Surfdog Records

Listening to this Stray Cats album is like being transported back to the year 1955. Or, rather, to 1981, which was the year the trio came waltzing in and took over the rockabilly music scene even though it had already been around for 25 years. Now, in 2019, Stray Cats have made a comeback with the release of their first studio album in a quarter of a century, 40, to commemorate their 40th anniversary. The band’s longevity (aside from a few break-ups and makeups) is almost as impressive as the devotion of their loyal fans. In the early ‘80s, Stray Cats was the saviour of an audience of rebels and old-fashioned rock fans who just couldn’t bring themselves to embrace the emerging music trends full of synthesizers. Now forty years later, pop music has moved on and rock music has all but been killed off, but Stray Cats are still playing the same upbeat, rootsy music. And it works – sounding just like it did in 1980 and 1955. Firstly, because apart from a few exceptions, the band plays its own songs rather than just picking and choosing from the jukebox of original rock ‘n’ roll. Secondly, it works because Brian Setzer is an exceptional, natural-born guitarist with virtuoso talent and his Gretsch is on fire on this album. And finally, because the trio always seem to get stuck in and thoroughly enjoy themselves. Each of the 23 songs on this album is like a sprint against slackness and although they aren’t nostalgic, they certainly get your heart beating faster than usual. Yes, it may not be wise to do that many sprints one after another when you’re in your sixties. But that’s rock ‘n’ roll folks. © Stéphane Deschamps/Qobuz

Stray Cats are no strangers to reunions. They had their first in 1986, when they only had been separated for a few years, and then another one a few years later, finally calling it a day after Choo Choo Hot Fish, a Dave Edmunds production that made few waves in 1992. Released 27 years after that quiet farewell, 40 finds these former young guns staring down their sixties by staying true to the music that was old-fashioned when they took it up the charts in 1981. Back then, their retro rockabilly moves stood as a nervy rebuke to the stylized synth pop and new wave burning up the underground, but the only way 40 could be seen as a disruption is to the stable lives Brian Setzer, Slim Jim Phantom, and Lee Rocker cultivated in the nearly three decades since their last record. Saving the occasional horndog lyric from Setzer, at no time does the trio attempt to sound younger than their years, which is naturally to their benefit. Comfortable in their skin and still intoxicated by a big rockabilly beat, the Stray Cats sound vigorous and sly -- a bit louder and heavier, possibly slightly slower, than before, but also unconcerned with the kind of modern fashion that tainted their records after Rant N Rave. What makes 40 work is the same thing that made Built for Speed click: the trio has absorbed all the nuances of rockabilly, so they can enliven it with their own swing and sense of humor. It's this bold personality that keeps 40 cooking. Stray Cats spit out allusions to their idols and classic oldies, nod at surf rock and country mythos, play a few blues shuffles, and generally have a whale of a good time. It's notable that these high spirits are evident on a reunion album because they were largely absent on the trio's previous reunions: this time, it sounds like the group is in it for fun, and that makes a huge difference. © Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo