''Conscious Consumer'' is the second and final studio album by English

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

band

X-Ray Spex X-Ray Spex were an English punk rock band formed in 1976 in London. During their first incarnation (1976–1979), X-Ray Spex released five singles and one album. Their 1977 single " Oh Bondage Up Yours!" and 1978 debut album '' Germfree Adol ...

, the first new material recorded by the band in seventeen years. It was recorded in 1995 and released in September of that year by record label Receiver. The album saw the return of saxophonist

Lora Logic Lora Logic (born Susan Whitby 1960) is a British saxophonist, singer and songwriter from Wembley, London. Logic was a founding member of London punk band X-Ray Spex, and wrote the saxophone parts for their debut album, '' Germfree Adolescents ...

, sacked from the original incarnation of the band but reconciled with singer

Poly Styrene Marianne Joan Elliott-Said (3 July 1957 – 25 April 2011), known by the stage name Poly Styrene, was an English musician, singer-songwriter, and frontwoman for the punk rock band X-Ray Spex. She was recognized as rock's original Riot grrrl, t ...

during the 80s, as well as original bassist Paul Dean. Original members Jak Airport and B.P. Hurding were replaced by

Crispian Mills Crispian Mills (born 18 January 1973 as Crispian John David Boulting; spiritual name Krishna Kantha Das) is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and film director. Active since 1988, Mills is best known as the frontman of the psychedelic ...

(as Red Spectre) and Paul Winterhart (as Pauli OhAirt), who would later achieve success as members of

Kula Shaker Kula Shaker are an English psychedelic rock band. Led by frontman Crispian Mills, the band came to prominence during the Post-Britpop era of the late 1990s. The band enjoyed commercial success in the UK between 1996 and 1999, notching up a numb ...

Reception

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...

wrote that the album "revived the group's original anti-consumerist stance, but tempered it with Styrene's newfound serenity on songs like 'Prayer for Peace'", while Richie Unterberger of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

echoed similar sentiments.

Track listing

Personnel

;X-Ray Spex *

–

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

* Red Spectre –

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

, "guitar arrangements" *

–

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

, "saxophone melodies" * Paul Dean –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

, "bass lines" * Pauli OhAirt –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

, "drum energy" with: * Peter-Paul Hartnett – Japanese backing vocals and dog howl,

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

*Andrew Scarth, Gareth Jones, James Thompson, John Mallison, Simon Burwell, Tony Harris - "engineering and sonic architecture"

References

External links

* 1995 albums X-Ray Spex albums {{1990s-punk-album-stub