The Alarm were a great concept on paper. Coming on like the Clash with acoustic guitars, the band mixed strident (if nebulous) politics with a type of folk-punk that was way ahead of its time, and it earned them glowing reviews upon the release of their self-titled debut EP in 1983. In reality (or, at least, in retrospect), the Alarm were a well-meaning but mildly talented lot, and ultimately they proved inconsequential - fodder for dozens of new wave hits compilations and countless "where are they now" features. Sure didn't seem that way at the time, though, and it's a bit of a shame that these earnest young lads from Wales didn't become the salvation of modern rock as they clearly intended. "The Stand," "Sixty-Eight Guns," and "Marching On" (collected in 1984 on Declaration, their first full-length LP) were inspiring stuff, and the Alarm seemed to point towards a new, less nihilistic day for alternative music.

Part of the problem, though, was that the Alarm weren't a concept, they were real people, and they lusted for mainstream success like most musicians. Hence, their songs, their performances, and the production of their records veered quickly towards the mainstream. Most noticeably, the Alarm began to sound suspiciously like the Welsh version of U2 (who were then approaching their hip zenith) rather than the Welsh version of Clash. The resemblance just pointed out how the Alarm didn't really measure up to either standard.

For all it's electric bluster, the Alarm's second full-length album, Strength (1985), can still be called their best overall. Benefiting from an improved sense of dynamics and more mature musicianship, the Alarm seemed on the verge of something big. With hindsight, however, the intense title song amounts to a pretty good U2 impersonation (no small feat, really), and only "Spirit of '76" harkens back to the Alarm's rabble-rousing halcyon days. Sadly, things went down hill quickly after that, and later singles like "Sold Me Down The River" - while pleasant enough - sounded like generic hard rock. The Alarm, it seems, had sold themselves down the river, unwilling or unable to define their own, unique sense of vision. Despite a fair amount of airplay and an opening slot on a Bob Dylan tour, the band went nowhere fast, and by the early 90's the Alarm had disappeared from the American scene.

Nevertheless, the Alarm are worth collecting, if only as an interesting footnote (and cautionary tale) in the post-punk development of alternative rock. Declaration and Strength are each good records, while Standards, a 15-track anthology, culls the band's best rather efficiently. Really, it's all you need unless you are absolutely obsessed with the 80's - and I know some of you are....

Lead Alarmists Mike Peters and Dave Sharp have soldiered on in one form or another till the present, and the bands' albums were reissued in Europe in 2000, remastered with prodigious bonus tracks - including a version of their classic debut EP, The Alarm, expanded to no less than 17 tracks. A new retrospective, Best Of The Alarm (a refurbished edition of an album originally released in Great Britain in 1998), followed in 2006. [top of page]