Anarchy for Assholes / Beat Up You Are Beautiful… But This Place Sucks split LP
I know you can’t always judge a book by its cover (or its title, for that matter), but in this instance, You Are Beautiful… But This Place Sucks, the split LP by ANARCHY FOR ASSHOLES from Oklahoma City and BEAT UP from Athens, GA, visually and sonically doesn’t do it for me. Side A features the unfortunately named ANARCHY FOR ASSHOLES, whose sound and style have an element of CRASS-influenced anarcho-punk, especially with the shared male/female vocals. Frankly, I wish they’d lean harder into it, because they completely lose me with the weird party vibe on the last two numbers. On the flipside is BEAT UP who are cleaner sonically, leaning more towards ’80s US skate punk with a vocalist who’s got a funky Jello Biafra vibe that somehow mutates into a twangy Nick Cave impression by the final track. It’s politically charged and decently executed, but overall a little generic. All said, I give this one an unenthusiastic “meh.”
