#123
May 1984
The Boomtown Rats
In the Long Grass
2 out of 5
Sigh.
The downward slide of this band has been depressing. I liked Tonic for the Troops a lot. But Fine Art of Surfacing was a crowning achievement of the intersectioning of New Wave & Springsteen. V Deep and Mondo Bongo were both big letdowns and now this. The booming drums, the incessant synthesizers, the lack of humor…it’s a sad slog. You can hear the old Rats in the beginning of “Drag Me Down” but, before you know it all that cacophonous mess is back and then you old out hope and, nope, “Over and Over” comes on, Bob warbles semi-coherently and I want to punch a puppy. Side one sounded like the band had a contract to fill and phoned in this garbage.
Let’s listen to Side Two.
Imagine if Madness had decided that, in order to get out of a contract, they would make the ugliest album they could. That’s the Side Two opener “Tonight”. There’s a sparkle of life on “An Icicle in the Sun”, yes the production is still ugly but at least it sounds like someone’s having fun.
This is a terrible album and makes me glad that the Boomtown Rats were no more after it.
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