Scritti Politti

What a difference seven years, three record labels and four members makes. Scritti
Politti's 1978 DIY debut, "Skank Bloc Bologna," was the work of brainy Britpunks sculpting
raw thrash into their own twisted avant-pop shapes. On Cupid & Psyche 85, only
singer/songwriter Green Strohmeyer-Gartside remains from the original trio, along with his
breathy helium-squeak tenor and abstract word games ("When the words are vo... More >

Green's Gallic allusion of choice--the name of his pubbery, in fact--is "jouissance," but although he's playful and verbal enough to make it his own, he falls short in the climax department. I'd suggest a less gushy conceit: esprit. The high-relief production and birdlike tunes and spry little keyb arrangements and hippety-hoppety beat and archly ethereal falsetto add up to a music of amazing lightness and wit that's saved from any hint of triviality by wordplay whose delight in its own turns is hard to resist. Usually I suspect lyricists who refuse to be clear of never having figured out what they mean, but here the puns are so clever and incessant that they become an end in themselves. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Green knows what he wants to say. (Grade: A-)