The Alarm
Electric Folklore Live
1988
By Steve Futon
This album is over 40 minutes long, and contains only 6 songs. The live versions of "Rescue Me" and "Rain In The Summertime" are brilliant on this album, drastically making up for the low-key versions on "Eye Of The Hurricane". The problem is that 2 songs do not make up a live album. The other 4 songs, "Strength", "Blaze Of Glory", "Spirit Of '76", and "Permanence In Change" are far inferior to earlier album or live versions. With only 6 songs, this album has far too many missing elements that would have shown The Alarm at their best. "The Stand", "Howling Wind", "Where Were You Hiding", "Absolute Reality", "The Bells Of Rhymney", and "The Deceiver" among many many others could have filled out this album and really shown what a brilliant, tight, and powerful live band The Alarm were. Instead, we get 6 bloated numbers that do more to show The Alarm's mis-direction than anything else. Wasn't it Pete Townsend that once said "any song over 2:30 is crap" ? This certainly would apply to "Electric Folklore Live".
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