Here Before

"Is it too late/To do it again?/Or should we wait/Another ten?" have never been a band given to autobiographical self-reflection in their music, but the opening song on finds them seemingly pondering the wisdom of their own decision to re-form and return to the recording studio a full 20 years after their last album, 1991's . But needn't have worried -- one play confirms is excellent, an album that finds the band seemingly picking up where it left off and sounding as committed and invigorating as ever, reveling in the beauty and power of rhythm guitars and cracking percussion. features the complete Mk. 2 lineup that recorded , , and -- guitarists and , bassist , drummer , and percussionist -- and stylistically, it hits a middle ground between the gentler, more pastoral tone of and the more potent, electric feel of the two albums that followed. This may not be the hardest-rocking set have ever released, but the balance of the electric and acoustic guitars on shows there's plenty of force even in their more subdued moments, and demonstrate this band is just as tight and commanding as it was in its heyday, and when choose to turn up the amps, they haven't lost a bit of their taut impact. And as a set of songs, is their strongest work since in 1986; the lyrics don't explicitly address the two decades that separates this work from their last album, but there's an easy acceptance of maturity here that fits the band well, without diluting the forward momentum of the music. Now as before, there are few groups in rock & roll that perform as brilliantly and purposefully as an ensemble as , and on their trademark sound remains a thing of wonder that hasn't been dimmed a bit by the passage of time. ~ Mark Deming