Music Review: 7"s 166-170

 This time we have 5 punk singles circa 1979.

166. Angelic Upstarts - I'm An Upstart 🟢

Despite being listed in my dad's record collection, I found that it was missing from his box of 'A' singles.  Coincidentally, a couple of weeks ago he found a box of 7"s belonging to one or both of his younger brothers (my uncles) which included a green vinyl pressing of this single - I wonder whether one of them stole it when they all lived at home as kids.  There's no cover art to review but the neon green vinyl looks amazing so it's for the best that it's in a transparent sleeve.  It's a standard noisy, shouty punk record, the kind of thing that would fit in with DC Hardcore if it was played a bit faster and didn't have a guitar solo in it.  I can't make out a lot of the words but it's got something to do with being alienated by society - definitely aimed at teenagers.  Overall, not a bad record.

b/w Leave Me Alone 🔵
This has the same catchy riff that the Violent Femmes built 'Blister In The Sun' on.  It's very angsty with a "fuck off and leave me alone" in the chorus.  Again, it's very teenage but I like it a bit more than the a-side.  It's a contender for my bad mood playlists, for sure.

167. Angelic Upstarts - Teenage Warning 🟢
I don't love this sleeve.  The ransom note font is cool but it's a big punk cliché - shorthand for Sex Pistols style.  The tattooed orange is really lame but I get that he mentions being a 'clockwork orange' in the first line of the song.  They're very clear that their music is meant for rebellious teenagers, especially when they chant ages 13-18 in the chorus here, like they're channelling some of the danger of rock-n-roll from 20 years earlier.  It's an average song but I can see why you'd like this if you were a teen in 1979.  Hopefully not a National Front supporting one.
b/w The Young Ones 🟡
I hoped this was going to be a punk Cliff Richard cover and the Upstarts delivered!  Unfortunately, it isn't that good.  It's very short because they speed it up and dispense with some of the less punk lyrics that make me cringe ("then we'll teach the young ones of our own" is absolutely not seductive to me and I'm glad they agree) to focus making the idea of not being young for very long sound more apocalyptic.  I appreciate the effort but I think this could have been executed better by their contemporaries.

168. The Art Attacks - I Am A Dalek 🟡
I like the sleeve which has a collage/screenprint feel.  It sounds like a lot of punk songs - from the riff to the vocals, it all sounds familiar to me.  There's nothing wrong with it but there's nothing original about it either and I'm not surprised that I haven't heard of them before.
b/w Neutron Bomb 🟡
Opening with the bassline is an interesting change but again, this sounds pretty uninspired.  It's more subdued than the a-side with the guitarist playing muted chords.  The Art Attacks are obviously big science-fiction nerds which isn't a problem in itself, but unlike other nerdy weirdos in the scene, they haven't brought anything new to the style they're playing.  The best bit is that it ends with a big loud explosion. 

169. Blue Screaming - Bland Hotel 🟡
First off, great name for a band.  Like the Art Attacks, they have a nice cut-and-paste sleeve, maybe because they're on the same record label.  The song is very English - there's a bit of a Madness vibe to it.  The keyboard part makes me feel like I'm in an amusement arcade at a coastal resort jamming pennies into a machine to win a badge or a keyring.  It's tongue-and-cheek and self-referential which is cute; the chorus "we've got catchy little melodies with catchy little words" is repeated so many times at the end that it makes a song which arguably isn't that catchy into something guaranteed to stick in your brain.
b/w Thin-X-Cinema 🟡
The vocal echo on the verse is a nice effect but I'm not excited by this.  It's another very average punk record that I'll forget the second the needle hits the centre of the disc.  

170. Leyton Buzzards - 19 & Mad 🟡
The Leyton Buzzards look really cool on the sleeve, wearing leather jackets like a 50s greaser gang - that Ramones sort of thing.  They've come up with good punk stage names too: Nick Nayme, Dave De Prave, Chip Monk and Gray Mare, which makes a nice change after being served the likes of Edwin, Godfrey and Igor by the last 2 bands.  The Buzzards have also printed the lyrics on the back cover which I appreciate, regardless of the quality of the prose.  I detect a little of their 50s influence in the music, despite the vocal matching that of the other punk bands above.  It has an instrumental break which there was no need for - if they'd taken that out and played it a bit faster, I might want to listen to it again, but as it is, I have no desire to spin it a second time.
b/w Villain 🟡
There's something quite American-sounding about this group; they wouldn't sound out of place with the CBGBs crowd.  Their problem is that they play just a bit too slow - I wonder whether they were more dynamic live and just couldn't translate that to vinyl.  
b/w Youthanasia 🟡
The lyrics to this have all you could ask for when it comes to teenage nihilism - "the world's a cess pit rotting away, things get worser every day"... "teenage genocide"... "no more dole queues"... Suggesting all the teens kill themselves in order to teach society a lesson is a poorly-thought-out take, to be honest.  Again, it's much too slow.  The Leyton Buzzards won me over with their aesthetic but disappointed with their music.  

I was disappointed with this set.  I suppose I know now why these bands have mostly been forgotten when we look back on punk; none of these bands deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as The Clash.  I did add Leave Me Alone to one of my angriest Spotify playlists but aside from that, nothing to impress.