fastball - keep your wig on
following their breakthrough over saturation of the 'in the way' hit a few years ago the band obviously had a manic period, but this album seems to be readdressing the balance. newly signed to rykodisc by their old major label cohort it is obvious that the band are pleased to have been released from the pressures and expectations that followed the breakthrough hit that their major label home imposed. subsequently this album sounds pretty loose, and damn fine. having found their melodic strengths and reasserted their collective talents this album sounds like a bunch of well honed musicians just having a blast in the way that bands should when they know that they have a fine set of songs.
there are the power pop classics (''lou-ee, lou-ee' being particularly addictive stuff), the powerful classic fm rock feel of 'airstream' and even a randy newman style piano/vocal twists of 'i get high', and an indicator of the bands real passion of alt.country in the gorgeous 'our misunderstanding', and the spine tingling sing-a-long beatles-esque of 'someday'. making for an album that flows and grows with each listen.
the production is clean and basic, nothing too obscure to upset the groove, hammond organs make a fine addition to the basic guitar/bass/drum sound, as does an excellent harmonica solo in 'perfect world', and the subtle presence of horns/saxophone from time to time add a welcome extra layer of sonic detail. with lyrics making several references to the world of music, such as name checking the beatles 'revolver' in 'til i get right', and the love of shortwave radio in the album acoustic opener 'shortwave', this is a band who are still in love with music. both making and listening. though along with the happiness there is some tinges of darkness and pain within the words, a result of the recent path of international stardom perhaps ? but don't worry this album aint a complete misery fest, especially when the album closer 'red light' (european version of the album has an extra track 'high-low' though) tell tales of a sordid evenings entertainment that you wouldn't really want to tell your folks back home about, to a fun tex-mex clap happy rock-n-roll romp, showing that the band still have their tongues buried within their cheeks when required.
sometimes its nice to have a rest from the mashup sonic madness, or the heavy beats and rhymes of leftfield hip hop that this listener has been recently overdosing on. sometimes its nice to break away from the noise. sometimes its just nice to listen to a fine decent rock-n-roll band with their stylistic toes dipped into the old 70's ways of classic songs and solid instrumentation, and, for when that urge for something nice rises i shall be reaching for this album, often.