Au Pairs - Playing With A Different Sex

Opening with the tongue in cheek "We're So Cool," The Au Pairs debut record is a stunner, from Lesley Woods' scratchy guitar and declamatory vocals to lead guitarist Paul Foad's brittle soloing. This is an uncompromising, defiant record that asks for and gives no quarter; gender roles are turned upside down, hetero and homosexual relationships put under a microscope, and theories about sex and sexuality turned inside out.

"Come Again" refers to the social pressure to achieve orgasmic equality depicting sex as a dreary ritual in which partners as joyless as lab rats press bars and nose buttons in the hopes of an orgasm as dry and quantifiable as kibble. Directed at those who changed the game and brought in new rules, it asks "Is it real? Are you feeling it?", before turning into a dialogue between the female lead and male backing who is evidently attempting to satisfy her: "Am I doing it right?" he asks, and the woman reassures him, "You're not selfish/You're trying hard to please me – please, please me/Is your finger aching?/I can feel you hesitating".

Describing the albums taut rhythms and aggressive lyrics, Playing With A Different Sex makes it a classic example of how the influence of punk could steer rock into exciting new areas. The song "Diet", originally released as a single in 1980 was described as a masterpiece of feminist rock with an almost unparalleled power and pathos. An unflinching look at the world from 35 years ago, Playing With A Different Sex is one of the great, and perhaps one of the forgotten, post-punk records. The CD reissue adds eight significant bonus cuts from 1979-1981 singles, which include different versions of tracks from the LP and some songs which didn't make it onto the album.

Ripped from the long deleted 1992 Expanded CD to MP3

Au Pairs; Playing With A Different Sex

1.      We're So Cool

2.      Love Song

3.      Set-Up

4.      Repetition

5.      Headache for Michelle

6.      Come Again

7.      Armagh

8.      Unfinished Business

9.      Dear John

10.   It's Obvious

11.   You

12.   Domestic Departure

13.   Kerb Crawler

14.   Diet

15.   It's Obvious (Single Version)

16.   Inconvenience (12" Version)

17.   Pretty Boys

18.   Headache for Michelle (Remix)