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The Undertones
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The Undertones
Current price: $30.99
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Barnes and Noble
The Undertones
Current price: $30.99
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What is a perfect album? One could make an argument that a perfect album is one that sets out a specific set of artistic criteria and then fulfills them flawlessly. In that respect, and many others,
' 1979 debut is a perfect album. The Northern Ireland quintet's brief story is no different than that of literally dozens of other bands to form in the wake of
and, more importantly,
, but the group infuses so much unabashed joy in their two-minute three-chord
songs, and there's so little pretension in their unapologetically teenage worldview, that even the darker hints of life in songs like the suicide-themed
are delivered with a sense of optimism at odds with so many of their contemporaries. There's no fewer than three all-time
classics here; besides that song, the singles
and
are simple declarations of teenage hormonal lust that somehow manage to be cute instead of Neanderthal; perhaps it's
's endearingly adenoidal whine, or the chipper way the
brothers pitch in on schoolboy harmonies, like a teenage Irish
. All of the other 13 songs, even the 47-second blip
are nearly to that level of brilliance, with the frenetic
a particular standout. The
CD adds seven demos and single sides, and also includes an entirely different, punkier version of
than the nervous,
-influenced throb of the version on the original U.K. vinyl. ~ Stewart Mason