On the back cover of his latest album Dan Sartain is pictured mooching around in the fresh vegetable section, pencil moustache arched in quizzical fashion and with a look of surprise in his eyes. He looks like a young John Waters out doing a spot of shopping for others, rather than a mid twenties songwriter who, along with Jack White, is doing his best to exhume the worm eaten cadaver of rock ‘n’ roll and breathe some life into its fragrant corpse.

Rock ‘n’ Roll in this form has long been something of an underground concern – not that it’s dead and buried of course. It’s been stalking the earth in some shape for the last sixty years at least, changing form with every passing generation.

Lives proves that Sartain is not interested in the modern mode at all, and this collection of songs seems out of place on a CD. It’s far too modern a format. These songs should probably have never been released on album either such is their apparent place in the rock ‘n’ roll firmament. You rather fancy that had the option been available, they’d have all been released on 7″ vinyl in straightforward card sleeves.

As someone for whom authenticity is vital, it’s no surprise to find that Lives was recorded in Toerag Studios – the place to visit if you’re serious about recording things just the way they used to back in the day. It’s the studio of choice for White Stripes these days, so it’s natural that someone in thrall to those warm sounds of rockabilly guitar and the hum of the valve amp should wind up there.

Songwise, Sartain is clearly a master of his art, as he’s proved consistently on his previous albums (Join Dan Sartain and Dan Sartain vs The Serpientes), and if 2010 wasn’t listed as it’s release date, it would be easy to believe that this was a reissue of some dusty old forgotten relic. Ultimately the problem that lies at the heart of this album is that had it been released in the 50′s or 60′s it would almost certainly have been forgotten.

There are some great moments here, of that there is no doubt. ‘Atheist Funeral’ for example is a fantastic zombie stomp, with a enormously catchy chorus and a nicely wired guitar solo. ‘Bohemian Grove’ finds Sartain cutting a rug in the mid-sixties with a demonic look in his eye and a flick knife in his boot. A nicely pitched vocal that suggests menace gives the song a little edge (in fact at times he sounds like Dwarves Blag Dhalia here). The garage fuzz of ‘Walk Among the Cobras IV’ is also a particular highlight, fizzing with a frantic energy that still has the ability to sound threatening, despite the fact the main riff sounds at least twice as old as the guy who’s playing it.

However for all the moments where he borrows licks from Dick Dale (opener ‘Those Thoughts’) there’s an equal amount of pedestrian songs that just sound a little limp. ‘Praying For a Miracle’ for example hardly sets the pulse racing with its dainty rhythm suggesting a skip around a herb garden rather than good old fashioned blood and thunder rock ‘n’ roll redemption. Likewise, ‘Bad Things Will Happen’ just doesn’t sound aggressive enough in its delivery and the backwards guitars float around in an unfocused haze rather than adding the acid fried tones that they were surely supposed to.

Sartain is a fine exponent of classic rock ‘n’ roll however, it’s just that on this occasion the songs aren’t as on the money as they should be. A shame then, but if that run of 7 inches ever materialises, then it’ll definitely be worth grabbing at least half of them, and you can bet the b-sides are going to be amazing – that’s where they used to stick the weird experimental stuff after all.