I was one of the two people in my area that initially got their first EP/mini-LP (The Stand), and then later the proper LP + singles. I loved all of those songs! And yet, The Alarm wereeventually the next-big-thing-that-never-happened, and mostly that was because Mike Peters couldn't keep his mouth shut about his Christian faith/beliefs! In general, there's nothing wrong with that, as long as it's a personal thing! But as he had to happily inform the whole world about the reason he was now so happily successful, the whole record-buying public went from seeing The Alarm as edgy rockers with social opinions, to being people who would never try to rock any boat seriously. As the guy who is Apoptygma Berzerk tried to say once, Jesus was a rebel! But now the establishment is resting comfortably, and securely, in His once rebellious religion which took over the western world... Well, too bad for their career, but I still happily play their early (and some later!) music regularly. It nice pop-rock, but even more, it's the music of my mid-teens that eventually woke me up to a wider world of music! So, personally, it was all good, in the end (for me personally, if not for The Alarm...). :)
