This is an uncompromising, defiant record: gender roles are turned upside down, as are theories about sex and sexuality, and hetero- and homosexual relationships are put under a microscope. An unflinching look at the world, Playing with a Different Sex is one of the great, and perhaps forgotten, post-punk records. Love Song 3. Set-Up 4.

Opening with the tongue-in-cheek "We're So Cool," the Au Pairs ' debut record is a stunner, from Lesley Woods ' scratchy guitar and declamatory vocals to lead guitarist Paul Foad 's brittle soloing. This is an uncompromising, defiant record: gender roles are turned upside down, as are theories about sex and sexuality, and hetero- and homosexual relationships are put under a microscope. Similarly, the tense political situation in Northern Ireland is harrowingly addressed in "Armagh," which details Tory-sanctioned torture and sexual abuse of wrongly imprisoned Irish women. An unflinching look at the world, Playing with a Different Sex is one of the great, and perhaps forgotten, post-punk records. AllMusic relies heavily on JavaScript. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to use the site fully. Blues Classical Country.

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It was released in by Human Records. In its retrospective review, AllMusic described the album as "one of the great, and perhaps forgotten, post-punk records. Many of the songs on the album deal with sexual politics. Allegations of rape and torture of Irish women imprisoned in the city of Armagh in Northern Ireland are the core content of the song "Armagh", which challenges the notion that "civilized nations" do not torture.