Rhino's reissue of the Ramones Subterranean Jungle gives new life to one the band's forgettable, and yet memorable, albums.

Following their triumphant first four albums, Subterranean Jungle was album #7, released in 1983 after several unsuccessful endeavors such as the movie Rock 'n' Roll High School and an attempt to go mainstream stint with megalo-producer Phil Spector. This album musically chronicles everything that was going wrong with the Ramones at the time. The result? The most disjointed Ramones album to date.

The original release of Subterranean Jungle contains the original 12 tracks with just over 30 minutes of music, but only nine of the songs were original material. Definitely not the Ramones at their best. It is never a good sign when the first two tracks are covers- track one being The Music Explosion's Little Bit O' Soul. This album of course contains classic punk Ramones tracks such as Outside and PsychoTherapy, but at times this album lacks the spunkiness which made them so fun to listen.

I have to admit that I am a huge Phil "Quickdraw" Spector fan and of their collaborative album The End of the Century which was released three years earlier. Naturally, I found myself listening to My-My Kind of Girl and the bonus track New Girl in Town. Jeez, I love that lollipop stuff. And the Ramones pull it off very well. It is just all the songs in between that seems to suffer.

The real fun are the seven extra nuggets included in this reissue. They are the reason to buy this again, or for the first time. Included is the original mix of Indian Giver, plus four demos of other Ramones songs complete with Dee Dee's 1-2-3-4 intro. And to make this even sweeter, a demo copy of My-My Kind of Girl.