Opening with the tongue in cheek "We're So
Cool," The Au Pairs debut record is a stunner,
from Lesley Woods' scratchy guitar and
declamatory vocals to lead guitarist Paul Foad's
brittle soloing. This is an uncompromising, defiant record that asks for and
gives no quarter; gender roles are turned upside down, hetero and homosexual
relationships put under a microscope, and theories about sex and sexuality
turned inside out.
"Come Again" refers to the social pressure to
achieve orgasmic equality depicting sex as a dreary ritual in which partners as
joyless as lab rats press bars and nose buttons in the hopes of an orgasm as
dry and quantifiable as kibble. Directed at those who changed the game and
brought in new rules, it asks "Is it real? Are you feeling it?",
before turning into a dialogue between the female lead and male backing who is
evidently attempting to satisfy her: "Am I doing it right?" he asks,
and the woman reassures him, "You're not selfish/You're trying hard to
please me – please, please me/Is your finger aching?/I can feel you hesitating".
Describing the albums taut rhythms and aggressive lyrics,
Playing With A Different Sex makes it a classic example of how the influence of
punk could steer rock into exciting new areas. The song "Diet",
originally released as a single in 1980 was described as a masterpiece of
feminist rock with an almost unparalleled power and pathos. An unflinching look
at the world from 35 years ago, Playing With A Different
Sex is one of the great, and perhaps one of the forgotten,
post-punk records. The CD reissue adds eight significant bonus cuts from
1979-1981 singles, which include different versions of tracks from the LP and
some songs which didn't make it onto the album.