Ramones is the first release by the progenitors of punk, the Ramones. It's a blast that ends in a flash; at only twenty-nine minutes, I can put both it and their second record on the same CD. Joey (Vocals), Johnnie (Guitar), Dee-Dee (Bass, Backup Vocals), and Tommy (Drums) Ramone -- all stage names, of course -- make up this classic punk band.
This album scores serious points with me simply by being one of the first punk albums ever made. The music itself is very rough, but that was what made it different, and that is not a negative here. The wall of noise brings with it the emotions of being in a screwed up world, where fathers lock their children in basements (I Don't Wanna Go Down To The Basement) and mothers chase children with baseball bats (Beat On The Brat). Look for very simple instrumental work on this record.
The only thing about this album that occasionally perturbs me is Joey's singing style. Sometimes the noises he makes aren't really words, and I'm not used to that. Also, due to the lack of musical skill in the band, it's easy to get lost in the record, sometimes to forget where you are, because a lot of it sounds kind of the same.
Somehow, through it all, it still sounds like it stands as the birth of a genre, and I'm not quite sure how that works, but here it is. The Ramones will forever stand a head above the rest, and this album shows that clearly.
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