The Slits: Cut [ISLAND]

Why you'll love it

This 40th anniversary 180g reissue comes with a die-cut illustrated inner sleeve, a download and the bonus "I Heard It Through the Grapevine." Cut reached No. 30 in the UK, and Rolling Stone ranks it among the 500 greatest albums of all time.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• 40th anniversary edition
• Die-cut inner sleeve
• Bonus track
• Download card included
• Pressed in the EU
• Stereo mix

About the album

Plenty of punk bands discovered reggae in the late 1970s. The Slits moved in with it. Ari Up, Viv Albertine and Tessa Pollitt took their scrappy London live sound to Ridge Farm Studios in Sussex, where dub producer Dennis Bovell gave it space, bass weight and a sense of mischief.

"Typical Girls" is the calling card, a jittery, sharp-witted anthem that Rolling Stone placed among its 500 greatest songs. "Shoplifting" is pure punk cheek, "So Tough" and "Instant Hit" bounce along on Pollitt's rubbery bass, and "Love Und Romance" and "Ping Pong Affair" show off Ari Up's wailing vibrato, the sound PopMatters called the album's most influential feature. The Guardian credited the band as one of the first to fully embrace Jamaican music, and the bonus cover of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" shows how far they could stretch a groove.

The riot grrrl movement owes the record a great deal, with Rolling Stone tracing Bikini Kill and Sleater-Kinney back to it, and Kurt Cobain listed it among his 50 favourite albums. Not bad for a record that still sounds, in the best way, like it might break into the shop after hours.

Also at Kops: more The Slits on vinyl · browse Punk

Tracklist

Listen

On Island (cat# 7734143), a reissue of the 1979 album.