Playing with a Different Sex


Playing with a Different Sex is the debut studio album by English post-punk band Au Pairs. It was released in 1981 by Human Records.
In its retrospective review, AllMusic described the album as "one of the great, and perhaps forgotten, post-punk records." The album peaked at No. 33 in Britain and produced the single "It's Obvious", which reached No. 37 on the Club Play Singles chart in America in 1981.

Themes

Many of the songs on the album deal with sexual politics. In "Repetition", a David Bowie cover, domestic violence is explored, and the possessiveness underlying an open relationship is pilloried in "We're So Cool". "It's Obvious" has been described as a fantasy "about a time when gender roles ceased to matter".
"Headache for Michelle", is about being too high to object to problems in society, and was inspired by Woods’ first girlfriend. Though Woods identifies as bisexual, at the time she felt it was easier to tell journalists that she was a lesbian, though it risked harming her career.
Allegations of rape and torture of Irish women imprisoned in the city of Armagh in Northern Ireland are the core content of the song "Armagh", which challenges the notion that "civilized nations" do not torture. The refrain, "We don't torture, we're a civilized nation / We're avoiding any confrontation / We don't torture..." is repeated throughout the song. The lyrics point out that the "American hostages in Iran, heard daily on the news..." while "You can ignore the 32." They continue: "There are 32 women in Armagh jail / Political prisoners here at home," before describing alleged incidents of abuse. The song led to limited distribution of the album in Ireland, when Northern Irish record distributors refused to carry it.
The song "Come Again" refers to the social pressure to "achieve orgasmic equality"; a 1982 profile in Mother Jones notes that the song depicts sex "as a dreary ritual in which partners as joyless as lab rats press bars and nose buttons in the hopes of an orgasm as dry and quantifiable as kibble." The song, directed at "those who changed the game" and "brought in new rules", asks "is it real? Are you feeling it?", before turning into a dialogue between the female lead singer and male back up who is evidently attempting to satisfy her: "Am I doing it right?" he asks, and the woman reassures him, "You're not selfish/You're trying hard to please me – please, please me/Is your finger aching?/I can feel you hesitating." The song was banned from the BBC, who feared parental backlash.

Reissue

The album was reissued in 1992 on CD by RPM Records, a subsidiary of Cherry Red Records, with an additional eight tracks, consisting of singles, remixes and previously unreleased songs.

Critical response

In a 1981 review for Record Mirror, Mark Cooper wrote that the Au Pairs' "critique of all forms of possession and sexual stereotyping assumes a devastating power." Playing with a Different Sex was ranked at number 17 on NMEs list of the best albums of 1981.
Describing the album in The Rough Guide to Rock, Owen James referred to the band's mix of humour and righteous anger, stating "They don't make them like this anymore." In 2002's She's a Rebel: The History of Women in Rock & Roll, Gillian G. Gaar suggested that "the taut rhythms and aggressive lyrics of Different Sex make it a classic example of how the influence of punk could steer rock into exciting new areas." The song "Diet", originally released as a single in 1980 and recorded for a session for BBC Radio 1 in 1981, was later released on Equal but Different, a compilation of twenty of the band's BBC performances, and included on the extended reissue of Playing with a Different Sex; it was described by Fact as a "masterpiece of feminist rock" with an almost unparalleled "power and pathos".
In a 2023 review for Pitchfork, Sophie Kemp called it "an oblique piece of music" and "one of those records that requires you to rewire your brain a little bit. They play with dissonance and repetition, taking one phrase and beating it into the ground until it becomes less of an earworm and more of an absurdist echolalia".

Track listing

All tracks are written by Paul Foad, Peter Hammond, Jane Munro and Lesley Woods, except where noted.

Side A

  1. "We're So Cool" – 3:29
  2. "Love Song" – 2:51
  3. "Set-Up" – 3:21
  4. "Repetition" – 3:34
  5. "Headache for Michelle" – 6:39

Side B

  1. "Come Again" – 3:54
  2. "Armagh" – 3:37
  3. "Unfinished Business" – 3:29
  4. "Dear John" – 2:57
  5. "It's Obvious" – 6:19

Reissue bonus tracks

  1. "You" – 2:52
  2. "Domestic Departure" – 2:22
  3. "Kerb Crawler" – 2:47
  4. "Diet" – 4:19
  5. "It's Obvious" – 5:47
  6. "Inconvenience" – 2:56
  7. "Pretty Boys" – 3:40
  8. "Headache for Michelle" – 6:38

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.
Au Pairs
  • Jane Munro – bass guitar, production
  • Lesley Woods – guitar, vocals, production
  • Paul Foad – guitar, backing vocals, production
  • Peter Hammond – drums, production
Technical