The first American group to sign to English record label 4AD, Throwing Muses came up through the arty underground scene in Providence, Rhode Island, before relocating to Boston. Their wayward, precociously spirited post-punk was captured in widescreen on this debut album; lead singer and songwriter Hersh would note, later, that the album didn’t feature any of their ‘fun’ material, but what’s here feels momentous, a fractious, multi-limbed fury of song. Drummer David Narcizo plays with marching-band precision; bass player Leslie Langston weaves the songs together with funky, giddy momentum; guitarists Hersh and Tanya Donelly thread together like thrilling, abstract action-painting. It still sounds like a group dismantling rock music in real time and reassembling it in untoward, yet compelling shapes, and for all its connections back to precursors like Salem 66 or The Raincoats, it’s still that rare thing: an entirely new take on rock.

– Jon Dale