If a Welsh invasion is truly in the offing, 60 Ft Dolls seem natural leaders. The band’s U.S. long-playing debut (which follows a DGC EP from last year) starts with two great burners, “Happy Shopper” and “Stay.” The former sounds like Ian Hunter (an obsession of singer/guitarist Richard John Parfitt, if this and several other cuts are reliable evidence) backed by the Clash circa ’78, while the latter equals at least the B-sides of the first few Undertones singles. A lot of what’s left is also pretty great, save “Streamlined,” a dire would-be epic that finds Parfitt’s usually smart ready-made lyrics failing him: “I wanna be wild and free again”—oh boy. (The midtempo “Hair” doesn’t really kick much gravel around, either; it’s easily ignorable, but it may hold a lesson about the wisdom of speediness.) The Dolls’ punk sensibility also harks back to ’60s R&B-influenced Brits like the Pretty Things—and not just because they also have a song called “Rosalyn” (the Dolls’ is on the EP but not here). In particular, “Talk to Me” and “No. 1 Pure Alcohol” are tracks you can do those funky Peanuts

dances to. The record’s densely packed sound pays no heed to the fact that it’s about a ninth-generation hand-me-down, and it has enough punch to make you not give a damn, either. Hey, dig the new breed.—Rickey Wright