My Top 2000 Songs #1034: Deeside

I've never spent a ton of time listening to The Alarm. Their Welsh new wave felt a little too much like deliberate U2-styled arena anthem efforts for my taste. Still, 1985's Strength got a fair amount of airplay on my college radio show, a nice way to break up the mostly American indie jangle/punk sounds I favored. And "Deeside" was my go-to for several weeks, an instance where their fist-pumping, chiming bombast felt well-earned. There was a rousing hook, that sing-along "fire fire fire!" proclamation, and some Springsteen-like working-class sentiments, something I could feel energized about. 

Can't say I returned to Strength (or the band generally) all that often since that particular point in time, but now and then I'll pull out one of their records to conjure some instant nostalgia, and this song still bangs.

Old Grey Whistle Test:

And in 2017: