4 out of 5

Label: Spartan

Produced by: Mario Quintero

Thirty years. Other bands have done this before, but it makes it no less impressive: to sound just as vital and fresh thirty years on as the band did during the heydays.

Shiner already proved this, of course, after a nearly twenty year gap in releases between 2001’s The Egg and 2020’s Schadenfreude, letting us know that Allen Epley can still haunt the vocal track, and that the rhythm section can still rip through the speakers. But, y’know, we’re doubters, and maybe you can pull off one post-reunion album well, but… two? And have it be, arguably, one of the band’s best releases, period?

BELIEVEYOUME is, firstly, a nice lil’ roadmap that toots us around the different shades of Shiner (or The Life and Times, Epley’s other main bandly outing), rooted in their post-hardcore starting point and flexing with broader space rock, and punk. The album starts us out on somewhat uneven – though familiar – footing, with catchy riffs but a kind of open-endedness that is pure Shiner… being indulgent. Riffs don’t build; lyrics don’t necessarily flow. It’s the group feeling out the song as it’s made; and, I’d say, feeling out the audience and the album. These aren’t weak songs, just somewhat indirect, and we get a twofer that kicks off with something surprisingly muscley (single Asleep in the Trunk) and a “typical” Shiner ballad-to-freakout on The Alligator. We’re talking about… relationships; aging; nothing revolutionary.

But I’d say the album really begins with track 3’s The Mutiny. This is the secondly: BELIEVEYOUME is, secondly, laying stake on a new era for Shiner – no longer a reunion or comeback, but a continuation that sounds appropriately aged and appropriately self-aware. The production has a kind of in-your-face momentum that reminds of Epley’s other other project, BirdHands; the lyrics – though still in Epley’s range of observationals – are more directly story-telling, or delivered via stronger imagery, whether questioning Where the Time Goes with ‘The Mirror Hates Me,’ or doing a simple (-ish) ode to good times on Endless Summer. This is a group having truly embraced where they’re at in their careers, while also not being afraid to be older dudes hitting heavy riffs.

The album is unabashedly Shiner in so many ways, but there’s a sense of necessity behind it that gives the whole album urgency. The tail end teeters off a bit, with the 6-minute Broken Satellites of the same obliqueness as the openers, and closer Jackie an attempted short palette cleanser of punk, but coming across as something of a B-side. But even these slight misses feel in steps with BELIEVEYOUME’s overall confident display.