The Alarm - Under Attack

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

I'm probably going to get a lot of shit for this, but sod it, this is supposed to be I Love Music so here goes:

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 Language
All Natural Lemon and Lime Flavours - Straight Blue Line
Minima Moralia - Chichei Hateyama

*Prepares for hails of abuse to be thrown...*

― alfienoakes, Thursday, 23 February 2006 11:46 (nineteen years ago)

will they lock this one as well?

well?

― bahto habito, Thursday, 23 February 2006 23:28 (nineteen years ago)

since discovering ILM, I have occasionally wondered if there is, somewhere, an 80's chart act absolutely too naff to be rediscovered and rehabilitated by this community.

Test case?

― soukesian, Thursday, 23 February 2006 23:36 (nineteen years ago)

haha, well i liked them when i was 15 too, which was right when declaration came out. i don't think i've heard anything they've done since "rain in the summertime."

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 (nineteen years ago)

I have always loved The Alarm. Some of the best choruses ever written.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 24 February 2006 11:42 (nineteen years ago)

And "Strength" is one of the most underrated albums ever in rock history.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 24 February 2006 11:42 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.pierce.ctc.edu/bbenedet/fall04/Documents/tumbleweed/tumbleweed/tumbleweed.jpg

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 24 February 2006 11:44 (nineteen years ago)

Eddie McDonald's hair!

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Friday, 24 February 2006 12:13 (nineteen years ago)

HAHAHAHA!!!

― NickB (NickB), Friday, 24 February 2006 12:17 (nineteen years ago)

This is NOT a thread by my brother!

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Friday, 24 February 2006 12:43 (nineteen years ago)

yes yes the hair!!!!

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 (nineteen years ago)

Yes it is. That single sucked though.

― Abu Hamster (noodle vague), Friday, 24 February 2006 19:54 (nineteen years ago)

cool gesture though

― -rainbow bum- (-rainbow bum-), Friday, 24 February 2006 20:02 (nineteen years ago)

cool gesture though, in theory

― -rainbow bum- (-rainbow bum-), Friday, 24 February 2006 20:02 (nineteen years ago)

I thought it kinda smacked of fogeyism. And the problem was that the single wasn't some radical hipster thing, it sounded like it could've been recorded by, well, The Alarm.

― Abu Hamster (noodle vague), Friday, 24 February 2006 20:11 (nineteen years ago)

fogeyism is my favorite word of the day now.

― -rainbow bum- (-rainbow bum-), Friday, 24 February 2006 21:01 (nineteen years ago)

And the problem was that the single wasn't some radical hipster thing, it sounded like it could've been recorded by, well, The Alarm.

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 (nineteen years ago)

Sex should be about procreation, not looks or image.

― Raw, Uncompromising, and Noodly (noodle vague), Friday, 24 February 2006 22:28 (nineteen years ago)

sixteen years pass...

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 (two 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 (two 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 (two years ago)

two years pass...

Sadly, he has passed.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y7mxzn9nlo

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 29 April 2025 11:50 (one week 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 (one week 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 (one week 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 (one week 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 (one week ago)

This is horrible RIP.

― Bee OK, Wednesday, 30 April 2025 01:37 (six days ago)

RIP

― kornrulez6969, Friday, 2 May 2025 18:35 (four days ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.