If You Don’t Already Have a Look

Garagefather Mick Collins (The Gories, Blacktop) spells it out in the liner notes: “The best albums are all compilations, anyway. Why? Because they’re made up of SINGLES, duh.”

What makes this Dirtbombs album superior to the group’s previous three (all marvelous in their own right) is the inclusion of an entire disc of songs that the uninitiated might recognize. The first disc is a collection of the band’s singles, while Disc Two is comprised of covers from The English Beat, Bee Gees, Lou Rawls, Gun Club and punk band Flipper, among others. Collins confesses The Dirtbombs’ singles were usually only “one take beyond improvisation.” Vocals were done on bended knee and screamed into a tiny Dictaphone microphone on the floor. The sound quality is rough-to-decent and might disappoint those who rule science more important than a passionate heart. However, those who yearn for some dirt in their soul, and some seriously fucked-up fuzz guitar, will be more than satisfied with this lascivious mash note to summer days too hot and too long and too much beer to drown them in.