Customer Reviews

Undertones

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was a great blast of rock sugar from a bunch of teenage dreamers. They armed themselves with guitars, a DIY work ethic, and began bashing out three chord ditties about girls, cars, guys they were jealous of, girls and more girls. (And Mars Bars.) Whatever they may have lacked in experience, they more than made up for in exuberance. Feargel Sharkey had a voice that just boiled over with hormonal confusion and cockiness, and was so unique that no-one's matched him since. The rest of the band just tore into their instruments with all the speed that their systems' race through adolescent upheaval could keep up with. And while many slogged them off as non-political kids in punk's nihilist rage, The Undertones probably had a greater impact than most of the angry messengers of the era. Why, you may ask?

Because The Undertones inherently understood that "Teenage Kicks" and its never distant parallel of teenage pain never fade from the scope of human existence, but momentary anger of and rage at the times usually does. Well, then again, maybe they didn't at the time. But this music still means more today than most of, say, Stiff Little Fingers or Gang of Four's library. And let's face it, there was only one Clash. Seeing as most of The Undertones were under 18 at the time of their first album, "The Undertones" subject matter of "She's a Run Around" probably weighed in heavier on their lives than "Julie's In The Drug Squad."

It's that kind of joyous carousing that keeps "The Undertones" from ever once sounding like less than a rock and roll epiphany. My only real quibble is the cover art (I miss the colorful high angle shot; the drab picture used here siphons off the fun feeling of the album I originally owned). Along with the first three Ramones albums, The Undertones' first two albums are a cheering jolt of electricity from a period when you could still pick up a guitar and feel like you could say whatever was on your mind. Even if the priority topic was "Let's Talk About Girls."

The Undertones were a 1970's punk band hailing from Northern Ireland. Sounds like a mini-Stiff Little Fingers biography? Well, the similarities stop there. While SLF's tunes (the most famous ones, at least) were all abrasive political anthems featuring sandpaper-voiced frontman Jake Burns singing "We're gonna blow up in your FACE!" and such, The Undertones were the polar opposite of that. Like all good teenagers--and they WERE all teenagers when they recorded their debut except guitarist/songwriter John O'Neill...who was 20--they had one thing on their minds: girls. (Well...and candy, too.) As John once put it, "talking about what went on in the North seemed...for old people".

This is just a great pop/punk album. Probably the best pop/punk album to come out of the Isles, along with The Buzzcocks' "Singles Going Steady". Their twin guitar attack courtesy of John and his kid brother Damian and hard-edged power pop tunes make them sound a bit like The Buzzcocks, but they're not mere Buzzcock clones. They've got their own aesthetic...thanks mostly to singer Feargal Sharkey's impressive tenor vibrato, which doesn't sound like any other punk frontman nearly as much as it sounds like Smokey Robinson. Then there's the sweet, endearing teenage nature of the songs. "Teenage Kicks", "Girls Don't Like It", "I Know a Girl", "She's a Runaround"...the titles tell the story!

It's a great album from start to finish, but the highlight is "Teenage Kicks", one of the greatest singles of all time--just three minutes of pure pop perfection. "Are teenage dreams so hard to beat?" is one of the greatest opening lines in rock and roll history, and it pretty much picks up from there, all the way through the handclap bridge and Sharkey's cries of "Alright!" "Get Over You" and "You've Got My Number" are pretty much as great as "Teenage Kicks", too. And "Male Model" and "Mars Bars" are just priceless. A love song about candy? I mean, brilliant.

My one complaint--and it's a pretty big one--is the inclusion of the LP version of "True Confessions". For the original LP they re-recorded the great "True Cofessions" with a bunch of trendy faux-new wave atmospherics and such. It's really terrible. I can't believe they included it on this reissue. (Sadly it tells the story of the remaining years of The Undertones: leaving behind the power-pop they did best in search of trendier "new directions", with not much success. Their second album, "Hypnotised", is OK...after that it just gets worse.) The recently out-of-print Ryko re-issue of this album wisely tossed that version of "True Confessions", leaving the full-on punk rock single version. This re-issue includes both. Whatever, I mean, it's only one song...but it really impairs the album experience. It's just nice to be able to listen to all the songs all the way through, and the LP version of "True Confessions" is unlistenable. (If you can find the Ryko version somewhere, snap it up. It has much better cover art than this one, too.) In this release's defense, however, the phenomenal "You've Got My Number" and "Let's Talk About Girls" are included, and they weren't on the Ryko release.

In sum, every one of these tracks is fresh and fun and all the rest (well, all but one, that is). These guys carry on the torch of Chuck Berry and The Beatles and The Beach Boys and The Buzzcocks...teenage kings! Please, do yourself a favor. Buy this before it goes out of print. Again.

This is pure POP/PUNK THRILLS!!! How anyone could not like it is beyond me - it is to not like rock n roll itself! Or to never have been a teenager! Or to have LOST YOUTH! This is more fun than The Ramones, The Beatles, The Beach Boys (all of whom inspired The Undertones). Feargal Sharkey's got a high, quivery voice, but therein lies the adolescent tenderness amidst the crunching guitar fury. This is ear candy at its most addicting. And The Undertones are THE MOST UNDERRATED BAND OF ALL TIME, SADLY...

If you love THE RAMONES (and who doesn't?), you are sure to love this underrated gem from this undersung band from Northern Ireland. The Undertones sound evolved tremendously over their short career, but I still prefer this to anything else they released. Short, fun songs filled with youthful naivety (meant in the BEST possible way)and yearnings for unattainable girls ('Girls Don't Like It'), cool clothes ('Male Model'), and good times ('Teenage Kicks'). 'Here Comes The Summer' should have been all over the radio when it was released in '79. What a great debut album!

The whole album shines and this reissue includes 10 bonus tracks that are as good as anything on the original release. This is THE disc to introduce you to this fine band. If you were around at the beginning of the Punk/New Wave tandem, you NEED this CD! While all of my High-School friends were cruising to the sounds of REO Speedwagon, Styx, and Ted Nugent (Now I'm dating myself), a small group of us were expanding our musical pallets and discovering groups like The Undertones (Punk hit Middle-America a little later then the rest of the U.S.). I will take this over 'Cat Scratch Fever' any day!

Feargal Sharkey's vocals may not be everyone's cup of tea. I enjoyed his work with The Undertones, but thought his voice wasn't up to the material of his solo efforts. Other members of The Undertones went on to form yet another underrated band, THAT PETROL EMOTION. They put out a few fine albums of loud, Post-Punk fury. But it all started with this, their debut album, and I assure you, it sounds just as good as it did in 1979, and that's not just nostalgia talking. But it's never too late to discover good music and if you care about fun, high-energy Rock and Roll, do yourself a favor and check this out!

The track Teenage Kicks gave this Ulster quintet some serious attention, and their debut album continued in a similar vein of fusing punk guitars and intent with strong pop sensibilities and lyrical subtleties and humour.

This reissue includes 10 bonus tracks, all originally b-sides to the UK singles, but it's amazing that soem wre discarded as such. Mars Bars, an ode to a much-loved chocolate treat, is perhaps the best of those, but Emergency Cases and Really Really strike me as lost classics as well.

The main vibe of the album is youthful, innocent and fun-loving. Standout Here Comes the Summer exudes a cheeful vibe which almost matches Jerry Keller's similarly-titled 50s hit, and tracks like Billy's Third and Family Entertainment typify the overall feel of having fun and a laugh. Get Over You sounds for all the world like a pop classic; that it failed to amek the UK Top 40, let alone the US cahrt, is inexplicable and unjust. The whole album deserves such mass attention.

They got more than 5 stars? Cuz if they do, this album earns 'em.

I really don't know if there was any musical difference at all between this version, the Ireland/UK pressing of the lp from the U.S. pressing with the photo of the band looking down on them in color.

This CD also has what appears to be 3 7" records worth of music added onto to original first lp.

You cannot go wrong owning this record, assuming you love strong love song, teenage subjects power pop with no irony and all heart.

This stuff still sounds brilliant 25 years later. Betcha it sounds great 25 more years from now! Let's see.

Later, chrisbct@hotmail.com

In the vein of the Buzzcocks and dickies comes the The undertones with their songs about growing up, teenage life and girls. They where their pop-punk badge proudly on their sleeves and do a pretty good job of it. Not as good as the above mentioned bands but they do have some super catchy songs.

this is just catchy punk. It's simaler to the buzzcocks. This album definitly has some week songs, but over all its a good album.