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With groups like The Rapture and The Faint injecting a little sass into punk, it's somewhat inevitable that there's going to be a flood of similar acts sniffing about for a quick buck. Need New Body aren't one of them. This Philadelphia group have been strutting their disco-punk-cum-Beefheart-nonsense for a few years now, and this is their second LP, following 2001's self titled debut. Criticising what you don't understand is tough, and that being the case I'm finding 'UFO' particularly hard to pin down in a few hundred words or so. I could wax lyrical for days about all the little nuances to be found throughout these twenty-three tracks, including squealing delights like Tittie Pop (In Japan) and Make Gay Love Not War, and I could at least attempt to deconstruct the pop art-esque cover 'til I was blue in the face through exhaustion, frustration, and simple lack of understanding. But I won't. I can't. I just can't, for all my attempts, even begin to get a grip on this record â?? it's all over the place! There's a little vaudeville in there, smatterings of jazz, and a healthy dose of snotty punk. Drums are few and far between, but the rhythm never stops for a breath. Vocals are spluttered as much as they're sung, and the whole experience is something akin to riding all the rides at Alton Towers at the same time. Backwards. Drunk. If even the Manic Street Preachers can state that all art critics should be ignored, who am I to criticise a record that is as much art as it is music? At least, I guess it is â?? I'm quite up to speed on music, and this doesn't sound like much of it. I've never even worn make-up. Need New Body probably do. They probably do whatever the hell they want. It certainly sounds like it. Sassy stuff indeed.

Mike Diver
CWAS #13 - Autumn 2003

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