January 1999. My first overseas trip. After a tiring flight,
I arrive at my hotel in Los Angeles, and put the radio on – the first song I
hear is “Save the Day” by the Living End, I didn’t even know it was a single,
and I didn’t even know it had made it to LA, but I felt an immense amount of
national pride to hear this. (I don’t think the radio was tuned to a mainstream
station, but why let facts like that get in the way).
Released in October 1998, this brilliant album of high energy
music is great listen, but it actually took me a while to purchase it. When I
was living at home with my parents, my sister had a copy so I just used to play
hers. Naturally when she moved out, she took it with her, and I had plenty of
other music to listen to, it I went a number of years without having a copy at
all. Then when I decided that I wanted to listen to it again, I couldn’t find
it in the shops, so it took me quite some time to track it down.
The album contains rock rebellion anthems like “Prisoner of
Society”,”Growing Up (Falling Down)” and “Save the Day”, but there is a
significant amount of diversity that makes it a whole lot more than just
another punk rock album. It ventures into rockability, it ventures into ska, as
well as being loyal to its rock roots. I think another thing worth mentioning
is the lyrics – covering all sorts of topics like the Dunblane massacre (see
“Monday”), the overdevelopment of cities leading to the disappearance of
heritage buildings (see “All Torn Down”) and the clashing of the different
classes (see “West End Riot”, today’s link). It even closes with an
instrumental, “Closing In”, which I have always thought would make one hell of
a TV theme song, not that I would actually want that to happen though.
Like a few other albums
on my top 25 list, despite the fact that I really love this album, it is
the only Living End album that I own – I never really took the time to explore
them more than this. I can’t really explain why, perhaps I just thought they
would never be able to top this effort.
Coming up at #11 – another hugely successful debut album
from the Antipodes
Bought this one too following your recommendation!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you are enjoying the list, and I hope you enjoy the Living End.
ReplyDeleteLet me know what you think.