Various Artists – Cowpunks (1996)

I bought this in a sale in the short-lived Soundhouse Records in Deal, just because it looked interesting. Cowpunk wasn't a genre I was familiar with, but the names Cake, Lambchop and Jello Biafra made it worth a punt.

So, we have 24 tracks by a variety of artists spanning the chasm between country and punk, in some cases falling down that chasm. In my opinion, it's the songs which don't take themselves too seriously, which work best, and there's a few songs here I've really enjoyed.

Songs by The V-Roys and The Coal Porters are fun rockabilly style, while Golden Smog's He's Such A Dick is amusing as you'd expect. The Flaming Stars' Feast Of Life is an interesting guitar feedback song, vaguely reminiscent of Suicide, and there's a great run in the middle of the album with Furnaceface's We Love You Tipper Gore putting their point of view on PMRC, followed by Cake's jolly Jesus Wrote A Blank Cheque and Lambchop's Playboy, The Shit.

But in between these, there are some very ordinary songs indeed, as well as some truly awful cuts, with a special mention for Freakwater taking Richard Thompson's tedious dirge Withered And Died, and making it worse.

But perhaps the spirit of the album is summed up on the final track, banjos duelling and feet tapping on Mojo Nixon and Jello Biafra's (Dead Kennedys) song Let's Go Burn Ole Nashville Down. A great ending, which makes one almost forget the two thirds of this album which is dire.

Furnaceface - We Love You Tipper Gore

Cake - Jesus Wrote A Blank Cheque

Golden Smog - He's Such A Dick

Mojo Nixon & Jello Biafra - Let's Go Burn Ole Nashville Down

2* - Enough decent stuff to prevent the dreaded one star rating, and save it a one way trip to the charity shop. Just.