Word: punk
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...Just Want to Have Something to Do", which opens the flip side of Road, take the band right back to their roots. It is pure punk, with a chorus that catches the essence of punk philosophy...
...that the Ramones will soothe you. But this album shows that the Ramones are really learning how to play their instruments. It boasts good hard rock and roll with no compromise with the middle of the road. The album only falls short when the band leaves the basic punk pattern and tries either lyrically or musically to make some real statement...
...that they seem to want to. The rest of the first side of the album with songs like "Bad Brain" and "It's a Long Way Back" fit well into standard punk molds: perfect 4/4 time, straight drum beat and guitar lines with the subtlety of a jack hammer, or a seal-clubbing expedition...
...NEXT CUT, "Wanted Everthing," reinforces that punk tone. By this point the record has fallen into a pattern. The lyrics are a bit more laid back than the old favorites like "Teenage Lobotomy," or "Sheena is a Punk Rocker," (both from the rocket to Russia album), and the music is certainly slicker, but the basic feeling produced by any Ramones album is the same. After listening to one, with the volume dial set above '7', the only choice left for the night is between casual acts of petty destruction or serious chemical personality alterations...
...album has a few more cuts that might appeal to a much wider circle, however, than those presently engaged in concentrated punk. The most surprising song yet to come from the Ramones is the next to last song on the record, "Needles and Pins." Like the other slow tune, "Questioningly," "Needles and Pins" is a lover's plaint. Again, there is the problem that Joey Ramone simply sounds weird doing what is actually a creditable Elvis imitation as he sings of failed teenage love. But I suppose I could get used to it, and the song is one more mark...