Lost albums, when they see the light of day, are always a fun thing to get stuck into – sometimes that’s because it’s awful and it was rightly shelved and we can all stop wondering about it and, other times, they’re amazing and it’s great to see some light getting shone on tracks that have lived down the back of the settee since forever.

And so, The Cramps, and the new release, ‘Gravest Gravy’. This was their first go at an album from back in 1977, with Alex Chilton on hand to press ‘record’. Sounds great, right? Right. The group went into the studio to record ‘TV Set’, and with Chilton goading them, they didn’t stick to one track and instead, ploughed through a whole album’s worth of material.

Now, some of these songs would be re-recorded and appear on later albums, but as a time capsule of the band when they were starting out, this is an essential listen for any Cramp-maniac.

Importantly, there’s songs that haven’t appeared anywhere else. We get the gang tackling Paul Revere and the Raiders’ ‘Hungry’, which is great fun, ‘Rocket In My Pocket’ by Jimmy Lloyd, and Sam Phillips’ ‘Problem Child’.

On all the cuts, you get a great look at the band playing more direct and more brash, and genuinely, you feel it wouldn’t have altered the trajectory of The Cramps at all, as it slots right in with what they were about to release anyway. Of course, timing is everything, but in the body of work from the group, this is a very welcome addition and in 1977, they would have still become legends if this saw the light of day.

In fact, if this manages to win some new fans, then it’s worth doing – those knuckleheaded drums and gonzo guitars and your-parents-worst-nightmare lurches are all present and correct, with an armful of B-Movie VHS tapes and sex whips. As ever, the cover versions they get hold of aren’t simple photocopies but instead, re-imagined like some stapled-together monster by a mad scientist, and shoved to maul and paw at anyone it encounters.

And this release is being done the right way, everyone who should be getting paid is getting paid, so guilt-free, we can get down with the rawest, purest rock ‘n’ roll degenerates who ever laid down a track.

It’s riddled with lust, yearning, menace, and all the stuff that made that old-time, fringe rock ‘n’ roll make kids tear up the seats and die behind the wheels of their cars. The Cramps were always about the primal heart of rock, and here, it’s on full show, because of course it is.

In fact, we’d say that some of the material that we were already familiar with goes even harder on this release – we’re looking at you ‘The Natives Are Restless’, which would later appear on ‘Psychedelic Jungle’. That feels mildly heretical, but there’s some really hair-raising stuff on this record.

And then, right at the death, we hear Lux Interior yell: “Nobody fuckin’ stops the tape on the Cramps in the fuckin’ studio! This is costing me 80 bucks an hour!” The perfect sign-off for some genuine one-offs.

This is dynamite – strap in!