The Alarm - Standards

Rhyl's finest's greatest hits album, even if very few of the songs were hits. Sometimes described as Wales' answer to U2, although more usually as a poor man's U2 or Clash wannabees, The Alarm made a handful of strong tracks, typically rousing songs with anthemic hooks full of earnest big statements.

I bought the 12 inch single version of "Where Were You Hiding When The Storm Broke" and regularly would sing along to the "One By One","Two By Two" and "Three By Three" chants in the second verse. It's hard to think that was in 1984, as I thought it was a few years later than that !

I bought this album after hearing the heroic and wistful "New South Wales" sung in Welsh, and was a little disappointed to find the English version on it.....

The full album of Standards is available twice on YouTube, although both had different track listings to this. Both were missing the final two tracks on my LP, but had other songs not on my LP, so I had to separately search for these in order to play.

Not surprisingly I enjoyed hearing again and singing along to the two Clash style calls to arm ( "Sixty Eight Guns" & "Where Were You Hiding When The Storm Broke"). "The Stand" is not nearly as outstanding but could easily be an album track on London Calling or Sandinista with its Joe Strummer style vocal and Clash style backing vocals. "Absolute Reality" and "Unsafe Building" are better than I remember and I found myself tapping my toes to them.

The Springsteen-esque "Spirit of '76" is probably the best piece of work The Alarm came up with, and the mix of frustration, bitterness, sadness and determination is still very powerful - all seven minutes of it. If I had to recommend just one song by The Alarm, it would be this one. Bryan Adams is probably very jealous of it.

A couple of the late career attempts at aiming for the mainstream mass market ( "Rain In The Summertime" & "Sold Me Down The River" ) still sound prety good, and the wife actually liked "New South Wales", which features a Welsh Male Voice Choir.

The LP ends with a cover of John Lennon's "Happy Christmas ( War Is Over )" which is sung quite nicely and also features the Welsh Male Voice Choir, but I am not sure what the point of it was.

The other songs on the album are nice. Whilst they are not particularly memorable, I would rather listen to them than most things !

Track Listing :

1. The Road ( 1990 - )
2. Unsafe Building ( 1981 - )
3. The Stand ( 1983 - No : 86 )
4. Six-Eight Guns ( 1983 - No : 17 )
5. Where Were You Hiding When The Storm Broke ( 1984 - No : 22 )
6. Absolute Reality ( 1985 - No : 35 )
7. Strength ( 1985 - No : 40 )
8. Spirit of '76 ( 1986 - No : 22 )
9. Rain In The Summertime ( 1987 - No : 18 )
10. Rescue Me ( 1987 - No : 48 )
11. Sold Me Down The River ( 1989 - No : 48 )
12. A New South Wales ( 1989 - No : 31 )
13. Happy Christmas ( War Is Over ) ( 1989 - )

Released 1990
UK Chart Position :47