After The Faction

From 1983 to 1992, Paranoid Visions were staples of the Dublin music scene, Ireland's true punk heroes. Listening to their greatest hits - After The Faction, brings back an air of nostalgia for the band that were a thorn in the side of every convention of a country and a music scene that had more targets than the World Darts Championships.

This 20-track collection showcases the Visions at their acerbic best. Morgan Jones' brilliant impersonation of Charlie Haughey leads the charge, for the opening 'Politician', and when he talks of the possibility of a young CJ, along with Brian Lenihan, skulling two-litres of cider in Stephen's Green while listening to the Dead Kennedy's, you can't help but smile.

The brilliant 'City Of Screams', from 1988, contrasts the picture postcard view of Dublin in its millennium year with the strictly non-tourist slums, high-rise hellholes and faceless estates: a bleak viewpoint which still has a strong impact eight years later.

As has 'Strange Girl', which featured on the Freedom Of Choice album for the Rape Crisis Centre, written about the tragic death of Anne Lovett when she left home to give birth to her child in a field. "She died in a field/She died for her baby/She died like an animal/She died for you", still powerful after all these years.

Along with 'An Bhfuil Tz Sasta?', the only punk song written as Gaeilge, with its lyrics about burning down Dail Eireann: 'TV Ads', a punk rant which breaks into the tune from the Flake ad for the middle-eight ("Only the crumbliest, flakiest chocolate", etc.); and the melodic `'Ignore It And It Won't Go Away' featuring Simon Carmody on backing vocals, this adds up to a rollicking, ranting thunderbolt of an album.

Some of the Visions' visions (excuse the pun) contained here are dated, though, and exhibit a childlike sense of naivity. Take 'Fan The Flames' for instance, a call for social anarchy and the revolution of the underclasses, with its images of killing the old and the weak, looting churches, castles burning and corpses piled high.

When Paranoid Visions managed to hit the target, though the impact was substantial - none louder than their U2-inspired creation, 'I Will Wallow', which, according to the extensive sleeve notes "was an attack on the way that every band in the country started to buy echo pedals in order to get a deal".

After The Faction may not be the most melodic, catchy album ever, but it is a fitting testament to a band who became legends in Dublin. Not to mention the fact that it pissess all over anything by the likes of Green Day, S*M*A*S*H and other so-called punk revisionists.