well known, but their early abrasive edge was only captured on one classic EP, "Spiral Scratch". Early versions of "Boredom" and "Breakdown" included on TIME'S UP pound along seemingly on pure adrenaline, with Devoto drinking from a well of frustration and sarcasm, whilst articulating himself in a most non-punk fashion.
Ragged, impatient, exciting versions of songs Shelley would later make his own, like "Orgasm Addict" and "Love Battery", are heard in all their raw, bloodied glory. Covers of Captain Beefheart and the Troggs are deftly dismantled with a mix of reverence and contempt. The Buzzcocks were arguably the first band to catch on to punk after hearing the Sex Pistols--these recordings are so early, they aren't even out of bed yet. And as for Devoto, he wasn't long for punk, but he lent it more in an instant than countless pretenders ever did.|