Ramones Album: “Subterranean Jungle”

The Ramones' 7th studio album doesn't match their first album but nothing ever could. 1st albums by great bands are just that way. If you can only afford one Ramones album, buy the first, then find a way to buy more. (IMHO the only bad Ramones album is Acid Eaters.) Yes, the production on this one deviates from their trademark low-fi sound but it's good in its own way (and it beats the hell out of End of the Century, a real production cop out), SJ has some classic tracks: `Outsider', `Psychotherapy' as well as a dynamite cover of `Time Has Come Today' complete with Chambers Brothers-like cowbells. What I particularly like about SJ are the strong power pop songs like `I Need Your Love', `What'd Ya Do', `Somebody Like Me', `My-My Kind of Girl' and others. All very catchy, well sung, well played. All in all, this is another great effort. Buy the one with the bonus tracks.

This has always been one of those Ramones albums that nobody pays much attention to, but I've always thought it's a gold mine. Some of their best songs are here: "In My Room," "Outsider," and the unreleased "Unhappy Girl" are among my all-time favorite Ramones songs. It seems like people sneer at anything of theirs that came after their late-'70s classics. Oh well. It's their loss. Skip the cover of "Time Has Come Today" and you've got an entire album of short, catchy but muscular power-pop tunes with the trademark Ramones chainsaw guitar and Joey's New Yawk vocals. This is great stuff, people.

Everybody has their own opinion about which Ramones album was the last classic, and for me it's this one. Their albums tended to veer away from bubblepunk after this and were more hardcore and tuneless, and very dark. Subterranean Jungle's highlights include covers of the pop gems A Little Bit O'Soul and Time Has Come Today, as well as fantastic originals like Joey's (or Joe, as he's credited here) My-my Kind Of A Girl and Dee Dee's Outsider. So start with their first, buy everything up through this, and search the second-hand bins for everything after so you can make a compilation tape of the smattering of songs (like Poison Heart and She Belongs to Me) that came after. Gabba Gabba Hey!

This is the first of the re-masters that I gave any consideration to not purchasing. Even if this, the seventh albulm, is one of the weakest Ramones efforts, and not all would agree with that assessment, it's still easily within the top twenty per cent of rock released, and deserves its five stars.

The albulm begins with a jangle-punk cover of "Little Bit O' Soul", suggesting that Joey and Johnny have decided to hold on to the best of the pop sound of the last two albulms and put some Ramones energy back in. But the albulm doesn't fulfill that promise. The pop-influenced material on this albulm ("Somebody Like Me", "My-My Kind of Girl") sounds tepid, and Johnny's guitar still sounds tame when compared to their classic early material. This timidity undermines the more punk tracks ("Highest Trails Above", "In The Park") flattening the albulm into a pop-punk soupiness wherein float only a couple of really outstanding tracks ("Psycho Therapy", "Outsider"). "Time Has Come Today" could have been found on a 'Stones albulm. Before it sounds like I am panning what I labelled a five-star albulm, I should mention that this albulm is also an intriguing halfway-mark in the band's change in direction away from pop back to their punk roots and the sporting with harcore and metal that was to come. It's the Ramones. It's handled with a fun professionalism that rewards the fan by not straying from what we love about the band. Even if this albulm is, in some ways, a compromise, it only sounds like one when compared to their earlier brash punk and unforgettable pop lunacy.

The re-mastering on this albulm shows the same impressive expertise that its predecessors have. Gil Kaufman flounders a little in his writing for the booklet, but it remains interesting enough. If I had decided to skip this purchase, I would have foolishly missed Rhino's bonus-track gifts to Ramones fans on this albulm. Why "Indian Giver" was left of the albulm is a mystery; it would've been one of its stronger tracks, the pop-punk blend works so well here. The five (surprisingly-polished) demo tracks are interesting digressions from the sound of the albulm. "Unhappy Girl", especially, shows hints of what could have been a classic studio track.

This isn't the place for the punk nor the pop fan to begin with the Ramones ('The Ramones' and 'End of the Century', respectively), but completists will be very pleased with this quality of this re-release.

By 1983, it was apparent (even to the Ramones) that the punk rock acts they had inspired had overshadowed them, and now that punk was moving on in favor of new wave and the dreaded eighties hair metal, the punk pioneers were stuck. Perhaps with this in mind, maybe as an attempt to get out of this rut, the Ramones released the superb "Subterranean Jungle."

Though it didn't take them out of a commerical slump, "Subterranean Jungle" remains one of the Ramones' most accomplished sets. The reason the album seemed to have the strength to stop the lack of critical and commercial recognition is its overall brooding and all-out punk attitude. Before "Subterranean Jungle," the Ramones' original punk rock stylings were all catchy, high-energy, blistering ditties, blending 50's bop and deadpan sonic punk, with a cartoonish sense of humor. But with this 1983 punk masterpiece, the Ramones seem to say "Step aside..." to the acts they had inspired (or rather, the acts that ripped them off), brandishing their classic punk attack, an underlying sense of anger and, replacing their cartoonish humor, healthy cynicism. Two of the Ramones most classic recordings of the 80's, 'Outsider' and 'Psycho Therapy' are full of their energy and wit, while 'Time Bomb' and 'In the Park' are exceptionally stylish punk, and 'What'd Ya Do?' is a genuine sparkler. But of course, the Ramones haven't traded in their 50's/60's pop roots, displayed here with 'Little Bit O' Soul' and 'Time Has Come Today.'

"Subterranean Jungle" contains exemplary Ramones performances, while slightly maneuvering their appeal into a redefined sense of musical purpose, but surely not losing their classic claim to punk rock royalty. The aspect captured on "Subterranean Jungle" would continue onto further releases such as "Animal Boy" and "Halfway to Sanity," making this album an influential piece in the Ramones' legacy.