LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

Originally released by Sire Records in 1986, Animal Boy was the ninth studio album by the Ramones. While retaining the band’s familiar combination of speed, direct melodies and stripped-down guitar attack, the record introduced a broader mid-1980s production style, with heavier guitar textures, occasional synthesizers and a more varied approach to songwriting.

Produced by Jean Beauvoir, the album gave Dee Dee Ramone and drummer Richie Ramone a particularly prominent creative role. Richie wrote the explosive opening track, “Somebody Put Something in My Drink,” one of the album’s most immediate songs, while Dee Dee contributed much of its faster, harder material, including “Animal Boy,” “Love Kills,” “Apeman Hop” and “Crummy Stuff.”

One of the album’s defining moments is “My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg),” an unusually direct piece of political commentary from the group. Its strong melody and impassioned Joey Ramone vocal contrast with the short, aggressive bursts of “Eat That Rat” and “Freak of Nature.” Elsewhere, “Mental Hell” explores a darker emotional atmosphere, while “She Belongs to Me” adds a polished pop-rock edge.

The closing “Something to Believe In” is among the album’s most expansive performances, combining an anthemic chorus with a more reflective lyric. Together with “Somebody Put Something in My Drink” and “Love Kills,” it helped establish Animal Boy as a distinctive chapter in the Ramones’ later catalogue, balancing their original punk economy with the harder and more polished sound of the mid-1980s.

Track listing:

Side A
A1. Somebody Put Something in My Drink – 3:23
A2. Animal Boy – 1:50
A3. Love Kills – 2:19
A4. Apeman Hop – 2:02
A5. She Belongs to Me – 3:54
A6. Crummy Stuff – 2:06

Side B
B1. My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg) – 3:55
B2. Mental Hell – 2:38
B3. Eat That Rat – 1:37
B4. Freak of Nature – 1:32
B5. Hair of the Dog – 2:19
B6. Something to Believe In – 4:09