Whether you like this album or not would depend entirely on whether this music genre still gets your juices flowing. Burning Your House Down, which is the second full-length recording by The Jim Jones Revue, is in some ways a musical retrospective. It seems that the lads from East London haven’t left the 1950’s. Now, as it happens, the 1950’s are back in vogue. I can vividly imagine the Hell Bunny swing dresses, winkle-pickers and Brylcreemed ‘do’s’ of the kids listening to this in diners all over…well, all over my cerebral visual daydream. It is a milk shake and burger of a feast for the imagination and ears, and as this kind of music was coined before people got really angry, I would say that listening to this album is a whole heap of fun as long as you don’t listen to the contemporary lyrics.

Once upon a time in another dimension, Jim Jones took his inspiration from the likes of The Stooges, but these days the 12 bar boogie sound makes me think Jones has sneakily passed over to where all good rock and rollers eventually go, and has reincarnated as Little Richard with more attitude. There are 11 tracks on this CD, that was produced by Jim Sclavunos (drummer of Badseeds/Grinderman). If you really didn’t like rock-and-roll you’d say that the songs are quite repetitive, but 12 bar rock being what it is, it’s integral that the quality of the recording be assessed here rather than the quirkiness of the sound. Actually this type of rock does have hooks and riffs that draw you in. My favourite from the album is a song titled "Premeditated", for no other reason than the fact that it keeps my attention and gets me hopping around the lounge room in a ‘could be very embarrassing situation were I discovered’ kind of way. Songs such as "Killing Spree" highlight the ridiculousness of our preoccupation with killing each other. It’s not sung as a tongue in cheek gesture however, and if listeners weren’t having so much fun doing the twist, it could really be taken as a serious comment on the state of humanity.

Back to the fun stuff and the title track "Burning Your House Down", which isn’t about pyromania or revenge. There are a few ways to be hot, and this song covers hotness of the lusty variety. Being female I can quite understand how this might ensue from meeting Jim and Co. and I think if my house were to burn down because of any one of their number, I would be helping to fan the flames. The production of this CD is so good, and the rawness of the band’s sound, so pervasive, that this studio album somehow manages to lose little, if any, of the live sound. So save your coinage and drop a few in the jukebox the next time you’re in the drive-in movie kiosk. Pull up your bobby socks and rock-and-roll to one of the best albums to come out of the noughties.

Review Score: 9/10