This Is Like A Slap In The Face / This Is Like An Amputation

I bought Big Black's first EP 'Lungs' on vinyl for $6 in Reckless Records, Chicago. It's been really expensive everywhere else I've looked for it.

Reckless Records is a very cool record shop that originally commenced life in London but now only remains open abroad. I also bought R.E.M's 'Green' album for 49 cents. I'm only a fan of R.E.M's early work. They got really annoying after 1994.

'Lungs' begins with industrial drum beats and a creepy riff. On first listen, it sounds like it's going to be comparable to Suicide. However it is when Albini starts singing that you know you are firmly listening to a pure punk record. The first track 'Steelworker' has the amazing lyrics, 'I'm a steelworker, I kill what I eat/See, I'm, I'm a bricklayer, I kill what I eat/See, I'm a, I'm a murderer, I kill what I eat' which conveys the overriding theme of this EP: social disdain and there is a lot of it on here.

Probably, my favourite song on the EP is next - 'Live In A Hole'. A simple, raw staccato riff and painful vocals depict Albini's claustrophobia: 'Live in a room/An empty room/Four walls/White walls/I live in a hole.' Written whilst he was in student dorms, anyone who has lived in squalor accommodation or in Bethnal Green can totally sympathise with this confined space rage. This tune also comes with added saxophone. Anyone who can get away with that on a punk record deserves their God-like status.

'Dead Billy' starts off sounding like a cheap 1980s hip hop record sung by Trent Reznor. I love it. As I get lost in the moment I then realise that this song is in fact about Vietnam. 'Hey little girl in U.S. dress/Come and give daddy kiss/To Dead Billy, U.S. soldier in green/Little lady, napalm butt'. If this song was played to everyone in the world, then upcoming and current dictators would definitely think twice about war as this song would put the fear of God in them as it did in me.

Turning over to Side B and 'I Can Be Killed' is probably the most poppiest sounding song on the album but the lyrics remain dark and confrontational throughout: 'The only way/To keep me quiet/I can be killed'.

'The Crack' follows which is the most well-known song from this EP. The lyrics are bittersweet and extremely moving. What begins as 'I have never been so happy in my whole life/I've been denied this so long, I'm sure it's right' turns to 'I've never been so broken/I've never hurt so much'. Sometimes raw and direct lyrics are just what you need to hear when you feel the same.

The short EP (it IS a punk record after all and I always say that true punk records are less than 30 minutes long) ends on Rip which continues with the theme of war and in this case, those who are ignorant of it: 'He hasn't the sense to know we're fighting'. Like all great musicians, Albini gets his point across with minimum effort and maximum intelligence. His acute social and political commentaries helped to define Big Black as such a seminal punk band.

To those who love this band, I salute you. And to those who feel the urge to explore them, I commend you.

DS