Run

This release is generally a leap forward over the group's prior albums. Songwriting here is mostly top-notch, with Tim Lee's work in particular showing strong improvement over previous outings. Lee's songs range widely here, from the hard-rocking fuzz guitar and organ number "This Time -- She Said," the odd and lumbering psychedelic-oriented song "You Don't Know" which sports a filtered vocal and unusual chord progressions, the classic jangle-pop cut "I'll Be Back" that features an unusual growled vocal and twangy sitar, and the wonderfully gutsy and driving title track. Bobby Sutliff's songs here are all jangle-pop-oriented and a bit less consistent, but he has some standout tracks, such as "Ghost Town" (an atypically sad, weary song in this genre), "Don't Say No" (with an especially lithe, arching melodic line), and "Visa Cards and Antique Mirrors" (which features unusually strong lyrics -- not always a Sutliff virtue). A few of the songs are not so successful; Sutliff's "Voices in My Head" sets verses about mental illness to inappropriately untroubled-sounding music, while Lee's "Nation of Two" is a long, draggy, and unmemorable song. Sound quality at times is badly distorted, most noticeably in "Visa Cards and Antique Mirrors." But despite its few shortcomings, this is a fine album well worth hearing. ~ David Cleary