Halfway to Sanity enjoys a strange reputation. You can hear from sources that it was a bad hand, on the other hand quite okay, and still others say they do not know where to place it, because it is so unusual and varied ... I say they are all right. The board combines various styles including sound some songs arg by HARD ROCK with a dark touch ("I Wanna Live" (good intro!), "Garden of Serenity", "I Know Beter Now"), with Joey on vocals partially aggressive and "roaring" is what you could notice with the predecessor from Subterranean Jungle. We have POP-ROCK ("Death of Me" (very good, eingängier song!), "Go Lil Camaro Go", "A Real Cool Time"), but it does not sound bored or even uninspired, but shows that the Ramones can score also in the shallow waters. Plus, there's a HEAVY METAL-inspired attempt to "I'm Not Jesus", written by drummer Richie Ramone. Incredibly hard, fast, aggressive and nasty, dark text and even sinister Prayer speech passages ... but fits great with the song. Of course we have again the familiar sound PUNK ROCK ("Bop Til You Drop" Weasal Face "," I Lost My Mind "(sung by Dee Dee Ramone)), as you wish for him from the Ramones. All in all, outweighs all songs a gloomy mood, sometimes angry lyrics and eerie arrangements. The sound is very good and for miles better than its predecessor "Animal Boy", the guitars are indeed in my opinion too much in the background, but the drums are crisp and loud, the vocals in the foreground and everything neatly oomph. So really all the best. What stood with personally is the songwriting. A total of 8 tracks from Dee Dee wrote, 2 of them with Johnny, then 2 of Joey Ramone and even 2 of Riche (see above). But all this is not to be read in the booklet, there's only the lyrics, nothing more. The authors of the songs I had to look for commands in Internet ;-) CONCLUSION: After '84 "Too Tough To Die" the best 80's output of the Ramones. Rockt absolutely and varieiert plus with styles, so will never get bored!
