Brain Drain by The Ramones

Brain Drain, the Ramones' eleventh studio album, came out on May 23, 1989, and it plays like a record of goodbyes. It was the last to feature Dee Dee Ramone, the bassist, songwriter and sometime singer who had been there since the band formed in Forest Hills in 1974, and it was the Ramones' final studio album for Sire. It also brought Marky Ramone back behind the kit for the first time since he was fired after 1983's Subterranean Jungle, so Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Marky were a gang of four again, one last time.

The buzzsaw is still revving: Johnny's guitar grinds, Joey's gawky croon floats over the top, and the songs are over before anyone can get bored. "Pet Sematary" is the track radio kept coming back to. And then, of all things, it closes with a Christmas song, "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)", a holiday tune as unlikely as it is sweet. Soon after, C.J. Ramone took over Dee Dee's bass.

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