The first track on this album (Sex Beat) is punky in the style of bands like the Ramones onwards, and for a moment it feels like we’re just going to be retreading the same ground again.
However, when their cover of Robert Johnson’s Preacher Blues kicks in, it’s clear that we’re in a new blend of musical styles. Although the combination of punk and rockabilly has already been done by The Cramps (among others), The Gun Club take more of a blues direction, with slide guitar and country yodelling on tracks such as Black Train and Cool Drink Of Water (not to mention songs about trains, a staple of both blues and country).
Some tracks (like Cool Drink Of Water or For The Love Of Ivy) like to strip right back to the drum beat before adding vocals and other instruments back in – thus, this is not as relentlessly raucous as many offerings under the “punk” umbrella.
It’s not surprise that The Gun Club were an influence on Jack White, as there’s a very White Stripes feel to this album; in fact most of the tracks sound like they are partway between Velvet Underground/Lou Reed and White Stripes/Jack White. Raw and yet polished, there’s not a huge variety between the tracks apart from being the fast psychobilly ones and the slower stripped back blues/punk ones, but what they do, they do well.
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