Album Review:

Halloween and surf music have an unusually strong history. The Munsters were in fact the Go-Gos (Swim with the Go-Go's) in disguise. The music here is kooky, weird, very surfy and all together wonderful.

‘The Munster Creep’ is an excellent slice of 60s monster pop and ‘Make It Go Away’ is equally as enticing. According to one member of the group, the two songwriters, J. Hooven and H. Winn ( who were also involved with the Tokens’ great Wheels album) were at this point aging and any contemporary hotrodding jargon was supplied in the studio by the Go-Gos themselves. There are a few hot rod moments such as the singsongy ‘Frankenstein Had a Hot Rod Car,’ the shuffling ‘Ride the Midnight Special,’ and the superb ‘(Here Comes the) Munster Coach’ named after the George Barris creation. Other surf highlights are the instrumental ‘Eerie Beach’ and ‘Down in the Basement.’ ‘$1.98 Kingsize Voodoo Kit’ may be kitsch but is enjoyable.

Essentially this is the Go-Gos’ long-lost second album. My copy I ordered the moment it was available in 2018 and it’s the rarer purple splatter vinyl reissue and it sounds (and looks) so fantastic I’m not even searching for an original.