CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE

AU PAIRS: “Playing With A Different Sex” (Human import):: For months I struggled to get with the commendable postpunk feminism and accessible quasifunk rockaroll of this gender-balanced quartet, and for months I failed. Only in person did I notice that gender symbol Lesley Woods had about as much to say now as Grace Slick did in 1967—more than you’d predict and less than you’d hope—and that on the whole they sounded like a bored Gang Of Four.