Pleasure [Deluxe Digipak Edition]

Leeds post-punk band Girls at Our Best! was active from 1979 until 1982, going through a series of personnel changes and a name change and leaving behind a handful of EPs, singles, and their sole long-player, 1981's Pleasure. While the group touched on the churning punk-funk of bands like the Bush Tetras and Delta 5, the arty dissonance of the Raincoats and Siouxsie and the Banshees, and the swaggering grooves of the Slits, they had a pop core that often put them more into the new wave bracket than their punk contemporaries. The abrasive guitars, caffeinated tempo, and jerky movements of "Getting Nowhere Fast," their breakout 1980 single and one of their best songs, all speak to the punk side of the band, but there's still a marriage of melody and energy. Beyond that brilliant standout, GaOB! explored dirge-like disco on "Heaven," sing-song synth pop on "Politics!" (Thomas Dolby assists with synthesizer parts on Pleasure), and even a weird and wandering take on metallic anarcho-punk with "Warm Girls.” Even the harshest moments of Pleasure hold a sense of carefree joy and curiosity that was absent from most of the dreary post-punk happening in the early ‘80s. The band even brings in a clarinet for the jangly, happy-go-lucky “Fun-City Teenagers.” Pleasure doesn’t fit neatly into any single category, but instead twists various disparate styles and ideas to fit its vision. Girls at Our Best! used the album as an outlet for unfettered discovery and creation, and the end result is one of the more joyful and exciting documents to come out of the UK punk scene of their time. [The deluxe reissue includes the entire album, all studio singles, two full concerts, demos, and an interview.]