Scritti Politti ‎– 4 'A Sides' (12")

By the third EP, 1979’s 4 A Sides, Scritti are beginning to resolve the musical tensions of their practice. One could imagine that a song as blue-eyed and edifying as “Confidence” would have been near-unthinkable given the forbidding discourse of Scrit circa 1978. If anything, “Confidence” displays a sense of the appropriate: Gartside’s one song from this era that explicitly addresses gender performance and personal relationships is set in plaintive tones, juxtaposing the world’s ‘monotony’ with the ‘monogamy’ of the held body, Laddish ‘clubs of boyhood’ set against unveiled intimacy (or the disavowal of intimacy) ”inside these bedroom walls.”

Each song here short-circuits the ‘ineffability of music’ by manifesting the song as an entirety, with each element ‘coloring in’ the other, songs that are in turn heartbreaking, fractured, circular, or feverish. Too feverish, at times, if Gartside’s eventual collapse after supporting the Gang of Four in mid-1980 is anything to go by.

A1 Bibbly-O-Tek

A2 Doubt Beat

B1 Confidence

B2 P.A.s

Label: Rough Trade

Country: UK

Media Condition: Near Mint (NM or M-)
Sleeve Condition: Very Good Plus (VG+)

Small stamp on inner label and back sleeve.