4 out of 5

Label: UMe

Produced by: that dog., Anna Waronker

Yes, that dog. had been doing reunion shows for quite a while, but I hadn’t lucked into one of those; by the time of the band’s “Old LP” – coming 20+ years after last release Retreat From the Sun – the last material I had to reflect on was Anna Waronker’s solo work, and a production credit on Tancred’s Out of the Garden. Those end up being pretty good touchstones, though, with the latter finding the middleground between TD’s alt-rock origins and the Cali grunge pop of Retreat, and the former’s glossy captures of Waronker’s vocal stylings and mostly edgeless rock. Inbetween that is what Old LP adds to the mix: the maintenance of TD’s compositional and tonal quirk – the way Waronker and her harmonizing partners swing from disaffected smarm to sing-song gooshiness, the keys and chords chosen forever off kilter but catchy as heck.

Old LP loses steps when trying to breach the divide between the absolute crunch of some tunes – flashing forward to Waronker’s soundtrack work with Craig Wedren, crafting some of her heaviest work up to this point, buoyed by meaty production – and the shine of tracks that pull in horns or more aural layers, and lean on that Cali pop sound. That just mentioned production – from Waronker and the band – handles both of these approaches equally and it doesn’t quite work; but maybe more than that, I think having an outside ear like Brad Wood’s on Retreat can help frame an entire album, instead of Old LP’s collection of songs that are surely the same band, but could’ve beem tweaked to sound like they absolutely belong in this sequence, on this disc.

That said… all of the songs in this collection are excellent. Waronker’s vocals are rich and appreciably weathered by the years, which gives her break-up-and-move-on tales the kind of self-reflection notes needed to sell this as a sound both nostalgic and utterly modern. Every track has a hook and a memorable chorus; while we switch from grunge to pop a little clunkily, once any given song’s notes play… that hardly matters. And I gripe about sequence, but we wind up on the perfect song for defining this era of that dog.: the emotive title track, full orchestral but still rocking and swelling in ways particular to Waronker and crew, the now-trio joined by an arsenal of friends in a tribute to bandmate Rachel Haden’s father, Charlie Haden, but also totally a TD pop tune.

This is as fresh as anything the band has done, or that was coming out the year of release, or hence.

See you in another 20 years?