During the early '80s, the Alarm were seen as rivals to U2 -- a Welsh variation of the passionate Dublin quartet, driven by the same righteous anger, anthemic hooks, and love for the Clash. They never quite matched their inspirations in terms of sales or critical respect, despite a series of acclaimed records that were minor sensations during the '80s. By the time the career retrospective Standards was released in late 1990, the band had already been somewhat forgotten, partially because they never had a big crossover hit, ...
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During the early '80s, the Alarm were seen as rivals to U2 -- a Welsh variation of the passionate Dublin quartet, driven by the same righteous anger, anthemic hooks, and love for the Clash. They never quite matched their inspirations in terms of sales or critical respect, despite a series of acclaimed records that were minor sensations during the '80s. By the time the career retrospective Standards was released in late 1990, the band had already been somewhat forgotten, partially because they never had a big crossover hit, and also because they were forever tied to the Reagan/Thatcher era. Consequently, the Alarm were relegated to also-ran status and nearly forgotten by anyone who didn't actively read the music press in the '80s -- not an entirely fair fate, yet not an entirely undeserved one either. Listening to Standards, a thoroughly representative, basic collection of their singles and significant album tracks, confirms that the band were certainly not without talent or charms, but they suffered at the hands of state-of-the-art record production. They have a number of solid anthemic songs -- "Sixty Eight Guns," "Marching On," "Spirit of '76," "Sold Me Down the River," among them -- but it's hard to hear them as anything other than a product of their times, largely due to the glossy, shiny production. Such studio skills were evidently designed to make the band sound a bit like U2, but the band's music didn't have the jagged edges of U2 -- it was straight-ahead, driving rock, derived from the earnestness of folk-rock and the Clash's huge, rallying sound. This is not necessarily a bad thing, and it did produce some satisfying music, all of which is included here. But it ultimately produced music that was a sign of the times, not music that transcended it. The Alarm remain an interesting footnote because, ironically, while they strove to make music mean something in a slick commercial age, they were constantly plagued by overly slick productions -- an irony only the '80s could produce, actually. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi
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