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The Meteors: Paul Fenech (vocals, guitar); Mick White (bass); Steve Meadham (drums). Includes liner notes by Paul Fenech. All tracks have been digitally remastered. "Only the Meteors are pure psychobilly!" enthusiastically proclaims frontman Paul Fenech in the liner notes to this album, a notion that ought to come as a surprise to the Cramps, among many others. On their second album, 1983's Wreckin' Crew, the Meteors sound a good bit more billy than psycho; Fenech's lean and limber guitar chords twang just fine (and betray a supplementary fondness for surf music), but they lack a certain inherent menace, and as hard as he tries to sound evil while he swears, bellows, and name-checks classic horror movies, this isn't significantly more disturbing than, say, the Stray Cats trying to play a Halloween spook show. But as British rockabilly of the period goes, Wreckin' Crew is pretty good stuff; freed by their ghoulish obsessions from the burden of sounding just like Warren Smith, Malcolm Yelvington, or some other "authentic" rockabilly act, the Meteors get to hit their songs a good bit harder and heavier than their contemporaries, and Fenech's guitar generates a welcome degree of bite. (Best of all, they don't bother to put on fake Southern accents!) Cut after a short-lived association with Island resulted in a misbegotten debut album, Wreckin' Crew truly introduced the group in its definitive form, and is perhaps the definitive Meteors album. ~ Mark Deming