KISS THE CRYSTAL FLAKE
Album Review

"Why does time keep moving on so quicky," asks Tim Bluhm during the world-weary but insistent "Mission in Vain," as if wondering how it could have been so long since the band's last full-length release, 2001's Green Hills of Earth. The reformed veterans return sharp and assured after testing the waters with 2005's Red Tandy EP, anchored by the Bluhm's and Greg Loiacono's interlocking guitars. Young bluesman Jackie Greene (currently of Grateful Dead homage Phil Lesh and Friends) guests on "Mission in Vain," contributing space-rock organ to an instrumental excursion blending the heady days of early Pink Floyd with the ragged, windswept chaos of the Beatles' "I Want You (She's So Heavy)." "Let Somebody" revisits the band's kinship with genre-surpassing groups like the Band, fusing soul, Americana, and California pop.