Though the Stray Cats' brash, colorful rockabilly attack had England in a lather last year, Built for Speed–a spotty, belated compilation of the group's two U.K. LPs–finds the Long Island trio spinning its hot wheels, stuck on a bad patch of mostly average original songs and spiritless self-producton.

On about half the album, however–the five tracks produced by Welsh popabilly ace Dave Edmunds – the group gets it dead right. "Runaway Boys" bolts out of the box on a madhouse rhythm built upon Lee Rocker's slaphappy bass fiddle and Slim Jim Phantom's drumming. Singer-guitarist Brian Setzer bounces off the walls of a deep, ominous Edmunds echo with a suburban tough-guy wail and sniping guitar twang. The Saturday-night raver "Rock This Town" also cooks like a cathouse on fire, Setzer sweating hard over the rhythm section.

As a songwriter, however, Setzer tends to repeat himself, and when the band takes over the production, things go flat. The title track is a poorly disguised cop of Chuck Berry's supercar anthem "You Can't Catch Me," while the potent R&B raver "Little Miss Prissy" and the limp ladies' choice "Lonely Summer Nights" suffer from parched sound and pedestrian arrangements. There are plenty of press clippings and chart positions to prove that the Stray Cats once had Britain at their feet, but Built for Speed makes you wonder what all the excitement was about. (RS 379)

DAVID FRICKE