Poly Styrene surprises fans with her sunny new sound on Translucence

Poly Styrene : Dreaming

[Purchase]

In November of 1980 Poly Styrene, one of the most outrageous voices of punk as the lead singer of X Ray Spex ("Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard But I say... Oh Bondage! Up yours!") released her debut solo album Translucence. It's a  warm, airy album of easy listening tunes with a mellow tropical vibe. But the sunny sounds of the album hid the anxiety of the singer. ("dreamt that you were skating over ice/very cold and slippery but nice/woke up screaming in a nightmare/didn't you see the thin ice sign - beware")

The fanciful sound was just what the UK needed heading into the winter months and ,in its own way, it's a precursor to Tom Tom Club and Haircut 100. That said, not everyone was a fan of this surprising change of pace.

As CMJ put it

 "It is quite likable and very palatable, but that's just what is more disturbing about it. It's as if Styrene awoke one morning thinking she had turned into Joni Mitchell. According to the artist, this is he real self. That's a damned shame."

 

Robert Christgau liked it quite a bit more, grading the album an A- and writing:

If the retarded tempos and professional musicians mean this isn't rock and roll, then what the fuck do you call the Shirelles? Speed and crudity aside, the pleasures here recall Germfree Adolescents--nursery-rhyme melodicism and tongue-in-cheek versifying superimposed on an image of provocative, charming plasticity. And if you believe that means she's "plastic," just what exactly is your beef? Are you a hippie or something?