Bottle Rockets
Blue Sky (Sanctuary)
The Bottle Rockets’ first album of original material in four years finds the Missourians reduced to a trio and having eased off of their Southern rock crunch in favor of a decelerated, semi-acoustic country approach. While this gives precedence to Brian Henneman’s astute lyrics, it comes at the expense of the band’s loose, roadhouse energy. After a first half on which the Rockets play pop-oriented material that resembles rewrites of Tom Petty and Warren Zevon songs, “Blue Sky” eventually kicks in to gear with the greasy “Baby’s Not My Baby Tonight” and sizzling “Pretty Little Angie.” Yet they don’t provide enough balance for a record weighted with easygoing pop and melancholy ballads, and which longs for the ragged touch of departed guitarist Tom Parr.