6. The Undertones - The Undertones
I always thought of The Undertones as a singles band. it never really occurred to me that they might have albums out, but they do (4 of them in fact), and here for my listening pleasure is their debut album.
The first thing I notice is that the two Undertones songs I am the most familiar with are not on this album (Teenage Kicks & My Perfect Cousin). It does however have two other of their singles I do seem to recall hearing at some point in Jimmy Jimmy & Here Comes The Summer. I'm actually glad that I don't have to hear Teenage Kicks for the millionth time. It's a good pop song don't get me wrong, but it's not THAT good. No better than hundreds of other great catchy pop songs I've heard over the years. Still, I guess that it's John Peel's fault it's so overplayed, not theirs.
To be honest I found a lot of this album rather dull. Most of the songs are the same tempo, have virtually the same riffs and just repeat the title of the song over & over again in the chorus. I'm sure I would have loved this when I was 15 with all it's energy, bounciness and singalong choruses but now I've heard this stuff so much I want a little more than this and as I don't have any history listening to this album in the past I don't even have the nostalgia factor in letting me enjoy it.
That's not to say I hated all of the album, I nodded my head enthusiastically to Jimmy Jimmy & Here Comes The Summer. Male Model sounds like a decent stab at punk rock and at least has a bit of grit into it. As for True Confessions, Imagine if Joy Division had little brothers high on Ritalin, they would probably sound something like this.
Amazingly Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures didn't even get in their top 20 for this year. This album did. Don't ask me how.
The most frustrating aspect of this album is the final song Casbah Rock (Nothing to do with the Clash song of a similar name). It's 50 seconds of dirty garage rock that sounds like it was recorded in one. I'm listening to it thinking 'This is great, why doesn't more of their stuff sound like this?'
Everything about this album seems rather lightweight and non threatening, even the album cover looks like a lightweight non threatening version of the Ramones first album. I'm reminded of Harry Enfield & Paul Whitehouse's Smashie & Nicey The End Of An Era TV show from a few years ago when Mike Smash decided to start making 'nice' punk records, in his chunky sweater with 'I'm a Punky Monkey' spray painted on it.
It's interesting to note that just before I heard that song I was thinking to myself that I think Feargal Sharkey has a great voice yet it's totally wasted on this record. I would have loved to hear him doing some wild punk fuelled R&B inspired stuff in the vein of Jon Spencer and possibly The White Stripes. Yet this cleanly produced pop with a very diluted hint of punk doesn't really do it any justice at all. Neither did his rather bland solo career later on.
Before I heard this album I thought of The Undertones as a singles band.
This album has done nothing for me to change my mind.