Dead Kennedys – Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables 2022 Mix

Fresher ‘Fruit For Rotting Vegetables’ is exactly what is says it is, a fully remixed, reimagined slice of history.  What more can be said or written about this album that has not been already?, giving this ground breaking moment in time a new lease of life, could be taken as sacrilege or it could be welcomed as something brings new life to and throws it out there for an audience that may have missed the original release and has yet to discover this album (I know that might seem impossible, because if you into punk, you cannot conceivably have missed this album, could you?), 42 years from its first release, it maybe is a very good time to bring these songs into the psyche of a new generation of listeners, and show just how relevant these songs can still be.

Lets start by getting out of the way all the usual and fully documented words that have been said about this album, “Ironic”, “Sarcastic”, “Political ranting”, “Brilliance personified” and of course “An album that paved the way for many many Imitators”, and so many more fully deserved plaudits from the music press and listeners alike.  What you do know is that this album was without exception, the most on the edge album of its time, taking punk music by the horns and flipping it around like a rag doll.  

From ‘Kill The Poor’ a song that satirically says that if we wipe out the poor, then we eradicate the blight of social underclass in one foul swoop, a swipe at the elite in power that seems to want exactly this (still do), with a powerful and dark musical overcoat, this sets the tone for the whole album, from this to ‘Holiday In Cambodia’ which strikes out at those who not only ignore genocide, and to not even do that, but to actually feel that they themselves have it so hard, that life has dealt them a bad hand, still rings true today, but actually in a bigger way than it has ever been. 

Beyond all the lyrical insight and a scathing political attacks, what Fresh Fruit really brought to the table was a soundscape that simply cannot and never has been imitated or bettered for the way that the music creates this theatrical atmosphere around every single word, an atom bomb of sound that leaves you in no doubt that every second of this album is momentous.

Finally, yes finally, like stated earlier, if you want to know anymore about this album, just go Google it, I’m sure you will find trillions of words written on it.  But what this review can say is, yes this was a revitalisation that deserves you ears, it’s a chance to hear it with even more definition, even more punch and yes it does do it justice….  If you do not own the original, go buy this, if you do own the original, go buy this too, you’ll be expanded by the expanse of the fresher fruit. 

Out via Manifesto Records/Cherry Red Records on September 30th

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