The Undertones (album)

The Undertones' eponymous debut album was recorded at Eden Studios in January 1979. The album was produced by Roger Bechirian, with whom the band had worked with for the first time the previous month, when Bechirian had produced the band's second single, "Get Over You". Much of the material upon this album had been performed regularly at the Casbah; a venue in Derry where the band had regularly performed since 1977, with some songs having only been written towards the end of 1978.[1] The album itself was recorded in the space of less than four weeks, with mixing concluding on 14 February.[5][n 1]

The photographs of the band which adorn the front and rear cover of the initial release of The Undertones were taken in Bull Park, Derry, in late January 1979 following the completion of the Eden Studios recording sessions of the LP. The photography was taken by Derry Journal photographer Larry Doherty. The band themselves insisted on the photography being black and white, with them depicted sat upon a wall within Derry as the band wished to replicate the cover photography of the Ramones' first album—albeit only to a degree.[7]

The front and rear cover photography of the re-released version of the album was taken by Jill Furmanovsky.

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[8]
Blender	[9]
Christgau's Record Guide	B+[10]
Mojo	[11]
Q	[12]
Record Collector	[13]
Rolling Stone	[14]
Select	5/5[15]
Sounds	[16]
Spin Alternative Record Guide	9/10[17]

According to lead guitarist Damian O'Neill, although delighted with the critical reception of their debut album, the band were unprepared for the wave of appraisal from music journalists such as Paul Morley. In 2000, O'Neill recollected their debut album as being the best they released, stating the album "summed us up. It still sounds fresh. No, I don't think we should have split up at that point."[18]

In 2019, O'Neill also reflected: "I think it took about a month altogether: a couple of weeks recording, and then mixing. The drums and bass are mostly live, I would say, then we probably would have redone the guitars. If anything was good then we left it. We didn’t have to rearrange anything. The exuberance, the excitement, we were all still teenagers, more or less: I'd just turned 18 in January '79. There's a youthfulness for that album alone. I think, by the next album, Hypnotised, we'd kind of grown up a little bit more. It's probably my favourite record still, the first album, because it's got that freshness, which is wonderful."[19]

Reviewing in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau wrote: "Nice lads, nice lads—suddenly the world is teeming with nice lads. I like their punky speed and adolescent authenticity, but I'd prefer the reverse—among adolescents these days the speed takes care of itself, while finding something besides teendom to write about is a problem."[10]

• Sides one and two were combined as tracks 1–14 on CD reissues.

Notes

• "Let's Talk About Girls" is a cover of a 1966 song by The Grodes.[27]

The Undertones

• Feargal Sharkey – lead vocals
• John O'Neill – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
• Damian O'Neill – lead guitar, keyboard, backing vocals
• Michael Bradley – bass guitar, lead vocals (on original album version of "True Confessions"), backing vocals
• Billy Doherty – drums

• Allmusic review of The Undertones' debut album
• Full lyrics for The Undertones' debut album
• History of Punk in Derry, Northern Ireland
• Review of The Undertones' eponymous debut LP at BBC Music
• The Undertones' official website
• Yourirish.com profile of The Undertones