Penetration - Resolution

Resolution (2015) marks the triumphant return of punk rock pioneers Penetration, arriving a staggering 36 years after their sophomore album. Frontwoman Pauline Murray leads the reformed outfit with a vocal performance that has grown more velvety and sophisticated without losing its distinctive, commanding edge. Joined by original bassist Robert Blamire and notable additions like former Buzzcocks drummer John Maher, the band bypasses cheap nostalgia to deliver a vital, contemporary document. The album replaces raw, three-chord punk aggression with intricate, dual-guitar interplay reminiscent of Television, wrapped in a polished, self-produced sonic landscape.

Critical reception heavily praises Resolution as a rare, filler-free comeback record that honours the band's legacy while forging a mature path forward. Tracks like the driving "The Beat Goes On" and the atmospheric "Just Drifting" showcase a masterful balance of urgent energy and dark, melodic pop sensibilities. Instead of trying to recapture the frantic youth of their 1978 debut Moving Targets, the band leans into their strengths as seasoned musicians and songwriters. Ultimately, the album stands as a confident, dignified, and essential addition to Penetration's catalog, proving their artistic relevance remains entirely intact.

Penetration - Race Against Time

Race Against Time is an essential official compilation by English punk rock band Penetration, released in 1979 following their initial disbandment [The, Virgin, Years]. The album serves as a raw, energetic retrospective, collecting rare studio demos and explosive live recordings captured between 1977 and 1979. It bridges the gap between the band's fierce early club gigs and their more polished studio output, featuring blistering live versions of standout tracks like "Movement" and "Come Into the Arena." At the core of the release is Pauline Murray’s distinctive, commanding vocal performance, which anchors the band's driving, melodic punk sound.

Music critics and fans highly regard the compilation for capturing the authentic, unvarnished power of Penetration's live shows, which some felt was diluted on their studio albums. While the demo tracks offer a fascinating, rough-around-the-edges look at their songwriting process, the live material from their Newcastle home turf receives the highest praise for its sheer sonic wallop [The, Virgin, Years]. Rather than a simple cash-in, Race Against Time stands as a definitive historical document of the late-1970s UK punk scene, perfectly preserving the legacy of a band that burned brightly but briefly.

Penetration - Coming Up For Air

The spiky aspirations of their debut album and first few singles notwithstanding, Penetration were always a more convincing hard rock band than most punks gave them credit for. The glee with which they unveiled a twin-guitar line-up, the faith they placed in songs with titles like "She Is the Slave" and "Shout Above the Noise," and, if hindsight be the guide, the accuracy with which they predicted the entire New Wave of British Heavy Metal outbreak; all these things place Penetration in a very different bag to that they normally wriggle around in. Guitarist Fred Purser went on to form the Tygers of Pan Tang. That should tell you everything. Released in late 1979, their second album, Coming Up for Air, is the sound of the group embracing that destiny. Critically pummelled at the time and often overlooked thereafter, it is a far cry from the scratchy urchins who unleashed "Don't Dictate" a mere year earlier, a rip-roaring, riff-heavy leviathan that places its focus on Purser and Neale Floyd's wailing guitars, then layers Pauline Murray's banshee-bark vocals atop of them. Unfortunately, in ripping apart the punk formbook, Penetration also tore up their song writing manual. Without exception, the eleven songs on the original album are uniformly leaden, while two live bonus tracks merely amplify the band's lumpen metal pretensions. Only "Danger Signs," one of the three bonus tracks and the band's last memorable single, stands proud.

Penetration - BBC In Concert (27th June 1979)

Penetration’s performance on the BBC Radio 1 In Concert special, recorded on 27 June 1979, is highly acclaimed by critics as a pristine, energetic showcase of late-1970s new wave. Critics widely praise the BBC's immaculate, crisp sound engineering, which gives the recording a timeless production quality. Frontwoman Pauline Murray's distinctive, commanding vocals dominate the set, with her raw delivery on standout tracks like "Danger Signs" and a frenetic cover of Patti Smith’s "Free Money" receiving consistent praise. Frequently paired with The Ruts on archival split-album releases, the set maintains a strong 3.62 out of 5 rating on Rate Your Music, cementing it as an essential document of the era's post-punk transition.

Penetration - Moving Targets

Buoyed by the sheer magnificence of their "Don't Dictate" debut single, Penetration's debut album stands among the very last true greats of the first wave of British punk offerings. A glorious collision of adrenalized exuberance and astonishing energies, topped by Pauline Murray's unmistakably soaring vocals, Moving Targets wrapped 11 tracks across its two sides of vinyl, and it was the greatest indication of their quality that it wasn't till you reached the end that you realized "Don't Dictate" itself was absent. In its stead, "Stone Heroes," the explosive "Movement," and the swirlingly atmospheric "Vision" were all classics in the making, while a cover of Patti Smith's "Free Money" is simply spellbinding, crunchier than the original but more emotive, too. And then there's the opening bars of the title track, a hilarious reminder of how fast things were changing back then -- it's the Pistols' "Holidays in the Sun," and doesn't it sound old-fashioned! All of which illustrates the sheer versatility bound up in the band. In another lifetime, they could have given the likes of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple a run for their money, at least in terms of demonstrating dexterity, and it was Penetration's bad luck that they were riding a wave that had little time for such abilities. Not that they allowed the disappointment to show. Moving Targets shrugs aside most of punk's archetypes as it rockets along, while the decision to cover the Buzzcocks' "Nostalgia" reminds listeners that Penetration weren't the only band around that didn't give a toss for fashionable accessories. Of course, that determination would lead to the disappointment of the band's second album -- and, thereafter, their demise. As of mid-1978, however, Moving Targets could only herald a dazzling future.