Blue Lake Records [2008]
Mars Attacks returns with a brand new album featuring 14 tracks to celebrate their 10th anniversary. It comes in a nicely designed digipack (as usual with Blue Lake Records) with a booklet containing the lyrics and a poster.
As you can guess it’s full of very good rockabilly. The set opens with two hot numbers, reminding the style of Rip Carson on My Simple Life. After another good rockabilly with a title reminding the late Ronnie Dawson (Awful Bad At Being Good) the band switches to Sonny Burgess mode with trumpet. They should do more like that. «Next Time» is a country bopper with fine finger pickin’ and brushed snare. They do justice to Billy Lee Riley’s Got the Water Boiling (wild vocal here!) and mellow with «Not Only In Dreams» under the double influence of Roy Orbison / Elvis Presley. It wouldn’t be out of place on a Paul Ansell’s Number Nine album. It’s time to get wild again with the Johnny Burnette influenced (think Train kept A Rollin) «You Only Like The Fast Songs» that features great lyrics like «Speed It Up, don’t Get Too Slow / We don’t wanna sound like Mr Mannilow». «Full Moon Rock» adds a touch of blues to the set followed by a ballad with a country edge and a heavy rocker with loud guitar and drums. Nice! The instrumental «Jazz Attacks» (with quotes from Chinatown My Chinatown / Take 5 / Big Noise From Winnetka) closes the set. Though it’s not bad, I don’t find it essential and ending the album with «Nice Mr Heavyweight» would have been more efficient.
Warmly recommended!
Fred “Virgil” Turgis
