Play Dirty [2021 Bonus Track Edition]

's fourth record, 1983's , was where the wheels came off for the pioneering all-girl band. The no-holds-barred assault responsible for three straight British Top 40 albums was apparently not good enough for the gals and their record label, , who proceeded to directly contradict this disc's title with what easily amounted to 's most polished and vanilla-sounding effort thus far. God knows what they were thinking, but it's a good bet that the post-glam successes of ex- probably played a hand in everything from the glossed-up album artwork, to the hiring of former man (who had them record not one but two obscure songs of his) as producer, to the cover of 's -- not to mention insufferable single which led up to its release. Even a few originals (cue ) sounded as it they'd been ripped straight out of the / songwriting notebook, but it's probably the remaining band-penned cuts that prove most offensive for their tepid posing as (see -foretelling fare like and the -penned the pokey title track, and the unbearably synth-sweetened -- so vile it's not even fit to share the same name as a song!). Anyway, what's left of this sorry debacle (somewhat salvageable numbers like and ) arrives too little and too late to salvage the whole, consigning to the dubious -- though not completely undisputed -- honor of worst ever album. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia