Angelic Upstarts
Teenage Warning

THE REVIEW

Initially they called it "Street Punk", the kids coming out of English factories needed to vent with something, they drank beer and sang Sham 69. Later it was called "Punk Oi!", that working-class music, anti-racist and clearly rooted in the Jamaican sound. Among the groups formed during the period are 4-Skins, Cockney Rejects, and to get straight to the point, Angelic Upstarts.

After a self-produced work purchased by Small Wonder Records, the band signed a contract with Wonder Brothers, which produced "Teenage Warning".

The importance of the album in question is immense, musically impeccable, with aggressive and energetic sounds, instruments that don’t scratch, but flow with adrenaline without falling into overly bumpy and fast rhythms. Punk in the seventies style performed by conscientious musicians, free of inconsistencies and rich in nuances that make the songs important jewels of music in general.

I can’t help but mention "We are the people" where a strong message is conveyed both through the vocal line and the nostalgic rancor of the guitars; we don’t hear the classic punk that shreds us epileptic combat chords, but we hear sensitive distorted arpeggios and bass lines so imposing that having chills while listening seems impossible. "Little Tower" for instance, manages to tell us through plucked strings and the singer's heartbreaking laments the profound hatred towards the police, the solos in this song have the same capacity for communication as a vocal part, which is unusual for the genre I must emphasize. It must be said that in Mensi one can find an energy rarely traceable in vocalists of other bands, out of tune and furious in many parts, frighteningly sensitive in others.

I feel indescribable admiration for everything contained in this album, I know that a lot of punk hardcore music can be futile, playful, let's say more suited to adolescent listeners, but the timeliness and the touch that this work contains make me believe that "Teenage Warning" is one of the main albums of all time. It's useless to waste so many words on something that everyone should have, and I think it's precisely because of its perfection that I can't describe it with a lot of words.