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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
'Shout Above the Noise', 17 Feb 2008
Reviewing 'Give 'Em Enough Rope' a little while back, I began thinking about other albums which had truly storming openings.
Ubu's 'the Modern Dance' opens with the spectacular 'Non-Alignment Pact', the Scars had the ferocious 'Leave Me in the Autumn' on 'Author! Author!' even those ole jazz-funksters A Certain Ratio kicked into their crafty classic 'Sextet' with the quiet blisterer 'Lucinda', but a match for all (and better than most!) is the heavenly pop-rock beginnings served up by Penetration on their superb second album: 'Coming Up For Air'.
'Shout Above the Noise' and 'She is the Slave' start us off and both are truly magnificent. 'Shout' starts with trad r'n'b guitar before EXPLODING in a wall of solid rock noise.
Lyrically powerful and positive, confidence elevating, the tiny, modest Pauline Murray is ablaze:
"When every gang around you falls, And all the walls are closing in,/Feast your eyes upon the fools, Who follow their leaders without thought...
Burning bridges doesn't mean, You can't return where you came from/ Persevere and rear your head, just to let someone know you're here...
Don't let them win, don't let them drag you in, Shout above the noise..!"
And she follows this up with:
"Lost in her thoughts, there's no-one to confide in, the baby is crying,/But she doesn't want to hear it....
Sometimes she feels she can't go on, she sees her life as past and gone/Alternative solutions seem inviting but they're out of reach,
Soon the time will come to face, reality the future holds, a key to set her free/Is this the end to all her misery..?
Take me away, she hears herself say, have I the nerve to run away from it all/She is the slave..."
Strong emotions we've all experienced at some desperate time or other, but they take on spiritual form when they're connected to fierce, instant anthems as they are here.
If U2 or other 'worthies' had tunes like these, the songs would last 10 minutes, but magnificent Pauline and her twin-guitar backing, spits them out in 3 minute bursts. Economical flair is what we're talking, says what she's gotta then moves on.
Musically it's awesome. Loud punk-pop with proper rocking overtones. Some of the guitar work here would please a Sabbath fan, a Clash fan and a Smiths fan all at the same time. Driving, adventurous rock music, with no inhibitions, no sense of guilt. A divine naivety, coupled with hard rhythms for counterbalance. A concoction of delirium and joy, ladled up with enthusiasm and grit.
But rather than flag after its killer beginning, 'Coming Up For Air' continues in its stride, offering a roll-call of full-on power and consistency: 'Killed in the Rush', 'Come into the Open', 'Challenge' and the insidiously brilliant (and totally rockin'!) 'On Reflection'.
Each-one taking the traditional rock format and turning it on its head, while at the same time, closely following it's rules and history.
I'm one of those wretched, studenty types, given to moaning and groaning at every opportunity about how I HATE rock 'n' roll and all its dirty, old fashioned trappings, but I make no apology to my modernist cohorts as I proudly confess; I can't resist this!
You, plucky and fortunate reader, won't be able to either. It's raucous, beautiful, touching and inspiring, time and again.
'Coming Up For Air' is a perfect title. You won't want to. Ever.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Second album and distinctly second best, 7 Feb 2005
"Coming Up For Air" was Penetration's second album after 1978's surprisingly mature - though nearly unplayable owing to the use of luminous vinyl - "Moving Targets".The disparate musical influences sometimes audible on the earlier LP are sharply in focus here. The songs are dowdy things spoiled by riffing guitars, which more properly belong to the "New Wave Of British Heavy Metal" that despoiled the early 1980s. Penetration split soon after with Pauline Murray stating that the group had gone as far as it could. Murray and Robert Blamire subsequently formed the Invisible Girls, while Fred Purser joined the Tygers Of Pan Tang, concisely illustrating that Penetration really didn't have a future as a unit. Buy "Moving Targets" and then the hard-to-find Invisible Girls material if you want the best of Pauline Murray. "Coming Up For Air" can be safely left on the shelf unless you must have the above average "Danger Signs", a bonus track on this CD reissue.
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1 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
By Far Their Best Album, 10 Mar 2004
There is really no comparison between Coming Up For Air and the other Penetration albums available on CD (e.g. Moving Targets, Don't Dictate). This is the first and still the best.
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