Customer Reviews

Flamejob

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album is a perfect introduction to just what it is that makes the Cramps such a special slice of pure, unadulterated rock and roll. The thing is, the Cramps have been around since the mid-70's and have never let up being the hardest-working band around, never relenting and never slowing down for a second. This album only proves that they set the pace and everyone else is out of breath trying to catch up. This is a 1994 album and outdoes the whole bratpack of rockabilly and garage rock newcomers 20 years their juniors. Lux and Ivy have got it down on this album, an album that never lets up for a second; even when it dips into the slower numbers, it's still got you firmly by the throat, it's just shaking you a little bit softer.

There are so many good songs on here that the mind reels. Stuff that could easily make for a decades worth of underground classics and minor-league hits all get crammed together here. From "Let's Get F'd Up" (a personal favorite and an anthem for all time) to "Naked Girl Falling Down the Stairs" to "Strange Love" to their knee-trembling cover of "Route 66." This surely ain't the best that the Cramps have to offer, but, if anything, it's a clearly marked billboard announcing they never left and they surely aren't going away anytime soon.

Get it, redeem your faith in rock and roll.

Here we find Lux and Ivy (and hired guns) at their best. Here is the album to pop on at the party, and a good one to play when driving 100 mph late at night. The production and performances are superb.

Well, I've been buying on average of two Cramps albums a week for the past three weeks after having Smell of Female for years, but never taking the step. Something hit me. When I first listened to Stay Sick, after having listened nonstop to A Date for Elvis, I thought "ahh, well," then it grew and grew on me, with the exception of the last three bonus tracks. Flamejob has worked a similar effect. At first it seems inferior, but then with "I'm Customized," "Nest of a Cuckoo Bird" (great absurdist sexo-apocryphal lyrics), "Ultra Twist," and a slew of other greats... "Inside Out and Upside Down with You," "Swing the Big Eyed Rabbit," "Sinners," and "Naked Girl..." This album is admittedly not as good as Stay Sick or A Date with Elvis, a little too heavy on the rock n roll and light on the punk and the sleaze (though when it is sleazy, it is in full force: "She's got a look on her puss like she was weaned on a pickle."), but it is a great album from, at this point, a musically mature band.

I lost the copy of Flamejob I bought @ a Cramps show, so I was happy to get a replacement. One of the few releases I would actually care to have in my music library, its remains a timely piece. Teenagers still love their music. Flamejob represents a more highly-polished Cramps while still maintaining the original quality of songs from their "Songs the Lord Taught Us" days. I wish Flamejob videos were available commercially.

It's gotta be said if you're a Cramps fan then you'll love this off beat collection of foot stomping beats!

Pretty much your usual Cramps record here.No complaints though.'Flamejob' is no doubt a highly energetic fueled CD that's sure to fully please any Cramps fan,rather he/she be old school or new.Plenty of foot-stompers here,like "Mean Machine","Ultra Twist"(miss seeing the video),"Let's Get F**ked Up",their abuse song "Naked Girl Falling Down The Stairs","Trapped Love" and "Route 66".As the Cramps seem to always deliver the goods,another great psychobilly release to hold and to cherish.A true keeper.

The Cramps are another one of my most favorite bands. I possess every studio album they released, including 2003's "Fiends of Dope Island." With their own warped rockabilly rhythms and catchy lyrics, the Cramps have developed a huge and faithful cult following of college graduates (like myself), and artsy freaks. This 1994 album features the classic "Ultra Twist," which to me is the most infectious dance song since "The Time Warp" from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. A few of the other songs, most notably "Nest of the Cuckoo Bird" and "Sado County Auto Show" contain both easy chorus hooks and lots of obvious sexual innuendos. It also seems that the Cramps (after coming off the excesses of the late 1980's) have been inspired by past historical art movements and have taken them in as part of a way of life. "Let's Get F*cked UP" is not only about psychedelic drugs, but also about leaving behind society's oppressive views on "good" art, and instead immersing onself in Surrealism (which became famous because its images came straight from both dreams and the mind)The funny, punk-style "Naked Girl Falling Down the Stairs" was actually inspired by the "Nude Descending a Staircase" painting by Dada artist Marcel Duchamp. Lux even mentions Pablo Picasso in "I'm Customized." "How Come you Do Me" and a couple the other later tracks are in the style of Rhythm & Blues, with Lux's famous Elvis-impersonator vocals. I must recommend this album to savy music buyers all over the world. Let Amazon know that the Cramps will never die!

The Cramps are awesome. They have gotten kind of cheesier over the years, but that only makes them more fun. The important thing here is that they rock. This is seriously cool music. There are a couple of songs on the album that are a bit too silly (Stay Sick had the same problem) but overall it is a great rockin listen.

This is a typical album by the rockabilly influenced punk rock group, or punk influenced rockabilly group, depending how you look at it. It features the usual strange sexual innuendo laden original songs and obscure cover songs (although "Route 66" isn't very obscure). This album isn't as good as some of their "classic" albums, but their fans should still dig it.

Visually, the Cramps had lost none of their impact with this collection and the supporting tour, yet there is something of a pause here in their oeuvre, for this is the point at which the Cramps leapt from basement nightmares to graduate school appreciation that invoked the use of pretentious French words by irony aware critics. And with that audience solidified-however much the Cramps may disdain a fickle esthete fan base-the expectation for "Flame Job" was high. Instead, the Cramps did it their way and <yawn!> delivered yet another Cramps album.

Stand out songs that invoke your ooze are "Ultra Twist" and "Swing the Big Eyed Rabbit," but a departure is the nearly haunting "Strange Love" that begs to be covered by Mazzy Star, or at least Hope Sandoval. This curious tune and "Sinners" in the mix suggests that the Cramps were on the border of flirting with torch songs as a step towards innuendo over double-entendre for lyrical sexual allusions. As the album loses with a definitive well worn cover of Route 66 this possibility remains unexplored. Ivy's guitar work on "Route 66" is exemplary, both spare and alluring, is among her finest work and further demonstrates that she is a more accomplished artist than eye candy in a leotard.

In sum, this album does not equal "Songs the Lord Taught Us" or "Stay Sick!" for sheer appeal, but it has more merits than simply being an object for Cramps completists.