One of Baltimore rock’s best kept secrets the last few years has been Thee Lexington Arrows, a garage rock quartet formed in 2004 by members of the Alphabet Bombers and the Shakedowns. Led by the bluesy wildcat yowl of frontwoman Kathleen Wilson, the Arrows may mix some surf guitar and rockabilly twang into their riffs, but their appeal is largely in just how unapologetically no-frills and old-fashioned their idea of punk rock is. And they’ve captured the sound of their killer live shows just about perfectly with their latest album, Cut Me Loose.

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Thee Lexington Arrows’ bread and butter is anthems delivered at ramming speed, and “Cherry Beamer” is arguably the best and most immediate track on an album full of relentless rockers. Still, Cut Me Loose‘s 32 minutes, as quickly as they go by, don’t get too monotonous thanks to a few midtempo tracks slipped in along the way. Some songs, like the tambourine-driven swing of “Better Without You,” work better as a change of pace in the context of the band’s live sets, than on the album. But “What Am I Supposed To Do?” is a surprisingly confident retro ballad, with Wilson turning in a vocal performance that dials down the snarl just enough without losing her natural charisma. And for the album’s last hurrah, the band mixes things up with a percussion-heavy cover of “Ban Ban” by the ‘60s Japanese rock band The Spiders.

Five songs on the album are re-recordings of tracks from the band’s earlier CD-r, Get Thee To A Drinkery (although sadly that record’s highlight, the live staple “Don’t Come Around,” isn’t among the songs reprised here.) Cut to 8-track tape by the Oranges Band’s Roman Kuebler, Cut Me Loose is just a little bit more polished than the Arrows’ earlier recordings, without smoothing out the edges or taking the band out of their element. Some tracks, like “As Long As,” display the band’s occasionally choppy and stilted rhythms, but those imperfections are all apart of their garage band charm.