The title got us excited, because some anarchist music is OK by us since the point of music is different than that of direct revolutionary science.
The first tune by the "Exploited" titled "Punk's Not Dead" is the closest to a hard-core punk song on the album. The vast majority of the 20 songs should be thought of as indie rock, and not that exciting either, espeicially the first three-quarters.
There was one lead womyn vocalist on the album and she was of the neither-communist-nor-capitalist pretenses kind of fascist.
We have "Viva La Revolution" by "The Adicts," a simple sloganeering song, but most of the songs are just trash. If this is truly the English punk scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s, then we can see it did not have much political vitality from this album.
Down with merchandise pimping off politics and not even including lyrics pages!
Comment from Ted in U.K.
I'm surprised at your dismissive attitude towards 'Anarchy from the UK vol.1', since, contrary to your review, many of the songs have a political theme, unless there is another compilation by the same name. I am not in the habit of buying cash-in re-release albums, especially, as you point out, when they don't even include the lyrics. However, I have the tracklisting here and although I haven't heard all the tracks, I am familiar with the majority of them as a punk fan.
1. Punks Not Dead--The Exploited --surprised you singled this one out as, besides the band's name, this is one of the least political songs on the album
2. I Live in a Car--U.K. Subs - the dude actually lived in a car; a song recounting this existence, while not revolutionary, is at least progressive in a 'living on rather than in society' basis
3. Streets of London--The Anti-Nowhere League yeah, point taken.
4. Hanging Around--The Stranglers ditto
5. Woman in Disguise--Angelic Upstarts A song about Margaret Thatcher -- not one of this great communist band's best songs, but good nonetheless
6. Angels With Dirty Faces--Sham 69 "angels from nowhere places, kids like you and me" a call for working class unity
7. Harry May--The Business A song about a gangster. Ambiguous lyrical ground from this militant anti-fascist skinhead band.
8. Viva la Revolution--The Adicts empty sloganeering but decent enough
9. Alternative Ulster [Live]--Stiff Little Fingers this Northern Irish band had a lot to say. "Alter your native Ulster / Alter your native land" "The RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary) dog of oppression is barking at your feet"
10. Run Like Hell--Peter & the Test Tube Babies not heard this song.
11. Homicide [Live]--999 shit, agreed.
12. Warriors--Blitz
"It's your hate on which we feed
We are the new class we are the new breed
Send our regards to a nation on fire
And with love a bouquet of barbed wire"
13. Jet Boy, Jet Girl--Chron Gen --rubbish
14. Last Rockers--Vice Squad --not great
15. Ain't Got a Clue [Live]--Lurkers --generic and devoid of meaningful content
16. Burn 'Em Down--Abrasive Wheels --a song about burning down schools
17. Jerusalem--One Way System --contains a homophobic slur, but a good song attacking punk formalism
18. Another Dead Soldier--Anti-Pasti --need I point out the anti-war nature of this song?
19. Survival [Single Version]--The Defects --never heard this
20. Fun Factory--The Damned --this neither; strange Damned song to include on a comp
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