Adam And The Ants – Dirk Wears White Sox

One of my favourite albums of all time. I listen to this and sigh, wondering what this band could have become if the whole McClaren thing hadn’t happened. Spiky, angular, odd and unique, this is one of the greatest albums of the genre that would be later dubbed Post Punk. Its up there with Wire, PIL, Magazine and Gang Of Four. Im a big fan of the lyrics. You won’t find any love songs here. Instead you’ll get songs about JFK, Cleopatra, Italian futurism and - uh - cartrouble. The band are smoking. The rhythm section are tight yet at the same time slightly ramshackle. The guitarist is as smoking as Keith Levene and McGeogh. And Adam is at his best, barking out crazy lyrics and whacking his guitar as if his life depended on it. All packaged in stunning artwork. Pair this up with the Zerox 7” and you’ve got yourself a fine collection of late 70s originality. This is miles away from Ant Rap 😲

SQ on this version is Wow. Im playing on a Technics SL 1500C with an Ortofon Blue, so nothing spectacular but nevertheless it sounds great and Im playing it now with the sound cranked. A bit of IGN but what the Hell ?

An almighty 5/5

Remarkable music.

Some of these came with a mis-printed booklet with a purple page at the back

An absolute gem for a start by Adam and his ants that became bow wow wow. This is a supreme post punk lp that must be in everyone’s collection regardless of your taste. The the USA first press is the definitive version due to the inclusion of the singles which the UK 1st press omits. The pressing is on the treble side of the spectrum however a little boost on my marantz 1060 silver face and it’s off and running with excellent balance.

Introducing "Xerox" into the middle of the album was a mistake here, especially when the mastering is completely different (too low in volume) for the rest of the album either side of it. Asleep at the wheel here when it was mastered. A shame

Mine is 1981 reissue but matrix variation
A3 (utopia) B4 (CBS dots)

Just sat down and A/B'd this against 3 original 1979 pressings. Disappointing mastering. Its about 60% of the level of the original(which isn't itself a dealbreaker),so i was looking for signs of too much compression. Couldnt really notice at first-the guitar intro sounded ever so slightly harsher on 'Cartrouble'-but then i turned over and listened to what i thought would be the obvious place to spot something;the drum intro of 'Cleopatra'...and there it was...just listen to the amount of reverb that has been brought forwards! Insane! It just sounds silly now. Straight back in its sleeve,along with the poorly scanned album promo sticker(the other stuff was OK)
Great item to own,not to listen to.
In 1979 i never thought in 2020 that i'd still waiting for the so-called Fan Club LP's of all the pre-Dirk material that he promised back then!! The 'Early Demos Box' all ready for release early 2000's-Nope,cancelled. Same old story for fans of the early stuff!(There's still plenty that would buy it!)

i have played this lp so many times that it literally come off my turntable like a spiral of orange peel,intellegent and witty and far better than any of his latter work,i wonder what wouldve happened had mr mclaren not stole the original ants to form bowwowwow,probably wouldnt have been as famous,but it wouldve definitely been better

This cassette was not released in 1979, but in 1983. It actually says so on the cover.

The plan was to follow up with 2,000 black vinyl. This has seemingly been scrapped.Reported that there were quality issues but potentially due to sales being lower than expected of the white vinyl. Who can say?

This C.D. features the 1982-released (shorter: 6.36 vs. 6.52) remix of Cartrouble parts 1&2 in place of the original album version. The version of Kick! is the same as on the B-side of the Cartrouble part 2 7".