The 1980 Listening Post - The Ravers - I Was a Teenage Rock n' Roller

 Reviewed by Jim Coursey

Released: 1980 The Ravers I Was A Teenage Rock 'n Roller Genre: New Wave Rating: 3 out of 5 Highlights: Don't Mean a Thing After School Leave Me Alone Obligatory 80s cover: The Twist Firstly a plug for anyone planning to re-release their old vinyl release on streaming services: Izoptope makes great digital audio repair tools. Those pops and crackles are a click away from obsolescence. Well, The Ravers clearly skipped that step and that first track starts with a lot of unappealing vinyl noise. This led me to think more analytically about the reproduction here, and I ended up imagining they were a 70s glam act whose record player has been cranked up a couple notches too fast. Whatever the reason the result straddles the decades, as if they grew up listening to glam but have been binging on The Jam et al lately. (See opener "Married to Me" and "Waiting in the Wings" for glammier tunes, "Don't Mean a Thing" and "After School" for punkier fare.) The songs are catchy enough, backed by spiky, adrenaline-fueled new wave. The album art suggests something Cramps-like, but the reality is closer to the Vapors. My biggest gripe with it all is the drummer, who keeps a fine beat when he’s focused but can’t repress the urge to embellish every bar with a fill. It’s the 80s already, stick to the script! The lyrical themes are pretty consistent throughout – rock’n’roll over women, an undercurrent of casual, disaffected misogyny. It’s totally unremarkable for the time, but with titles like “Married to Me” (i.e. to myself) and “Leave Me Alone” I could easily see these guys going over well with the incel crowd. “Don't Mean a Thing” encapsulates their tone well, with its “I hate you but I’ll still have sex with you” lyrics: Tonight is going to be the last time you make it with me Because I’ve had enough of you You took advantage of my open heart And now you know we’re through. What will I say to you in bed tonight? [indecipherable] You know you really don’t mean a thing. Lyrics aside, it’s one of the best cuts on the album. Or to quote the band, “boys will be boys if you let ‘em.”