Name: Conscious Consumer
Brand: X-Ray Spex

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

DYI027LPC

Colour

Clear

Colour details

Crystal Clear

Discogs ID

[r29191555]

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: Yes

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2023-12-15

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Cargo

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

5055869550208

Total Cap

Clear LP

DYI027LP

Pink

Eco Random Mix

[r29200033]

Extended format: No

5055869550079

Pink LP

DYI027CD

5055869550086

Artist

X-Ray Spex

Genre GB

New Wave / Post Punk

Label GB

Do Yourself In

Restored classics, rare finds, and sought-after releases. Whether you're a vinyl enthusiast or a tape collector, we have something for everyone.

Reissues

X-Ray Spex is a UK punk band that was formed in 1976. They gained popularity with their unique sound and energetic performances. After the departure of lead singer Poly Styrene in 1979, the band went through changes and eventually re-formed as Classix Nouveaux. However, X-Ray Spex made a comeback in 1991 but received mixed reviews. They re-formed again in 1995 and have been performing live sporadically ever since.

The sophomore and final studio album from punk icons - X-Ray Spex. The highly sought after album received a very limited CD only release in 1995 on Receiver Records in the UK and has been officially unavailable for the past 27 years!

The album reunited the iconic X-Ray Spex vocalist - Poly Styrene with original X-Ray Spex saxophonist - Lora Logic and bassist - Paul Dean, as well as guitar from Kula Shaker frontman Crispian Mills under his then pseudonym Red Spectre.

This release has been remastered from the original master tapes and is available on LP for the first time ever! Including the original and expanded artwork, including previously unpublished lyrics and original sleeve notes from Poly.

Pop culture is full of classic albums that slip between the cracks. In recent years the late Poly Styrene and X-Ray Spex have achieved iconic status with their 1978 debut Germfree Adolescents album but the group’s follow up album Conscious Consumer released 17 years later has been lost to the sands of time.

These days most people don’t even realise that X-Ray Spex had a follow up to what is now embraced as one of the classics of the punk rock period. This lovingly compiled revisit puts the spotlight on a lost gem that has many of the hallmarks of the debut but is sieved through a different lens. Conscious Consumer was an upgrade of the classic debut with a same punk rock urgency and themes of consumerism but with a poppier edge and a more considered wisdom gleamed from the ups and downs of life from the perspective of an older, wiser, Krishna devotee.

In 1995 the album was an unexpected comeback and a lost classic. It was the first new material recorded by the band for years despite many of the songs being written a decade before. On release, though, the album disappeared into a void being out of sync with the times and before Poly got her deserved iconic status.

The band who also re-formed in 1991, 1995 and 2008 are now revered worldwide for sparking a new kind of attitude in music. The late Poly is now a pop culture pin-up for an originality and feminism that barely existed at the time. Her acerbic, witty and brilliant lyrics and distinctive voice have stood the test of time, and along with the band’s original sax player Lora Logic, she has become part of the punk rock narrative. The fuzzy snapshots of the brief early lineup see the sassy and sharp dressed teenager core oozing talent, originality and style in a freeze frame of pop culture punk rock perfection.

Listening to the album again after a long break, Paul Dean is surprised.

“Conscious Consumer now sounds so much better than I remember. It wasn’t properly released at the time and so no one knows about it. If you love Germfree Adolescents you will love Conscious Consumer they are linked together. X-Ray Spex didn’t have just one great album it was two!”

Conscious Consumer   

Music GB

Discover Conscious Consumer by X-Ray Spex. The highly sought after album, remastered from the original tapes, is now available on LP for the first time ever!