The Slits

With only two members remaining from their Cut days and almost three decades since their last studio album, reggae-punk's archetypal girl band returns, unmistakably identifiable, with their sense of naivete intact, if not quite their sense of genius. Though Ari Up's mundane concerns aren't remotely avant-garde, they seem entirely sincere: grown men who use women to work out mother issues; the 9-to-5 rent-paying grind; kids dealing with peer pressure and school stress. And if the dub backing feels prefabricated now, it's still got some depth, and Latin and gypsy turns break new ground.