Review Summary: A typical case of wrong place, wrong time.
The Ramones. The 80’s. Two concepts that hardly combine, and that will mostly conjure up images of piss-poor music, cheesy keyboards and the end of the punk spirit that made the group so great.
And yet… Even the direst of musical decades for a group has its hidden gem. For AC/DC, it was
Flick of The Switch; for The Ramones, it’s
Animal Boy.
The reason for this album’s consign to oblivion lies in an unfortunate combination of factors: a decrease of interest in the group, after such horrible albums as
Subterranean Jungle and
Too Tough To Die, and a turgid, uncharacteristical cover. Add that to an increasingly shaky line-up, and the stage was set for
Animal Boy to be ignored by critics and fans alike.
Unsurprisingly, that’s what happened. But anyone listening to this album with an open mind will be appalled by the cold shoulder this album got. I mean, come on, folks, this is no
Subterranean Jungle! How can the dull
Too Tough To Die be so lauded while this gets ignored!? It boggles my mind, and it should boggle yours, too.
After all, what we have here is a strong set of songs, although the only famous ones are probably
Somebody Put Something In My Drink , which Children of Bodom covered, and
Bonzo Goes To Bittburg, which appears on
Loco Live. And, to be fair, they
are two of the standouts. However, the “unknown” songs also boast some highlights, and a few songs that should probably have earned more success than they did.
Take
Apeman Hop, for example. Its initial riff reminds us of another, classic Ramonian
Hop, except this time the lyrics are not aboiut cretins, but about a “pre-historic man”. Also, Joey doesn’t merely repeat a few sentences, but crafts a full set of (incredibly funny) lyrics. The result is a great track, with catchy riffing, an even catchier vocal line and some hilarious Tarzanesque backing vocals. An instant highlight, and a song that should have become Canon in the Ramones repertoire.
The same could be said for
Crummy Stuff, a slab of pure juvenile Ramones in an otherwise “mature” album. The lyrics consist of the words “I’ve had enough/ I’ve had it rough/ I’ve had enough with that crummy stuff” and a chorus of “Crummy, crummy, crummy, crummy, crummy, crummy,crummy, crummy, crummy, crummy, crummy, crummy stuff”. The song is basically that, repeated for three minutes. Yet it’s an instant standout in an already strong album. Go figure. But hey – that’s the Ramonian magic for you.
Another solid track is
Hair of The Dog (not a Nazareth cover), a track about – you guessed it – drinking. Once again, Joey’s lyrics are at their most incisive, as the singer declares that “nothing I tried would satisfy/cold Coke and Pepsi and Canada Dry”, and then defiantly asks “What’s so wrong with hair of the dog?”. Although not as strong as the standouts on this album, this is a fun track which definitely warrants a listen.
Actually, that could be said for many of the songs in the album: the stomping title track, the bouncy
Freak Of Nature, the syrupy, classic-style ballad
She Belongs to Me…the only declaredly weak tracks are the awful
Mental Hell and the even worse
Eat That Rat, two tracks that epitomize everything that was wrong with the Ramones in the 80’s.
Other low points include uninspired choruses (most of all on
She Belongs To Me) and a certain overuse of synths, to the point where the last song in the album (
Something To Believe In) hardly makes use of any guitars at all. This is probably due to the influence of former Plasmatics man Jean Beauvoir, who produces the album. Still, this softness is counter-balanced by aggressive vocal performances on songs like
Somebody Put Something In My Drink or
Eat That Rat, and by the fun-loving spirit of the standout tracks.
All in all, this is probably the best Ramones album in the 80’s, if you don’t count
End of The Century, which I don’t. It’s much stronger than what came before, and much stronger than what came after. Its best songs will get stuck in your head forever (I had
Bonzo on repeat in my MP3 for two days), and even its average tracks will be just fun enough to warrant repeat listens. If you can ignore the couple of sour patches in the center, this is one savoury apple that any rock’n’roll fan will be happy to taste. A hidden jewel, highly recommended.
Recommended Tracks
Somebody Put Something In My Drink
My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bittburg)
Apeman Hop
Crummy Stuff
