I’ve seen it happen way too many times before. A popular band breaks up to pursue other things, the group’s members find little to no success in their subsequent endeavors and reform only to produce an album that poorly imitates what made them popular to begin with. This is what I feared would happen when I learned that one of the most cherished ‘90s rock bands of my youth, the Toadies, were reforming and working on a long awaited third album. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that the new album would not only do justice to early Toadies music, but come dangerously close to surpassing it.
No Deliverance is the Toadies first album without former bassist Lisa Umbarger, whose departure was the primary reason for the band splitting seven years ago. The disc is a rocking flashback to the mid ‘90s, though at the same time it doesn’t revel in nostalgia but instead has a sound that’s just as modern and relevant as any rock music today. Frontman Todd Lewis’ blistering vocals sound just as fresh and passionate as they did 15 years ago, and the underlying music continues its face melting cocktail of grunge, southern rock, blues-rock, and late ‘80s alternative. For those that were disappointed with the band’s sophomore disc Hell Below/Heaven Above, this is every bit the proper follow up to 1994’s Rubberneck.
The CD starts off in a furor. The opening guitar licks of “So Long Lovely Eyes” set a high paced tempo, similar to their ‘90s classic “Quitter.” When the blazing guitars and hammering drums lead into Lewis’ trademark screech, crying out “How did you get so fucking cold?” the stage is set.
The album runs along like a finely tuned engine, rising, falling and constantly rocking. It is without a doubt the most cohesive album the Toadies have ever put together. Scorching rockers like “I Am a Man of Stone” and “Flower” segue beautifully into more melodic and slowed down songs like “Song I Hate” and “One More.” With only ten songs, none of which felt like filler to me, the album also comes across as very well rounded and never bloated.
When it comes to lyrics within the Toadies’ songs, Lewis has always been an inventive song writer. Prior subject matter in previous songs has included infatuation, love, kidnapping, mutilation, religion, social commentary and possibly vampires. No Deliverance tries to keep things a little more simple, singing mostly about relationships, both the healthy kind and the not so healthy. Still, Lewis’ words are better put together and have a much more poetic feel to them than they did in the past, adding a sense of overall confidence behind the familiar vocal.
By the time you hear the album close with the killer two minute jam “I Want Your Love,” you’ve just been lucky enough to witness the triumphant return of the Toadies. No Deliverance is not only one of the best straight up rock albums I’ve heard in a long time, it also may very well be the finest album that this Texas based group has ever released. All in all that’s a pretty good statement for an album that was supposed to have been a failure.
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