Paint Your Wagon

The semi- touches and twangs on the band's earlier work get a little more foregrounded on ' second album, but then that had more than a little to do with the cover art and font style -- pure Old West (as filtered through TV and movies). Again, may have made it more famous, but probably had more outright fun (of a sort) with it in the end. Though that said, has sounding exactly like ' , which if intentional might not have been the wisest way to go. Trappings aside, is another fine album and actually probably a better one in the end, with a bit more energy in the arrangements. 's guitar playing, supplemented by , shows a touch more intricacy and flair this time around -- not a major leap forward but he often creates some inspired, epic, work, as on or the slow grind conclusion and are sharp examples of how and company can rework what were already established approaches into something new and thrilling. goes that step even a bit further thanks to the use of the old "which side are you on" trope -- did it one way, aims for something a bit more in his echoed milieu. Even some of the semi-filler tracks like the instrumental have enough spikiness to carry the day. ~ Ned Raggett