The Cramps: Big Beat From Badsville

There is no way to soften this blow: The Cramps should just give it up. After 20-odd years, these raunch-rock pioneers still look good, but musically they've gone very, very stale. If you walked into a bar where the members of The Cramps were playing these songs, you would turn to your friends after a couple minutes and say, "What a shitty Cramps tribute band." They still sing about sex, monsters, hot-rodding and sex, so they shouldn't be able to go too far wrong. But the evil spirit that once motivated them has been exorcised. It might possess them again someday, if the 14 songs on Big Beat From Badsville haven't banished it forever. Only "Badass Bug" has any sort of punch, and that's just because it's short, fast and filthy. And anyone can do that. Cramps music was great because of bad intentions and great lines. Once you hear Lux Interior refer to his girlfriend's genitalia as a "picnic basket," you'll think both are gone forever.