The Cramps - Flamejob

Reviews for The Cramps' 1994 album Flamejob highlight it as a strong example of their signature sound, a blend of primal rockabilly, punk energy, and warped sensibilities, showcasing Lux Interior's vocals and Poison Ivy's distinctive guitar. While generally considered a solid and influential release, some critics found the album less compelling than other works, with one particularly critical review deeming it "underimpressive" due to the mix of covers and originals and the less-than-exciting execution of some tracks. 

One of the most unusual and influential bands ever to be associated with punk rock was The Cramps. They didn’t sound like anything that really came before and later on they became so legendary and revered that people named an entire sub-genre of music after them (psychobilly). Modern bands like the Nekromantix and that entire style of band was directly influenced by The Cramps and I doubt you could find anyone to dispute that. The Cramps took blues, rockabilly, rock, surf, garage, and punk and mixed it all together to create a sound unique to them and they had a really great image to go along with it. The Cramps’ singer, Lux Interior, was one of the most charismatic front men in the history of rock music and what straight punk rock male didn’t have some sort of crush on Poison Ivy? This real life couple was the nucleus of the band and the constant that lasted their entire, lengthy career. The band never quit and they were active right up until Lux Interior’s untimely death in 2009. The band was also unique in that they never really put out a bad record in all the time they were together. While I will admit that I didn’t buy most of their records after the mid 1990’s, you couldn’t put one on the turntable and have me proclaim “that’s not a good record”, I simply wasn’t keeping up the entire time at various points on my life but I do have a pretty healthy amount of Cramps records in the vault and their earliest works are among the all-time classics.

One of the band’s ’90s albums that I did pick up at the time, Flamejob, is a perfect example of how the band was still as strong in 1994 as it was in 1976. The album easily stands up against their earlier work and I remember when I played it for the first time being really impressed with how solid the album was and how rare it was for a band to put out something so strong nearly two decades later. I can’t think of many bands who pulled off anything similar. Flamejob has everything that made The Cramps great.

Ripped to MP3

1. Mean Machine

2. Ultra Twist

3. Let's Get Fucked Up

4. Nest of the Cuckoo Bird

5. I'm Customized

6. Sado County Auto Show

7. Naked Girl Falling Down the Stairs

8. How Come You Do Me?

9. Inside Out and Upside Down (With You)

10. Trapped Love

11. Swing the Big Eyed Rabbit

12. Strange Love

13. Blues Blues Blues

14. Sinners

15. Route 66 (Get Your Kicks On)