Far and away the definitive British riot grrrl album, Taking the Rough with the Smooch is as much a record as a manifesto; compiling tracks from early 7"s like Kiss Curl for the Kid's Lib Guerrillas and Her Jazz, it's a blistering musical vendetta which crams a dozen songs into just 22 minutes, exploiting each moment to its maximum potency. Songs steeped in violence and vitriol, "Shaved Pussy Poetry," "Pansy Twist," and "Concrete Life" are grenades lobbed at the establishment, darkly romanticized fantasies of illicit sex, cop killings, and teenage terrorism; frenetic and disjointed, Huggy Bear's music nevertheless captures the bleak spirit of its times with incendiary eloquence, its intensity and aggression a call to arms for listeners of all genders and sexual orientations.
© Jason Ankeny /TiVo