Ramones
Subterranean Jungle

THE REVIEW

Being a fan, not just a fervent one, but more, of the fab-four of punk, I decided that this album could not remain without at least a review on Debaser for much longer.

We're talking about the seventh album by the Ramones, released in 1983, in the years just following the first five masterpieces, years that I consider a transition-settlement period and which, in my view, didn't deliver another album at the level of the aforementioned ones. The four come from "Pleasant Dreams", a work two years prior that received mixed reviews; many fans complained about the band's tameness and didn't appreciate the total conversion to the Spector wall of sound, which in "End of the Century" had worked by creating a unique syncretism. Personally, I also consider PD one of the less exciting works, despite its lightness and pure sound.

With Subterranean, the music changes, or rather the sound shifts slightly back to the tones we all know. On the already well-established style, there is now a framework that this time, while still maintaining in several tracks in pop tones, really has mixing that enhances the sharp power of Marky's drums and especially Dee Dee's bass. Not to mention the stunning cover (who, like me, couldn't find Marky?), one of the band's best, encapsulating much of the album's essence.

If, on one hand, the sound regains the classic compactness and hardness, melodically I found it recycled in more than one track ("Somebody Like Me", "My My Kind of Girl" and "Psycho Therapy" above all, which echo far more other masterpieces), a tangible sign of a period in which Joey & Co didn't seem to have their usual creative vein (let's remember that with four chords they built five albums, each more beautiful and, I might add, different than the last). Adding to this the fact that shortly after, Marky would leave for alcoholism issues, we get the picture of a less than idyllic situation in which to engage in composing music or writing lyrics. Nevertheless, tracks worthy of their (nick)name are not missing; finally a Dee Dee who, besides song-writing, ventures into singing (and I add with decent success) gifting us the explosively "Time Bomb"; the peculiar and groovy "Little Bit O'Soul", the almost experimental (for them) "Time Has Come Today" with the impressive length of four minutes and twenty-five; also a pop-punk madness reminiscent of older times just by mentioning the title: "Everytime I Eat Vegetables It Makes Me Think Of You". The cheerfulness of tracks like "Outsider" and the street bravado of others like "Highest Trail Above" and "In the Park" round it all off, giving us, yes, a minor work but one that still holds its head high considering the period the band was in and the truly too melodic and light direction they were taking. Let's not forget that in a few years they'll deliver more great hits with albums like Too Tough to Die and Animal Boy.

I can only conclude this digression with a "Gabba Gabba Hey!" to everyone, and with a thank you to these four madmen who changed the way I understand music.