You won't be seeing them at Lilith Fair. No Wave no-goodniks Bush Tetras were the leading femcentric underground band of the early '80s. Now, with the same lineup – Cynthia Sley, vocals; Pat Place, guitar; Laura Kennedy, bass; Dee Pop, drums – as in their prime, they're less minimalist and harder rocking, with raucous, grinding songs about love, trust, money, aging and memory, all befitting a fortysomething punk band.

Produced by dance-funk doyenne Nona Hendryx, Beauty Lies is incredibly tight, hardheaded, muscular, confident, hooky and funny ("Wanna move on to the next disaster/You can help me to get there faster/God only knows it ain't no wonder/Everybody knows Satan is a bummer"), with Place's signature cat-scratch guitar, Kennedy's narcoleptically sexy slide bass and Pop's fierce beats further accentuating the flush pipes of Sley, whose pained howls and sly snarls give her spoken-word cadences extra kicks. These gray hairs have made one of the sexiest records of the year. (RS 767)

BARBARA O'DAIR