For the past year, Britain has been having a jolly good laugh over the shameless publicity seeking of Sigue Sigue Sputnik. To be sure, this futuristic prefab five, conceived by the former Generation X bassist, Tony James, gives good headline – sputniks sex craze sweeps the nation, horror of sputnik maniac, the future of rock 'n' roll or a load of codswallop? But from this side of the pond, the Sputnik package of designer violence and sexbeat thump is a pretty thin giggle, a flamboyant but highly unoriginal stitching together of twenty-first-century Alice Cooper, Seventies Eurodisco, Blade Runner shoot-'em-up and Malcolm McLaren's Rock & Roll Swindle – a Frankenstein for the Eighties. But by the look and sound of Flaunt It, it seems the scam is already coming apart at the seams.

With "Love Missile F1-11," released earlier this year as a single (and included here), the Sputniks' finest moment has already come and gone. A blatant but contagious rip-off of Suicide's pioneering one-riff synth punk, it races along to a manic electronic pulse jazzed up with Chuck Berry twang, ricochet-dub sound effects and singer Martin Degville's Iggy imitations. Unfortunately, these Clockwork Lemons didn't bother to write any other tunes for the LP. Most of the eight songs here are assembly-line "Love Missile" knockoffs, distinguished by toothless lyrics about leisure technology ("Atari Baby") and primal macho urges ("I feel bigger with a trigger, got a gun today," from "Rockit Miss U.S.A.").

More concerned with the selling than the songs, Sigue Sigue Sputnik has actually sold advertising time between tracks; L'Oréal and the British fashion magazine iD are among the "sponsors." It's appropriate, though, that the ads are often more interesting than the songs, because this album is ultimately a triumph of packaging over content, a sales pitch without a product. At best, Sigue Sigue Sputnik is brief comic relief from the drudgery of everyday corporate pop. But "the Fifth Generation of Rock 'n' Roll"? Hardly. Flaunt it only if you've got it. (RS 483)

DAVID FRICKE