The Alarm - Guerilla Tactics

The six o’clock alarm rings loudly

Everybody gets a wake-up call at least once in their life that sharply focuses past glories and future plans. Mike Peters had his in 2006, when he was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, and it’s his journey to remission that has fuelled his latest work. It’s not a maudlin “all our yesterdays” but a revisiting of the punk barricades (during his recovery he recalls listening to a lot of Wire, Costello, The Ruts, and rediscovering Don Letts’ legacy of white reggae). So here’s an Alarm album full of fire and gusto, challenging complacency and celebrating involvement – a rekindling of that energy and passion.

It’s all here, as Peters says, “Thinking backward and projecting forward at the same time,” played with a little more space in the music than we’ve been used to hearing from him (it’s that white reggae thing). Rat Trap sounds like an undiscovered new wave classic, catchy and invigorating, cocking a snoop at apathy and inactivity. Situation Under Control, written shortly after Peters’ initial admission to hospital, is the manifesto that saw him through, while the strident Alarm Calling could be his own Clash City Rockers. Mike Peters: an inspiring example of what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.

The Twenty First Century | Recording Company 21C 044

Reviewed by Ian Abrahams
<< Back to Issue 353