¡Alarma! (album) explained

¡Alarma!
Type:studio
Artist:Daniel Amos
Cover:Alarmafront.jpg
Released:April 1981
Studio:Whitefield Studios, Santa Ana, California
Genre:New wave, power pop
Label:NewPax
Producer:Daniel Amos, Thom Roy
Prev Title:Horrendous Disc
Prev Year:1981
Next Title:Doppelgänger
Next Year:1983

¡Alarma! is the fourth studio album by Christian rock and Daniel Amos, issued on Newpax Records in April 1981. It is the first album in their ¡Alarma! Chronicles series and one of the earliest records in the Christian alternative rock genre.

Background

¡Alarma!, released weeks after the band's Beatles- and Beach Boys-influenced Horrendous Disc, took a decidedly new wave direction along the lines of Elvis Costello or Talking Heads.

Lyrically, the album contains social commentary so harsh that CCM described it as "perhaps the most scathing ever put out by a Christian label." Other critics offered the following assessments: "the most exciting release of the year"; "brash, new and intensely creative" and "possibly the most significant album in the genre of Christian rock".[1] ¡Alarma! was the first of a four-part series of albums by DA entitled The ¡Alarma! Chronicles, which also included the albums Doppelgänger, Vox Humana, and Fearful Symmetry. This album, along with the other three albums from the Alarma! Chronicles, was rereleased as part of the Alarma! Chronicles book set in 2000. The book set included three CDs and a hardcover book of lyrics, photos, liner notes, essays, interviews and other information that amounted to over 200 printed pages.

Bass guitarist Marty Dieckmeyer left the band before the ¡Alarma! Tour, and was replaced with bassist Tim Chandler.

This album was listed at No. 62 in the book (Harvest House Publishers, 2001).[1]

Reissue

In 2013, the album was remastered and repackaged as a two-CD deluxe edition by Stunt Records. Tom Gulotta and Eric Townsend were put in charge of compiling the project - bringing together previously unseen photos, never-before-heard out-takes, mixes and demos, and a reading of the first chapter of the Alarma Chronicles by Malcolm Wild.

Track listing

Side one

  1. "Central Theme" (Taylor)
  2. "¡Alarma!" (Taylor)
  3. "Big Time/Big Deal" (Taylor)
  4. "Props" (Taylor)
  5. "My Room" (Taylor)
  6. "Faces To The Window" (Taylor)
  7. "Cloak & Dagger" (Taylor, Chamberlain)
  8. "Colored By" (Taylor)

Side two

  1. "C & D Reprise" (Taylor, Chamberlain)
  2. "Through The Speakers" (Taylor)
  3. "Hit Them" (Taylor)
  4. "Baby Game" (Taylor)
  5. "Shedding The Mortal Coil" (Taylor, Cook, Chamberlain)
  6. "Endless Summer" (Taylor, Chamberlain)
  7. "Walls Of Doubt" (Taylor)
  8. "Ghost Of The Heart" (Taylor)

Deluxe edition bonus disc

  1. "Little Things" (demo)
  2. "Off My Mind" (demo)
  3. "As Long As I Live" (demo)
  4. "No Spaceship" (demo)
  5. "Out Of Town" (demo)
  6. "Only One" (demo)
  7. "Central Theme" (demo)
  8. "My Room" (demo)
  9. "Faces To The Window" (demo)
  10. "Colored By" (demo)
  11. "Through The Speakers" (demo)
  12. "Hit Them" (demo)
  13. "Endless Summer" (demo)
  14. "Walls of Doubt" (demo)
  15. "Props" (Vocal mix)
  16. "Big Time/Big Deal" (Alternate Mix)
  17. "Shedding the Mortal Coil" (Alternate Mix)
  18. "Ghost of the Heart" (Alternate Mix)
  19. "¡Alarma!" (Instrumental)
  20. "Colored By" (Instrumental)
  21. "¡Alarma! Reading" by Malcolm Wild

Personnel

Musicians

Production

Notes and References

  1. Book: Powell . Mark . The Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music . 2003 . Hendrickson Publishers, Inc. . Peabody, MA . 1-56563-679-1 . 229.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "¡Alarma! (album)".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.