Listening to all these albums again, I think it should be noted that, unlike many punk rock bands, even the Ramones' most aggressive material still sounds welcoming.at least the songs sung by Joey, who always sounds like one of us, so to speak. "Bad Brain" has a lot of bells and whistles in the bridge, which shows me they were getting weary of their typical production style.although I know this became a source of contention within the band (especially with Johnny, who didn't like them branching out with different producers and felt their best work was when Tommy had been there).Īll in all, not as good as the debut or "Rocket To Russia," but an interesting experiment. Even "I Wanna Be Sedated" (despite my being kind of sick of it) sounds shockingly modern. The rocking but cleanly produced "I Just Want To Have Something To Do" and "I'm Against It" sound to me like they could have been recorded ten years later. Which is not to say the album is without hard rock moments. Same for "Questioningly," which even has a prominent slide guitar part! With songs like these, you can kind of see how working with Phil Spector was the next logical step for the band (even if he is a nutcase). "Don't Come Close" is also shockingly stripped down, with its unabashedly poppy structure and almost total lack of distorted guitars (save for the solo). "Road To Ruin" almost has a '60s/British Invasion feel in places, and the cover of "Needles And Pins" fits in perfectly with that. "Rocket To Russia" is a remarkably consistent album and a definite step or two up from "Leave Home." Wow, I'd forgotten how strong this one is. The cover of "Surfin' Bird" is the only thing that seems a little superfluous on this side, although it's done pretty well. "Why Is It Always This Way?," "I Wanna Be Well" and "I Can't Give You Anything" continue the string of slightly sad, self-deprecating up tempo numbers. "Teenage Lobotomy" is one of their strongest calls to arms. The second side isn't quite on the same level as the first, but still fine. "Sheena" is a perennial classic and reminds me that the poppier songs on this album come off better than the ones on "Leave Home." "We're A Happy Family" is a pretty devastating little indictment of suburban life in America and also manages to be quite funny in the process. "I Don't Care" is a nice, slow, defiant number that would've fit in well on the debut. Their best ballad up to this point, IMHO. I'd extend the one-two punch to a one-two-three punch with the great "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow." It's another slow ballad, but in a different league than the ballads on the first two in that its undercurrent is very sad. You can hear a million different bands deriving their style from these two songs alone.and yet the Ramones trump all of them handily. I agree that the opening salvo of "Cretin Hop" and "Rockaway Beach" is a great one: two songs that are very melodic but quite aggressive. There's a lot more sonic clarity and we are pretty much left with would be known as the classic Ramones sound. The hazy, loud picture the last album presented is gone. And again we have a new production style. "Rocket To Russia" seems to be their most popular album and I consistently see this one tabbed as their best. So this album has a cool, distinct sound (and one they never really repeated), but some of their other albums have better and more cohesive songs. The backing vocals near the end are hilarious. The ones I like best seem to largely be the usual suspects: "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment," "Pinhead," "Commando" and the brilliant cover of "California Sun." "You're Gonna Kill That Girl" is another of my favorites, and a bit of an enigma, because it seems like a pop song on the surface but has this morbid undercurrent. For some reason, most of the songs here don't appeal to me as much as the ones on the first album. You can hear them inching towards their next album with songs like "What's Your Game," which are a little more polished and produced. It's almost akin to The Clash's "Give 'Em Enough Rope" in this respect. (Quite a contrast with the first album.) But there's also a sort of.cloudiness to the whole affair (which would disappear with the next album). The guitars are lot more loud and in your face, and at times the album almost seems to be in mono because of it. The production on "Leave Home" is a lot different than the debut. Songs like "Oh Oh I Love Her So" come straight out of the '50s, both musically and lyrically. I would suspect this is Joey's influence, but I'm not sure. Most of the songs are much more poppy and light-hearted than on the debut. "Ramones Leave Home" is kind of an odd album, as it seems the band "matured" practically overnight. But the music of the Ramones was not meant to be played quietly! Heh, I was trying to spin these again (as it has been some time for me) quietly late the other night, so I could weigh in on them here.
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