RECORDINGS
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GOOD
ADIOS AMIGOS!
The Ramones
Radioactive
This is the Ramones' 16th Album in 21 years, and judging from the title alone, it sounds like a swan song, If that's so, the timing couldn't be more ironic Much of the recent alternative revolution rode in on the Ramones' leather coattails. Their punk-pop hooks, buzz-saw guitar and absurdist take on teen angst paved the way for everything from Nirvana's loser anthems to Green Day's Top 40 three-chord monte. Still, if Adios Amigos! is to be the Ramones' last, at least they're going out with a bang. The album contains some of their angriest, most powerful material in years, reflecting the alienation of wizened outsiders rather than the snotty adolescent rebellion that had become a Ramones cliche. Adios opens with a shouted "1-2-3-4" count, establishing from the start that we're in classics territory. Songs like "It's Not for Me to Know" and "Take the Pain Away" mine a stripped-down sound that leaves the band's recent experiments in metal, hardcore and nostalgia in the dust. Throughout, guitarist Johnny Ramone hammers out bar-chord rifts that slam into each other like goons in a mosh pit "Got a Lot to Say" epitomizes this minimal approach - 1 minute and 42 seconds of four great chords and two great lines: "I got a lot to say/I can't remember now." Still, Adios hardly revels in times past. If anything, it reveals a new, more adult indignation. "I don't have any illusions anymore/ I've done all I can do," singer Joey Ramone snarls on "It's Not for Me to Know," and its unclear if he's detailing some personal anguish or lamenting being left out of punks recent commercial success. While midtempo ballads like "Life's a Gas" aspire to an optimistic sunniness, overall. Adios Amigos! is haunted by dark memories. A tender cover of Johnny Thunders' "I Love You" transforms the songs sentimentality into a poignant tribute to its author, the ex-New York Dolls guitarist who overdosed in 1991. And the album's finale, "Born to Die in Berlin," details another junkie's suicidal paranoia over pummeling, Stooges-style guitar bedlam. Especially in this post-Cobain age, these songs chum with urgency and relevance, as if they were missives from a deathbed. Considering that i Adios Amigos! is the best Ramones album in years, let's hope they're not.
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By MATT DIEHL
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Magazine: Stereo Review, September, 1995
Section: BEST OF THE MONTH REVIEWS
FINAL CURTAIN FOR THE RAMONES?
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The Ramones' "Adios Amigos" is. . . yeah, it's da new Ramones album, what else ya wanna know? Gabba gabba hey, take it Joey, take it C.J., one-two-three-four . . . . Now hold on just a minute. Yes, this is a typical Ramones album, but it's also a little special. For one thing, it may be their last. Nobody's confirming or denying rumors of an imminent breakup, but the title doesn't exactly bode well. After twenty years, a world without the Ra-mones is hard to imagine, but at least they're not going out with a turkey. The commercial revival of punk rock seems to have revitalized the band. In recent years they've absorbed a few passing trends -- hardcore, metal, even psychedelia. But now, with bands like Green Day and Rancid jumping their train, the Ramones are back sounding like the Ra-mones. And make no mistake, "Adios Amigos" sounds exactly like the Ra-mones: Drummer Marky has got that snare-drum thwap down to an art, guitarist Johnny hammers away at the usual three chords -- but hey, they're the three best chords -- and Joey's voice, while it's deepened over the years, remains as Noo Yawk and as oddly endearing as ever. There's a second capable singer here, too, in recently added bassist C.J., whose youthful brattiness makes the ideal counterpart to Joey's grown-up brattiness. Along with a spiffy cover tune by punk icon Johnny Thunders, the lads have a stack of new songs that show their mastery of so-dumb-it's-great. You want relevance, listen to Have a Nice Day, where Joey rants about how everyone he knows insists on saying that damn phrase. Or Makin' Monsters for My Friends, where C.J. sums up his worldview with these resonant words: "I don't want any Spaghetti-O's." Or She Talks to Rainbows, about the eternal dilemma of a punk falling in love with a hippie. True, there's some semi-serious stuff here, too: Take the Pain Away is a surprisingly convincing protest song, and I Don't Want to Grow Up -- by Tom Waits, of all people -- is a clear-cut statement of purpose. But whether or not it becomes the Ramones' career headstone, "Adios Amigos" is, above all, a quintessential summer album.
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By Brett Milano
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Ramones: Adios Amigos! (Radioactive)
Dan Aquilante
The Ramones, may not have invented bad boy rock, but they certainly have made it into and art. These punk commandos from Queens know the secrets of rock 'n' roll-how to keep it short, keep it simple and make it catchy. On their new disc, "Adios Amigos," in stores today, the Ramones say it all with their opening song, "I Don't Want to Grow Up." Even though this is a cover version of a Tom Waits tune, the Ramones capture Waits' Peter Pan intent, yet make the song theirs with driving, desperate end-of-the-world rhythms. ?Of the 13 songs in this collection, there are 10 good tunes and three great numbers that rival the bands best work. Those songs are "Makin' Monsters for My Friends," "Have a Nice Day" and "She Talks to Rainbows." Each of these songs offer a different facet of Ramones music that should quiet the band's detractors from accusing them of being a one-dimensional group. ?"Makin' Monsters" features a scruffy sound, bizarre lyrics and a desire to revolt and be revolting. "Have a Nice Day" attacks the social convention of constantly repeating this meaningless expression to people you don't care about. Finally "She Talks to Rainbows" is the disc's finest moment with the Ramones dabbling with a fragile, airy song of unrequited love. When Joey sings: "She talks to birds, she talks to angels, she talks to bees, she don't talk to me," he gets a keen sense of passion and desperation that would have been outside his range a few years ago.