Reviewed by Steve Best

The last Alarm studio album ever, 'Raw' from 1991was preceded by 1990's greatest hits package 'Standards'. Internal arguments resulted in the writing being split so that Mike Peters and bassist Eddie Macdonald would contribute three songs, guitarist Dave Sharp and drummer Nigel Twist would put in three and the remaining songs would be group compositions, with a cover of Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World" - ironically the album standout track by far - making up the running order. Unsurprisingly the results were disjointed and the band grew collectively more and more disheartened as recording progressed. Poignantly this re-issue concludes with an acoustic version of "Walk Forever By My Side", the last song the band ever recorded together, and up to now, never released. A sad end for one of the great live and studio bands. Wales best ever export, bar none.

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