You are on page 1of 1

Perhaps the most uncompromising early British punk record, though a long way from

the best. This is far more interesting for its form than its content; super-brief,
incoherent rants over pummeling drums and incomprehensible vocals were made into a
hardcore clich� by the early '80s, but were impossibly radical and noisy in 1978.
If you're at all left-of-center, you can find a good deal to sympathize with in the
lyrics, addressing class warfare, social hypocrisy, organized religion, and punk
rock itself with serious venom. It's not without humor at times, either, as on the
famous chorus, "Do they owe us a living? Of course they f*cking do!" (A lyric
sheet, always an essential item for Crass releases, is provided.) But the melodic
and textural qualities of the record, not to mention the throat-full-of-vomit
vocals, are so unrelentingly harsh and monotonous that it's difficult to imagine
anybody playing this for pleasure. With a band such as this, that might indeed be
the point, but it doesn't make for lasting art. The most enduring piece, actually,
had relatively little to do with traditional punk rock: On "Asylum," the spoken
female voice delivers a vitriolic attack on Christianity over disquieting guitar
feedback. � Richie Unterberger

You might also like