Ramones
Anthology

THE REVIEW

The Ramones, the quintessential punk band in America during the '70s and '80s, are often compared, due to their genre, musical simplicity, and the feelings of alienation and rebellion experienced by the band members, to the other quintessential punk band of those years, the British Sex Pistols. In my opinion, a comparison between the two bands is unfounded: the punk of the Sex Pistols represented utopia, a rejection of everything and everyone, beliefs, ethnicities, ideals, except for the abstract concept of "anarchy." The Ramones, more rationally (but perhaps also more "calculated"), opted for a less extreme punk, but one that was perhaps more achievable, compared to that of their overseas counterparts. The philosophy to adopt, then, is obviously up to the listener, keeping in mind that the Ramones had a twenty-year-long career characterized by ups and downs, while the Sex Pistols, much like Cobain, disappeared before they could slowly fade away. The sum of the Ramones' over twenty years of career has been encapsulated in this box set, which with the latest Christmas offers, can be found at even negligible prices (at 10 euros they "throw in" two CDs with a total of 58 songs, a booklet, and essentially a small piece of history to put on your desk).

We certainly don't discover the sound of the Ramones with this double CD: the usual three standard chords, with no solos even suggested, essentially a style entirely aimed at eschewing the technical virtuosity of prog-rock groups. A style that undoubtedly makes the purists cringe but has nevertheless provided music with songs of social significance even before musical, like the famous "Blitzkrieg Bop", "Beat On The Brat", "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker", and so on. I won't dwell on a superfluous track by track analysis, first of all because there are 58 tracks, and then because the spirit with which this box set was released is to give an overview of the American band, and let's just say it perfectly succeeds in its intent.
Chapter defects: predictably, the album is almost unparalleled in monotony, after about twenty songs you've already heard repetitive things, and the "One, two, three, four!" will have already bored you; musically, there's not much; there are a lot of superfluous tracks and a decidedly better product could have been set up by omitting about twenty songs, perhaps replacing them with a DVD. The overall rating I would give the product is slightly more than three stars, but considering the 360-degree panorama it provides on the band, its historical importance, and the presence of at least 7/8 legendary tracks (not necessarily impeccable), the evaluation rises to the coveted fourth star.