JOEY RAMONE - "...YA KNOW?" (Sometimes they come back... the second solo album of the legendary Joey Ramone, a posthumous release; released as a CD in 2012 via a corporation between "ROUGH TRADE DISTRIBUTION" & "BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT")

JOEY RAMONE - "...YA KNOW?"
("Rough Trade Distribution" & "BMG Rights Management"; CD):

Here's something special and something you might can call a goody or some sort of a gift or something like this. The posthumous released second full length solo album of the legendary JOEY RAMONE, all done, compiled/produced and realized by his brother. I saw it some day this sommer and this also for only 9 Euros, a pretty low price for a brandnew full length album, what shall I say, clear that I bought it, not at least because I wanted to buy it anyway and also I am a big fan of the almighty and legendary RAMONES. If you know about the, hm, let us say background mixture of subculture, music, personal issues and social environment that marked the growing up and the life of JOEY RAMONE the music on this disc should be no suprise to anyone. Okay, I know about it only slightly and just by reading about it, but I had a pretty good idea about it anyway and was very excited about finally listening to it. Then the opener blasted me nearly away, "ROCK'N'ROLL IS THE ANSWER" is and gives us exactly what it promises: Rock'n'Roll; and this in  a very pure and just damn great way. Snotty, slightly punky, pretty strong by Glam or however you may would like to name it influenced classical Rock & Roll that you can imagine like a authentic, snotty, rebellious, earthed and organic, ''punky'' and ''glamy'' version of THE ROLLING STONES and the likes of it that rocked the shit out of the youth over the 1960's and the 1970's. And like this it goes on here on this very one. But unfortunately not all that strong and good. But it's also only rarely gets bad on the track. All in all we get fifteen tracks of sympathic snotty, authentic punky, pretty energetic and nicely dynamic classical Glam influenced Rock & Roll music full of melodies, as well as emotions and passion for and in the music. Best showcased and displayed in great songs like the larger than life opener anthem track "ROCK'N'ROLL IS THE ANSWER", the pretty melancholical tuned "GOING NOWHERE FAST", the hymnal "NEW YORK CITY", the electrifying "21st CENTURY GIRL", the orgiastic "PARTY LINE", yes, all great tracks. All is marked by nicely varying ''glamy'' guitar work, ''punky'' rockin' and cool rollin' shit, heavily marking the songs, the shining charismatic unique typical snotty vocals, already legendary by any means and one of a kind, and a damn tight, nicely powerful and present but still pretty laid back and not too much urgeing too strong in the foreground of it all rhythm section, exactly like it's needed to be in good old Rock & Roll music. Big melodies and leads, good solos, cool arrangements and fresh approaches to the songwriting, more often yes than no, so, yes, pretty good done shit. Annoying are just plain and simple bad songs like the annoying original (?) solo version of "MERRY CHRISTMAS (I DON'T WANNA FIGHT TONIGHT)", the boring "LIFE'S A GAS", and especially the somewhat by Reggae, Calypso, Carribean and/or what the hell else ever inspired "MAKE ME TREMBLE" that sound in fact like nothing anyhow like Reggae/Calypso/Carribean/WTF-else-ever music, but just like a song that wasn't used for a Bud Spencer and Terence Hill movie back then because it simply was a by any means far too bad as well as far too annoying song. But anyhow, fans of the DICTATORS, the RAMONES, the ROLLING STONES, and maybe also of the NEW YORK DOLLS can calmly give this disc anyhow a good round with trying it out, it's more than worth it and a lot of cool shit waits to be discovered by you. The artwork of this album is really a cool and damn good one, while also the lyrics are really good and the linernotes about the origin of this album and with insight-ful thoughts about JOEY RAMONE in general truly shine, not to talk about the very, very good production sound. Not a milestone or something like this, but a good one, for sure, also with a lot of value not at least especially for fans of the RAMONES and JOEY RAMONE. Test it out, could if not should be worth your time. (8 of 10 points)
(www.joeyramone.com)