This week on Underrated: Pleasant Dreams (Ramones, 1981)

    Maybe it was the shitty artwork (quoth I, who painted it on the back of my vest). Maybe it was something else. To this day I still fail to understand, not so much why the album did not peak higher at the time of its release, but rather why people still pass it by without so much as a second glance- or listen.

   An album that became notorious as the ground over which the legendary feud between Johnny and Joey first sprouted, Pleasant Dreams features two of the band's most recogniseable songs, "The KKK Took my Baby Away" is featured pretty much in every single compilation, playlist, you name it that has anything to do with the band, and "7-11" for those of you who decided to discover the band through slightly less mainstream playlists.

   Admittedly the album strays from the band's previous sound and it presents a delightful mix of different approaches by the band, all perfectly conducted to bring out everything the guys had to offer. Opening with a heavier, almost anthemic track, "We Want the Airwaves", and continuing in more trademark territory with "All's Quiet on the Eastern Front", the album doesn't fail to bring to your lips the taste of New York at the turn of the decade and the sounds and visuals that came with it.

   Exploring new sounds on tracks like "You Didn't Mean Anything to Me" and "Sitting in my Room", picking up the pace with "You Sound Like You're Sick" and "It's not my place", and bringing on the heartache (don't tell me I'm the only one) at "7-11", with the Ramones-trademark romance of "Don't Go" and "She's a Sensation", this is an album that is chokeful of new opportunities. Every song can stand its ground and be enjoyed on its own without the need of the rest of the album to compliment it, and perhaps today, with the ability to selctively add whichever track we want on any playlist, we will finally be able to appreciate this album for all it has to offer. I'll admit, maybe the songs didn't work that well together, maybe this wasn't an album made to be listened in one session, but rather contribute the right song for the right mixtape, but apparently none of you sat your arse down to do that now did you?

   And maybe that is the genious of this album. Disconnected in some sense as a sum, but with a perfect song to add the soundtrack to your life. Yes, that's exactly what this album is: a soundtrack to your life, with its bits and pieces seemingly out of place when seen as a sum, but making perfect sense when you look at them one by one. And then you understand how you got here.

   Without further ado, bring out your copies, crank the volume all the way up, and just listen to it.