By spinky

Whoa - this band throw everything at you at once - there aren't that many surf-spy-noir-lounge-rock bands around... They grew out of the Kabalas, who specialised in rock 'n' roll covers of Jewish songs. All well and good, but they were unlikely to have cocktails named after them (only hokey religions). So they undertook a transformation and became the Metrolites. Now they are use bongos, xylophones, what sounds like theremins, sax and rock 'n' roll to play B-movie psychobilly swing tunes. And you can order a Metrolite cocktail from their local tavern...

It's a mixture of faux soundtrack instrumentals ("Gunfight at the Zombie Mineshaft", "The Man from M.E.T.R.O.") and surreal vocals ("Cyclops Optometrist", a cover of Burt Bacharach's theme to "The Blob"). Imagine a funkier Bonzo Dog band fronted by a Vincent Price soundalike in a fez. The undisputed highlight of the album is "Gunfight..." - if anyone ever does make a zombie-cowboy movie, they'd be crazy not to include this song on the soundtrack. (And if any Hollywood studios want to give me large wodges of cash to produce my idea "The Good, The Bad, and the Dead", please get in touch...)

The only criticisms I would have are that the band try too much, it's more a grab bag of all sorts of crazy tunes than a coherent album. It almost hits the "zany" threshold, (music should never be zany - I have a very definite threshold), but just about stays on the right side.

But overall, it's well worth seeking out, there are more ideas here than the average bunch of nu-shoegazers have in a lifetime. The lounge-spy-surf revival starts here!