Week 3: The Reverend Horton Heat - Smoke 'em if You Got 'Em (1,167 views)

[IhateMana]

yeah so this was one of those MOR cases of sometimes the guitar playing was fucking awesome, but sometimes it wasn't, and then it was all kinda compounded by the fact that The Reverend Horton himself is a bit of a shit vocalist

[BassSquared]

Yeah, with this album, the more instrumentally-driven and high-energy tracks were definitely the highlights. Stuff like "Bullet" and "Marijuana" are bangers with great guitar and a strong, propulsive rhythm section- props to the bassist for going that hard on what sounds like an upright. But it goes into bog-standard rockabilly tunes too often for me to really vibe with it as a whole, and "Eat Steak" is just an annoyingly goofy joke song.

This band is probably an absolute blast to see live though, I will give them that.

[IhateMana]

yes that is indeed an upright bass

[Baronessa]

WE NEED MORE GUITARS, REVEREND!!!

[Baronessa]

Anyway, yeah, well, now I know where Morrissey got the sound for his early '90s singles.

I really enjoy the whole parodic Elvis take the album kind of thrives on, but I think it could have benefited from a rhythm guitar driving some of the solo sections. Otherwise it ends up sounding very sparse. "Love Whip" ends up sounding like the best song of the bunch for me because of the added piano and harmonica.

[Rodney Blazershorts]

I imagine Morrissey wasn't a huge fan

[Baronessa]

"Marijuana" thooo, it's litchrully "Pregnant for the Last Time".

(He doesn't compose his own instrumentals anyway.)

[Baronessa]

Listened to this a second time and yeah, the punk blues-adjacent shit is what I'm really here for.

The instrumental is only really powerful enough to carry itself through "Bullet", even "Psychobilly Freakout" isn't really all that. I tend to enjoy the tracks where Heath actually sings and the instrumental accompanies him accordingly. "Bad Reputation", "Big Dwarf Rodeo" and "Baby, You Know Who", for example (along with "Love Whip", of course). The Reverend seems like a guy who'd really step up his game for his second album.