It’s almost twenty years since American rockers Throwing Muses truly felt like part of the contemporary music landscape. After emerging as one of the defining alternative US bands of the late 1980s, they seemingly lost their way – and their interest – in the mid-1990s and the group disbanded, leaving lead singer Kristin Hersh to pursue a solo career.

They reunited for 2003’s self-titled Throwing Muses, their eighth studio album, before releasing a best of compilation in 2011. Then came 2013’s Purgatory/Paradise, a swollen 32-track monster complete with a collection of essays and artwork, that was lapped up by fans but proved a puzzling offer to those not already familiar with the group’s sound and ethos.

Sun Racket, then, is a far more concise and tight affair. It’s ten tracks and just over half-hour runtime distil the complexity and ferocity of the band’s best work into a form very much works for today’s audience.

Opening track Dark Blue is a distorting, slow-burning, reverb-heavy pressure cooker of a song that turns this way and that, strangling the air out of the room as it closes in around you. It bleeds beautifully into Bywater, a gentler but juddering number that shows the band still do a great line in off-kilter lyrics: “Whose goldfish in the toilet?" / "Don't flush it, it's Freddie Mercury" / Shining orange / Unhinged / A moustached amputee, heading out to sea”.

Within three-and-a-half wonderful minutes, Bo Diddley Bridge shreds some massive riffs then sheds them to expose a gentle melody that’s been hiding at the song’s core all along, while Upstairs Dan is an eerie, brooding beast and St. Charles is a delirious experiment that descends into a haze of guitars and effects.

All in all, Sun Racket marks a wonderful return to form. It’s an album that recaptures the majesty of the band’s peak so many decades ago and deserves to win Throwing Muses plenty of new fans too.

Watch the official video for Frosting here.

 rock 

Sun Racket track list:

1. Dark Blue

2. Bywater

3. Maria Laguna

4. Bo Diddley Bridge

5. Milk At McDonald’s

6. Upstairs Dan

7. St. Charles

8. Frosting

9. Kay Catherine

10. Sue’s

Author: Joe Sharratt

Joe Sharratt is a writer and journalist based in the UK covering music, literature, sport, and travel.