Track Listing

1. Someone's Looking At You
2. Diamond Smiles
3. Wind Chill Factor (Minus Zero)
4. Having My Picture Taken
5. Sleep (Fingers Lullaby)
6. I Don't Like Mondays
7. Nothing Happened Today
8. Keep It Up
9. Nice N Neat
10. When The Night Comes
11. Episode #3
12. Real Different (B-side)
13. How Do You Do? (B-side)
14. Late Last Night (B-side)
15. Nothing Happened Today (Live In Cardiff)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13431 in Music
• Released on: 2005-02-07
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .27 pounds
• Running time: 54 minutes

Album Review
Chock full of new-wave charisma and tamed by Bob Geldof's up-front wit, The Fine Art of Surfacing is novel in both its lyrical flair and modern pounce. Made famous by the colourful history of "I Don't Like Mondays", a true story about a 13-year-old girl who shot 11 people without showing any remorse, The Fine Art of Surfacing switches gears from this song's well-crafted harshness to the hectic pace of tracks such as "Nice N' Neat" and "Sleep", among others. "Diamond Smiles" jaunts along on a hiccup-like rhythm, while "Keep It Up" is downright frantic. "Someone's Looking at You" basks in a certain type of smug paranoia, and songs like "Having My Picture Taken" and "Nothing Happened Today" are beautifully lit up by Geldof's wide-eyed dramatics and explicit vocal swings. Sharing the same sort of stylishness as A Tonic for the Troops, The Fine Art of Surfacing bursts with florid pop genius, which in turn kept the Boomtown Rats from sounding like other new wave bands that existed at the time. --Mike DeGagne, All Music Guide

Album Description
This version is the 2005 remastered reissue of the third album from The Boomtown Rats featuring frontman Bob Geldof, originally released in 1979. It contains four bonus tracks: "Real Different" (B-side), "How Do You Do" (B-side), "Late Last Night" (B-side) and "Nothing Happened Today" (live in Cardiff). It has been Digitally Remastered by Jon Astley and was overseen by Bob Geldof and Boomtown Bassist, Pete Briquette.

CD Description
Released in 1979, THE FINE ART OF SURFACING was the Boomtown Rats' third album, and it's considered by many fans to be their best. "I Don't Like Mondays", probably the band's best-known song, is the key track. A dark and moving narrative that recounts a classroom murder story, "I Don't Like Mondays" was a Number One hit in England and went on to become the Rats' only chart entry in the U.S.
But there is a lot to appreciate on THE FINE ART, much of which demonstrates the band's restless spirit and their knack for combining the energy of punk and the quirkiness of new wave with a keen pop sensibility and a knack for musical drama. Though the elementsof their style can be traced to the times, the Boomtown Rats simply come across--some decades later--as a good rock band, and this defining effort makes that plain. A beautifully remastered version of the album was released on CD in 2005.

Customer Reviews

the rats at their best
This album really is the Rats at their very best. It features the number one single I Don,t like Mondays but even better than that When the night comes with its epic guitar solo which really is unforgetable and a real album high light.
Their are several other songs that could easly have been hit singles, keep it up,featured on the Kenny Everitt show, Nice N Neat, Nothing Happened today with its Henry Hooper tag line,this really is one of the most under rated albums of the time and one the Rats would never surpass. EXCELLENT