Customer Reviews

Positive Touch

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is better than the album that came after this one.
And a lotta punx will tell ya this and that next album are rubbish. One could say that. However, I'm so into the UNDERTONES that even this album sticks to my ribs. I simply adjusted to their newer, more gentle sound. They still had the same song writing strengths they just let the guitars go a bit weak and basically seemed to adjust their sights to appealing to girl listeners like soppy love song stuff more so than the first two albums that had that distinct guitar sound that probably put off a few more gentle pop loving fans of the day.

Whatever the band was thinking they made this musical shift and it's left for posterity for us to accept or not. I do. I love this album. I just don't listen to it for the same musical satisfaction points that I do the first 2 albums (s/t and Hypnotized). When I want it a bit softer, this goes on. Yummy.
(ok, ok, I wish they'd stayed their old way but I'll take what they gimme cuz they really were a tremendous band. chrisbct@hotmail.com

This is The Undertones 3rd album in as many years, and it shows a huge progression in production, arrangements, and songwriting.
It has some songs that are real GEMS on it: JULIE OCEAN, THIS CRISIS OF MINE, YOU'RE WELCOME, THE POSITIVE TOUCH, WHEN SATURDAY COMES, IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN, HANNAH DOOT, etc.
It's the 'Tones most '66/'67 era Beatlesque album, but it sounds totally original somehow! And it's still POWER POP! Don't overlook this one if you AT ALL like the Undertones!!!

By the time The Undertones got around to their third album, "Positive Touch," their world had completely changed. No longer a gang of teenaged scruffs, they'd moved into their twenties and were somewhat affluent pop stars. The drive and desires that would have them forever have singing about cars and girls were supplanted by the fact that they all had cars, girls and even were property owners. Out was the hunger to impress the babes, in was the desire to express the artist within.

"Positive Touch" is the result of that desire given run of the studio. While it certainly doesn't lack for great catchy songs, the band couldn't keep their impulses in check. As a result, "Life's Too Easy," a song that would have sounded great stripped to its basics is buried in a mish-mosh of bad piano and overwrought production. (Even the band must have figured that out, the single remix/bonus track sounds infinitely better.)

There are also the O'Neill brothers' forays into psychedelia, as witnessed by "Julie Ocean" and "Sigh and Explode." While interesting, it also began to show Feargel Sharkey's limitations as a vocalist even as his ambitions were starting to exceed his grasp. Sharkey really didn't have the chops to sing soulfully, although "You're Welcome" reaches pretty hard and almost succeeds. (As would his eventual unlistenable solo albums.)

If you want the kind of brilliant fast pop tunes that The Undertones provided on their first two albums, they're still here. Songs like "His Good Looking Girlfriend," "Boy Wonder" and "It's Going to Happen" still show that the Tones' had a knack for an ace hook. "Positive Touch" still holds a spot in my library (the overly dense "Sin Of Pride" never stayed), but I really can't rate it any higher than average. In this case, getting older got the better of The Undertones.

call me crazy but i prefer it to the first album. (haven't heard the second). i got it from village thrift and boy do the linernotes reek, i mean really, they smell like someone filled a phonebooth with cartons of stale cigarettes and then smoked 'em all while holding this disc in his right hand.