1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 438. The Slits – Cut (1979)

 

I was expecting some kind of thrashy riot grrrl punk rock based on what I vaguely knew about The Slits, and that they’d started life touring with The Clash. But, although post-punk is very much evident, the sound is more heavily based in ska and dub reggae. I was a little disappointed that they’re not an entirely female group as well, drummer Peter “Budgie” Clarke being a single thorn in a bunch of roses. But this at least is a reverse of female-fronted post-punk/new wave bands like X-Ray Spex and Blondie. 

They’re a bit of an international melange as well, singer Ari Up from Germany, guitarist Viv Albertine from Australia, and bassist Tessa Pollitt from England. Ari Up sings in a kind of mixed London vernacular/ Jamaican patois style, making them very hard to place purely by listening. 

The songs are somewhat chaotic and shambolic, playing quite fast and loose with timing, Budgie often playing what sounds like a single snare to give a sound more like an impromptu street performance. There are dub elements like the sound of what seemed to me some dropped cutlery used as a punctuation. The songs reflect a mix of rebellion and anger, for example Shoplifting. 

“Ten quid for the lot 
We pay fuck all 
Babylonian won't lose much 
And we'll have dinner tonight 
Do a runner” 

I heard this as “Babylon, him won’t lose much” as I was attuned to patois, but same difference; they mean “The Man”. The original version was a more racially-charged term used because corner shop owners in the UK are stereotypically Pakistani. This version is better.  

Shoplifting is one of the more fun tracks on here, and one of the better ones is Typical Girls, which acerbically lists the attributes that a “typical girl” is supposed to have according to society – emotional, yet well-behaved, looking for a man, obsess over beauty magazines. But, the song asks, “Who invented the typical girl? [...] There’s another marketing ploy.”  

The slightly shambolic and anarchic nature of the music is what I imagine The Shaggs would have sounded like (although they were raised to be the “typical girls” of the Slits’ song) if they had a clue how to play their instruments. Or, given the reggae sound, what Althea and Donna would sound like if they got on stage really, really, drunk.