Album: Was (Not Was), Boo! (Rykodisc)

Drawing equally from Motown and the MC5, Detroit's Was (Not Was) were big in the Eighties, before Don Was's role as a superstar producer put the band on the backburner.

This first new album for nearly 20 years takes up where they left off, full of smooth funk and satirical lyrics, with great soul vocals by Sweet Pea Atkinson and Sir Harry Bowens. Whether intentionally or not, it sounds Eighties too: a sonic equivalent to big hair and shoulder pads. The substantial weirdness quotient includes Kris Kristofferson intoning moodily on "Green Pills in the Dresser" to the backing of raga-trance.