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Reverend Horton Heat |
 Though the good Rev’s never had a problem firing up the
wife-beater-and-wallet-chain crowd with his full-frontal psychobilly on
stage, his records have been been hit-or-miss for well over a decade
now. You’d always find a few solid tunes—“Jezebel” on
Liquor in the Front, “Big Red Rocket of Love” on
It’s Martini Time, “The Pride of San Jacinto” on
Space Heater—but for the most part, the Rev’s discs post
Liquor in the Front sounded like he and the band were
fulfilling contractual obligations rather than cutting new material and
breaking ground. So it’s a pleasure to find that the Rev’s latest batch
of tunes—his first for roots-minded label Yep Roc—have a degree
of brimstone spark that’s been missing from his recorded material since
The Full Custom Gospel Sounds, way back in 1993.
Revival kicks off with a gleeful,
barn-burning instro, “The Happy Camper,” which sounds like the
theme from an educational movie made by the cast of Two Thousand
Maniacs!. It’s followed by the title track, which finds the Rev in a
ruminative mood, looking to make a clean break with what sounds like a
hellacious past. The two songs basically establish the album’s
tone—wild-eyed Saturday night fervor on one hand, and on the other, a
sort of melancholy, contemplative regret. To his credit, the Rev makes
the sad material work—“Indigo Friends,” which has the Rev
mourning the heroin-related death of friends while wondering how he
escaped a similar fate, and “Someone In Heaven,” probably the
closest thing to a sentimental number in the Rev’s catalog—without
betraying either their emotional punch or the band’s high-octane
rockabilly thump. And the up-tempo tracks have serious overdrive beneath
their hoods—you never get the sense from “Rumble Strip,” the surf-ish “Octopus
Mode” or the blue streak closer “Goin’ Back Home,” that the
Rev is marking time, which is a very welcome change.Sure, there are a couple of ringers—“Callin’ In Twisted” and “New York City Girls” are exactly the sort of mutton-headed party tracks that used to comprise three-quarters of the Rev’s recent discs, but you get the feeling that whatever dark and lonesome hours inspired Jim Heath to get introspective also helped him to weed out the filler from Revival’s song list. Sometimes that’s what it takes, though. Here’s hoping the Rev can keep up this strong new streak without too much more suffering. In addition to the solid tunes, Revival should please RHH heads with its bonus DVD, which features three live tracks from the band in Dallas, as well as a personally guided tour around his old stomping grounds in Deep Ellum. It’s a welcome side dish to the main course, again offering two sides of the man for fans—the full-custom madman on stage, and the gentle, seen-it-all cat in hornrims on the street. Both prove pretty interesting, as it turns out. _____________________________________________________ |
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-Paul Gaita |