GBH – City Baby Attacked By Rats LP (Lime Green Vinyl) **RSD 2022**

G.B.H. (UK) - City Baby Attacked By Rats (sealed LP copy) (2022) BMG/Sanctuary 40th Anniversary "Record Store Day" re-issue on Lime Green vinyl - limited to 1,250 copies. Britain's G.B.H. exemplified what happened after the promise of 1977 Punk and Post-Punk petered out: faster, fuzzier tempos that incorporated lightning-fast guitar licks and a greater volume to put the point across.

The mingling of Marshall stacks and "screw you" attitudes has often made for an uneasy marriage -- as the endless debates in fanzines like Maximumocknroll show -- but it's undeniably potent when wielded in the right hands. G.B.H.'s rude and crude debut full-length showed the band to be some distance from that goal, which hardly bothered the listeners who propelled it to number 17 on the U.K. charts in 1982.

The band tackles its material with admirably single-minded zeal: Most tracks make their point in two minutes or less. Urban ills are the dominant inspiration for the oft-anthologized "Sick Boy" and "Time Bomb," while "No Survivors" reflects Cold War-era fears of nuclear confrontation.

The band's inspiration owes as much to films like A Clockwork Orange as its '80s inner-city environment. A garishly violent streak runs through tracks like "Gunned Down," "Passenger On The Menu," and "The Prayer Of A Realist." City Baby is where the legend begins, capturing G.B.H. at their bloodiest. -- BMG – BMGCAT656LP