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Album review: The Slits' punk reunion stirs old flames
THE SLITS: 'TRAPPED ANIMAL' (NARNACK) ***
Narnack
Ari Up and Co. have only gotten more musically adventurous, adding hip hop, gypsy music and jazz to a palette that already includes Afro-pop, funk and seemingly every subgenre of Jamaican music.
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Published: November 5, 2009
By the time first-wave punks The Slits got around to making their first album in 1979, they were well beyond the four-chord, machine-gun rants of the old order. "Cut" was like nothing that had been heard before. Skeletal, angular arrangements filtered punk through reggae, particularly dub, and the lyrics had a distinctive and strong feminine perspective.
The Slits managed one-more album, 1981's "Return of the Giant Slits," before splitting, so "Trapped Animal" is as welcome as it is unexpected.
Lead singer Ari Up and bassist Tessa Pollitt remain from the original band, with new recruits including Hollie Cook, daughter of Sex Pistols drummer Paul. (Up's stepfather is John Lydon.)
The Slits are a very different proposition 28 years since their last release. The ragged amateurism has been replaced by spot-on precision, and the album as a whole sounds more inviting than previous works.
But Up and Co. have only gotten more musically adventurous, adding hip hop, gypsy music and jazz to a palette that already includes Afro-pop, funk and seemingly every subgenre of Jamaican music. Up's lyrics don't mince words whether she's decrying child abuse or telling men to grow up already.
Punk reunions seldom make the grade, but "Trapped Animal" is more of rejuvenation. Welcome back.
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