An aggressive schedule of reunion dates seems to have gotten Graham Parker and the Rumour thinking about transportation, about history — about Henry Ford, and automobiles and the death of trains. “Railroad Spikes,” an early taste of the upcoming Mystery Glue, touches all of those bases, even as it rekindles the flinty spirit of their ageless pre-punk sound.
Gone for some three decades, Graham Parker and the Rumour reformed for 2012’s aptly named Three Chords Good — and with all of the original lineup, including Bob Andrews, Martin Belmont, Andrew Bodnar, Stephen Goulding and Brinsley Schwarz — as if nothing had changed.
Everything had changed, of course. Well, except for these guys. They recorded Mystery Glue (due May 18, 2015, via Cadet Concept and Universal) in just six days, working at London’s RAK Studios on songs Parker had written from his New York base. Whether it’s 1976, or 2015, Graham Parker and the Rumour remain (sometimes the sole) proprietors of flinty, no-bullshit rock.
Working inside a striking sense of telepathic groove, “Railroad Spikes” unfolds like a breathless travelogue, the kind of song that conjures up a series of unforgettable images, only to discard them in the rush of new thoughts, new vistas. In some ways, that’s no different than the 25 or so albums that Graham Parker released during the Rumour’s too-long hiatus. But they are the straw that stirs the drink — or, to continue this song’s theme — the steel-toed boot that pushes his accelerator.
That sets up Mystery Glue as both a sharp metaphor for everything the Rumour mean to Graham Parker, and also as a very worthy successor to their original five-studio album run together in the late 1970s.
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