Strange this - I've spent far too many hours of my life defending The Alarm against misplaced accusations that they sound like U2 and yet at the beginning of this track I have to confess that Mike Peters' vocal had me thinking of Bono quicker than you can say, "Sunday Bloody Sunday".
To be honest, Close isn't the strongest single The Alarm have ever put out either, with a bit too much repetition and an '80s stadium rock vibe that is too deeply unfashionable for it to shift a bucketload of copies. However, it's still better than most of what's out there. The electric guitar motif is powerfully plaintive, the chorus as memorable as usual and the "na-na-nas" deep in the mix nicely counterpoint the melancholic lyrics ("Travelling, not arriving, that's the story of my life").
The Alarm are currently touring the UK in support of Status Quo. I'll leave you to ponder what sort of crazy world allows such hierarchical travesties to take place.
more