Sucker's Dream, A

The Alternate Routes' second album isn't exceptional or much different than you would expect after their previous effort, 2006's Good and Reckless and True. It did in its own way reflect a large segment of the national mood upon its early-2009 release: determined to plough ahead with a certain grim resolve, acknowledging desperate times but not yielding to despair. The songs are straight-ahead guitar rockers with a dash of atmospheric sustain and distortion, addressing tough bumps on the road in both the American sociopolitical landscape and personal relationships. Ordinary anthemic rock & roll is their most traveled musical landscape, but they're capable of gentler folkier approaches too, and those tend to bring out more appealing melodies, "All That I See" and "Quiet Highway Road" (the latter of which, like some of the other tunes, has a hint of vintage Elton John) being two such cases. Of the songs that allude to tough circumstances in typical Americans' lives, "A Better Way" is the most ambitious in its tale of characters confronting dire circumstances. Singer/songwriter Patty Griffin adds vocals to one of the quieter tracks, "Desdemona." ~ Richie Unterberger