Ramones - End of the Century
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Free Music Notes for End of the Century
Free Music Review: OK - I was wrong
Hit: 4 Stars
For twenty years I thought that this was the album that killed The Ramones. It's not. It's actually very good - just different. I guess it's like when Bob Dylan went electric - some of us just were not ready for it at the time. The Ramones didn't sell out - they made a great record with Phil Spector who took them to places they hadn't been to before. Listen-enjoy!
Free Music Review: Flawed Concept Album
Hit: 3 Stars
Okay we get it. Its been said by many famous rock critics and the Ramones themselves countless times that punk was just a return to basic rock 'n' roll without the superfluous additions that attempted to make a rock an "art form". Great. However, not only were the earlier Ramones song louder, faster and sloppier they also had (for the time) edgy lyrics like, "Now I Want to Sniff Some Glue". The first self titled album and Rocket to Russia still play well (and sound great in the reissues) today but End of the Century is different. It starts off with "Do You Remember Rock and Roll Radio" which breaks a cardinal rule of rock music. Never mention "rock 'n' roll" in the song title (need I give examples). The songs are catchy but lack the subversive fun of what came before (the cover song Chinese Rock bowdlerized the title). Yes the Ramones obviously had fun in the studio and Phil Spector got some hip credibility but even though the idea of the album is fun, there is something lacking in it. After this the Ramones really never did release a solid album though some good songs here and there. And yes, punk eventually did hit the mainstream but that's not neccessarily a good thing.Free Music Review: a Joey Ramone album, not a Ramones album
Hit: 2 Stars
Really if you want to hear punk tunes like "Blitzkrieg Bop", don't come here. Hit the first 4 -- those would be Ramones, Leave Home, Rocket To Russia, and Road To Ruin -- then skip to Too Tough To Die (not my fave, but many people consider it in league with the early stuff) and Subterranean Jungle (for "Psychotherapy", their best update of the early formula).
End Of The Century is Joey ascendant, with all the sentiment and oldies pop he favored. Producer Phil Spector wanted to make a Joey Ramone solo album, but the band (including Joey) thought the time was wrong for such (it wasn't), and wanted to continue promoting The Ramones as a band. So Spector buried said band in session musicians and used arrangements that punk rock fans found dull and infuriating.
And about half these tunes wouldn't be worth salvaging anyway.
For what it's worth, Johnny & Dee Dee (the "punk" writing team on early albums) weren't talking to each other at the time, so a good Ramones album just wasn't going to happen. From this point on, Joey carried about half the songwriting load (communal writing credit to "The Ramones" would end with the next album), diluting their impact considerably.
I'd sooner hear End Of The Century than Don't Worry About Me, which is another good album if you really appreciate Joey as a full-fledged aesthetic concept. Me I enjoy Joey as the goofy singer of punk anthems in front of a loud, fast band, and that's something this album doesn't feature.
Free Music Review: Was it something in the water?
Hit: 2 Stars
I am one of the folks who thinks that the Ramones were just never the same after "Road to Ruin"...this album is just not that good. The Ramones are about hard-driving punk, not pop music. "Too Tough To Die" and "Animal Boy" were returns to their hard-driving form in the early- to mid-80's, but by then the Ramones had lost their edge, and never recovered it.
What was it about all of the rockers who started putting out weaker-sounding albums around 1980 and never recovered? Ted Nugent, Foghat, Blackfoot, Pat Travers...the list goes on and on. Those performers put out some incredible hard rock in the 1977-1981 time frame, and then for whatever reasons released wimpy-sounding albums that caused their popularity to nosedive, and they never recovered.
While the Ramones' popularity actually increased (maybe because of their legendary status, instead of the albums they continued to release) down the road, they, too, never recovered the magic of their first four albums. "End Of The Century" might be a great album to some people, but if you love their first four albums, you might not like this one.
Free Music Review: Production matters
Hit: 2 Stars
Phil Spector should have been on trial for murder years ago. Murder of an entire band's appeal. I'm a pretty big Ramones fan, and I'll be the first to admit their later work is totally lame, but the blood of this record is on Spector's probably alreadly bloodied hands. (I mean, chances are, right?) Don't get me wrong, his wall of sound works some places - - pretty much of all of his work with The Righteous Bros. is quality i.e. "Unchained Melody", but "End of the Century" is totally flat. Even still, the music on it is only OK. If someone somewhere pulled a "Let It Be...Naked" on this album I would at most give it 2.5 stars. Anyway, save your money. Personally, I wouldn't even check this out at the library.