Review:

on 2011-02-22 CharlesMartel Said:

I got this expanded and remastered edition when I saw it in the shops. Even though I had long ago purchased the original vinyl when it was originally released, the additional bonus tracks make this one well worth having. Otherwise my rating is the same as for the old vinyl version which I held. Having updated a few old vinyls in my collection with the expanded and remastered versions, I can now feel a bit more confident about reviewing them. This is one of the first I bought and therefore one of the first which I will review. Besides, reviewing a Rats album is always going to be something of a nostalgia trip.

Although people often look back at the Rats through the shit-coloured lenses of the present day public persona of St. Robert of Geldof, at their height they were a fun band. They knew it too. They might have been classed as being a punk outfit but there were several things which set them apart from the punks. For a start, having a permanent keyboard player was not common among other punk bands - you could get by with three chords on a guitar but you needed some basic competence to play a piano. Then, of course, there was always the fact that they never took themselves all that seriously.

The best stuff the Rats did was on here. There are some classic songs here with "Rat Trap" being the most well-known and the one which brought them the greatest commercial success from the album. My favourite is "(I Never Loved) Eva Braun" if only because you would never get away with doing that now in this world where no-one, except Mel Brookes, gets to joke about Hitler and the Nazis - it's Godwin's Law. But listen closely. It is also a classy pop track by a band with a wicked sense of humour.

And yet the Rats could also carry a message with them - witness "Don't Believe What You Read" which was a pretty damning attack on the appalling British tabloid newspaper industry. Even "Rat Trap" itself was a fairly accurate description of the soulless life of the British urban teens of the late seventies, presaging a lyrical theme which would later be taken to its apotheosis by Billy Bragg and the post-punks, as well as getting resurrected a generation later by bands like the Enemy. Generally, however, the Rats manic style of music verged on the powerpop and may even have helped launch the punk-updated version of the genre along with the likes of the Buzzcocks. "Me and Howard Hughes" is nothing but pure unadulterated fun, for example.

In many ways the album is a vehicle for Bob Geldof, as indeed the whole of the band eventually became. Now I know Saint Bob gets a bit of a mauling at times. His sanctimonious attitude and his preaching (as well as being disgraced by his talentless brood of selfish, vacuous weirdly-named kids) does get on your nerves after a while. But let us not forget that as the frontman of the Rats he was not only superb in the role, but contributed some great, if lightweight songs to the band's catalogue. When the Rats were good they were good. When they were bad they were appalling. Thankfully, the appalling side of the Boomtown Rats does not feature at all on this album. I cannot believe no one has reviewed this re-issue before. The Boomtown Rats would never get any better than this. Go back and take a nostalgia trip - you won't regret it, I can assure you.
Rating: 7/10