Album Review: The Ramonas - "Haphazard"

 

As well as their day job as an all-girl Ramones tribute band, the Ramonas have also been carving out a career playing their own originals in the last few years and Haphazard is their second full length album following on from 2017's First World Problems. Despite keeping their tribute band name, that album managed to put enough clear water between them and da Bruddas to mark them out as a different enough proposition (not least a prominent social conscience in the lyrics) so I was interested to see how this one would turn out.

In all brutal honesty, there hasn't been a lot of progress since the Ramonas' debut - they still specialise in the sort of sparky pop-punk that sounds like a more politically aware distant cousin of the Donnas or a poppier Maid of Ace. The political vitriol is very much still there on the likes of Filth, Injustice System and Consumed and is to be applauded. Elsewhere, For You and A Way Of Life see them trying a sly attempt at Blondie style power-pop - a nice idea but the songs in question fall a bit flat unfortunately. It's maybe telling that their best moments come when they sound closest to the classic "wun-too-free-for!" such as on the Dee Dee tribute I'd Like To Congratulate Myself although the sinister bass-heavy Imposter and Insulted, which has a hint of the Dead Kennedys about it, run it very close.

The trouble is that as this album goes on, the songs on Haphazard seem to start to blur into each other a bit - while the Ramonas have definitely done enough to prove that they're more than just a Ramones tribute band, they also don't really change their sound up a lot. They've got plenty of fire and energy but not a huge amount in the way of variety unfortunately and it kind of feels as if they've gone backwards a little since that debut a few years ago. To be fair, most of these songs do sound like they'd go down well in a packed venue with a few pints flowing through your system but you can't help but wish they'd maybe just offer a bit more, y'know? A valiant effort which ultimately falls a bit short I'm afraid.

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