The Undertones

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
No band ever captured the innocent side of punk rock--the first generation, that is--as well as this Irish combo. Fueled by adolescent desire more than political angst, frontman Feargal Sharkey quavered and quailed about "Teenage Kicks" (to name but one of the album's multiple classics) while his bandmates pounded out incessantly pogo-friendly riffs that valued fun over fearsomeness. Each three-minute blast--from the starry "Here Comes the Summer" to the "yeah, whatever" self-deprecation of "Girls Don't Like It"--carries a depth charge of power beneath its frothy surface, a formula that would later be revived by Green Day. Sharkey went on to record more subdued solo material, while several of his bandmates formed the angular post-punk band That Petrol Emotion. --David Sprague --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Tracks:

Love Will Tear Us Apart
Just Cant Get Enough
In A Manner Of Speaking
Guns Of Brixton
This Is Not A Love Song
Too Drunk To ****
Marian
Making Plans For Nigel
A Forest
I Melt With You
Teenage Kicks
Psyche
Friday Night Saturday Morning
Sorry For Laughing

Amazon.com

Recycling the 1980s sound has been in vogue lately, so it's no surprise that the producing team known as Nouvelle Vague would find yet another way to mine the nostalgia for the early `80s, post-punk era. They're doing it bossa nova style.

The disc opens with a rendition of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart." It's a charming start, and with a breathy chanteuse on vocals, it's exactly the kind of sound that has some music critics proclaiming (admittedly with a touch of sarcasm) that Nouvelle Vague is the ironic dinner music for the new millennium. Unfortunately, this CD is somewhat less winning as it wears on. "Guns of Brixton" is annoying when done in a loungey mood, and sitting through "Too Drunk to F**k" in the wrong company could certainly ruin the amuse bouche. Nevertheless, the entertaining tracks do outweigh tiresome ones on this release. If this concept sounds like an interesting idea to you, you're bound to get a smile from the execution. --Leah Weathersby

Customer Reviews:

Lounge with spunk.......2007-07-08

Or is it punk? Anyway I've got a weak spot for lounge music and this may best, edgiest lounge you'll ever hear. Frankly, I'm not all that familiar with most of the originals so I have no idea how much they've been maimed here. All I know is that the vocals are inspired and impossible to ignore.

In Love With This Album!.......2007-06-07

I absolutely LOVE this album! I listen to many different genres of music but I have to say that this album is one of my ultimate favorite cd's! I don't get tired of listening to it! I'm so glad I was introduced to Nouvelle Vague and I have shared this cd with many friend of mine...I then recently purchased their second album Bande A Part, but I was disappointed however, it's not nearly as good as their first...I love 80's music, Bossa Nova, AND Nu Wave, definetly recommend this cd!

Brilliantly different..........2007-04-15

First time through this distinctly "left field" album is likely to leave you a bit confused... laid back interpretations of classic 80's rock tracks served up as nonchalant, bossa-nova driven Anglo-French lounge music. Ridiculous? Well, fortunately not, because in here are some absolute gems - so good that once you've locked into what's going on you'll find them completely irresistible. Which ones depends on where you were at the time but, for me, "Teenage Kicks", "Love Will Tear Us Apart", "We're Only Making Plans for Nigel" & "Just Can't Get Enough" are so beautifully structured and darkly exciting that they're worth the price of the album on its own. But, as you'll see from the other reviews, there's a lot more on offer. Sure, some tracks miss it... but most don't and, insidious and clever, they add up to a brilliant, very different and probably unrepeatable "one off".

Relaxing AND Catchy!.......2007-04-10

Well .... this album combines two of the better qualities I like in a CD. Nouvelle Vague is relaxing -- and extremely catchy! 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' sets the tone from the very beginning ... the comfortable bossa nova rhythm leads to a chorus I found myself whistling along with ... while Nouvellle Vague's catchy take on 'Just Can't Get Enough' had me humming along. I mentioned in another review that I'm not too familiar with the 70s/80s originals ... and because of that I find that this album of covers is a stand-alone, especially for those that are fans of rhythmic bossa nova, samba, and jazz. For me, every song on this album is strong ... As a picky and eccentric listener, this is one of the few times I can play through an entire album and never have to skip a track. It doesn't mean that I don't have favorites on this album -- 'Marian' was the reason I decided to buy the CD. I bought this CD with Bande a Part, because there were several songs on that CD that I felt compliment this one ... but this CD, Nouvelle Vague, is the stronger of two excellent CDs.

Mixed bag gives bossa nova swing to olde inde faves.......2007-01-23

This outing from the cover band Novelle Vague satisfies immensely in many ways, and just plain misses in others. If you are an old timmer who grew up on the originals (like me) then you may find this newly vamped bossa nova approach to 80s post-punk staples a fun filled romp down nostalgia lane. It isn't for everyone, though, and a word of caution to those of you who are missing out by not having heard the originals (all brilliant in their own right) first. The often covered Joy Division classic, "Love Will Tear Us Apart," gives us a warmer rendition than the bleak original, but not better, just different. Of stellar mention is their fun, catchy cover of the DK's hc classic "Too Drunk to..." and the Clash's London-calling era ska-soaked "Guns of Brixton." I will also add that their cover of the insufferably boring "This is not a Love Song" (of disco-era post-Pistols Johnny Rotten PIL fame) gets a great face lift...upwards: Simply awesome!! On the other hand, Nouvelle Vague miss almost entirely on the gothic realm, as best evidenced by their butchering of Andrew Eldritch's "Marian" (off the Sisters of Mercy's first LP, "First and Last and Always") and with their mediocre quickening of The Cure's "A Forest" (which seems to be popular in covering, especially with the techno / rave crowd). Overall this is a good buy, but it does have a couple renditions that deserve a quick skip with a toggle of the fast forward button. A better NV effort is showcased in their "Bande A Part" LP, where they do a fantastic cover of the power-punk-pop classic "Ever Fallen in Love," a former Buzzcocks masterpiece. 4 stars for effort and originality.

Average customer rating:

You Gotta Getta

The Undertones
The Undertones
Manufacturer: Castle Us
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0007TKG8U
Release Date: 2005-02-15

Tracks:

Family Entertainment
Girls Don't Like It
Male Model
I Gotta Getta
Teenage Kicks
Wrong Way
Jump Boys
Here Comes the Summer [Original Version]
Get Over You
Billy's Third
Jimmy Jimmy
True Confessions
(She's A) Runaround
I Know a Girl
Listening In
Casbah Rock
Smarter Than You [*]
True Confessions [*]
Emergency Cases [*]
Really Really [*]
She Can Only Say No [*]
Mars Bars [*]
One Way Love [*]
Top Twenty [*]
You've Got My Number (Why Don't You Use It!) [*]
Let's Talk About Girls [*]

Customer Reviews:

You Gotta Getta.......2005-10-11

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."

Average customer rating:

tragically overlooked and underappreciated band
i don't need no sugar
A Perfect Collection of Pop n Punk
no What's With Terry?
Are teenage dreams so hard to beat?

The Very Best of the Undertones
The Undertones
Manufacturer: Rykodisc
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Basher: The Best of Nick Lowe
Kinks (The Ultimate Collection)
What It Is! Funky Soul And Rare Grooves (1967-1977)

ASIN: B0000009V3
Release Date: 1994-10-25

Tracks:

Teenage Kicks
Family Entertainment
Get Over You
Girls Don't Like It
Male Model
Here Comes The Summer
Jimmy Jimmy
You've Got My Number (Why Don't You Use It?)
Mars Bars
Let's Talk About Girls
My Perfect Cousin
The Way Girls Talk
Tearproof
More Songs About Chocolate And Girls
Hypnotised
Wednesday Week
The Positive Touch
You're Welcome
It's Going To Happen
Julie Ocean
When Saturday Comes
Forever Paradise
The Love Parade
Soul Seven
Casbah Rock

Customer Reviews:

tragically overlooked and underappreciated band.......2006-10-21

Poor Undertones! They should have been so much bigger. They were hurt by their timing and how they were originally categorized. They came out during the Brittish punk explosion but they were hardly punk. They were, when they first came out, classified as a second rate, Irish Ramones which was also grossly inaccurate. This was primitive Rock and Roll with no negativity, no message, no agenda...it was just fun, bombastic music sang by 15-17 year old bandmates. They had a knack for hooky songs, played them nice and raw, and the singer had a nice gritty voice.

They were the opposite of a poser...they were like you and I, strapped on guitars, sat at the drums and pounded out the songs with no pretention.

They were never accepted in the U.S. and when punk died out, they went with it. Too bad!

Most of the 25 tracks here are real good songs. The songwriting waned after the second album but they never prodiced a weak track. "Teenage Kicks" is the best of the lot. A real simple, practically two chord song with a great hook and sing along chorus. Other standouts are "Girls don't like it", "Here comes the summer", "More talk about chocolate and girls (what a great title!)", "My perfect cousin" and "hypnotized". All of these songs appeal to the teenager interested in girls, cars, food, girls and girls. The lyrics are done in almost a conversational style.

I wish the compilation had the song "jump boys" on it.

If these guys would have been lumped in with the "power pop" crowd (which is more their character) rather than the punks, they would have had a longer lifespan and more accolades.

One day, one of their songs will be featured on a movie soundtrack or covered by some top 40 artist and they will be rediscovered.

Whatever happened to Feargal Sharkey (their lead singer)?

i don't need no sugar .......2005-11-28

the undertones a punk band that i love with all my heart when really i don't like punk that much i usually listen too metal/folk rock/blues but somehow i heard featured on a telvision advert and was blown away by the simple get amazing song it was a song to make every teenager sit up and go yeah
"i get teenage kicks right through the night alright"
that lines sums up my whole teenagehood what a band
and there's some other punk classics on here too,

family entertainment, get over you, girls don't like it,
more songs and chocolate and girls ETC i could gone on for hours at how great the undertones were but i won't
just one lst thing JOHN PEEL THE LATE GREAT DJ thankyou

A Perfect Collection of Pop n Punk.......2005-04-11

The Undertones' first album was totally punk with a touch of pop to it (think Green Day, only 100 times better!!!). Then they moved in more of a pop direction slowly with each album, but that never bothered me, because the songs were so bloody brilliant!!! The evidence is here! If you are afraid to buy a later Undertones album, check this one out! You'll get the lots of the early stuff and small doses of the later stuff (and I think you'll be VERY pleasantly surprised - unless everything HAS to be Punk for you - how boring!) This CD is TOTAL JOY!!!
Nothing less than 5 stars! Even without What's With Terry!

no What's With Terry?.......2003-04-10

What's with Terry -one of their best songs is not on here. It is the theme song for the great WFMU DJ Terre T. This is an unimaginable slight, and a crying shame. Time for a rerelease, Ryko!!

Are teenage dreams so hard to beat?.......2003-01-28

Back in the early days of punk, only three bands timelessly fused punk sensibilities and pop sensibilities. The first two are the Buzzcocks and the Ramones. The final is the Undertones. Storming out of Northern Ireland in 1978, the band rejected both the sneering insincerity of bands like the Sex Pistols and the incendiary politics of their compatriots the Stiff Little Fingers. (Said Undertones guitarist and songwriter John O'Neill, "Talking about what went on in the North seemed...for old people.") In the process the Undertones crafted some of the most winning, enduring, and sincere punk/pop songs of all time, never afraid to be dismissed as "soft" by their contemporaries. (After all, can you picture Johnny Rotten singing an ode to candy?)

But tragically, once the 1980's hit, the band felt pressure to go in new directions, and whenever great bands feel pressure to go in new directions, they are invariably bad ones. Their second album, "Hypnotized", released in 1980, has its ups and downs, but nowhere could you find the sheer scintillating infectious energy of the debut. And after "Hypnotized" the punk energy that was the secret ingredient to the band's brilliance had disappeared.

And that is why, despite my love for them, "The Very Best of the Undertones" gets 4 stars. It should actually be 3 1/2 stars, but I'll be kind and round up because, after all, they are the Undertones, and because the liner notes are essential, and because the first ten tracks on this album can hold their own against anything:

"Teenage Kicks" is, of course, a classic. What's even amazing is that, unlike most teenage classics in the pop annals, John O'Neill actually wrote it when HE was a teenager! Further compounding the legend, when the band recorded it, the average age wasn't even nineteen, and the oldest, John, was just 20. John Peel's all-time favorite and definitely one of my all-time favorites, too. The two most memorable opening lines from the punk era are "I am an antichrist/I am an anarchist" from "Anarchy in the UK" by the Pistols and "Are teenage dreams so hard to beat?" from "Teenage Kicks". But while the former was a great in-your-face down-with-the-system manifesto (but an awful rhyme), the latter was simply a gorgeous pop/punk song, riddled with hooks and handclaps and Feargal Sharkey's unforgettable vibrato. Feargal's vocal on this is mindblowing; the lyrics are angsty yet delicate and wistful. One of the all-time greats. "Family Entertainment" is a catchy, infectious number that was the lead-off track from the Undertones' self-titled debut. "Get Over You" really grows on you. The liner notes bemoan its "clean" production, and while it may not be as beautifully rough as "Teenage Kicks", it's not Chris De Burgh, either! A great, catchy song that features, like many of the other early Undertones songs, great backing vocals from the O'Neill brothers John and Damian. "Girls Don't Like It" is another angsty, winning song that showcases the band's rougher side very well. "Male Model" is priceless. The lyrics are hilariously clever. "Here Comes the Summer" is another Undertones 45, and another classic. From Feargal opening with "Ooh baby baby/What can I do?" to the indelible organ line of the chorus, to the pure punk guitar solo, a great, less-than-two-minute song. "Jimmy Jimmy" is a bit silly, but has the catchiest two-word chorus of all time. Actually, one word chorus...just repeated twice! "You've Got My Number (Why Don't You Use It?)" is riddled with painful, longing hooks, but, in contrast, an almost spy guitar-like verse. Another angsty, wistful, adolescent classic. "If you wanna wanna wanna wanna wanna have someone to talk to..." "Mars Bars" is of course the only punk song ever written about chocolate, so it goes without saying that it's essential. (Love the breaking glass sample!) Finally, "Let's Talk About Girls" is a tongue-in-cheek cover featuring a hilariously over-the-top vocal by Feargal.

But after this...the energy went away. It should be noted that "You've Got My Number/Let's Talk About Girls" was the last thing the band released in the '70s. Everything hereafter came from the '80s. And the songs beyond the first ten tracks just can't measure up. The energy is gone. The unabashed innocence is gone, or at least it leaves by the time the "Hypontized" tracks finish...all we have are those darn "new directions". That's not to say they're entirely worthless, but the tone set by the first ten tracks is not sustained, and it's hard for me to even get past the grating "Wednesday Week". I'm sure if I maybe started the CD at track eleven I'd be able to get further, and sometimes I skip to "It's Going to Happen", which is a bouyant pop song, but not a punk song. Some of the "Hypnotized" tracks can hold their own, too: "Tearproof", "Hypnotized", and especially the soulful "The Way Girls Talk"...but even then the tone is lost. A final caveat: "Casbah Rock" is actually from the Undertones (very, very) early period, and a fine--but very short!--song, but it's put at the end there in tribute to the fact that it was the closer on the Undertones' first album.

In conclusion, if you want to get to know the Undertones, I would suggest you buy the first album. (I did.) If you have the money, I suggest you buy this as a companion piece. The liner notes make the purchase worthwhile, and the only worthwhile songs of the Undertones' later period are documented here. Further, "You've Got My Number", an Undertones classic, and "Let's Talk About Girls" are NOT available on the first album, although they are available on some releases of the "Hypnotized". So all in all this is a recommended purchase. But if you seek that tone set by the first ten tracks sustained all the way through, buy the Undertones' self-titled debut.

Average customer rating:
Undertones
Corey Smith
Manufacturer: Corey Smith/Broken Bottle Music
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000LQC0RY

Product Description

Debut album with New Art Work, Packaging & Special Bonus!!! Track list: 01. In Love with a Memory 02. What Happened 03. When the Sun Goes Down in Georgia 04. Twenty-One 05. As Angels Cry 06. Better Place 07. Cherokee Rose 08. Be the Change 09. From a Distance 10. The Basement 11. Where's the Love

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Hypnotised
The Undertones
Manufacturer: Sanctuary
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0009VJWRW
Release Date: 2005-08-01

Tracks:

More Songs About Chocolate and Girls
There Goes Norman
Hypnotised
See That Girl
Whizz Kids
Under the Boardwalk
Way Girls Talk
Hard Luck
My Perfect Cousin
Boys Will Be Boys
Tearproof
Wednesday Week
Nine Times Out of Ten
Girls That Don't Talk
What's with Terry?
You've Got My Number (Why Don't You Use It?) [*]
Hard Luck (Again) [Alternate Take][*]
Let's Talk About Girls [*]
Told You So [*]
I Don't Wanna See (You Again) [*]

Album Description

Reissue of the 1980 original release includes the 3 bonus tracks 'Hard Luck (Again)', 'I Don't Wanna See (You Again)' & 'I Told You So'. Sanctuary. 2005.

Album Details

Digitally Remastered Edition of the Irish Group's Brilliant Sophomore Album. Within a Year of their Debut in April 1980, the Undertones Released their Second Album. A Considerable Advance on that First Effort, Both Musically and Lyrically, "Hypnotised" features Hit Singles `my Perfect Cousin' and `wednesday Week', Both Stellar Examples of the O'neill Brothers' Songwriting Skills. "Hypnotised" was the Undertones' Best Selling of their Four Studio Lps, Reaching Number Six in the UK Charts.

Average customer rating:

Sweet Irish Undertones
Dolce Divas
Manufacturer: RedHatMusic
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Tracks:

She Moved Thro'The Fair
All The Fine Young Men
The Connemara Cradle Song
The West's Awake
The Cliffs of Dooneen
I know My Love
The Last Rose of Summer
All The Souls
My Lagan Love
Fill, Fill, A Run O
An Chuileann
There is an Isle

Product Description

"Sweet Irish Undertones" is a stunning collection of Irish songs sung by Dolce Divas, arranged creatively, blending classical and traditional styles. Dolce Divas are Deirdre Moynihan (soprano) and Pauline Frizelle (mezzo-soprano). They are classically trained professional singers whose beautiful voices, unique vocal blend and exquisite harmonies have won them many fans around the world. For this collection they have chosen some beautiful Irish Airs and given them a fresh and contemporary feel so that they sit comfortably beside the two recently composed songs on the album "All The Fine Young Men" and "All The Souls". Classical and Irish influences can clearly be heard throughout the album and this merge of styles is particularly effective in the unusual pairings of string ensemble with Irish guitar. Sweet Irish Undertones is full of variety with lively tracks such as I know My Love and the Spanish influenced Connemara Cradle Song providing a great contrast to the more poignant My Lagan Love or the atmospheric She Moved Thro The Fair . Classical influences are more evident on tracks such as The Last Rose of Summer , There is an Isle and An Chuileann while the gentle harp, button-accordion and oboe arrangement of The Cliffs of Dooneen allows the listener to experience this most unusual classical & traditional blend. Expansive string arrangements combined with gentle finger picked guitar on both The West s Awake and All The Souls invites the listener to absorb the warm tones and beautiful sentiments of these songs. Sweet Irish Undertones is a recording of exceptional quality. It is engaging throughout from the instantly appealing All the Fine Young Men to the hauntingly beautiful Fill, Fill, A Run O . Sweet Irish Undertones will prove to be a timeless classic.

Teenage Kicks: The Best of the Undertones

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Teenage Kicks: The Best of the Undertones
Undertones
Manufacturer: Bmg Victor
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Alternative Rock | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B000244TW4
Release Date: 2004-07-05

Tracks:

Teenage Kicks
My Perfect Cousin
Jimmy Jimmy
Here Comes The Summer
Wednesday Week
You've Got My Number (Why Don't You Use It?)
There Goes Norman
It's Going To Happen
Get Over You
When Saturday Comes
Male Model
Julie Ocean
True Confessions
(She's A) Runaround
Mars Bars
Crisis Of Mine
Let's Talk About Girls
Love Parade
Girls That Don't Talk
Bittersweet

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Liberty Square
Udora
Manufacturer: UDORA
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000CAKV0M
Release Date: 2005-11-08

Tracks:

Beautiful Game
Light in the Hole
Liberty Square
Fade Away
Breathing Life
Change of Tide
Dear Nostalgia
Wake Up Dead Man
Phantom Limb
Pieces
Faith & Reason
When It Ends
Song You'll Never Hear
See You Later

Average customer rating:

Running in Circles
Forest Glen
Manufacturer: Think Tank Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Blues | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B000BX7KXG
Release Date: 2002-01-15

Tracks:

Harp Start
Running in Circles
Down
Up in Found
Hold On
Tunnel Track Blues
Fast for You
Jimmy d's Chicken Pickin' Boogie
You Take Me (Higher)
That Ain't Right

Product Description

10 songs

Average customer rating:

phatty bass
I know, I know, it ain't the first two albums. It's the best version of their more gentle sound
THE UNDERTONES GO SUPREMELY MELODIC & PSYCHEDELIC
A Touch too Much

Positive Touch
The Undertones
Manufacturer: Sbme Castle Us
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B0000C0FCE
Release Date: 2003-09-09

Tracks:

Fascination
Julle Ocean
Life's Too Easy
Crisis of Mine
You're Welcome
His Good Looking Girlfriend
Positive Touch
When Saturday Comes
It's Going to Happen
Sigh and Explode
I Don't Know
Hannah Doot
Boy Wonder
Forever Paradise
Fairly in the Money Now [*]
Julle Ocean [*]
Kiss in the Dark [*]
Beautiful Friend [*]
Life's Too Easy [*]

Customer Reviews:

phatty bass.......2006-03-24

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.

I know, I know, it ain't the first two albums. It's the best version of their more gentle sound.......2006-03-02

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

THE UNDERTONES GO SUPREMELY MELODIC & PSYCHEDELIC.......2004-06-22

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!!!

A Touch too Much.......2004-03-04

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.

Music:

Music

Carlo Paessler: Works for Clarinet and Orchestra

Essential, Vol. 1

Become the Other [Import]

Bendy's Law

Breakfast with Bach

Clementi; Sonatas for Piano, 4-hands

Beating Around the Bush

Best of 1

Best of 1974-1979 [Import]

Cajun & Zydeco Mardi Gras

Blessing for Parenthood [Import]

Dynasty - Greatest Hits

Mrs. Henderson Presents