Mondo Bizarro

CJ makes his studio album debut along with the return of Ed Stasium as producer (this being his last time working the guys) in what is often considered the beginning of the Ramones's last stand, Mondo Bizarro.

I often find myself at odds with some of the opinions of this album. Mondo Bizarro is seen as a good album and it's sometimes considered a great album (but nowhere near the first 4). The band sounds better and livelier than in previous efforts as those were horribly produced affairs with questionable songwriting and performances by the band. Mondo Bizarro, produced by old Ramones producer Ed Stasium, is a cleaner, sharper effort. Stasium was great at bringing out the best of the band's pop sounds, and Mondo Bizarro continued his impressive streak with the band. My only qualm would be that the band sounds too slick compared to their other work, but that's a minor issue.

The music is still Ramones-esque. Johnny still plays like it's 1974. Marky plays as if it's 1978. CJ's emulates Dee Dee without failing. The only one that's changed is Joey. At first listen, it's Joey Ramone without the depressingly cathartic sludge he burped out for many albums and live shows. After repeated listening, I feel as if his voice was cleaned up a bit, as "The Job that Ate My Brain" sounds way too good to be a late career Joey. It's still great that he was singing again, but did he need that cleanup? Speaking of singing, this album continues the tradition of the singing bassist with CJ getting three songs to sing. His voice is better than Dee Dee's, but I find myself skipping his songs as his voice is whiny and the songs they chose for him are annoying to begin with.

The heart and soul of the band is the songwriting, and most of it is acceptable. There's nothing mind blowing or new in this venture as the guys always found a way to make a great hook in even their most horrible of songs, therefore they would always do their best to make each song a possible radio hit. Marky brings out a few goodies with "The Job that Ate My Brain" and "Anxiety", songs that would have found a home 15 years earlier in the first album due to the subject matter, simplicity, and length. Dee Dee "contributed" three songs on this album (for bail money as the stories go), and I skip most of them as they're not great ("Strength to Endure" has good riff, but that's about it). Dee Dee did contribute the 4-minute bloated Joey song on this album, "Poison Heart". It is the sequel to the equally bloated "Pet Sematary", and it shares the same cheesy production as its brother. Joey brings a ton of work into this album, but most of it is mediocre. They're not bad, but the songs aren't as engaging or well written as previous efforts (similar to Dee Dee's material). There is one cover on this album, "Take It as It Comes", but it sounds so similar to the original that it almost comes off as if the Ramones were a cover band - a bad sign of things to come.

"Touring" and "It's Gonna Be Alright" are the songs that are just negatively effortless. The Ramones understood the art of music-making, and they also were masters of pulling off numerous songs with the same chord progression. However, there were few times in their career where they rip themselves off by having similar sounding songs. "Touring" was not only a completed 11 year old song at the time of Mondo Bizzaro's release, but if it was released then, the connection between it and "Sheena is a Punker"/ "Rock 'n' Roll High School" would have still been as noticeable as the sun. "Its Gonna Be Alright" may get away with its copying as it comes from Too Tough to Die's "Daytime Dilema (Dangers of Love)", a song whose popularity is nowhere near the levels of "Sheena" or "RnR High School". The funniest part of the copying on "Its Gonna Be Alright" is that the song is about fan loyalty, and I think that only the most loyal of Ramones fans will get the connection between the two songs. Both "Touring" and "It's Gonna Be Alright" are listenable songs, but it sucks that they borrow so much from older songs.

Mondo Bizarro was the band's strongest effort in years, but it was nowhere near their best efforts. The album was just better than mediocre. What saves this album is the production values, as the band had not sounded as alive in years. The songwriting is sub-par with only two songs I'd consider classics, 7 uninspired songs, and 4 stinkers. It's better than Animal Boy or Brain Drain, but most albums are better than those two. This would be their penultimate album of original material, as the next album would be a cover album.

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