Me, I’ve been a fan since Sacrilicious Sounds and always welcome the arrival of a new bit of rock n roll irresponsibility from Eddie and the guys. You expect bright, sparky country punk rock and roll, some excellent wry humour and just that shit-kicking middle digit ringing sound.
Starts out as per usual, ‘Ain’t Gonna Stop’ being that high boot to the balls call to arms. It’s a standard out the blocks start with a snappy production. It’s ok. Pretty good. ‘Gettin’ Into Each Others Pants’ isn’t quite as fun as it should be somehow, a bit too typical by the book Supersuckers; better than most but not their brightest. Same could be said for ‘Deceptive Expectations’ where even though the lyrics roll off the tongue with their usual perfect rhythm and rhyme. Hmm.
Yeah it’s ok, good, but not their best. But then something weird happens. ‘You Ain’t The Boss Of Me’. My eyes and ears narrowed from the off. It..er..reminded me of something and then the riff really started and it’s jump suits and white boots and the seventies Chinn/Chapman time again not AC/DC circa Dirty Deals as the PR suggests. I’m going to be delicate here; this may be part of their usual tongue in cheek attitude, an homage or something else similar but wow this is so…reminiscent of ‘Can The Can’ down to the vocal melodies. And the best song so far by a mile. Feels weird though it’s so…close.
‘Bringin’ It Back’ thankfully is a bouncing shiny bit of short sharp fun, a fine song. The title track next is a low slung, boozy blues swagger of a song which is kinda like a namecheck sequel to last album’s ‘The History Of Rock N Roll’.
Then it gets weird again. ‘That’s A Thing’. I know rock n roll is simple and it’s easy to get to sounding like something else but…’Tiger Feet’ anyone? Oh it’s fantastic, no question, but you can do the dance and sing the lyrics to it and…ah, I just don’t know where the line is here.
The confusion stays with me so ‘Last Time Again’ almost sneaks past me as it’s a little cracker with that country at a hundred miles an hour they do so well.
We also get treated to two bone fide covers; an excellent almost Nashville Pussy style rip through ‘Dead Jail Or Rock N Roll’ and a lovely, sly and vocally wonderful cover of ‘A Certain Girl’.
Ah, I just don’t know here. It’s a little patchy for the Supersuckers for me and I’m not sure about the downer ending of ‘Ain’t No Day Like Yesterday’ either. Add in those two undoubtedly great, hopefully tongue in cheek tracks which still make me feel a little confused I guess and it’s not their best. They’ll be back though and that’s always gonna be the thing about this precious bit of rock n roll history. Long as they keep on ticking they’ll be back to give you a kicking.
This time round though…sorry.
(6/10 Gizmo)
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