Rough Trade Shops: Post Punk [Import]

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 14, 2003)
• Original Release Date: July 7, 2003
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Import
• Label: EMI Import
• ASIN: B00009QEON
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #283,019 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. I Found That Essence Rare - Gang Of Four

2. Georges Five - Les Georges Leningrad

3. We Are All Prostitutes - The Pop Group

4. Die Matrosen - LiliPUT

5. Out Of The Races And Onto The Tracks - The Rapture

6. Mind Your Own Business - Delta 5

7. Shoplifting - The Slits

8. Delayed Reaction - The Rogers Sisters

9. Sunny Day - Pigbag

10. Youre No Good - ESG

11. Another Song - Swell Maps

12. You - Au Pairs

13. Fade Away - New Age Steppers

14. Careering - Public Image Limited

15. You And You - DNA

16. The Leanover - Life Without Buildings

17. For My Country - UK Decay

18. Skank Bloc Bologna - Scritti Politti

19. Sex Machine - The Flying Lizards

20. Disco Pope - The Prats

See all 44 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars post-punk, July 6, 2004

By 

Dana (Maple Shade, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rough Trade Shops: Post Punk (Audio CD)

This is a lovingly put-together, although by no means complete, overview of the incomparable post-punk scene, compiled by the splendid folks at Rough Trade. Colin Newman (of Wire, if it's the same Colin Newman I'm thinking of) wrote the description in the booklet, which made me quite happy seeing as his band was responsible for some of my favorite music, ever (they're on here too, by the way).

I fancied myself to know quite a bit about post-punk before I came across this compilation, but there was still quite a lot of interest for me. The big players are all represented here, but those bands like PiL, Gang of Four, and The Fall comfortably rub shoulders with the lesser-known likes of Family Fodder, Blurt, and the Prats. The No Wave scene manages to creep onto this compilation in the form of DNA and James White and the Blacks. Scritti Politti and XTC might seem a bit out of place if you're only familiar with their later pop careers, but both songs fit in quite well (the difference between the two is that later XTC was better than the XTC featured here, but early Scritti Politti was much, much better than their later chart-toppers). In fact, Skank Bloc Bologna, the longest song on the entire comp, is one of my favorites.
One thing that really put a grin on my face while listening would be the female representation, being one of the fair sex myself, it was good to see that almost half of the songs featured are done by women. And rightfully so!
I do have a minor irritance with the inclusion of newer bands on here. The difference is obvious, they just sound too derivative, and I usually find myself skipping them. Nothing really bad, per se, but they would have done better with including more 70s/80s artists instead.

Ok, so, before I ramble on too far, this is a good overview of both the obvious and the obscure. But like I said before, and the ones who compiled this would agree with me, it isn't complete. There are quite literally hundreds upon hundreds of post-punk and no-wave bands out there that weren't represented (no Joy Division?), so keep listening! This is an excellent introduction to those uninitiated with the unparalleled, wildly experimental world of post-punk, and a good listen for those of us who already are.

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good but could be much better, September 20, 2003

By 

Roxie Stardust - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rough Trade Shops: Post Punk (Audio CD)

There are some really great bands on here, such as: Magazine, Gang Of Four, The Au Pairs, The Mo-Dettes, Delta 5, Essential Logic, ESG, Liliput, The Slits, The Raincoats, Young Marble Giants, and The Bush Tetras. All of the above named bands do not get nearly enough credit for how innovative and influential they were to future generations of musicians, which is why it is great to see them on here. But, the song choices for most of these bands were a bit disappointing. They were the obvious choices. Meaning that whenever you see one of these bands on a comp, the song which is featured here is usually the one that you'll find. Which is great for people who have never heard of these bands, but for the people who do know these bands, and were hoping for something different, or even perhaps more rare, it's not so great.

The biggest flaw that I saw in this compilation was the fact that not all the material is from the Post-Punk era (meaning the late '70s/early '80s). There are quite a few bands on here which are from today, and these bands have the tendency to rip off some of the earlier bands that are featured here. It is obvious which songs are from the present and which are from the past (even without looking at what year they are from), since the songs from the present pale in comparison to the ones from the past. Through their music, these new bands are trying to evoke a time and a place that they weren't even a part of, and because of that, they fail miserably. It is just not possible to re-create the spirit and the energy of the era (especially if you weren't around back then), and I don't even understand why they bother trying. I really wish that Rough Trade would have kept the compilation true to the era, and not featured these newer bands. If I wanted a compilation of bands from 2003, I would have bought one.

There were plenty of great Post-Punk era bands that are excluded from this comp, which could have been put in place of the 2003 bands, such as: The Passions, Y Pants, 8 Eyed Spy, Girls At Our Best, Los Microwaves, Lene Lovich, Nina Hagen, The Suburban Lawns, The Bloods, A Certain Ratio, The Revillos, Plastic Bertrand, The Normal, The Buggles, D-Day, The Tom Tom Club, Pylon, The Belle Stars and more. These bands would have fit in perfectly with the other Post-Punk era bands featured here.

And lastly, how could you have a Post-Punk comp, and not put Joy Division on it? That is just absurd.

If you are looking for an introduction to the Post-Punk era and/or don't know much about the music, you may enjoy these CDs, but if you really love the music of this era, and know a lot about it, you will probably find yourself disappointed.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A post-punk jukebox, July 24, 2003

By 

Gary Williams "garyw" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rough Trade Shops: Post Punk (Audio CD)

If nothing else, you should buy this for Blurt's "The Fish Needs a Bike", which has been out of print for 20 years or more. Otherwise, an interesting collection of A-sides and other curiosities from one of the most endearing and daring eras of Rock 'n Roll.