Buster Poindexter “Buster’s Happy Hour” <i> Forward</i>

The big-band swing bandwagon is getting more and more crowded, seemingly by the minute. So far this year we’ve seen new albums not only from Mr. “Hot, Hot, Hot” Poindexter, but also from former rockabilly revivalist Brian Setzer, who is touring with his own horn-heavy 17-piece orchestra, and Canadian blues singer-guitarist Colin James, whose “little big band” covers jump blues and other pre-rock ‘n’ roll tunes.

But none of the others have the near-ideal mixture of swing, swig and swagger that make Buster Poindexter’s third outing such a blast.

Other musical archeologists can sound either too square or too earnest; Poindexter, a.k.a. David Johansen, knows how to make the music swing, but he also understands the proper attitude toward it, which is loud and loose.

Maybe this music is making a comeback because it was born in a time that was more relaxed and people seem (at least from this vantage) less zealous about making the wise, moral or healthful decision about every aspect of their lives.

Consequently, there are loads of songs celebrating imbibing mass quantities of demon rum (“Knock’m Down Whisky”), having too much fun (“Saturday Night Fish Fry”) and, of course, libidos at large (“Big Fat Mamas Are Back in Style”).

Poindexter’s larger-than life voice, from the Louis Armstrong-Tom Waits gravel-pit school, is the perfect vehicle for them. Musically, the colorful arrangements are a refreshing change of pace from pop music styles in which vocals are buried in a wall of grunge, or chanted over cerebrum-numbing rhythm tracks. There’s nary a sign of “artistic growth” from Poindexter’s previous two outings, unless you want to count his dour album-closing rendition of Ray Davies’ “Alcohol” as the missing moral to all the preceding songs about satiating the various human appetites. Until then, it’s just more of the same loopy fun.