4 out of 5

Label: Kirtland Records

Produced by: David Castell

It’s pretty damned single-minded, and certainly has a couple of the Pixies-influenced tracks that, at a glance, could be mistaken for earlier Toadies’ singles, but the group’s return – seven years after Hell Above, Stars Below – is a goddamn bangin’ rocker; a loaded 30-40 minutes of infinitely catchy and crunchy riffs and Vaden Lewis’ always impressive (and kinda soulful, and kinda melodic) yowl.

Let’s first poke at something that hits like a hammer from the start: the production on this thing is just damned perfect for the kinda straight-ahead rock Toadies are working.  David Castell, who also made the Burden Brothers stuff sound nice and sharp, allows everything to get turned up to 11 without sacrificing the forefront fidelity that’s always helped to differentiate Toadies from their peers: proud to be showmen, not wallowing in music wizardry or even milking a badass riff for too long, with Lewis chanting obsessively about, y’know, relationships.  Rob Schnapf’s work on their first releases was also great, but he definitely pushed a pop agenda forward, which might sound a little mismatched as the group has aged.  So putting it all on rock n’ roll is a smart play, and the disc is arresting throughout as a result.

Where the simplification works against things, though, is in the lyrical department.  Vaden’s always had a sort of typical anti-establishment, lovesick thing going on, but there were details in earlier songs that made his takes on those slightly unique.  Here, the words are cookie cutter “I love you why won’t you love me” rants, and while it results in some pleasing sing-along moments, a lot of the sentiment is rather eye-rolly.

The power of the songs is plenty to carry you through this, though (and the likely intentional callbacks to earlier tracks helps to swirl some nostalgia in there), especially when hyped up by the recording and mix.  And then, most importantly to those of us who’ve missed Toadies in the intervening years, No Deliverance seemed to shake out the kinks for a steady set of quality, impressive releases that would follow.