When I used to collect Backyard Babies singles back in the day it was a proper graft. One every week, then a split with someone else, blink and you’d missed three. They’ve got nothing on The Chuck Norris Experiment though – the difference being that CNE have the decency to gather the chaos up and fling it back at us in gloriously ramshackle compilations like this.
“Stairway To The Stars” is scuzzy, messy, fun as hell – and if you thought you knew Blue Öyster Cult, well, you didn’t know this version. As the biggest Demolition 23 fan on planet Earth, “Story Of My Life” is more than welcome, but even the tracks I didn’t already know are pure class – Chuck’s take on “Walking On My Grave” included.
Context matters. This is a band who once released a full album of 12 songs that clocked in at 12 minutes. So yes, this is a knee trembler, not that tantric bollocks Sting bangs on about. If you like it fast, messy, and over before you’ve caught your breath, then “End Of The Great Credibility Race” is your new best mate.
There are originals too – and this being CNE, they’re ace. “When The Dust Settles” sounds like Backyard Babies doing it raw. “Tryin’ Love” piles the harmonies high. Their own “When Shadows Fall On Your Grave” feels like a deliberate plan to write a song that sounds like Misfits – and pulls it off.
Then there’s the spruced-up, glammed-up, shiny new version of old Chuck song “Habit To Support”, which is flat-out brilliant. And yes, John Lydon might be a right-wing prick these days, but “Problems” remains almost impossible to get wrong.
The “long version” of “All Your Bridges Are Burning” is a mammoth two-and-a-bit minutes. Likewise Electric Frankenstein’s “Electrify Me” – but it’s the sheer sense of fun that sells it. “Let The Wheels Roll” is a beauty, and an original, proving that like The Wildhearts or Silver Sun, there’s real gold in them there B-sides.
And after the swipe at the Misfits comes “In The Doorway”, one of their own songs, here carrying a definite The 69 Eyes vibe.
This is brilliant – a window into the world of one of punk’s most prolific, and frankly best, bands. Rare, unreleased, scrappy as hell, and absolutely on fire. You want hot stuff? Baby, this is it – and you don’t need to turn the thermostat down.
RATING: 9/10
