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"The Neats' bluesy 'Crash at Crush,' named for an 1896 staged locomotive wreck that got a little out of hand, is the biggest (indeed the only) surprise among these discs. This Boston quartet, which hadn't released a record since 1983, was known for a delicately textured neo-folk-rock sound that has become inextricably associated with REM.

In abandoning it, the Neats have done more than avoid being labeled 'REM clones' by people ignorant of their previous work; they've also made their best record. Reclaiming the garage-band swagger of such early songs as 'Six,' 'Crash at Crush' is a tough, urgent record from a band previously best known for winsome ethereality.

Guitarists Phil Caruso and Eric Martin still provide intricate six-string interplay, but their riffing is transformed by the sultry beat of songs like 'Angel' and 'Tear My Soul.' The meld of incendiary dual guitars with the primal stop-and-start R&B structures of songs like 'What Keeps You Awake' and 'Wind Up the Light' is reminiscent of the garage-band attack of early Television. Perhaps the most telling track is 'Big Loud Sound,' which can be heard as a manifesto. With its ragged unison chorus, this exuberant rocker is as direct and insistent as previous Neats songs like 'Red and Grey' were dreamy and detached.

'Crash at Crush' is not the literal-minded homage that most roots-rockers construct. It appropriates the immediacy of a more innocent pop music era to energize an assured but overly rarefied style. The results might not please either folk-rock or blues purists, but then if purists always had their way, rock 'n' roll would never have been concocted." - Washington Post

4-1/2 stars, artist pick - AMG

Endless gratitude to Steve Fallon and Coyote Records for permission to revive this classic!