Early (album)

Early
Compilation album by Scritti Politti
Released 14 February 2005
Recorded 1978–1981
Genre
Length 47:13
Label Rough Trade
Scritti Politti chronology
Anomie & Bonhomie (1999) Early
(2005)
White Bread Black Beer
(2006)

Early is a 2005 compilation by Scritti Politti which collects singles and EPs recorded in the first years of the band's existence and prior to the release of its 1982 debut album Songs to Remember. It captures the group in its early incarnation as a DIY post-punk act characterized by an experimental musical approach and Leftist political concerns.[1][4] Following these recordings, leader Green Gartside would abandon the group's avant-garde leanings and attempt a more commercial musical direction.[3]

Music

The group's sound on these early recordings have been described by AllMusic as "scrappy, taut, and forthrightly experimental in style, utilizing abrupt changes, rhythmic displacements, and gritty and discordant harmonies tempered by Gartside's sweet vocalizing of impenetrably obscure lyrics, vaguely political in sense but temporal and abstract in meaning."[1] Pitchfork Media characterized these songs as "what happens when you combine Marxism, art school, and post-punk London, 1979: A rickety, alien pulse, as made by a band that insisted on printing the production costs of every single on the sleeve."[2]

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4]
Pitchfork Media(7.1/10)[2]
Rolling Stone[5]

Track listing

All tracks written by Green Gartside, Nial Jinks, Keith Morley except tracks 12–13, written by Green Gartside.

No. Title Length
1. "Skank Bloc Bologna"   5:53
2. "Is and Ought the Western World"   3:46
3. "28/8/78"   2:39
4. "Scritlocks Door"   1:33
5. "OPEC–Immac"   3:12
6. "Messthetics"   1:47
7. "Hegemony"   2:06
8. "Bibbly-O-Tek"   3:29
9. "Doubt Beat"   3:44
10. "Confidence"   3:06
11. "P.A.s"   6:00
12. "The 'Sweetest Girl'"   5:05
13. "Lions After Slumber"   5:00
Total length:
47:13

Original releases

Personnel

Scritti Politti

Additional personnel

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Biography by Uncle Dave Lewis". AllMusic. Retrieved 13 April 2009.
  2. 1 2 3 Pitchfork
  3. 1 2 "SPIN". Books.google.com. Retrieved 2015-10-04.
  4. 1 2 AllMusic (review)
  5. Rolling Stone
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