Ramones: Too Tough To Die (Sire)

Village Voice

October 1984

Who would have thunk it? With Tommy producing again after five years, these teen-identified professionals (mean age: 33) make what may be their greatest album, with the cleansing minimalism of their original conception evoked and honestly augmented rather than duplicated-just like their unjudgemental fondness for their fellow teen-identifieds. This time the commercial direction is more mental than pop, but satanists they ain't: just as Joey came up with punk's most useful anti-KKK song on Pleasant Dreams, here Dee Dee comes up with punk's most useful anti-Reagan song. Dee Dee also imitates Bugs Bunny on steroids on two well-placed hardcore parodies and provides the first single's salutory lyrical hook: "I want to steal from the rich and give to the poor,"