Album review: THE ALARM – Equals
The Twenty First Century Recording Company [Release date 29.06.18]
The Alarm return with their first new album since 2010′s ‘Direct Action’, although there was an album entitled ‘Blood Red’ which came out last year and features a few songs on the ‘Equals’ album.
Mike Peters and his wife Jules are the perfect example of inspiring people as both are in remission after cancer treatment and they have registered over 170,000 people to the International Bone Marrow Donor Registry. You could be forgiven thinking that with all this going on in their lives they would have little time for music. However they do, with an annual Alarm concert at the summit of Snowdonia and they are regularly on the road touring.
‘Equals’ starts of with a little electronic dance beat, yes that’s right dance beat, on ‘Two Rivers’. On top of this is the distinctive heartfelt vocals of Mike Peters and plenty of acoustic and electric guitar action, the latter supplied by James Stevenson (The Cult, Holy Holy).
In fact many of the songs on here use electronica to good effect such as on ‘Thirteen Dead Reindeer’ which sees again the dance beats combining well with the guitars and vocals. With some bands, going a bit modern like this often ends in failure and disgruntled fans, not so in the Alarm’s case as they add these to their established sound as opposed to other way round.
The Cult’s Billy Duffy guests and trades guitar licks with Peters and Stevenson on ‘Coming Backwards’, a beast of a tune. Mike Peters’ has plenty of issues to share with us including an uplifting ‘Beautiful’ and ‘Peace Now’, which borrows a line from Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick In The Wall’. ‘Neutral’ could apply to many of us fed up with being told to take sides or declare a political stance, rather we remain true to ourselves and remain neutral.
Mike Peters and The Alarm still have plenty to say and we’d do well to listen. Great to see them back and ‘Equals’ will keep fans satisfied for many weeks, months, and years to come. ****
Review by Jason Ritchie
Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK
Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.
In 2023 he signed a recording deal with Sony in Canada and released a new single on 15 September.
Next session: Sunday 1 December
Check out videos here: https://www.facebook.com/getreadytorockradio
David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 3 November 2024.
UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 29 October 2024.
How to Listen Live?
Click the programming image at the top of the page (top right of page if using desktop)
Listen via Windows Media Player. Click or tap here and “open file”
Listen via other media player (eg. VLC) Click or tap here and “open file”
Get Ready to ROCK! Radio is also in iTunes under Internet Radio/Classic Rock
Listen in via the Tunein app and search for “Get Ready to ROCK!” and save as favourite.
More information and links at our radio website where you can listen again to shows via the presenter pages: getreadytorockradio.com
Power Plays w/c 11 November 2024
ARCANE MOON Hello Sun (indie)
S8NT ELEKTRIC XTC (Long Branch Records)
ARCANA KINGS Here We Go (Curtain Call Records)
KLOGR face The Unknown (Zeta Factory)
BEYOND UNBROKEN Dance With The Dead (FiXT)
REVENGIN Decadent Feeling (Wormholedeath)
Featured Albums w/c 11 November 2024
09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Singer Songwriter)
PDF - you can delete unwanted sections