Ramones - Too Tough To Die - Used LP

 VG/VG (considerable wear to both sleeve and vinyl)

Ramones 1980s output might lurk in the shadow of their albums from the 1970s, but albums like this one deserve to be brought out into the light.  On this one, the influences of The Who and The Stooges seem to show (as well as the cross pollination from bands they had likely influenced), but this is still pure Ramones.  Another essential album from the greatest band this side of Mars. -- winch

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"With the Ramones' original drummer, Tommy Erdelyi, producing, the group returns to simple, scathing punk rock on Too Tough to Die. The group takes the big guitar riffs of Subterranean Jungle and makes them shorter and heavier. The Ramones' rhythms are back up to jackhammer speed and the songs are down to short, terse statements. The results read like a reaction to hardcore punk, but the Ramones are more melodic than any hardcore band, as well as smarter than most. Apart from the occasional foray into pop, such as the surprisingly effective Dave Stewart-produced "Howling at the Moon," the album is a sterling set of lethal punk, the best the Ramones had made since the end of the '70s. It was also the last great record they would ever make." -- Stephen Thomas Erlewine