The Slits – Trapped Animal
Reviewed by Sadie O., 10/27/09
Punky Reggae dance mayhem from THE SLITS. The freaking SLITS! First new release in a quarter century, and still leading the pack. Features original Slit Tessa Pollitt along with Ari Up, and newcomers including Sex Pistol Paul Cook’s daughter Hollie. (THAT makes me feel old…) It’s hard to pin this record down – it’s stylistically all over the place (but Reggae-heavy enough that I almost slapped a green sticker on it.) But it’s GREAT – thank Allah. I’d have had to slit (ahem) my wrists if it had sucked…
FCC on track 1, and track 2 is pretty obviously about sex…
I love 8, 9 and 15 the most.
1. 5:36 FCC: single very clear “shit” ***groovy midtempo syncopation, electronics and horns – killer sound. Mostly sung in unison. Interesting lyrics about how mothers raise the boys women wind up having to deal with…
2. 3:57 **midtempo dancehall groove, pretty and Caribbean, Jamaican accented vocals, all about having sex while asleep.
3. 4:39 ***electronic spaceship noise, then uptempo dance groove, pretty vocals about making the rent.
4. 2:36 ****punk, Slits-style. Piano and attitude, and a few squeals.
5. 4:23 ***uptempo limping beat and hollered vocals with misleadingly cute interludes.
6. 3:37 ***big organ chords intro, uptempo but fairly simple music, sweet quavery vocals from Ari, with psychoanalytic lyrics.
7. 3:47 ****fanfare intro with vocal whoops, uptempo Latin percussion. Great little beat and lyrics about rejecting peer pressure. I’m totally down.
8. 4:58 *****wow! Downtempo dub reggae with amazing vocals. Damn, do you think she knows my ex-husband? BRILLIANT.
9. 5:57 *****downtempo dub reggae, great Rasta bun dung Babylon lyrics. SERIOUS dub for second half.
10. 3:36 ***jaunty midtempo lounge-y bubble, sweet vocals, pretty harmonies… What happened? Ha ha!
11. 4:15 ****more gypsy than Reggae, except for the one-drop – very odd lyrics… can you take these girls seriously? Sometimes, but probably not now…
12. 4:37 ***jaunty keyboard-based bubble, cute Japanese vocals. Goes all dubby for last minute.
13. 4:37 ***crickets.. and accordion... slow, strange and sort of Eastern European. Low, hoarse vocals from Ari, turns serious nuts. Yup!
14. 4:22 **groovy jazz/lounge piano, then slow, dreamy circus of the damned. Very, very, disturbed!
15. 4:13 *****dub of track 11 with gypsy violins and dub. Quite lovely, at least until the queeps and twirts start. Then goes all mysterious in the middle – cool stuff!