The label’s called Secret. But it’s doubtful whether many punters will realise just what the packaging of this product is hiding. Without opening the cellophane wrapper, there’s nothing to indicate that this ‘2CD set featuring the hits’ is anything other than a straight-up Best Of collection. But it’s not.
In fact it’s a live album, and not even a new one; it was originally released in 2003 as The Sound & The Fury (puzzlingly, also the name of Mike Peters’s collection of re-recordings from 2012). There’s no doubt that The Alarm’s best moments – hits like Where Were You Hiding (When The Storm Broke),_ 68 Guns_ and the Springsteenian anthemics of Spirit Of ‘76 – are timeless, rabble-rousing rock anthems that deserve to endure. And these live renditions of them and 27 other songs from 1981-91 do them impressive justice.
But the marketing of this package (8⁄10 for the album; 2⁄10 for the marketing) does not. A band who traded on notions of honesty, integrity, three chords and the truth, and fans who bought into that philosophy, deserve better.