Send "The Slits " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Dustedmagazine |
 Trapped Animal is like a character in one of those body-snatching films. The aliens take someone close to the protagonist – let’s say her mom – and the alien that replaces her is mostly-mom. But certain mannerisms are wrong. A movement here and there isn’t quite right. Her gait is off. The way she looks at the protagonist is askew. A human isn’t merely a body, but the push and pull of the biological, the social and the psychological, and identical bodies may be animated by wholly different means creating a vague feeling of unease in those that encounter these bodies. The Slits’ last real album, Return of the Giant Slits, was released in 1981, and soon after the group broke up. However, four years ago, some of the original members, Ari Up and Tessa Pollitt, reformed the group and started recording again. This is, of course, endemic to the late aughts. Between the ease of sharing introduced by the internet and the cultural postmodernism of the hip set, many bands have found a new popularity. Old enmities and creative lethargy have fallen away with the promise of revived careers. It’s not easy to reduce these reformations to cynical attempts to cash in, as bandmates have numerous reasons for getting back together. Still, a lot of these reunions feel less about inspiration and are more about the cultural moment being right for their aesthetic. Feeling like they’ve caught up to the zeitgeist though is inorganic, and that feeling especially wafts off of Trapped Animal....full text |
| Glidemagazine |
| Trapped Animal is the first studio album from the Slits since 1981 and comes 30 years after the seminal punk/reggae fusion of their debut, 1979's Cut. The passage of time and only returning with two-thirds of the band's core (Ari Up and Tessa Pollitt) certainly give reason to be skeptical of a new album in 2009. Even going in with doubts, the new album quickly establishes a winning presence. It retains the Slits' natural mix of punk and reggae, but this time the former is a bit more angular and the latter closer to dub, giving things a tighter, more agitated energy. Occasional electro-pop and R&B infusions expand the album beyond the earlier albums' limitations, few as they seemed to be at the time, yet Trapped Animal is possibly their most cohesive record. Most importantly though, the Slits maintain the straightforward lyrical honesty that has always made their songs easy to hold onto....full text |
| Pitchfork |
| Their torn-apart version of Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" remains the gold standard in violently recontextualized punk covers. After Cut, the band released one more album, 1981's Return of the Giant Slits, and then disintegrated. In 2006, frontwoman Ari Up reunited with original member Tessa Pollitt and started playing shows as the Slits again. But up until now, the only recorded evidence of the reunion has been a three-song EP called Revenge of the Giant Slits. On October 6, the Slits will make their full-length return when Narnack releases Trapped Animal, their first album since reuniting. The tracklist is below. This incarnation of the Slits, it should be pointed out, is multi-generational. The band's new lineup features Up, Pollitt, Anna Schlute, Adele Wilson, and Hollie Cook, the daughter of Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook. Aww!...full text |
The Slits lyrics
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