The Undertones - Positive Touch
#307
By Michael Miyashiro
May 5 1981
The Undertones
Positive Touch
Genre: Rock…New Wave…Pop Rock…Punk…..
Allen’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Michael’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Highlights:
It’s Going to Happen
Julie Ocean
If the Undertones released only that corking debut record back in the summer of '79, they would have had a safe harbour in pop arcana. With catchy pop nuggets such as "Teenage Kicks" and "Jimmy Jimmy" lunging off the speakers with fresh abandon, they were Northern Ireland's premiere garage band. With Feargal Sharkey's quavering vocals begging for attention as the band backs him with catchy three chord riffs and pursuing a lyrical stance far away from their turbulent upbringing in Derry, Northern Ireland during the '70s, The Undertones helped set a benchmark for every nervy teenager's desire to take their guitar and crank power pop tales of youthful angst well beyond the basement woes.
Fortunately for us, they didn't stop there. Their follow-up the following summer, "Hypnotized," showed fine maturity on tracks like "My Perfect Cousin" (nice narrative details) and "More Songs About Chocolate and Girls" (a keen self-awareness). A massive hit in the UK where it went gold and cracked the Top 10, that placed the lads in an interesting position - whether to cash in or progress on a hit making style.
By 1981, The Undertones were eager to shake their identity as an Irish version of the Ramones and for their third album, they expanded their scope impressively. Hitting a variety of molds, the diversity of tempos and textures showcased the band to be stellar songwriters as well as being smart practitioners of hitcraft. As lead guitarist and key songwriter, Damian O'Neill would recall for an interview with Mick Houghton for "Uncut" magazine in 2008: "We'd moved away from the Ramones. Dexys was my thing. And we were listening to a lot of the Stones, Aftermath in particular - it's more 1966 than 1981 - Love, Blues Magoos, that kind of sound, which was out of sync with the likes of Duran Duran. But it was also out of sync with what we were doing a year earlier."
True enough, progressing farther than their crunchy guitar chords, the band added
brass charts and pianos (courtesy of Paul Carrack, formerly of Ace and Squeeze) to enhance their sound and dovetail their songcraft. The lead single, "It's Going to Happen," has a hook-ridden instrumental break with horns that would have felt at home in any big band era swing number; "Julie Ocean" was as delicate an acoustic ballad as they could made without veering into mawkish sentiment; "Fascination" and "Hannah Door" are bracingly excitable rockers that hark back to the fetching enthusiasm of their debut, but the tempos are more ambitious and they pull it off with aplomb; and explanatory titles of "Crisis of Mine" and "Sigh and Explode" saw new found ambition with lyrics broaching "The Troubles" but never sliding into didacticism. Elsewhere, the rest of the album are close to the aforementioned highlights and their raffish charm and engaging anxiety were never in doubt.
At the end of the listening party, it is arguable that "Positive Touch" doesn't take any massive risks. No one was expecting the incendiary, sonic explosion of Stiff Little Fingers or the lyrical, emotional thrust of U2 (to name but a few Irish contemporaries), but on it's own terms, "Positive Touch" was a marvelous step forward and the album makes for a keen 40 minutes of pop suss.
https://open.spotify.com/album/5Ppl5yZSXpQNKMC2ulA3Wu?si=dGf_hp8NRBGinujgYCHdyw
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