Back catalogue: All genres

Review: The Ramones are one of those bands that everyone agrees on, to some extent, before disagreeing. Such was their career trajectory. Unanimously, the first three albums - 1976's Ramones, 77's Leave Home, and Road to Ruin (1978) - were all bonafide 20th Century works of wonder. End of the Century, which landed as the decades switched over, is where views start to divide. As such this collection of their LPs from the next ten years, or so, may not immediately jump out and grab everyone.

That's a real shame, and hopefully this package, which is the first time these records have been reissued on vinyl, will go some way towards making people remember exactly how good the vast majority if their 80s output was. Pleasant Dreams, Subterranean Jungle, and Too Tough To Die are exceptional outings that are guaranteed to put you off whatever it is you're listening to from this millennium. Throw in Animal Boy, Halfway to Sanity, Brain Drain and Still More Stuff, the latter itself a retrospective of unreleased bits from this era, and we think this is a real punk winner.

Review: Are The Ramones now best known for being on t-shirts worn by people who have never heard the band? Maybe. But either way, Too Tough To Die, which was released 40 years ago, is often seen as a return to form. Really, it deserves a more radical categorisation. Released in the mid-1980s, the album felt out of step with the era, not in a negative way, but in how it captured the contradictions of its time. Made without a clear direction, its incongruity became its defining feature. As Joey Ramone noted in a 1988 interview, "Around '84, the world was changing drastically... Things were getting scary. So, our songs started changing." This shift in tone marked a new chapter in their musical evolution.

Review: This Ramones album - one of their very, very many - is packed with relentless guitar energy and a proud punk ethos. Originally released in 1987, it captures their raw spirit and is packed with gritty rock licks and infectious melodies. Featuring standout tracks like the opener 'I Wanna Live' and the guttural vocal bite of 'Garden of Serenity' it showcases the band's evolution while staying true to their signature sound, during what was a pivotal moment in the US punks' lengthy career, a decade or so on from their explosive arrival.

Review: Coming off of the back of 1983's Subterranean Jungle, which saw a return to their punk rock roots, the brothers Ramone opted to stay the course for their 1984 follow up Too Tough To Die. Enlisting drummer Richie Ramone for his first project, the collective creative intention was to further stray from the lukewarm reception bestowed upon their more pop-centric End of the Century (1980) and Pleasant Dreams (1981), and rediscover the harder edges that built their initial success. With this unifying vision in mind, the band opted to record as live and raw as possible in order to capture that punk rock ethos, with this compilation providing a bevvy of demos, B-sides and alternate takes from these sessions, many of which feature Richie on lead vocals. A true gem for devout followers of the real Fab 4 as well as a curious bridging point between the aforementioned Subterranean Jungle and the fully realised product of Too Tough To Die.

Review: Known for being one of the most tumultuous projects of the entire Ramones catalogue, 1986's Animal Boy came at an all-time low in terms of camaraderie and communication within the band. Following on from the well-received back to basics approach of Too Tough To Die, the internal bickering and uncertainty as to where to chart their next sonic course would ultimately lead to disinterested and detached contributions from their most vocal of writers with neither Joey Ramone nor guitarist Johnny able to creatively agree on even a single track. Picking up the slack was bassist Dee Dee and drummer Richie, who took it upon themselves to salvage the sessions, leading to a somewhat sporadic concoction that was lambasted upon initial release due to the clear lack of a cohesive direction. With time salving all wounds, however, the record now garners its own fond reappraisal for its synth-laden new wave experimentations, while lyrically delving into some of their most personal and political subjects to date, even sometimes simultaneously such as on the standout cut, 'My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)', which takes central aim at one Ronald Reagan, and caused disagreement within the band due to individual stances on the subject matter. An often misunderstood ninth entry, Animal Boy deserves all the flowers it has been rewarded in retrospect.

Review: Originally released in 1981, the recording of the sixth full-length Ramones' album was anything but Pleasant Dreams (get it?) as their label Sire opted to push producer Graham Gouldman into their sessions in order to garner hype from a big name. With the brothers Ramone unhappy with this decision as well as their own internal strife due to alcohol and drug dependency, as well as Johnny starting a relationship with Joey's girlfriend, conflict poured over into the material with a creative stalemate as to whether to pursue a more pop-punk direction with an increased prioritisation on melody, or to 180 into feral hard rock, and with this being the Ramones, of course no agreement or compromise was reached, with the tracklist veering wildly between these two frenetic approaches constantly. Boasting some of the highest production values of any album in the Ramones canon as well as one of their best singles in 'The KKK Took My Baby Away', while offering up very un-punk yet undeniable anthems such as the aptly titled, 'We Want the Airwaves', and, 'She's A Sensation', Pleasant Dreams may have somewhat flopped upon initial release, but has grown to become an unlikely fan favourite in the decades since.

Review: Originally released in 1983, Subterranean Jungle would serve as the seventh full-length LP from the brothers Ramone, whilst marking their return to the well of punk rock bangers following the new wave and pop experiments of their two preceding albums End Of The Century (1980) and Pleasant Dreams (1981). Written and recorded during a severely tumultuous time in the band's tenure with both Joey and Marky battling alcohol addiction while Dee Dee was undergoing treatment for his cocaine habit, the resulting tension and resentment to the previously overbearing control of Joey on their previous output, led to a paired down vision with focus solely placed on prioritising grade A punk rock like only the Ramones know how. Their first album to not singularly feature Joey on lead vocals with Dee Dee taking centre stage on 'Timebomb' whilst also handling the bridge on 'Outsider', the more collaborative ethos of the project would, yet again, nearly implode the band with Marky being ousted before recording had even ceased (not playing drums on a Ramones record again until 1989's Brain Drain).

Review: Originally released in 1978, Road To Ruin would serve as the fourth full-length from leather jacket-clad punk pioneers The Ramones. While a rejected, mitigated flop upon release due to the band's swing for the radio fences (or airwaves) complete with sonic elements at the time alien to the punkosphere such as acoustic guitars, lead guitar solos and 60s pop ballads, in the near five decades since release, the project has been reevaluated as a bold successor to 1977's iconic Rocket To Russia (although that album did place 50 places ahead on the Billboard 200 at the time of release). Marking (no pun intended) their first effort to feature drummer Marky Ramone, who replaced Tommy Ramone after his departure due to the inability to keep up with the rigors of touring and lack of residuals from their previous record; the album's glossy, clean production has slowly morphed from malaise to praise over the ensuing decades, while offering up some of their most timeless and essential bangers including 'Needles & Pins' and 'I Wanna Be Sedated' (which if Spotify metrics are anything to go by, is the band's most popular song after, of course, 'Blitzkrieg Bop').

Review: The first volume of a two-part collection, this impressive compilation chronicles the lesser-known recordings from the black leather jacket-clad kings of punk and (more importantly) New York. The two volumes of Rare Ramones present a selection of B-sides, demos and previously undiscovered rarities, with entry numero uno covering the beginnings of the band, starting with the mythical Slug demo recorded in 1977 and finishing in 1984 with early sessions of material that would eventually appear on the latter-day catalogue staple Too Tough To Die. An absolute treat and essential grab for any Pinhead worth their salt.