The Cherry Poppin' Daddies might only have been an objectionable entry into the revitalized swing movement because in all fairness, they aren't a swing band. As a matter of fact, the album Zoot Suit Riot, which sold over a million copies, was really only a compilation of the band's best swing moments culled from their past three efforts which contained doses of ska, punk, jazz, and swing. However, though the band dabbles in a variety of styles, no one around is as dexterous, and versatile as The Cherry Poppin' Daddies. On their new album Soul Caddy, the band has never sounded more confident and the thirteen songs that comprise the album, are a mixed bag of spikey punk, whirling disco, and truly inspired swing. Beginning with the good-natured dance-pop of "Diamond Light Boogie," an energizing homage to night life, and effortlessly seguing to the glib jump swing of "Swingin' With Tiger Woods," Soul Caddy is an album that seems intent on proving that The Cherry Poppin' Daddies are not a band confined to any genre.

Further evidence of this comes later with the album's most varied and best triptych. The dreamy ska of "Stay, Don't Just Stay (If You're Gonna)" is followed by "Grand Mal," a crooning number that summons the Smoking Popes, and is succeeded by "Soul Cadillac," a Motown-like track that is drop-dead gorgeous. "Soul Cadillac," is, in fact, the album's finest moment; the kind of song that will silence even the most crotchety of critics. Referencing Sam Cooke's "Chain Gang," the narrator of "Soul Cadillac," is a working man who pours asphalt in the daytime, and tries to get it right with his girl in the evening. The beauty of the song is the simplicity of the sentiment -- an honest working man finds salvation and freedom in love. We've met this narrator before in songs like Springsteen's "Downbound Train," and what makes "Soul Cadillac" succeed is how palpable the happiness of new love is. It can make work go faster, and it can make the nights that much deeper. At one point the speaker confides to the listener, he "... met her down in the east town pub/in the slow dance we embraced/she fixed up my home down by the water and made it a comfortable place. Using an inflection that would have made Sam Cooke proud, The Daddies' Steve Perry's vocal performance is a stunning display of smooth crooning and dead-on soul.

Elsewhere, Soul Caddy offers the downtown swing of "So Long Toots," the casual disco of "My Mistake," and the album-closing ballad "Saddest Thing I Know," which quietly tips its hat to Billie Holiday when Perry whispers "Hope is still a flicker in the dark..." Soul Caddy is a joyous surprise, an album that on paper looked to be a write-off but instead turned out to be one of the best releases of the year. A brilliant grab bag of groovy blasts and alley jive, Soul Caddy utilizes all of the clubs and finds the green every time.