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While Mission of Burma and Wire re-emerged earlier this decade after 20 year absences, Eleventh Dream Day have continued to make periodic appearances since their late 80s/early 90s heyday, getting together between Freakwater and Tortoise tours for occasional albums. Thanks in part to Burma, my ears have never been as open to the 80s punk guitar sound. And with my ears tuned to the sound, Eleventh Dream Day sounds better than ever. Rizzo's guitar has never been so barbed and angry, lashing out on "Lately I've Been Thinking" with a thick swaggering sound and simmering with aggression underneath heavy drumming on "For Everything." Of course, Janet Bean is also there to temper things, singing backup and in unison with Rizzo on many songs. Its these songs where Eleventh Dream Day is just so resplendent, like on the opening track "Dissolution" where jangle pop is slashed to bits with meatier guitar sounds and a more anthemic chorus. Bean only has one song on this album where she sings lead, but it's a great one. Her sweet voice on "The Lure" comes off better than Neko Case usually does on New Pornographers tracks, creating an undeniable sugar pill of a pop song. Of course, it goes without saying that Doug McCombs' bass playing is universally excellent, providing key melodies in songs like "Return of the Long Shadow," and the songs are colored further by the first recorded inclusion of Mark Greenburg (also of the Cocktails), adding keyboard accompaniment to many of the songs. While most of the album is mid- and uptempo, the band tries a couple experiments with downtempo songs. Aforementioned "Return of the Long Shadows" is successful thanks to the great dark colors from Doug McCombs bass and Rizzo's on-the-brink-of-rage guitar, however the one low point of the album is when the band tries to fit their male/female vocals into a Low-like slowcore song. At the slow pace and with less sound from the amps, the vocals just don't match well enough; Janet alone could sing a lullabye but the two of them together doesn't work well. Luckily the entire rest of the album is made of 4 minute rock songs. Perhaps it's unreasonable to think this album will suddenly thrust Eleventh Dream Day into a wide(r) audience, but for those who've forgotten just how great Rizzo's songs can be, it's a great album and welcome reminder.

Eleventh Dream Day at Amazon & Insound