Like an Alarm Went Off

Album: The Alarm, Declaration, 1984





Acquired: Little Creek Navy Exchange, 1985



Best Track: "Marching On"



Lasting Memory: Immediately after my first listen, complaining to everyone that the album didn't feature the version of "The Stand" that had been released as a single and video



It is easy to remember The Alarm as the poor man's U2. If you can remember The Alarm at all, that is.



I know from having watched many too many hours of the Retro-Active digital musical channel over the past year that The Alarm was releasing albums into the 1990s. I do not know from that fine source of misplaced nostalgia what any of the songs off of latter-day Alarm albums sound like, nor do I care to find out.



Declaration is more than enough Alarm for anyone. Which is not to say that the record is bad. It's actually pretty good. Declaration is a more-than-serviceable competitor for the ear of anyone who enjoyed U2's Boy or October. And when all those albums were new, The Alarm were more successful in terms of MTV play and record sales in the United States. (No I'm not gonna do the research to substantiate that claim, but that's definitely how I remember the situation.)



Like the early offerings of U2, Declaration is full of sound that falls somewhere between petulant and irate trying incredibly earnestly to signify something. Just take a look at this discography from what was the Alarm's first major label debut(capitalized as in the original):



DECLARATION


MARCHING ON


WHERE WERE YOU HIDING WHEN THE STORM BROKE


THIRD LIGHT


SIXTY EIGHT GUNS


WE ARE THE LIGHT


SHOUT TO THE DEVIL


BLAZE OF GLORY


TELL ME


THE DECEIVER


THE STAND (PROPHECY)


HOWLING WIND



Mike Peters and the lads from Rhyl, Wales, were on a mission to free somebody from the evils of. Yeah, just "of." Who that person was or what he or she needed to broken loose from never even comes close to being made clear. Still, could anyone among us remain unmoved by the lyrics to the title track, which also serve as the album's epigraph, and that read, "Take this song of freedom/Put it on and arm yourself for the fight/Our hearts must have the courage/To keep marching on and on and on"?



That is truly a timeless message, right there. I don't care who you are. That'll make you want to throw off your chain and shake your booty. The message is made all the more timeless, of course, by not really being about anything.



Declaration, as I noted, did get me riled up when I first gave it a play. I had discovered The Alarm by watching MTV. The video for "The Stand" was pretty cool, what with the lead singer/guitarist Mike painting revolutionary slogans in black on a large pane of glass and his band mates using pedal EFX to make bagpipe squeals and other electronic trad-folk sounds.* I was hooked. I had never heard Celtic rock before to recognize it as such, and not being able to get The Alarm on the radio, I just had to buy the record.

The album version of "The Stand" is less than a minute long, acoustic without the Celticification, and just a huge aural disappointment all around. Imagine being blown away and disillusioned at the same time. Those mixed emotions came flooding back this afternoon.

It was a tough pill to swallow to realize, thanks to my Mom's explanation of how record companies tried to maximize their revenues back then by issuing singles different from album cuts, that I'd have to shell out another five bucks or so if I wanted the "real" song I liked. Mom had worked at Capitol Records in the 1960s. Met the Beatles and everything.

I never did pick up the 45 for "The Stand" because, well, eff 'em. Or maybe The Alarm's message of sustained rebellion got through to me after all?

Overall, though, the music of The Alarm holds up pretty well. If Declaration were released today, all that would be needed to make several of its songs alternapop hits would be to take some studio polish off. That was the big difference between The Alarm in its heyday and U2 in its formative years. The boys from Wales were overproduced, while the lads from Dublin retained a certain grit. The Alarm won the battle of 1984, but U2 won the war of global rock stardom.

I have no moral for that, but the observation seems trenchant. That will have to suffice for now.

Up Next: Bad Company, 10 from 6, 1985

Word Count to Date: 2,286

* ERRATA: The video for "The Stand" is a little different from how I remembered it. I still want credit for correctly recollecting as many details as I did, considering I haven't seen the video in more than 20 years and that I've drank approximately eleventy thousand beers between then and now.