BOOGIE PEOPLE isn't quite business as usual. Granted, much of the album is in George Thorogood's typical mode of brash, rowdy noise, owing as much to '60s garage rock and punk as it does to blues purism. The title song, for example, is sheer unselfconscious silliness, and there's a de rigueur blowtorching of an obscure Chuck Berry song ("Hello Little Girl").
The overall sound of BOOGIE PEOPLE, however, is considerably bigger than that of other Thorogood albums. Perhaps it's because second guitarist Steve Chrismar has been thoroughly integrated into the band. Maybe it's just a matter of better production. More importantly, Thorogood himself seems to be taking the blues a little more seriously. His acoustic version of Muddy Waters' "Can't Be Satisfied" is anything but pro forma. And Thorogood slashes through Howlin' Wolf's "No Place to Go" with an intensity of feeling that, for him, is positively startling.
