Toadies

Toadies

Arriving a mere seven years behind its predecessor, No Deliverance is a concordant entry in the Toadies' sparse but unvaried discography. The guitars are a little heavier; Vaden Todd Lewis' voice is a little deeper and just a little choked. Yet by and large, the Fort Worth quartet delivers the same pounding midtempo hard rock, arranged into oddly timed riffs, that went into both previous Toadies albums. The band's jaded alt-rock stomp still has an earthy appeal, as evidenced by slammers "So Long Lovely Eyes" and "Flower." The canaries in the coal mine are "One More" and "Song I Hate," wherein the band straddles the line between casual and slack. The former hamstrings some of the album's best music with frustratingly vague lyrics. By contrast, the latter winningly celebrates the Gen-X sneer of grunge in a suggestion of Lewis' feelings about playing "Possum Kingdom" at every Toadies show from here to eternity.