ROCKS! DON'T BUST THE CHOPS! ...BABY.
wally gator | USA | 10/29/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"BRAIN DRAIN (1989) oughtta be considered a Ramones classic. I hate when people talk about a great rock album and say things like "The only good song is PET SEMETARY." It's simply not true with this album. I BELIEVE IN MIRACLES is both one of the best Ramones songs ever, and also on my list of top ten rock songs of the eighties.
Also, this album has more great songs- song for song- than any albums from the eighties. It rocks out like Road To Ruin. And is far better than any albums they recorded afterwards. It's different than the seventies albums , sure,.. but the band synched perfectly, and created a stellar rock album. ZERO ZERO...rocks, DONT BUST MY CHOPS... awesome, dig the hook, bay-bee; PUNISHMENT FITS and ALL SCREWED UP to me sound just as good as any seventies stuff, only with a little eighties production. But we're talking Red Hot Chilli Peppers eighties, not Journey. Whatever, it still sounds fresh and it sounds like Ramones. The song from that Stephen King movie is probably the most un-Ramones-like song in the mix, but it's still good. Followed by PALISADES PARK... another cool take on some fifties bubble gum that rocks. The rest of the album balances left to right with Dee Dee's aggresive LEARN TO LISTEN and IGNORANCE IS BLISS, sandwiched between Joey Ramone ballads CANT GET YOU OUTTA MY MIND and COME BACK BABY... two songs that foreshadow some of the great tunes that Joey Ramone would do on his own. The Christmas one is good too. All three would be on any Joey Ramone greatest hits package. Should one ever be released. Every song is great. This may be my FAVORITE Ramones album of all. So stop bustin' chops.
*The remaster series doesn't add much, except an alternate version of Pets, but I've often found it much cheaper at other places. You can save money here at Amazon, by just getting the straight version."
Track Listings (13) - Disc #1