History Music / Alarma

-->There's ColdWar tactics hidden in a smiling face\\

* NotSoDifferent: In the story from the liner notes, an obscenely wealthy man--wearing furs and numerous gold rings--kicks a homeless beggar off his doorstep. The narrator is horrified by this, then finds an identical set of gold rings on his own fingers.

-->Down in Africa they beat the drum\\

-->When someone with charisma tells me "Don't wear shoes"\\

-->There's Cold War tactics hidden in a smiling face\\

-->A wise guy in the sky invites you to a guilty party\\

On their previous album, ''Music/HorrendousDisc'', DA had abandoned CountryMusic for rock. Since then, PunkRock had irrevocably altered the mainstream musical landscape. Many Christians dismissed punk and its offshoots as "nihilistic" and worthless, but DA found themselves listening to a lot of Music/ElvisCostello and Music/TalkingHeads and hearing great potential in this new musical frontier. They knew what their next album had to be.

* {{Hikikomori}}: "My Room" is a satire of Christians who only socialize with other Christians and avoid anyone outside the church. So the lyrics exaggerate it to the point that the narrator lives his entire life inside his room--except to gather in another room with other shut-ins.
-->There's many little rooms, with people like me\\
We often get together, in a bigger room

-->-- '''“¡Alarma!”'''

->''Had ''Alarma!'' been released in the general market, it would have slotted nicely alongside Music/{{XTC}} or Music/{{Devo}}, but Christian music buyers had no frame of reference for the music whatsoever, let alone the fact that [[NewSoundAlbum it was coming from a band]] who’d [[GenreShift previously given them songs]] with titles like “Posse in the Sky” and “Jesus is Jehovah to Me.”''

''¡Alarma! (The Alarma Chronicles Volume I)'' is Music/DanielAmos’s fourth studio album, and their second NewSoundAlbum: this time, signaling their transformation into a NewWaveMusic band.

On their previous album, ''Music/HorrendousDisc'', DA had abandoned CountryMusic for rock. Since then, PunkRock had irrevocably altered the mainstream musical landscape. Many Christians dismissed punk and its offshoots as “nihilistic” and worthless, but DA found themselves listening to a lot of Music/ElvisCostello and Music/TalkingHeads and hearing great potential in this new musical frontier. They knew what their next album had to be.

The album production was very PostPunk: a distinctly “thin” sound, with the treble emphasized and the bass turned way down. (Almost like a wailing alarm...) Oddly, DA kept several aspects of their prior styles--like their ’70s pop melodies and falsetto vocal harmonies--and fused them with this new style. They also had strange little throwbacks like the country-ish “Props” and the SurfRock tribute “Endless Summer”.

The lyrics were every bit as incendiary as the music. DA intended the album to be a wake-up call for American Christians, so most of the songs were razor-edged {{satire}} of their shortcomings: their hypocrisies, double-crossings, and lack of concern for the downtrodden. To further drive the point home, the liner notes featured [[http://www.danielamos.com/articles/alarmac1.html a story by frontman Terry Scott Taylor]], in which his AuthorAvatar dreams about visiting a decaying city that embodies a twisted parody of the church’s flaws.

''¡Alarma!'' hit the shelves in 1981[[note]]mere weeks after the release of ''Horrendous Disc'', owing to that album’s ludicrous three-year delay[[/note]]. For the old guard of the Daniel Amos fandom--who preferred DA’s country albums and felt ''Horrendous Disc'' was a horrendous betrayal--this album was the final nail in the band’s coffin. But DA pressed on and rebuilt their fan base from almost nothing. And for those new, very loyal fans, this album was the start of something amazing.

* Alex [=MacDougall=]: marimba on “¡Alarma!”, congas on “My Room”
* Karen Benson: vocal on “Ghost of the Heart”

'''2013 Deluxe 2-Disc Collector’s Edition:''' has the original album on disc 1. Disc 2 contains:

* AllJustADream: The liner notes story is presented as a vision akin to [[Literature/BookOfRevelation John’s Revelation]].

* BitchInSheepsClothing: “Cloak & Dagger” is all about this sort of person.

* BystanderSyndrome: The narrator of “My Room” knows that the world outside is on a path to destruction, but the most he’ll do to help is push pieces of paper under his door.
* CentralTheme: Ironically, the song “Central Theme” isn’t quite about the central theme of the album. The song describes how Jesus is the axis around which the universe and all of history revolves. Whereas the album as a whole is about how American Christians have failed to make Jesus the central theme of their lives, because they don’t live up to Jesus’ teachings.
* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Carried into BlackComedy. In the liner notes story, a churchgoer sees a starving child outside the church and goes to help them... by slipping the kid a piece of paper that says “I love you.”

* CorruptChurch: DA skewer anyone who uses the Gospel to line their own pockets, or who add man-made rules to Jesus’ message.
** The final verse of “¡Alarma!”:

** “Colored By”:
-->When someone with charisma tells me “Don't wear shoes”\\
I tell them “Go back, where did you get that?”
* CrisisOfFaith: “Walls of Doubt” reassures listeners that going through a crisis isn’t the end of the world, and that God will be there to meet them on the other side.

* DontShootTheMessage: [[invoked]] In “Colored By”, DA lament how easily preachers can scare people away from “the real thing” by tacking their own, unnecessary rules on the end. In “Through the Speakers”, DA wonder how to get their message across in a song without turning listeners away.

* ItsAllAboutMe: The narrator of “Faces to the Window” sees starving children while he’s eating his breakfast. He complains that they’re ruining his meal and even prays to God to relieve him of this terrible burden--and he does nothing to help the children.

* FlatCharacter: As a satire of just how shallow many Americans’ faith is, they’re depicted as literal cardboard cutouts, both in the song “Props” and in the liner notes story.
* ForeignLanguageTitle: ''¡Alarma!''. They even included the punctuation so we’d know it’s Spanish.
* FountainOfYouth: At one point in the liner notes story, a whole church congregation turns into crying babies before the narrator’s eyes.

** “Shedding the Mortal Coil” is from the perspective of a dying man. [[spoiler:''Music/FearfulSymmetry'' reveals that the narrator of the entire ''Alarma Chronicles'' is a DeadManWriting.]]
* GlorySeeker: The narrator of “Big Time/Big Deal”, who wants to preach the Gospel to the entire world, and hopes to become super-famous while doing it.

* HeadInTheSandManagement: In the liner notes story, Reverend James Cursory reassures his church congregation that everything is okay, there are no problems--and the rampaging giant outside is just their imaginations. All they need to do is sing and feel good, and their imaginary problems will go away! The giant levels the church while they’re singing.
* {{Hikikomori}}: “My Room” is a satire of Christians who only socialize with other Christians and avoid anyone outside the church. So the lyrics exaggerate it to the point that the narrator lives his entire life inside his room--except to gather in another room with other shut-ins.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Hypocrisy is a recurring theme of the album. “Hit Them” deals with it most directly, describing how the Gospel message is only effective if the messenger also demonstrates God’s love through their own actions.

* IntangibleTimeTravel: Well, without the time travel. As the narrator wanders the city in his dream-vision, he’s invisible, inaudible, and intangible to everyone in the city. However, he’s still convinced that the cyclops could hurt him.
* LiteraryAllusionTitle: “Shedding the Mortal Coil”, an idiom from ''Theater/{{Hamlet}}''.
* LyricalDissonance: “Ghost of the Heart”. Lyrically, it’s a hopeful song about overcoming one’s own vanity and hatred with God’s help--and those verses are set to the creepiest music on the whole album.
* ManChild: “Baby Game”, a satire of Christians who never bother to learn any theology and persist in believing exactly the same thing they did as children.
* MinisculeRocking: “C&D Reprise” is under a minute long, “Shedding the Mortal Coil” is just over a minute, and “Props” is just under two minutes.

** “Colored By” references the moral panic that got whipped up when it was believed that music with a strong beat was inherently dangerous.

White man through the P.A. says “Don’t beat that drum”\\
They tell him “Go back, where does it say that?”
** The album cover actually did inspire a minor fit in RealLife, since MoralGuardians thought the {{Eyeless Face}}s looked “Satanic”.
* NoEnding: Right there in the chorus of “Endless Summer”.

* OnlySaneMan: In the liner notes story, the narrator finds himself in a WorldGoneMad, and finds he’s the only one to recognize how messed-up the place is. The narrator outright calls himself “the only sane mind in this mad world.”
* PeacefulInDeath: The narrator in “Shedding the Mortal Coil”, who considers his mortal existence “out of date” and “unnecessary”.
* ProsceniumReveal: The short, odd “Props” ends with stagehands rolling up the sky and putting it away, then all the bystanders (revealed to be cardboard cutouts) fall over.
* ShoutOut: “Endless Summer”--the title is a [[Music/TheBeachBoys Beach Boys]] reference, and the lyrics mention [[Music/JanAndDean “Surf City”, “Drag City”, and “Dead Man’s Curve”]].
* SongStyleShift: “Cloak & Dagger”. The verses and chorus are zippy “spy music”; the extended outro slows down to half-time, with a languid guitar solo playing over it.
* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Bassist Marty Dieckmeyer sings lead on “Props”.

* WorldGoneMad: In the liner notes story, the narrator dreams of an alternate world that’s a twisted parody of the flaws of American Christians. The inhabitants see nothing strange when preachers mix patent nonsense into actual passages from the Bible, and they fully believe that positive feelings are the solution to all life’s problems.

* LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition: The “Deluxe 2-Disc Collector’s Edition” from 2013, with a full second CD’s worth of {{Cut Song}}s and alternate versions. And if that’s still not enough, they put out an online-exclusive ''[[https://danielamosboots.bandcamp.com/album/alarma-bonus-bonus-disc Bonus Bonus Disc]]'' with even more alternate versions.

''¡Alarma! (The Alarma Chronicles Volume I)'' is Music/DanielAmos’s fourth studio album, and their second NewSoundAlbum: this time, signaling their transformation into a NewWave band.

-->-- “¡Alarma!”

-->-- J. Edward Keyes, [[http://jedwardkeyes.tumblr.com/post/132149706815/daniel-amos-doppelganger-alarma-1983 An Athiest's Guide to Christian Music]].

** “Shedding the Mortal Coil” is from the perspective of a dying man. [[spoiler:''Music/FearfulSymmetry'' reveals that the narrator of the entire ''Alarma Chronicles'' is on death's door.]]

** “Shedding the Mortal Coil” is from the perspective of a dying man. [[spoiler:''Music/FearfulSymmetry'' eventually reveals that the entire ''Alarma Chronicles'' series is a DyingDream.]]

''¡Alarma! (The Alarma Chronicles Volume One)'' is Music/DanielAmos’s fourth studio album, and their second NewSoundAlbum: this time, signaling their transformation into a NewWave band.

On their previous album, ''Music/HorrendousDisc'', DA had abandoned CountryMusic for rock. Since then, PunkRock had irrevocably altered the mainstream musical landscape. Many Christians dismissed punk and its offshoots as “nihilistic” and worthless, but DA found themselves listening to a lot of Music/ElvisCostello and Music/TalkingHeads and hearing a great potential in this new musical frontier. They knew what their next album had to be.

Daniel Amos is:

Additional Musicians:

Side 1:

Side 2:

''¡Alarma! (The Alarma Chronicles Volume 1)'' is Music/DanielAmos’s fourth studio album, and their second NewSoundAlbum: this time, signaling their transformation into a NewWave band.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: “Shedding the Mortal Coil”, an idiom from Theater/{{Hamlet}}.

* SinisterMinister: DA skewer anyone who uses the Gospel to line their own pockets, or who add man-made rules to Jesus’ message.
** The final verse of “¡Alarma!”:
-->A wise guy in the sky invites you to a guilty party\\
Won't charge you at the door \\
But sure knows how to get your money
** “Colored By”:
-->When someone with charisma tells me “Don't wear shoes”\\
I tell them “Go back, where did you get that?”

* ManChild: “Baby Game”, a satire of Christians who never bother to learn any theology and persist in believing exactly the same thing they did as children.
* MinisculeRocking: “C&D Reprise” is under a minute long, “Shedding the Mortal Coil” is just over a minute, and “Props” is just under two minutes.
* NoEnding: Right there in the chorus of “Endless Summer”.
-->We were looking for an endless summer\\
We're still looking for an endless summer\\
It's no surprise we'll be looking endlessly