Voice of a Generation

Captivatingly raw, violent, honest, and catchy, the Blitz's finest album, Voice of a Generation, was a quintessential snapshot into British skinhead and Oi! society and music. More aggressive and street level than other punk bands of the time, the Blitz appealed to a decidedly angrier, unemployed, drunken — and dangerous — crowd, whether skinheads, football hooligans, or just punk rock lowlifes, and this album certainly showcases those themes. Recorded on a shoestring budget, Voice of a Generation has a tinny sonic quality, probably engineered through a mediocre board using mediocre microphones, and tracked to a four- to eight-track tape machine. But it's precisely that lo-fi sonic quality that grants this album its particular charm, an almost Sun Studios-like rawness — early, simple, catchy rock & roll shot through with the violence of the English underclass. Best-known for tracks like "Someone's Gonna Die Tonight" and "Razors in the Night," both about football and street violence, the Blitz were, above all else, fairly adept songsmiths, and there is an undeniable melodic quality about the tracks on Voice of a Generation, despite their thematic crudeness, violence, or simplicity, especially the clever "4Q" ("4Q as in, yes, "f*ck you"). That's precisely the sneering attitude of the Blitz, one of England's premier street punk bands, an attitude that earned them more than a few bottles to the head from rowdy audiences.