Playing with a Different Sex

Infobox Album
Name = Playing with a Different Sex
Type = studio
Artist = Au Pairs


Released = 1981
Recorded =
Genre = Post-punk
Length =
Label = Human
Producer = Ken Thomas
The Au Pairs
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=10:gpfqxq85ldae link]
Last album =
This album = "Playing with a Different Sex"
(1981)
Next album = "Sense and Sensuality"
(1982)

"Playing with a Different Sex" (1981) was the first album of British post-punk band Au Pairs. In its review, Allmusic described the album as "one of the great, and perhaps forgotten, post-punk records." [Dougan, John. [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:gpfqxq85ldae Playing with a Different Sex] . Allmusic. Accessed August 29 2007.] The album peaked at #33 in Britain and launched the single "It's Obvious", which reached #37 on the Club Play Singles charts in America in 1981. Originally released on LP by independent record-label Human Recordings, the album was re-released in 2000 on CD by RPM Records, a subsidiary of label Cherry Red. The 2000 release includes an additional eight tracks, consisting of singles, remixes and previously unreleased songs.

Themes

Many of the songs on the album deal with sexual politics. Allegations of rape and torture of Irish women imprisoned in the city of Armagh in Northern Ireland are the subject of the song "Armagh." [For context of allegations of abuse against women in Armagh Prison in the late 1970s and early 1980s, see cite book
last = Murray
first = Raymond
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Hard Times, Armagh Ghaol 1971-1986
publisher = Mercier Press
date = 1998
location = Dublin
pages =
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = 185635 223 4] The song "Come Again" refers to the social pressure to "achieve orgasmic equality." [Reynolds, Simon. June 6 2006. [http://www.blender.com/guide/reviews.aspx?id=4133 The Au PairsStepping Out of Line: The Anthology] Blender. Accessed August 29 2007.] "Diet", originally released on "Equal But Different" (1994), a compilation of 20 of the band's BBC performances, and included in the extended reissue of the first album, was described by "Fact Magazine" as a "masterpiece of feminist rock" with an almost unparalleled "power and pathos." [ [http://www.factmagazine.co.uk/da/12170 Au Pairs] Fact Magazine. Accessed August 29 2007.]

Track listing

Except where otherwise noted, all tracks composed by Paul Foad, Peter Hammond, Jane Munro and Lesley Woods.

#"We're So Cool" – 3:29
#"Love Song" – 2:51
#"Set-Up" – 3:21
#"Repetition" (David Bowie) – 3:34
#"Headache for Michelle" – 6:39
#"Come Again" – 3:54
#"Armagh" – 3:37
#"Unfinished Business" – 3:29
#"Dear John" – 2:57
#"It's Obvious" – 6:19

Reissue

All tracks composed by Paul Foad, Peter Hammond, Jane Munro and Lesley Woods.

#

"You" – 2:52
#"Domestic Departure" – 2:22
#"Kerb Crawler" – 2:47
#"Diet" – 4:19
#"It's Obvious (Single Version)" – 5:47
#"Inconvenience (12" Version)" – 2:56
#"Pretty Boys" – 3:40
#"Headache for Michelle (Remix)" – 6:38

Personnel

Performance

*Jane Munro – bass
*Lesley Woods – guitar, vocals
*Paul Foad – guitar, vocals
*Peter Hammond – drums

Production

*Eve Arnold – cover photo
*The Au Pairs – producer
*Mark Stratford – compilation
*Ken Thomas – producer, engineer

Notes

External links and sources

*allmusicguide | id=11:h9fexqr5ldae | label=Au Pairs