Crass - Penis Envy Lp

"WHAT VISION IS LEFT AND IS ANYONE ASKING?" Originally released in 1981, Penis Envy has been rereleased in the original poster sleeve and now comes with a download card entitling the holder to a free mp3 download of the album. This new pressing has been prepared from new metalwork cut using the original analogue vinyl masters (in contrast to the recent, expanded CD resissue as part of the Crassical Collection, which was remastered from the original tapes). Named as a reference to some of Freud's ideas concerning sexuality, this release marked something of a departure from the somewhat 'macho', 'hardcore punk' image that The Feeding of the 5000 and its follow up Stations of the Crass had to some extent given the group, for it featured more obviously complex musical arrangements, as well as exclusively female vocals provided by Eve Libertine and Joy De Vivre (although Steve Ignorant remained a group member and is credited on the record sleeve as not on this recording). The album addressed feminist issues and once again attacked the institutions of 'the system' such as marriage and sexual repression. One track, not actually listed on the album cover, was a deliberately saccharine (described in fact by the band themselves as "pure, unadulterated shit") parody of a "MOR" love song entitled "Our Wedding".

This was given away as a flexi disc with a teenage girl's romance magazine called Loving after having been offered it by an organisation calling itself Creative Recording And Sound Services (note the initials). A minor tabloid furore erupted once the hoax was revealed, with the News of the World going so far as to state that the album's title was "too obscene to print" (a leaflet giving the background to this Situationist-style prank was subsequently issued by the band). Now considered a rarity, the original flexi-disc fetches high prices on the collectors market. During the mid 1980s copies of this album were seized, along with other records by Flux Of Pink Indians and The Dead Kennedys, by Greater Manchester Police from Eastern Bloc record shop. Frank Schofield was charged with displaying "Obscene Articles For Publication For Gain".