Well, you didn’t think we’d leave it at just the first album and be done with it, did you?
Now that enough time has elapsed for listeners’ heart rates to come back to normal, we are more than merely pleased to add the Sonics second album – the entirely appropriately entitled “Boom” – to our ever expanding range of Hip Pocket titles.
Most bands down the years have tended to work off much of their initial youthful aggression on their debut album. Come album two, an amount of mellow has likely as not crept into the proceedings, along with an increased musical professionalism. Not so the Sonics. Not content with being able to play in their hometown of Seattle and to be heard in Sacramento without the aid of amplification, they upped the pressure and the volume to an extent where they could probably be heard south of San Diego without the benefit of a prevailing wind.
“Boom” still does much more than merely deliver on the promise of their first Etiquette album, “Here Are The Sonics”. Few records have ever packed as much of a musical punch from start to finish. Even more so than their first album, it offers a representation of what the Sonics must have sounded like ‘in the dance’ at the peak of their considerable powers.
Recorded in the most glorious no-fi you could ever wish for and with anthemic originals like Cinderella and He’s Waiting vying for your attention with what is possibly the most violent version of Louie Louie that there will ever be, “Boom” is an album that has always justified the esteem in which it is held by collectors around the globe. Here it is, issued in its original format for the first time on a UK CD, to make the Hip Pocket series even hipper…
By Tony Rounce
