4 out of 5

Label: Kirtland Records

Produced by: Chris “Frenchie” Smith

Does it kick off the quick-fix of Mexican Hairless?  The arresting yowl that introduces Plane Crash?  No; nor does it aim for the gut with a rock-hard grunge riff, a la No Deliverance‘s So Long Lovely Eyes.  But what Toadies 2017 effort, The Lower Side of Uptown does do is groove, right from the outset – When I Die – and on through, sparing hardly a moment for the briefest of acoustic guitars before jumping back into comfortable, confident bass lines and crunching distortion, Todd Lewis showing some of that Heretics restraint in his crooning shout.  Lyrically, we continue the climb back toward the slightly darker and less obvious fare of early releases, though maybe less obsessed with guilt and death: Lower Side’s brief narratives seem to be on the other side of the paranoia and relationship woes that fueled earlier tracks, asking more for acceptance and forgiveness than fingering blame.  Which maybe sounds like we’ve traded attitude for sentimentality, but fear not: this is clearly Toadies, clearly rocking out with all due force, the group just feels properly revitalized.  Something that started with Play.Rock.Music’s branching out into compositions that weren’t directly Pixies / grunge tributes, showing off the homespun lifestyle the group had come to embrace, and continued through the heartfelt retakes on Heretics, here somewhat coming full circle to Lower Side: on which the band has fully grown to own their sound, forever improving on it with diverse approaches to rockin’ out and boogieing, while also definitely remaining grounded with a street-level rawness.

If not for a pointless – and completely mismatched for the album – cover of I Put a Spell On You, this would be a perfect rock disc, functioning as the ‘mature’ counterpart to the brilliant Stars Above.