Germ Free Adolescents

Albums Heard in 2022 (Part 3) (70 music items)

"December 20th"

Women Who Rock: The 50 Greatest Albums of All Time (50 music items)

"London punk at its trashiest and catchiest, led by the thrilling screech of Poly Styrene. Essential moment: "Art-I-Ficial,” where Poly sticks up for all the losers and outcasts like her in a consumer society."

RS: 40 Greatest Punk Albums of All-Time (40 music items)

"Teenage multiracial London girl Poly Styrene had braces on her teeth and wore Day-Glo rags, screeching anthems like "Oh Bondage Up Yours!" over saxophone blasts, and chanting, "I am a poseur and I don't care! I like to make people stare!" X-Ray Spex's explosive debut went criminally unreleased in the U.S., but it became a word-of-mouth cult classic, influencing Sleater-Kinney, the Beastie Boys and many others."

The 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women (150 music items)

"Decades before the likes of Radiohead bemoaned ecological destruction and the pitfalls of capitalism, the English punk group X-Ray Spex stormed into the world with bracing, no-bullshit anthems about the cult of cleanliness, consumerism and exploitation on their debut album Germfree Adolescents. Led by the volcanic Poly Styrene, the opera-trained daughter of a Somalian father and a Scottish-Irish mother, the group merged conceptual brilliance with inventive rhythms. It's hard to overstate how muc"

500 CDs You Must Own Before You Die! (500 music items)

"Obsessed with the modern world and plastic in all its forms, Poly Styrene was one of punk’s most intriguing bandleaders. X-Ray Spex back her witty, phlegm-laden singing here with British punk’s most cartoony riffing. Standout track: “The Day the World Turned Day-Glo”"