Brian Setzer's Gotta Have The Rumble: shooting from the hip with infectious precision

Rockabilly rebel Brian Setzer still walks the Stray Cat strut on Gotta Have The Rumble

Brian Setzer: Gotta Have The Rumble album artwork
(Image: © Surfdog)

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A genuine keeper of the faith, Brian Setzer has been burning the rock’n’roll flame for around 10 times longer than the original burst shone for. Indeed his is a world where The Beatles are still travelling across Liverpool to meet a fella who can show them a B7 chord, and he’s all the better for it. 

What makes Gotta Have The Rumble – his first solo album in seven years – such an unmitigated joy is how effortless it all sounds. 

Still in thrall to juvenile delinquency, fast cars and even faster women, Setzer shoots straight from the hip with deadly and infectious precision. 

The tremolo’d twang of Checkered Flag drips with the salacious menace that would meet with The Cramps’ full approval, while Turn You On, Turn Me On builds on Bo Diddley’s rhythmic foundations, and Off Your Rocker’s slap-backed groove is Brian Setzer at his best.

Julian Marszalek

Julian Marszalek is the former Reviews Editor of The Blues Magazine. He has written about music for Music365, Yahoo! Music, The Quietus, The Guardian, NME and Shindig! among many others. As the Deputy Online News Editor at Xfm he revealed exclusively that Nick Cave’s second novel was on the way. During his two-decade career, he’s interviewed the likes of Keith Richards, Jimmy Page and Ozzy Osbourne, and has been ranted at by John Lydon. He’s also in the select group of music journalists to have actually got on with Lou Reed. Marszalek taught music journalism at Middlesex University and co-ran the genre-fluid Stow Festival in Walthamstow for six years.