HERE AND NOW - AMERICA
Finally, a blog-approved disc you can have a nice dinnertime chat with your dad about. This comeback from the ’70s popsters comes with much-hyped indie authority via featurings by Ryan Adams and Jim James of My Morning Jacket. But the bigger story is that their gossamer hooks and autopilot harmonies sound nearly as fresh as they once did out of tinny AM speakers. “Chasing the Rainbow” strikes a nice balance between sweetness and melancholy, “Indian Summer” throws in a twinkling triangle for good measure, and the MMJ cover “Golden” is awful pretty. Disc two captures a 2005 XM performance of vintage material, including “Sister Golden Hair,” “A Horse With No Name” and — yup — “Muskrat Love.” Nostalgia’s nice and all, but what you take from “Here and Now” is the subtle power of the sweeping, diving harmonies and melodies, both strangely intact, that are tough to assign to any particular decade. Reuters/Billboard
