Feargal Sharkey "Feargal Sharkey" (1985)

Feargal Sharkey [debut]

release date: Nov. 11, 1985

format: vinyl

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,56]

producer: David A. Stewart

label: Virgin Records - nationality: Northern Ireland, UK

Track highlights: A) 1. "A Good Heart" (5 / 5) (video) - 2. "You Little Thief" - 4. "Ashes and Diamonds" - 5. "Made to Measure" - - B) 1. "Someone to Somebody" - 2. "Don't Leave It to Nature" - 5. "It's All Over Now"

Solo studio album debut by Feargal Sharkey after the disbandment of The Undertones, Jul. 1983. The band's last two albums Positive Touch (May 1981) and The Sin of Pride (Mar. 1983) already showed the band's move from melodic punk rock via power pop and into a bolder mainstream pop / rock scene, and Sharkey's solo effort basically just takes another step into sophisti-pop arrangements with strong contributions from Dave Stewart, Patrick Seymour, Michael Kamen, Nathan East, Olle Romo (Eurythmics backing band), Martin Chambers (of Pretenders), and Debra Byrd. Unquestionably, Stewart's presence ensures a sound that doesn't fall far from that of Eurythmics, and that's both the album's strength and a bit of a pitfall, as many artists sought to replicate the sound and the success of Eurythmics. "A Good Heart" written by Maria McKee deservedly became a massive hit, and much sayingly, the best tracks here are written by others, counting: "A Good Heart", "You Little Thief", "Made to Measure", "Someone to Somebody", and "It's All Over Now". Sharkey has that fabulous vocal that just makes it more than generic pop. It's Northern pop soul, which puts him alongside someone like Paul Young; alas Sharkey soon tired of the music business and withdrew from the limelight shortly after his follow-up Wish (Mar. 1988).

The Undertones "All Wrapped Up" (1983)

abridged issue

All Wrapped Up (compilation)
release date: Nov. 1983
format: vinyl (abridged issue) / 2 lp vinyl (ARD 1654283) / digital
[album rate: 4 / 5]
producer: various
label: Ardeck - nationality: Northern Ireland, UK

1st compilation album by The Undertones originally released on EMI sub-label Ardeck is issued after the disbandment that followed the release of the band's fourth album The Sin of Pride (Mar. 1983). The original UK album is a double vinyl album containing 30 tracks. The abridged version of the album is the most common, which was issued in North America, Japan, and for the European market. The abridged version contains many great songs as it's a compilation of the band's A-side singles, but it's really the C- and D-sides of the double album, which also happens to be the B-side singles that makes the issue a must-have. Songs like "True Confessions", "Smarter Than You", "Emergency Cases", "Mars Bars" all have that extra wit and bit that defined this great band of the North, and which ultimately reveals what a great band they were to produce such great material as their B-sides.

org. double album

The Undertones "The Sin of Pride" (1983)

The Sin of Pride

release date: Mar. 7, 1983

format: vinyl / cd (1994 reissue)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,64]

producer: Mike Hedges and The Undertones

label: Ardeck, EMI / Dojo Limited - nationality:

Track highlights: A) 1. "Got to Have You Back" (4,5 / 5) - 2. "Valentine's Treatment" - 5. "Untouchable" - "Bye Bye Baby Blue" - - B) 1. "Conscious" - 2. "Chain of Love" (4,5 / 5) - 4. "The Love Parade" - 5. "Save Me" - 6. "The Sin of Pride" - *14. "You Stand so Close (But You're Never There)" - *15. "Turning Blue" - *16. "Like That" - *18. "Window Shopping for New Clothes"

*Bonus track on 1994 cd reissue

4th and final studio album by The Undertones in its original line-up, not counting subsequent releases after the band's reformation in 1999. The Sin of Pride follows two years after Positive Touch (May 1981) and with this the band continue its turn towards a more mainstream sound and style initited with the predecessor with stronger focus on a Northern soul element. The standard vinyl album comes with 12 tracks with a total running time just under 40 mins. As is the case with the '81 album, the 1994 expanded cd issue comes with several fine bonus tracks and it extends the running time with another 22 minutes.

The album was regarded as a bit of a failure peaking at number #46 on the UK albums chart list as the weakest studio album by the band, and the three chosen singles from the album, tracks #B4, #A1, and #B2 came in as #97, #82, and #104 on the singles chart - needles say, not to much success. Tensions within the band hadn't made things easier over the course of the last two albums, so the end result was near evident. Alledgedly, Feargal Sharkey stood much alone in requesting a bolder soul-fueled style, and with the O'Neill brothers as the main songwriters seing more potential in a power pop-style, a split was inevitable. The band already broke up few months after the album release and Sharkey initiated a short but quite succesful solo career, while the remainders continued in the succesful quintet That Petrol Emotion with a new lead vocalist.

The Sin of Pride is like a second chapter to Positive Touch but it appears more coherent with an overall common sound and style, and then it contains two abosolute great pop soul classics that the general public simply wasn't up for when it came out, but they are songs that rightfully gained much more recognition in the aftermath, and perhaps especially after Sharkey's solo debut Feargal Sharkey (Nov. 1985), which reeks more of the Northern soul.

[ allmusic.com, Record Mirror 4 / 5 stars ]

The Undertones "Positive Touch" (1981)

cover vinyl

Positive Touch

release date: May 5, 1981

format: vinyl / cd (1994 reissue)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,58]

producer: Roger Bechirian

label: Ardeck - nationality: Northern Ireland, UK

Track highlights: A) 1."Fascination" - 2. "Julie Ocean" (4 / 5) - 3. "Life's Too Easy" - 4. "Crisis of Mine" - 6. "His Good Looking Girlfriend" - - B) 1. "When Saturday Comes" - 2. "It's Going To Happen!" (5 / 5) - 3. "Sigh & Explode" - 6. "Boy Wonder" - *15. "Kiss in the Dark" - *16. "Beautiful Friend" - 17. "Life's Too Easy (Alternate Version)" - *18. "Fairly in the Money Now"

*Bonus track on 1994 cd reissue

3rd studio album by The Undertones and the follow-up to Hypnotised (1980), which quite naturally was perceived as the difficult second album after a most stunning debut, and Hypnotised actually succeeded better than critics had imagined it would. With that, the band succesfully bonded with the sheer energy of the punk rock debut and at the same time proved to be able to take their style to a new territory mixing it with pop / rock and more subtle new wave, although, you could argue that the strongest moments still bore the energy of the debut, but nevertheless, the band showed more diversity with an album that went as high as to number #6 on the UK albums chart list - a peak performance of any studio album by The Undertones.

Positive Touch is a big leap in terms of style changes - and perhaps it distances itself too much, both by being their most incoherent album, and also for introducing a bold use of brass and strings. Looking at the highlights, though, it's remarkable that it both contains near soul pop-tunes like "Sigh & Explode" and "Julie Ocean" AND "It's Going to Happen!" - a song which is up there amongst their absolute best but which also appears very much on its own. The band had tried really hard not to be political and they were at times critizised for not addressing the ongoing Northern Irish conflict and here they actually make produce their possibly most political statement with "It's Going to Happen!"

The 1994 expanded cd is the better release with at least three fine bonus tracks - "Beautiful Friend" is a non-album single, which came out in between Positive Touch and The Sin of Pride but it fits nicely on the album alongside "Fascination" and "Julie Ocean". In retrospect, Positive Touch still is a mighty fine album showing how you could make the difficult transition from punk rock to pop / rock with bits of power pop and Northern soul bonding quite nicely with how beat artists of the 60s made the transition by employing blues and r&b to form new musical styles.

[ 😲allmusic.com, Smash Hits 4,5 / 5, Select 4 / 5, 👎Blender 3 / 5 stars ]

1994 cd-reissue

The Undertones "The Undertones" (1979)

1979 reissue

The Undertones [debut]
release date: May 1979
format: digital (1979 reissue)
[album rate: 4,5 / 5]
producer: Roger Bechirian
label Sire Records - nationality: Northern Ireland, UK

Tracklist: 1. "Family Entertainment" (4 / 5) - 2. "Girls Don't Like It" (4 / 5) - 3. "Male Model" (4,5 / 5) (live) - 4. "I Gotta Getta" (3,5 / 5) - 5. "Teenage Kicks" (5 / 5) - 6. "Wrong Way" (3,5 / 5) - 7. "Jump Boys" (4 / 5) (live) - 8. "Here Comes the Summer" (4,5 / 5) (TOTPs '79) - 9. "Get Over You" (4 / 5) - 10. "Billy's Third" (3,5 / 5) - 11. "Jimmy Jimmy" (4 / 5) (live) - 12. "True Confessions" (2,5 / 5) - 13. "She's a Run Around" (3,5 / 5) - 14. "I Know a Girl" (3,5 / 5) - 15. "Listening In" (4 / 5) - 16. "Casbah Rock" (3 / 5)

Studio album debut by The Undertones from Northern Ireland. The album was re-released only five months later in a much stronger version including two of the band's most well-known tracks "Teenage Kicks", and "Get Over You". Most bands at the time were quartets, but The Undertones were five as lead vocalist Feargal Sharkey only sang. The rest of the band was made up by Damian O'Neill on lead guitar, keyboard and backing vocals, his older brother John O'Neill on rhythm guitar and backing vocals, Michael Bradley on bass and backing vocals, and Billy Doherty on drums. Stylistically, they were part of the punk rock movement in Britain and are quite unique by Sharkey's vocal and O'Neill's guitar sound. Both their songs and videos were often conducted with a considerable amount humour, and the sub-style was also labelled as pop punk were they often liked to construct their songs based on traditional rock & roll, glam rock (T.Rex), or garage rock riffs only much faster and with sheer energy. The album is enlisted in numerous lists counting the best of albums, and naturally also "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". The band was one of my favourites in the early 80's, although, I never got around to buy any of their vinyl albums at the time. In 1994 a 7 track bonus version was issued, in 2000 a remastered cd with 10 bonus tracks was released, and in 2009, an Expanded 30th Anniversary Edition with 18 bonus tracks (in addition to the original 14 track album) was released. If I should rate the Expanded 2009 release, I would hand it 5 / 5 stars. The bonus tracks are simply brilliant.
[ allmusic.com, Sputnikmusic 4,5 / 5 stars ]

org. cover

The Undertones "Teenage Kicks" (1978), ep

A) 1. "Teenage Kicks" (5 / 5) - 2. "Smarter Than You" (4 / 5)
B) 1. "True Confessions" (4 / 5) - 2. "Emergency Cases"