The Last Words Animal World LP
It’s an old story: UK/Irish expats in Australia form a first-wave punk group, then up sticks to London in search of a career. Despite John Peel airplay and an alternative chart hit single in “Animal World,” success never really came knocking for the LAST WORDS, but they did manage to record an anomaly of an album with an early credit for legendary producer Adrian Sherwood. That album makes up the bulk of the tracks here, bookended by the more urgent, snarling tracks from the early singles. Rough-hewn, catchy (but unremarkable) punk with STIFF LITTLE FINGERS-meets-CLASH melodies gets an experimental tape loop treatment that at least makes it memorable, not least on the ahead-of-its-time closing track, a ferocious, psychedelic dub-punk deconstruction of JEFFERSON AIRPLANE’s “White Rabbit.” Worth checking out for sure.