Crass
Penis Envy

THE REVIEW

The Crass are one of those bands recognized more as a fantastic pin to attach to your leather jacket than as musicians.

Musically, they have had a decent success, conceptually they gave a strong extreme imprint to hardcore music, with their completely aligned and sometimes maniacally harsh lyrics. Known for the historic album "Stations of the Crass," they have played records taken somewhat less seriously like "Christ" or the album in consideration "Penis Envy."

The message of Crass is the fundamental element of their work, let's say that the poetics and eccentric lyrics were much more important than the music. Animal rights activists, anti-racists, anti-consumerists, anti-masculinists, anti-socials, anti-war with a slight Hippie facet, this band stood against bands that were riding the wave of success at the time like the Clash, indeed the memorable phrase is: "They said that we were trash, well the name is Crass, not Clash", all this because the historic band of Joe Strummer was produced by a multinational. "Penis Envy" is played with furious bursts, obsessively distorted and noisy guitars, bewildering metrics mixed with electronic music, disconnected and absurd tempos, sung by the peculiar voice of Eve Libertine, characterized by a strong monotony that can cause a headache.

It starts with "Bata Motel", a song that tells the story of an inflatable doll and its love for the man who owns it, played instinctively without solos or particular riffs, the importance is only on the voice and the absurd rhythm of the drums. It continues with "Systematic Death" where it dwells on the hatred toward conformity and the way a newborn is directed towards the absurd rules of society. One of the best songs on the entire album. As it continues, the work becomes increasingly harder, but in the same way tiring, all this inevitably due to a lack of musical support and catchy parts. Eve Libertine's skill is indisputable, the way of writing is absurd and rule-free, the lyrics are themes, sung continuously, divided only by small choruses and electronic parts. Noise is a characteristic for Crass, but listening to all of "Penis Envy" becomes a very difficult, if not impossible, test, not to mention the song "What the Fuck", about seven minutes of electronics, whistles, and disjointed drum rolls. Moving forward, the other tracks are too similar to each other, with the exception of the Caribbean "Barkertex Bride" or "Health Surface."

I believe that the listener, unless out of goodwill, has a strange desire to turn everything off and go get some fresh air, yes, this album is musical poison.