fine art of surfacing, the (1979) – boomtown rats: columbia records, JC-36248

It seems like whenever we think of foreign (i.e. non-American) music, we always default to England and not, say, Germany or Finland or Uruguay.

And with good reason, too. Let’s face it, that wretched, cold, miserable little island has produced more than its fair share of influential and popular bands.

However, lost in the Union Jack were some guys from the Emerald Isle who weren’t too bad themselves.

England gave us the Stones, the Who, the Kinks, and the Beatles, and Ireland gave us Van Morrison. England gave us Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, the Yardbirds, and Cream and Ireland gave us Rory Gallagher and Thin Lizzy. England gave us the Sex Pistols, the Clash, and the Jam and Ireland gave us U2 and the Pogues.

They also gave us the Boomtown Rats, who may have been the best rock band to come out of Finn McCool’s homeland. Hell, the Rats even have an appearance on SCTV to their credit.

Of course, today most people probably only know of the Rats through their lead singer, Bob Geldof. It was Geldof, along with Midge Ure (from Thin Lizzy & Ultravox) that brought the famine in Africa to worldwide attention through their group Band Aid and their song Do They Know It’s Christmastime (well before the atrocity known as USA for Africa came about), and for whom Slade wrote the tribute song, Do You Believe in Miracles.

Oh, he also played Pink in the movie adaptation of The Wall. Not bad for a tosser from outside Dublin.

The Fine Art of Surfacing was the band’s third album, and contained the monster smash hit, I Don’t Like Mondays.

Side 1: Someone Looking At You Diamond Smiles Wind Chill Factor (Minus Zero) Having My Picture Taken Sleep (Fingers’ Lullabye)
Side 2: I Don’t Like Mondays Nothing Happened Today Keep It Up Nice ‘N’ Neat When The Night Comes

The best part of this little diversion of mine is getting a chance to listen to an album that’s been lost in the shuffle and to (in a sense) rediscover just how awesome it, and the band that made it, is. Surfacing is a perfect example, because even though I’ve heard some of the songs from the album off and on more or less consistently, I haven’t actually sat down and listened to the whole album for many years.

And man, let me tell you baby, it is great!

But even though I really do think this is one of the best albums I have, explaining why is quite difficult. Although all of the songs are good (with some are better than others), none of them (aside from Mondays or Diamond Smiles which are both just kickass songs) are really outstanding. And although all of the music is solid, none of it is really breathtaking. And although all of the lyrics are catchy and clever, none of them are really remarkable.

Yet somehow, the album is outstanding, breathtaking, and remarkable at the same time.

Perhaps it’s the fact that each song seems so different from the others in terms of style (one is quite new-wavey, one is sort of raga, one is a bit classical, one is sort of weird). Or, maybe it’s that the songs leap from paranoia to suicide to mass murder to lust. Hell, it may even be just because it seems that the Rats are having a good time poking fun at things that were being taken so seriously at the time. But whatever the reason, there is something about this album that just resonated with me on this listen, and made me feel really happy to get reacquainted with it.

And I suppose that’s part of the purpose of this blog – to allow myself to re-discover some old friends.

Up next: An aging 70’s rocker tries to stay relevant in the 80’s