There was no punk band more deliberately effete than the Monochrome Set, and very few anywhere near as smart. In their original (1976-1985) incarnation, they made a handful of slightly-off-target albums, but this 1983 compilation — seemingly slapped together from various singles, radio performances and clips of people talking about the band — is a front-to-back joy, fast, restless and perfectly sequenced.
Indian-British singer/guitarist Bid, whose vocal style owed more to pre-war crooners than to most of his contemporaries, and a guitarist who called himself Lester Square (after London tube stop Leicester Square) were the core members of the Set in that period, and their sharpest songs combine their high-aesthetic pose with punk's acid sense of wit and straight-to-the-point sonics. They rip through "The Jet Set Junta," a very funny song about Latin American political mayhem (featuring extensive onomatopoeia and a deliberate mispronounciation of the title), in two minutes flat; the instrumental "Lester Leaps In" lifts its title from saxophonist Lester Young's standard, but it's actually a showcase for Square to crossbreed a Clash-style riff with an easy-listening surf-guitar solo. And smack in the middle is the best version of their greatest song: "He's Frank (Slight Return)," a mighty 159-second rocker with the band playing three killer riffs simultaneously, a chorus that's entirely instrumental, and Bid singing a lyric about an aging loverboy that prominently features the words "forsooth" and "secular." - douglas wolk/emusic
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