Poly Styrene was inspired to form a band by seeing the Sex Pistols in Hastings and, through their live performances, she, and X-Ray Spex became one of the most talked about acts on the punk scene.
There`s a reissue of `Conscious Consumer` the second and final X-Ray Spex album, recorded and released in September in 1995 but on a very limited CD only release and officially unavailable for the past 27 years out this month. The album saw the return of saxophonist Lora Logic, sacked from the original incarnation of the band but reconciled with singer Poly Styrene during the eighties, as well as original bassist Paul Dean. Kula Shaker frontman Crispian Mills under his then pseudonym Red Spectre supplied guitar while Pauli OhAirt (Paul Winterhart) played drums. The band had an anti-consumerist stance which is pretty prevalent on this release.
`Cigarettes` kicks us off and it`s a diatribe against governments taxing cigarettes and utilising areas that could be developed to grow crops to feed less privileged countries. Poly`s voice has a delightfully questioning texture and Lora`s sax tones are sublime. We have a ditty about the dangers of fast food with `Junk Food Junkie` a melodic piece with further saxophone tinges splashed across some churning guitar riffs.
`Crystal Clear` is a more thoughtful, contemplative almost spiritual reflective slow burn that becomes fairly hypnotic as it evolves. There`s a kind of dreaminess about `India` which appears to be about seeking a sage, guru, or spiritual advisor in this south Asian country where many journey to find sacred enlightenment.
`Dog in Sweden` is a commentary on the excesses of a rock n roll lifestyle shared in a spoken word / sung fashion over an at times punk like soundscape. A reflection on times gone by and looking to previous upright morals values follows with `Hi Chaperone` which is sung and spoken over a musical soundtrack that veers this way and that.
`Good Time Girl` is a melodic pop outing which again seems to rail against the expectations of what an independent female is perceived to be and what this narrator believes. Poly appears to touch on her Hare Krishna beliefs on `Melancholy` which she rhymes with Kali where Kali Yuga means “the age of Kali (demon)”, “the age of darkness”, “the age of vice and misery”, or “the age of quarrel and hypocrisy”. The composition is far from melancholic and is a pretty wistful listen.
`Sophia` has some pretty bizarre lyrics that I have to admit were beyond me but may be quite profound. The track itself is pretty spellbinding and has a kind of psychedelic glow about it. We have in `Peace Meal` a vegetarian or vegan anthem which rails against animal slaughter and meat consumption and sounds as if it come from the period of the first album in the late seventies. I have to say I found the simile between animal slaughter and Hitler’s genocide of the Jewish community pretty crass.
`Prayer for Peace` to me had a kind of Marc Bolan vibe about it with lyrics that seem to originate from the tranquillity and peacefulness that Poly gained at that time in her life. This re-release closes out with the amusing `Party` which is a light hearted conversational piece on attending a gathering and finding those there quite dull and juvenile and concluding that you`d grown out of that scene.
I have to say `Conscious Consumer` took me back to a time when life was full of promise and while the lyrics aren`t going to win any writing awards, I thought musically it stood up really well. It did have me reminiscing on what Poly or Marianne Joan Elliott-Said would have been releasing these days if she`d still been around.
`Conscious Consumer` is an album that i`m sure will make the world turn Day-Glo for all you aged germ free adolescents even if it`s just for a day.
Rating 8.5 /10
