Emerging from the incipient post-punk London scene with a healthy fascination for late-'70s (and in turn, for his own attraction to Krautrock), the then-sextet kicked up a slightly monochromatic but still attractive storm on their debut. 's Thin-White-Duke-after-smoking vocal rasp has a surprising appeal, serving up a wry, slightly detached series of lyrics on life. The members of the core band, meanwhile, had clearly honed their chops well on-stage; 's lead guitar work avoids both wankery and simplicity in favor of a balanced, artistic power. Production mainly comes from , who smartly steers away from the soon-to-be-cliched touches he would bring to 's early work. is a good example; it has a brooding, quiet beginning with strange telegraphic signals and turns into a brawling rocker without sounding like or going off. The record comes off as serious without being self-consciously deep, occasional toe-dipping into humorous aside ( has idly listing off things he loves, sometimes with appropriate if sarcastically delivered song quotes: "I'm in love with ...fly me to the moon..."). is the most frazzled, with lyrics detailing someone else metaphorically nailing himself up over a light but still strange guitar line. is amusingly prescient as one of the first "white rockers go hip-hop" numbers of its kind, along with 's though its inspiration could equally be dub. lays down a pounding funk beat while breaks into a midsong rap no better or worse than most such efforts of the time. ~ Ned Raggett