Playing with a Different Sex

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Playing with a Different Sex
Playing with a Different Sex cover
Studio album by Au Pairs
Released 1981
Genre Post-punk
Label Human
Producer Ken Thomas
The Au Pairs
Professional reviews
Au Pairs chronology
Playing with a Different Sex
(1981)		 Sense and Sensuality
(1982)

Playing with a Different Sex (1981) was the first album of British post-punk band Au Pairs. In its review, All Music Guide described the album as "one of the great, and perhaps forgotten, post-punk records."[1] The album peaked at #33 in Britain and launched the single "It's Obvious", which reached #37 on the Club Play Singles charts in America in 1981. Originally released on LP by independent record-label Human Recordings, the album was re-released in 2000 on CD by RPM Records, a subsidiary of label Cherry Red. The 2000 release includes an additional eight tracks, consisting of singles, remixes and previously unreleased songs.

Contents

[edit] Themes

Many of the songs on the album deal with sexual politics. Allegations of rape and torture of Irish women imprisoned in the city of Armagh in Northern Ireland are the subject of the song "Armagh."[2] The song "Come Again" refers to the social pressure to "achieve orgasmic equality."[3] "Diet", originally released on Equal But Different (1994), a compilation of 20 of the band's BBC performances, and included in the extended reissue of the first album, was described by Fact Magazine as a "masterpiece of feminist rock" with an almost unparalleled "power and pathos."[4]

[edit] Track listing

Except where otherwise noted, all tracks composed by Paul Foad, Peter Hammond, Jane Munro and Lesley Woods.

  1. "We're So Cool" – 3:29
  2. "Love Song" – 2:51
  3. "Set-Up" – 3:21
  4. "Repetition" (David Bowie) – 3:34
  5. "Headache for Michelle" – 6:39
  6. "Come Again" – 3:54
  7. "Armagh" – 3:37
  8. "Unfinished Business" – 3:29
  9. "Dear John" – 2:57
  10. "It's Obvious" – 6:19

[edit] Reissue

All tracks composed by Paul Foad, Peter Hammond, Jane Munro and Lesley Woods.

  1. "You" – 2:52
  2. "Domestic Departure" – 2:22
  3. "Kerb Crawler" – 2:47
  4. "Diet" – 4:19
  5. "It's Obvious (Single Version)" – 5:47
  6. "Inconvenience (12" Version)" – 2:56
  7. "Pretty Boys" – 3:40
  8. "Headache for Michelle (Remix)" – 6:38

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Performance

  • Jane Munro – bass
  • Lesley Woods – guitar, vocals
  • Paul Foad – guitar, vocals
  • Peter Hammond – drums

[edit] Production

  • Eve Arnold – cover photo
  • The Au Pairs – producer
  • Mark Stratford – compilation
  • Ken Thomas – producer, engineer

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Dougan, John. Playing with a Different Sex. All Music Guide. Accessed August 29, 2007.
  2. ^ For context of allegations of abuse against women in Armagh Prison in the late 1970s and early 1980s, see Murray, Raymond (1998). Hard Times, Armagh Ghaol 1971-1986. Dublin: Mercier Press. ISBN 185635 223 4. 
  3. ^ Reynolds, Simon. June 6, 2006. [http://www.blender.com/guide/reviews.aspx?id=4133 The Au Pairs Stepping Out of Line: The Anthology] Blender. Accessed August 29, 2007.
  4. ^ Au Pairs Fact Magazine. Accessed August 29, 2007.

[edit] External links and sources