For neophytes who have long heard that the Mekons may be the best-kept secret in the post-punk underground, this is an unpromising album with which to begin a long-term romance. And for Kathy Acker fans, the Mekons may come across as too boozy and ruddy for Acker's abstract, albeit X-rated, brand of post-feminism. Which is exactly why these contrarians got together – cozying up to expectations was never part of the agenda.

The Mekons contribute a typical hodgepodge of music that includes Eastern syncopations, reggae, Eurodisco, misty balladry and thrash metal. But the focus is primarily on Acker, who wrote all the lyrics and reads several snippets of text between songs (her novel of the same title is to be released concurrently). In her grace-through-degradation sea tale, innocents search for treasure with the help of female pirates, who lead them to an orgasm of apocalyptic proportion. The Mekons make the most of this odd artistic pairing. "The whole rotten world come down and break.... Let me spread my legs," bawls the Mekons' Sally Timms in an uncharacteristic and effectively bawdy manner.

Behind its explicit lyrics and fractured music, Pussy loads up on big concepts: original sin, sex as salvation, the end of the world. But where Acker and the Mekons mesh most closely is on the subjects of identity and transcendence. Acker narrates: "Whenever I get something that I want, it isn't good enough. To be female, for me, is to want everything." Later, the Mekons' Rico Bell croons in falsettovoiced empathy over a pulsing disco track: "I've had it with living and dying/There's something else I must find." Acker and the Mekons have long understood the world's futility and ugliness. Yet in their art there is possibility, so they stumble on. There is always something else they must find, and on Pussy, they find refuge from the world in sexual anarchy. (RS 729)

GREG KOT