Last week I posted a thread slagging off the new Alarm single.I used to like the Alarm when I was 15 - I used to like them a lot, but I've not listend to them for years.
Over the weekend I got give a promo of their new album.Since then I've listened to little else.It has its faults - Mainly the appalling lyrics and the occasional Faux Bonoisms - But then the Alarm were always like that. If you're prepared to forgive it that, then Its a cracking album.
I'm not going to say its a classic, best album ever etc, but I've listened to it more than any other album so far this year.
That's all - I was as suprised as anyone else would be to like an Alarm album.
To give some context about my musical taste, the other stuff I picked up at the same time as this album was:Belong - October LanguageAll Natural Lemon and Lime Flavours - Straight Blue LineMinima Moralia - Chichei Hateyama
*Prepares for hails of abuse to be thrown...*
― alfienoakes, Thursday, 23 February 2006 11:46 (twenty years ago)
well?
― bahto habito, Thursday, 23 February 2006 23:28 (twenty years ago)
Test case?
― soukesian, Thursday, 23 February 2006 23:36 (twenty years ago)
i don't actually think they're defensible, but i'll allow that i probably still know all the ridiculous words to "68 guns."
― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Thursday, 23 February 2006 23:41 (twenty years ago)
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 24 February 2006 11:42 (twenty years ago)
― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 24 February 2006 11:44 (twenty years ago)
― Onimo (GerryNemo), Friday, 24 February 2006 12:13 (twenty years ago)
― NickB (NickB), Friday, 24 February 2006 12:17 (twenty years ago)
― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Friday, 24 February 2006 12:43 (twenty years ago)
they are a great guilty pleasure... like 80's U2 but with bonus campiness fun factor. I only started listening a few years ago since they are easy thrift store scores. Although the hits CD, "standards" is not good... "strength" and "eye of the hurricane" are better i think.
according to amazon.com review by Gord Wilson, "Howling Wind" is "the best hackey sack song of all time", wow!
Is this the same band that recently put out a pseudonymous album using some teenage models for the cover to get record company props, and it worked, and then they were all like "haha it's us that old band you ignore because you twats don't care about work ethic"?
― -rainbow bum- (-rainbow bum-), Friday, 24 February 2006 19:49 (twenty years ago)
― Abu Hamster (noodle vague), Friday, 24 February 2006 19:54 (twenty years ago)
― -rainbow bum- (-rainbow bum-), Friday, 24 February 2006 20:02 (twenty years ago)
― Abu Hamster (noodle vague), Friday, 24 February 2006 20:11 (twenty years ago)
― -rainbow bum- (-rainbow bum-), Friday, 24 February 2006 21:01 (twenty years ago)
And it worked commercially. So it is possible for old guys to sell to youngsters too.
Music should be about music, not looks nor image.
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 24 February 2006 21:09 (twenty years ago)
― Raw, Uncompromising, and Noodly (noodle vague), Friday, 24 February 2006 22:28 (twenty years ago)
This seems to be the closest thing we have to an Alarm thread. Mike Peters is battling cancer:
https://thealarm.com/reality-check-a-personal-message-from-mike-peters/
― lord of the rongs (anagram), Monday, 17 October 2022 09:43 (three years ago)
This is not his first go-round on that front, is it? Stay strong, Mike Peters.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 17 October 2022 12:10 (three years ago)
Almost 20 years I think he's been fighting it. His wife got diagnosed with breast cancer about 5 years ago too.
― groovypanda, Monday, 17 October 2022 12:56 (three years ago)
Sadly, he has passed.https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y7mxzn9nlo
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 29 April 2025 11:50 (ten months ago)
It is amazing how many songs I know by the Alarm, just from the radio. "Strength," "The Stand," "Rain in the Summertime," "Sold Me Down the River" ... I always thought that last one was low hanging cover-version fruit for some mainstream country artist. Maybe it's happened already?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j3_DUqKyTk
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 29 April 2025 12:54 (ten months ago)
Jon Langford: "Knew Mike from when we was a mod-welsh-teen opening for the Mekons in Chester in 1979 - a lovely man and brave as fuck REST IN POWER."
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 29 April 2025 12:55 (ten months ago)
D1m3aD0zen torrent tape trading site had a good reel-to-reel master of November 17th 1985 WXRT Sunday night concert of the Alarm at Metro recently and I was happy to snap it up, as it was my intro to the band when I was in H.S. Super-fun performance and a nice way to remember Peters today. He certainly was a fighter and helped lymphoma/cancer causes with the same zeal as his front-man energy.
― BlackIronPrison, Tuesday, 29 April 2025 14:10 (ten months ago)
Really nice post from Rey Roldan, a long time fan who has worked in music PR for decades now and started representing Peters a few years back.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 29 April 2025 16:24 (ten months ago)
This is horrible RIP.
― Bee OK, Wednesday, 30 April 2025 01:37 (ten months ago)
RIP
― kornrulez6969, Friday, 2 May 2025 18:35 (ten months ago)