First released on cassette and then re-released in various guises since then, Live in America captures the mid-’80s incarnation of A Certain Ratio in compelling form. Those who felt that the band’s studio work tended towards the formal rather than the funky could easily find themselves changing their minds based on the ten-song selection here, showcasing the group both at their most murky and their most nervously tense.
The extended, doom-laden introduction to “Sounds Like Something Dirty” definitely meets the first description but when the song itself kicks in everything’s far more active. Full-on upbeatness (or near enough) occurs elsewhere on songs like “Wild Party,” where the seeming cool of the sung verses contrasts against one hell of a jam,…

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