The latest offering by The Brian Setzer Orchestra seemed to have hit the record stores without much fanfare. I have to admit that it caught me by surprise also. This is really a shame since Setzer scored strongly in 1998 with "The Dirty Boogie" that contained the swing hit "Jump, Jive an' Wail". It's typical of the media and radio to promote any new music craze; and then discard of it when it feels it wore out it's usefulness. I don't know if this is good or bad for Setzer's career that this would happen. I think he's build up enough of a fan-base to stay successful. All I know is that he continues to put out powerful releases of this big band/guitar music, and I haven't grown tired of it at all.
"Vavoom!" is the fourth release from The Brian Setzer Orchestra. With every release since his 1994 debut, you can hear the growth and confidence that Setzer developed. This confidence peaked with "The Dirty Boogie", and it continues to stay strong with this release. The only difference with "Vavoom!" is the lack of a clear-cut single to release that's radio friendly enough. He tried with releasing the single and video of "Gettin' in the Mood", but it hasn't seemed to have caught on quite like "Jump, Jive an' Wail" did. Regardless, this is a fun song of an old classic. Setzer just added some clever lyrics to the old standard to make it more appealing to a modern audience, including a "rap" interlude. The addition of female backup singers is a nice touch to this song, as well as the entire album. "Pennsylvania 6-5000" starts the cd out in "bombastic" fashion. It features an array of squeaky sax's along with a sexy "oh-yeah!" rant from one of these singers. The song is interesting to listen to because it has a slight techno quality to it. Almost like big band meets some dance floor dj spinning their vinyl record. I'm glad to finally hear "Drive Like Lightning (Crash Like Thunder)" on this release. The Setzer Orchestra performed this live the last two occasions I saw them. The song is basically a rock-a-billy number that wouldn't be too out of place on a Stray Cats album. Setzer also shows off a little bit of diversity with the bosa-nova sounding "Caravan". This song is a nice change from the rest of the album. "Mack the Knife" pays a nice tribute to Bobby Darin, but doesn't really offer anything new or fresh from the original song. The cd stays solid the whole way through with "That's the Kind of Sugar Papa Likes" and the closing tune "Gloria". "Gloria, she's not in love with me" wails Setzer in this song. I'm assuming it's some old "doo-wop" standard from the 50's, but it's a nice mellow way to finish off a great album.
I still think that there's a handful of great albums that are yet to come from this band. Setzer has proved that this band isn't a "novelty" and it can continue to put out great music. If you enjoyed "Dirty Boogie", give "Vavoom!" a try.
