Hung Out to Dry - EP

Album Review

Leave it to desert rock stalwarts Fu Manchu to reassert their faith in the retro-nostalgic spirit which has always propelled them by combining their four-song Hung Out to Dry EP with a 7" 45-rpm vinyl single! Yes, this collectible piece of black plastic merely reprises the CD's first two songs — the start-stop drum pounding title cut and "Between the Lines" — both slated for inclusion on the band's forthcoming long-player — but loyal fans should hardly care. Especially in light of the CD's remaining two exclusive tracks, which boil down to another memorable slab of sandblasted power-grooves called "Never Again," and a desert mud-caked cover of Van Halen's "D.O.A.," that's as earnest in its tribute as it's fun to groove to.