Halfway to Sanity by The Ramones

Halfway to Sanity, the Ramones' tenth studio album, came out on Sire on September 15, 1987, and it's the sound of bruised veterans who still can't sit still. Daniel Rey produced, and the sessions at Intergalactic Studios in New York that April were a scrap: the band laid down the instruments before the vocals to learn the songs faster, argued about plenty, and struck Rey as an impatient bunch. Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Richie Ramone yank the songs every which way, from hard rock and metal muscle to crossover-thrash speed to pure bubblegum, and Joey trades lines with Blondie's Debbie Harry on "Go Lil' Camaro Go".

It stalled at 172 on the Billboard 200 while doing better overseas, and it was Richie's last stand: he quit over money disputes with Johnny, Blondie drummer Clem Burke filled in for two shows as "Elvis Ramone", and Marky came back. Reviews were mixed, but Stephen Thomas Erlewine later called it the last time they "still sounded like they mattered".

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