Hop Around

by Stewart Mason The last album Dee Dee Ramone released in his drug-shortened lifetime, 2000's Hop Around is just sad, a pathetic mess made by a guy whose best work was over two decades in his past and who was reduced to Rutles-style imitations of those past glories. Seriously, there are songs here called "Now I Wanna Be Sedated," "I Don't Wanna Die in the Basement," and "38th and 8th," with lyrics and melodies that are just as self-plagiarizing. Chris Spedding's production and instrumental assistance gives the album a crisp '70s punk sheen that's actually rather nice on its own merits but which really only points up the complete lack of inspiration in the songs. Even a new version of the classic "Chinese Rocks" -- in retrospect probably the last decent song Dee Dee Ramone had a hand in writing -- sounds utterly perfunctory. Sad, really.