I've enjoyed Attila since hearing his ranting verse on a John Peel Session 40 years ago, and seen him a couple of times (and will again next week), I picked this up many years ago, I think in a sale in a record shop in Belgium.
It's mostly song, most sounding good, but the music for me, can distract from the message and humour of Attila's poetry. The opening couple of songs fly by, and the first of note is Market Sektor One (a rewrite of his Airstrip One from a couple of years earlier), with a slightly sugar-coated backing. Jingo Bells is a sharply xenophobic rant, delivered over Land Of Hope And Glory. Holiday In Albania Revisited is fantastic - a lively thrash with a guitar riff nicked from Buzzcocks, and Libyan Students From Hell is a fine piece of punk. These are followed by a brave cover of Washington Bullets (without ever threatening to outdo The Clash), and The Ligger's Song, an amusing reworking of Leon Rosselson's folks standard The Diggers' Song. And it's hard not to smile at Sarah Ross's country and western version of Bogies From His Nose, here repackaged as Tammy's Song. Sawdust and Empire ends the album (apart from the repeat of Market Sektor One, in German), a heartfelt lament with Mandola accompaniment.
3* - when it works, it works! But Attila's genius is his words, rather than his music, and they sometimes get lost here.
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