Let me just begin by saying no one has given the new Boomtown Rats album an unequivocally favorable review. If anything, Citizens of Boomtown has been met with far more questions and criticism than welcome and praise. And I get it. After 36 years does the music world really need a new recording by Sir Bob Geldof and his aging mates? Who's to say? And while there may be half an album’s worth of missteps on the new album, part of me does have to stand back and admire Geldof for “getting (most of) the band back together” after all these years and coming up with at least half an album of worthwhile tunes. Is it a groundbreaking achievement? Nope. A hit-making comeback album of historic proportions? I doubt it. On par with A Tonic For the Troops or The Fine Art of Surfacing? Beauty is in the ear of the listener, and I firmly believe that truly good musicians never completely lose the knack for writing a good song. When asked “Why now?” Geldof responded, “It wasn't that difficult, really. There's nothing really for us to prove, but there still is something to say, and I'm sort of amazed and thrilled by that. Will anyone be interested? I don't know. Does that stop you from making music? Not at all.”
I was a huge fan of Dublin’s Boomtown Rats back in the day. They were brash, witty and theatrical, and they wrote catchy, intelligent songs. As Tony Clayton-Lea wrote in the Irish Times, “if Van Morrison was the philosopher/poet, Phil Lynott the charmer and Bono the peacemaker, then Geldof was the effusive rabble-rouser.” However, like many of their Irish counterparts, the Rats never really sparked a large US following despite the chart-topping popularity of their morbid ballad about disliking Mondays. Geldof was a charismatic front man and the rest of the Rats were all highly competent musicians keen to expand the boundaries of rock music with atypical arrangements and intricate instrumentation. In the end, being too clever for their own good left the band directionless and caused them to sputter out amidst frustration and admirable failed attempts to explore multiple musical themes and genres. Their break-up eventually cleared the way for Geldof’s political activism and altruistic endeavors like Band Aid, Live Aid, Live 8, Self Aid and the One Campaign. Without the Rats he also found time to record some solo albums, write a book and star in Alan Parker’s film adaptation of Pink Floyd’s The Wall.
Which brings us back to 2020 and the 7th album by The Boomtown Rats, Citizens of Boomtown… The first single off the album is a frivolous, fun-filled pop song that aptly name-checks the New York Dolls and the Spiders from Mars with a nostalgic-sounding chorus and a walloping drum beat reminiscent of Springsteen and The Who. “Trash Glam Baby” is not going to propel the Boomtown Rats into the top of the charts, but the first time I heard it I knew it had to be the Happy Medium Song of the Day. I also crossed my fingers that it might provide US fans with one more state-side tour, and the opportunity to show one of Ireland’s finest bands the appreciation they always deserved.
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