The 1985 Listening Post - The Alarm - Strength

The Alarm - Strength

#440/1075

November 3 1985

The Alarm

Strength

Genre: Rock

3.75 out of 5

With the scads of happiness and anthemic joy that Declaration brought me, I have no idea why I eschewed this album. Did I hear something that led me to believe it wasn’t good? Did I just think that the first one was so perfect that I couldn’t bear to even hear any more? What is wrong with me? I do this a lot. Love an album, never listen to any more by the artist. 

You know who must have loved The Alarm? 

Against Me!.  “Knife’s Edge” could’ve been covered on White Crosses and I would not have known it was a cover. 

Something’s missing, though…Mike Howlett isn’t Alan Shacklock. He’s trying to make The Alarm sound like they belong on the radio and it’s that Civil War rock band sound that worked so well for them. It’s what separated them from U2 while mining the same tropes. Now they sound like a U2 wannabe band. Dammit.

In the end it sounded like a secondary rehash of the first with none of the excitement or bombast or, really, fun.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/strength-1985-1986-remastered/1324886851

The 1984 Listening Post - The Alarm - Declaration

The Alarm - Declaration

#30

February

The Alarm

Declaration

5 out of 5

Highlights:

Marching On

Where Were You Hiding When the Storm Broke?

Third Light

Sixty Eight Guns

Talk about getting your money’s worth out of an album. I listened to the crap out of this one.

This will not be a popular opinion but, fuck it, it’s my page.

The Clash left a big while when they fizzled after Sandinista. (Don’t @ with your Combat Rock bs. That can’t hold a candle to classic Clash). 

The Alarm were determined to fill that hole. Emotionally charged power rock with a punk’s approach. (The closest to this debut would come in the form of The Libertines 20 years later)

There is not a track on this album that doesn’t make me want to air drum, air guitar, dance around my house and sing at the top of my lungs. 

The main flaw is that one of the best tracks, “The Stand” was truncated for the album as it was released and a hit much earlier than the debut.

This is one of my favorite albums of all time. It runs out of steam a bit toward the end, but, I’m exhausted from the air concert by that point anyway. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/declaration-1984-1985/1341959356