The Deadbeats – Come Clean 7″

Note to self: Check the speed of a 7″ before whacking it into the jukebox, you idiot! This one sure sounds funny at 45 rpm – like Alvin and the Chipmunks on a cocktail of nitrous oxide and helium and in leather jackets. Anyway, at appropriate speed, “Come Clean” comes across as a meeting point for a heap of influences. Best contemporary comparator might be The Sewergrooves; both have a similar feel for catchy and tuneful, never overblown rock songs. “Putting Out My Fire” and “Keep Me Waiting” are pretty spiffing in their own right. Sweden must be a crowded musical landscape but The Deadbeats say more over four songs than half their contemporaries manage to do over a couple of albums. I never got Cheap Trick (couldn’t get past “Dream Police” and that silly baseball cap) but the cover of “He’s a Whore” attracts no flies.

(4/5)