Playing with a Different Sex

元祖フェミニズム・バンド、オー・ペアーズが81年にリリースしたデビュー・アルバムが遂にリイシュー!CDヴァージョンにはボーナストラック6曲追加収録!デヴィッド・ボウイ「Repetition」のカヴァー収録!
妖艶な女性ヴォーカリスト、レズリー・ウッズを擁した英バーミンガムのニュー・ウェーヴ・バンド、オー・ペアーズが81年に＜Human Records＞から発表したデビュー・アルバム『プレイング・ウィズ・ディファレント・セックス』がボーナストラックを追加収録し嬉しいリイシュー!本作はデヴィッド・ボウイの「Repetition」のカヴァーを収録する他、多くの収録曲がドメスティック・バイオレンスや性的政治などをテーマにしている。

Opening with the tongue in cheek "We're So Cool," the Au Pairs' debut record is a stunner, from Lesley Woods' scratchy guitar and declamatory vocals to lead guitarist Paul Foad's brittle soloing. This is an uncompromising, defiant record that asks no quarter; gender roles are turned upside down, hetero- and homosexual relationships put under a microscope, and theories about sex and sexuality turned inside out. Similarly, the tense political situation in Northern Ireland is harrowingly addressed in "Armagh," which details Tory-sanctioned torture and sexual abuse of wrongly imprisoned Irish women. An unflinching look at the world, Playing with a Different Sex is one of the great, and perhaps forgotten, post-punk records. The CD reissue on RPM adds eight significant bonus cuts from 1979-1981 singles, which include different versions of tracks from the album and some songs which didn't make it onto the LP in any form. ~ John Dougan|