Customer Reviews

Fine We Are Alive

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The latest release from the Fair Sex is actually a number of years old: over half of the record consists of live recordings from a series of 1993 concert dates, with the remainder being unreleased studio material whose recording dates are unknown. (A hint may lie in the copyright dates on the disc itself - "1992 Rough Trade/ 1997 Van Richter". This CD brings out something which has gone relatively unnoticed in their earlier releases - their stuff has a definite new wave feel to it, especially on the live tracks where the guitars (their stage line-up features two of them) are much more predominant. Tracks such as "The Pain That No-One Knows" is downright poppy, despite its raspy vocals - sort of Flock of Seagulls meets the Cars. The guitars on "Soulspirit" and "No Excuse" are very familiar to those of us who remember the early eighties video onslaught, and there's nothing inherently wrong with this. The retro sound to these years has become very trendy, and in all honesty, good pop muzik (whether performed au natural or with an electro undertone, as is the case here) never truly goes out of style. The studio tracks have the guitars mixed more to the rear, with the synths creating more dominant rhythm textures. The new wave sensibilities are still present, but its electro crosscurrents are more evident. The best examples of the studio efforts are "Outraged and Moved - Floor Egad" and "Fat Bellie's Hunger". This CD is obviously intended for Fair Sex's established fan base, and cannot be recommended for novices looking for a place to start. For that, we would suggest their earlier studio efforts. For the rest of us, we still have to wait for what will truly be the band's follow-up to "Machine Bites" and "Labyrinth".

The Fair Sex is getting a little harder. But The Fair

Sex's fine pop sensibilities shine through on their

most recent domestic release: Fine. We Are Alive, live

recordings from the 1993-94 German tour and unreleased

studio tracks. A perfect mix of late 90's aggression

with more than a bow to 80's electro and New Wave,

Fine. We Are Alive sends you back to a place where

industrial music was as much about melody and rhythm

as it was about how cool your samples were and how

daemonic you could make your voice sound. I dig the

sense of nostalgia you get listening to The Fair Sex,

cause it's completely false. I like Eat Me a lot, it's

funky without being bluesy and hard without being

metal. There is also a new remix of Outraged And

Moved.