Deep Album Cuts Vol. 384: The Alarm
Mike Peters, lead singer of the Welsh band The Alarm, died a couple weeks ago. I was only a little familiar with the band's music, so it felt like a good time to check out their catalog.
2. Eye of the Hurricane
3. Third Light
4. We Are The Light
5. No Frontiers
6. Deeside
7. Lie Of The Land
8. The Wind Blows Away My Words
9. Permanence In Change
10. Dawn Chorus
11. The Rock
12. Howling Wind
13. One Step Closer To Home
14. Where A Town Once Stood
15. Closer To Home
16. Hell Or High Water
17. Only Love Can Set Me Free
18. Shout To The Devil
19. Hardland
Track 7 from The Alarm EP (1983)
Tracks 3, 4, 12, and 18 from Declaration (1984)
Tracks 3, 4, 12, and 18 from Declaration (1984)
Tracks 1, 6, 10, and 15from Strength (1985)
Tracks 2, 9, 13, and 17 from Eye of the Hurricane (1987)
Tracks 5, 11, 14, and 19 from Change (1989)
Tracks 8 and 16 from Raw (1991)
The Alarm were always one of those bands I read or heard more about than I knew their songs. "Sold Me Down The River" is definitely the one I remember hearing on the radio when it was new or recent, that's a really catchy song. "The Stand" also sounds pretty familiar, I feel like I heard that at some point. The Alarm toured with U2 and it's definitely easy to hear the kinship there, Peters sometimes sounds a bit like Bono and they're kind of like a more rootsy U2 with more harmonica and acoustic guitars on some of their '80s records.
I decided to just focus on The Alarm's first decade together and the five albums and one EP they made in their initial run before they split in 1991, although they later reunited and made a lot more music in the 21st century. I was a little dismayed to find that their catalog on Spotify is really confusing, there are re-recordings of their albums that look like reissues, and the reissues feature completely reshuffled running orders with non-album tracks inserted in between tracks from the original album. So I really had to look around and make an effort to listen to those albums as they were released in the '80s.
The first couple albums probably have the largest number of their best songs, but the Tony Visconti-produced Change may be their best-sounding album. I really gravitated to "Hardland," it sounded to me like a big climactic concert closer that should end the playlist. It doesn't seem like they ever played that one much, though, "One Step Closer To Home" and "Howling Wind" were among the band's most performed deep cuts.
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