Consumer Guide Album

C81 [NME/Rough Tapes, 1981]
This special-price 24-artist sampler, dominated by Rough Trade artists and poppified by the likes of Linx (slick, tough-minded funk), the Beat ("Twist and Crawl" dub), and the Buzzcocks (bye), is proof the Brits ain't been blitzed yet. Although I'm still no fan of noise bands like Cabaret Voltaire, Furious Pig, and the Virgin Prunes, they do provide an appropriately urban-meditative environment when interspersed with more songful material from such unlikely sources as Scritti Politti (slick, tough-minded schlock), Red Crayola (Lora Logic sings), and Subway Sect (hi). A-