bobgeldof.info - Great But Some Omissions by Irridium

The Best of The Boomtown Rats Review

Great But Some Omissions! by Irridium

Back in the middle to late 1970s this band had the same stature as the Clash or the Jam, for a while anyway. Maybe they weren't really punk, but I loved their Stones-like sound and their melodic rock songs, some of which took them all the way to Number One, like the disturbing I Don't Like Mondays.

Other great hits include Rat Trap, Looking After No. 1 and She's So Modern, all of which reached the upper echelons of the UK charts. I also love the Springsteenesque excursion Joey's On The Street Again and I Never Loved Eva Braun, whilst Diamond Smiles shows them at their lyrical best. The passionate Mary Of The Fourth Form and the urgent Like Clockwork are two of their very best songs.

There are some serious omissions however - Don't Believe What You Read and Me And Howard Hughes from the Tonic For The Troops album and Kicks from the debut also deserve to be remembered.

Besides that gripe, it is still a great showcase of a very original 1970s group that combined melodic flair with intelligent and sometimes very witty lyrics. What a pity that the Boomtown Rats had to fold so soon. If they had carried on, who knows what amazing music might have resulted?