It’s one thing to be a born-again Christian rockabilly band. It’s another to be a born-again Christian rockabilly band with the guts to cover the Cure. So Deluxtone Rockets definitely grab your attention with their second album, starting out with a fire-breathing slab of old-time rock & roll titled “Broken Heart” and immediately following it up with a startlingly faithful rendition of the Cure’s “Love Song.” After that they settle down a bit, not always for the better: “Darkest Night” comes close to being plain old country music, while “Open Road” is overlong and “Wolftown Blues” is just plain nondescript. But “Downslide” has a punky urgency to it that will remind the over-30 crowd of vintage Flesh Eaters or the Gun Club, “Costa Mesa” is a very fine instrumental twang-fest, and “Judgement Day” is a brilliant two and a half minutes of swinging apocalyptobilly that features jolly couplets like “Ride on sweet Jesus with the angels above/Trample down the devil with a mighty shove.” Very nice. – Rick Anderson
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