Eye of the Hurricane by The Alarm

Eye of the Hurricane, the Alarm's third album, came out in October 1987 on I.R.S. Records in North America, with the UK release following a month later. Two years had passed since the Welsh band's last studio record, and Mike Peters, Dave Sharp, Eddie MacDonald and Nigel Twist come back with their big-hearted, flag-waving rock swinging wider than ever.

The record is split down the middle into a "Folklore" side and an "Electric" side, and you can hear the tug of both: the rootsy pull of old ballads on one hand, chiming, chest-thumping guitars on the other. Peters sings like every chorus is a rallying cry, with Sharp's guitar ringing out behind him.

"Rain in the Summertime" led the charge as the first single and made the singles charts on both sides of the Atlantic, its drizzly melancholy wrapped in a tune you can't shake. The album itself reached number 23 in the UK and 77 in the US, and it got caught up in an import ban tied to a licensing agreement between the British Phonographic Industry and the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society. It first appeared on vinyl and cassette, with a CD following later that year, and in 2000 it was remastered and expanded with extra tracks.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.