By Jim Rowland
Rockabilly royalty Brian Setzer is back with a brand new solo album, ‘The Devil Always Collects’, the follow-up to 2021’s acclaimed ‘Gotta Have The Rumble’. With Brian Setzer quality is almost always guaranteed, as is a rock’n’roll guitar masterclass, and this one’s no exception…
If ever you need proof of what a master craftsman of rock’n’roll guitar Brian Setzer is, look no further than this album’s opening cut, ‘Rock Boys Rock’, a catchy, up tempo rockabilly humdinger.
The superb title track ‘The Devil Always Collects’, a real highlight, follows along similar high tempo pure rockabilly lines, as do ‘A Dude’ll Do (What a Dude’ll Do)’ and ‘Psycho Suzie’. ‘Girl On The Billboard’, ‘What’ll It Be Baby Doll?’ and ‘Play That Fast Thing (One More Time)’ all head in a more traditional rock’n’roll direction, and all are guaranteed to get your rock’n’roll toes tapping as a bare minimum.
Elsewhere, ‘One Particular Chick’ and ‘The Living Dead’ take a slower, slinky and sassy approach with the latter, as befitting of the title, particularly dark and menacing, whilst ‘She’s Got A Lotta…Soul!’, also befitting of the title, is a soulful swinger and ‘Black Leather Jacket’ is heavier on the rock and lighter on the roll.
With scintillating guitars and top quality song writing, as you would expect from someone as consistent as Brian Setzer, ‘The Devil Always Collects’ is a great album that just about tops his last one.
- ‘The Devil Always Collects‘ is out now.
- Brian Setzer kicks off his ‘Rockabilly Riot’ tour, his first live solo shows in four years, in Red Bank NJ on Wednesday 27 September:
facebook.com/briansetzerofficial
- All content © Über Rock. Not to be reproduced in part or in whole without the express written permission of Über Rock.