Buffalo Tom
Jump Rope
★★★★
SCRAWNY
THOUGH THE alt-rock era was the rising tide that lifted their boat, Buffalo Tom always seemed more mature, more soulful than their grungy contemporaries. Like a weathered flannel shirt, their dogeared, big-hearted college rock has only grown warmer and more comforting with the passing years, and their tenth album – their fourth since an unhurried but welcome reunion in 2007 – maintains their canny balance of bruising melancholy and triumphal hopefulness.
The keening Come Closer is a highlight, Bill Janovitz howling into the void, tremolo guitar sighing behind him, piano heightening the heroics, while the Stones-y country ramble of Little Ghostmaker again proves bassist and occasional vocalist Chris Colbourn to be their secret weapon. In truth there’s little here that wouldn’t belong on the 1992 breakthrough Let Me Come Over, their enduring warm embrace marking Buffalo Tom as a band you can grow old with.
Track listing:
Helmet
New Girl Singing
Autumn Letter
Recipes
Pine For You
Come Closer
Little Ghostmaker
Our Poverty
The Belle Of Borderline Dismay
Compromised
In The Summertime
Why’d You Have To Be Like That
Rifled Through
You’re On
Jump Rope is out now on Scrawny.
Listen/Buy: Spotify | Apple Music | Amazon | Rough Trade | HMV
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