EP Reviews: Foxy – Can’t Stop Us / X-Ray Spex Tribute

A double release from Californian melodic punks Foxy – a vinyl EP celebrating the genius of Poly Styrene and X-Ray Spex and the Can’t Stop Us EP of original songs.

If you’re of a certain vintage, you’ll remember that a popular burger chain used to dodge around the need for the equivalent of a PRS licence by playing versions of the popular hits played by session musicians. It was also a time when you could buy compilations of hits recorded in the same way on labels such as Music For Pleasure and Chiswick. The music was close to the original, but not quite right. Celebrating X-Ray Spex‘s unique and vivid contribution to UK punk’s first wave was always going to be a big job. Have Foxy pulled it off? I would have to say ‘not quite’. It’s not that Foxy haven’t made an admirable effort. Poly Styrene‘s original urgent and idiosyncratic delivery is, however, so deeply ingrained in the collective punk memory that any re-imagining of her songs was always going to be subject to comparison. Foxy have almost pulled it off, but without replicating Poly‘s swooping, idiosyncratic vocal, you’re left with a Music For Pleasure version that, while perfectly good, just lacks the final something that made the original so thrilling. X-Ray Spex were supposed to be confusing and challenging. I’m afraid that this is neither. Nonetheless, Foxy‘s work is a tribute and in that context, a very respectful and honest one, with plenty of the original spunk that made X-Ray Spex such an original outfit back then.

Foxy seem much more comfortable in their own oeuvre. Having not quite hit the target with their homage to the original first wave, their original material, paradoxically, often has an authentic Runaways vibe. However, the Can’t Stop Us EP marks the band’s 20^th anniversary and its upper-mid-tempo bubblegum punk seems to be frozen in the late 90s furrow more successfully ploughed by Steve Jones‘ Neurotic Outsiders and their ilk. There’s a lot to love though, if you love well-crafted songs with plenty of hooks and sing-a-long choruses. Top track for me is the surprising Devil Doll, with its sinister and macabre coiling and sinuous verses and fabulously chilling chorus.

All in all, a very worthy effort on the X-Ray Spex tribute and a definite thumbs up for the original material.

You can catch Foxy on their Oh Bondage! tour of Europe through September and early October. Both EPs are out now and can be purchased via Foxy‘s online store here