Poison In A Pretty Pill

Even spending $5.00 on an out of print CD that I have wanted for years isn't cheering me up today. But years ago I would always pick up the vinyl copy of the Crass 1981 third album Penis Envy and think "One day... mmm, but maybe not today." before it ever occurred to me that I just might never see it again, considering how old it is. But since a used copy of the CD came through our doors and for such a cheap price I figured I was being granted a second carpe diem moment, perhaps even better I waited this long since I always remembered the record copy being so dang expensive. But Penis Envy is the exception in the Crass repertoire because it's the only album where the two female Crass-mates Eve Libertine and Joy De Vivre get to fight their way up to the microphone through the boy's club that was their band and express their anarchist philosophies with a more feminist angle. Musically the arrangements even appear more complex, more than just the straightforward punk that was their first album, 1978's The Feeding of the 5000, which was the only other Crass album I owned and had to go by. Seems to be Penis Envy is the album most of their fans remember the most. As much as I don't really listen to punk like I used to, perhaps the sheer nostalgia factor might raise my spirits. God, want I wouldn't give to be this young and idealistic again, however misguided I might have been.