Ramones - Too Tough to Die

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• RAMONES TOO TOUGH TO DIE

Music reviews of Too Tough to Die

Music Review: Ramones renaissance
Rating: 5 Stars

This re-mastered albulm opens with the fleshed-out punk "Mama's Boy", and veers through everything from pop ("Howling At The Moon", "Chasing the Night") to hardcore ("Wart Hog", "Endless Vacation"). Despite this wandering, it's difficult to find a mis-step to break the monotony of this gushing review.

The re-mastering work continues to be expertly performed, adding texture, depth, and clarity to even the rawest tracks. This albulm, strong enough on its own, has been given a royal treatment with twelve bonus tracks, one of which may be one of the best Ramones covers ever; "Street Fighting Man", rescuing a song that was formally an object of punk mockery. The appeal of the demo versions could well be lost on the casual listener; some of them are mostly unpolished forms of the studio track, although Dee Dee's version of "Planet Earth 1988" has a blistering rawness the original lacks.

This is a much more mature effort than the classic first four releases, as one might expect from a band that was a decade old as of the first pressing of this albulm. One can hear the Ramones acknowledging (or even upstaging) what other innovators did with the punk sound they created in the '70s, and still hear some lingering polish from their pop days. Some punk purists will dismiss these tracks as irrelevant; a retreat to derivative mediocrity after an unsuccesful sell-out. Instead of a retreat, however, this albulm is a surge forward with stomping foot and grinding guitar, demonstrating an energy and competence that reminds the listener why this band's fanbase will happily buy a re-mastered re-release. If you want to skip the pop phase, this is the albulm to come back to the Ramones with.

Description of Too Tough to Die

Alternative Rock CDs

• Music > Styles
• Pop
• Rock