The Mooney Suzuki: Electric Sweat : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Dripping with raw energy and brimming with grungy guitar hooks, the second album from those four lanky, hirsute young men from New York City, the Moozey Suzuki, roars like an electrified live stage show -- complete with echoing amp feedback and balls-out garage-rock anthems. Satisfying sweaty, leather-clad teenage cravings for rebellious theme music, Electric Sweat continues where the Suzuki left off with their first album -- paying homage to their sonic ancestors the Stooges with tracks like the speedy, foot-stomping, "I Woke Up This Mornin'" -- and going even further, testifying to the evolution of their sound with tracks like the improvisational, keyboard-soaked, "It's a Showtime Part II" and the melodic ode, "Oh Sweet Susanna." Electric Sweat is overflowing with enough nervous energy to fill grimy rock halls across America. The Suzuki expound simple truths throughout the album, summing it all up on "A Young Man's Mind," where Sammy James, Jr. croons, "In a young man's mind, it's a simple world/There's a little room for music and the rest is girls." With Electric Sweat, these hyper-active, dramatic rockers bring garage rock home to roost again in the cement jungle they call home, fulfilling what seems to be modern day's concurrent youthful sentiment -- the "need to be satisfied."

KERRY L. SMITH
(April 30, 2002)