CRAMPS, THE – Flame Job

"...This is rock ’n’ roll at its breathtaking best, alternately terrifying and hilarious, menacing and fun, with all the band’s obsessions – fast cars (‘Sado County Auto Show’), pharmaceutical oblivion (‘Let’s Get Fucked Up’), female genitalia (‘Nest Of The Cuckoo Bird’) – still on their warped minds. Poison Ivy’s exhilarating Link Wray-on-strychnine riffing dominates the maniacal ‘I’m Customized’, a sort of a bastard son of ‘Shakin’ All Over’ which disintegrates into unlistenable guitar noise as Lux screams “Flames!!! Flames!!! BURRRRRRRN, BABY, BURRRRRRRN” as only the Garbageman can. There’s also the obligatory ‘Naked Girl Falling Down The Stairs’ as well as an eloquent defence of hedonism on ‘Let’s Get Fucked Up’: “Let’s get fucked up/Let’s get fucked up/Let’s do some stuff/And get fucked up/Tomorrow we’ll feel like we was hit by a truck/But now let’s get fucked up.” A wise philosophy in these complex times. And, as usual, the Cramps have included a few cover versions of obscure roc