Royal

The loss of original guitar slinger Johnny McGuire and his red-hot Gretsch hasn't slowed down or significantly altered the adrenalinized retro country/rockabilly quartet. It sounds like the hard-touring Rhode Island rockers worked a little harder on their typically no-frills production for their third studio release, as occasional overdubs and guest appearances of sax on the hyperactive "Greasy" and even pedal steel guitar on the album's only ballad "Flipping Coins" pushes the rockabilly rebels envelope, if only slightly and temporarily. Unsurprisingly, the album is filled with the caffeinated, hiccoughing vocals, sputtering guitar, and slaphappy stand-up bass that characterizes the Crowns' raw, rocking sound. While this won't set new standards for a genre ruled by Rev. Horton Heat and his disciples, the unpretentious Crowns inject just enough subtlety and change-ups, like the jazz-inflected intro into "Halos and Horns" and the Gene Vincent styled "Hat Size," to keep these roughnecks a smidgen ahead of the pack. When they open up all the stops on the impossibly driving "Chop Shop," with its 2:34 of pure in-your-face nervy punkabilly complete with jittery slapping bass and a wild, unexpected slowdown in the song's middle section, they sound every bit as unstoppable as the nitro-fueled hot rods that pepper their lyrics. At 14 tracks and 37 high-energy minutes, this is just enough of a good thing.