Riding in on a wave of bad intent, all greased-up and revved-up, Guitar Wolf are back! The trio's newest album, LOVE&JETT, out on Friday in the USA via Third Man Records, is a veritable maelstrom of riffs and roars, bits and pieces of rock-and-roll's past whipped up into something altogether unique and wonderfully unhealthy.
After the hurricane of the opening title cut, LOVE&JETT kicks things into overdrive with "Sex Jaguar" and "Sci-Fi Brat", two numbers that serve up the exact sort of kicks long-time fans of this band have come to expect. And while the whole Guitar Wolf template remains more or less what you'd expect on LOVE&JETT, Guitar Wolf at least manage to still surprise in 2019, with a nice cover of "Gimme Some Lovin'" being nearly accessible, even as "Girl Boss of Paris" sees the band slow things down just enough to give the song a vibe that's slightly like that of an early Jesus and Mary Chain single, or something from the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion ages ago.
Still, it's worth noting how constant and reliable the output of Guitar Wolf has remained, the compositions of this trio a brand just like the tunes of The Ramones. And, like those guys, Guitar Wolf seem more interested in having fun than making anything too serious, and one should love that Guitar Wolf still seem obsessed with biker movies, sci-fi shtick, and old sides from The Sonics and The Standells. On something like "Fireball Red Legend", for example, all those obsessions get whipped up into a furious stew that still manages to stun with its power. As loud as ever, with things mixed here in such a way that it sounds like your treble knob is broken off, LOVE&JETT is the sound of a motorcycle engine roaring in the ear, the riffs nearly secondary to the actual fuzzy noise of the whole thing.
LOVE&JETT is out on Friday via Third Man Records.
More details on Guitar Wolf via the band's official website.
[Photo: Uncredited promotional picture]