July 19, 2006

By THOR CHRISTENSEN / The Dallas Morning News

Soul Asylum C Silver Lining (Legacy)

Before grunge made Seattle famous, the best rock 'n' roll city in America was Minneapolis.

In the late '80s, the Mini Apple was crawling with scraggly but stellar bands such as Husker Du, Soul Asylum, the Replacements and the Jayhawks. Minneapolis already had a huge star in Prince; now it was the white punks' turn.

Or maybe not. Aside from Soul Asylum, which cracked the Top 10 in '93 with "Runaway Train," none of the Minneapolis bands gained a commercial foothold. Eventually, they all broke up or drifted into hibernation.

Now Soul Asylum is back with Silver Lining, its first album since 1996's lackluster Candy From a Stranger and its final CD with bassist Karl Mueller, who died last year of throat cancer at 42.

The first track, "Stand Up and Be Strong," is everything Soul Asylum should be: a soaring melody, snarling power chords and a great rasp-and-sigh vocal from Dave Pirner.

But it's downhill from there. On Soul Asylum's early albums, Mr. Pirner found the perfect balance between punk and pop. But now he seems too interested in the latter, resulting in well-crafted but too-slick rockers such as "Oxygen" and "Standing Water": The hooks are still sharp, but the edge is strangely missing.

Mr. Pirner finds it briefly on the final hidden track, "Fearless Leader," an angry folk ballad about politicians who claim God's on their side. But it's too little, too late on a CD where the soul has left Asylum.

That's not the case on Another Fine Day, the fourth album from Golden Smog, the Minneapolis-Chicago supergroup featuring Dan Murphy (Soul Asylum), Gary Louris and Marc Perlman (Jayhawks) Kraig Johnson (Run Westy Run) and Jeff Tweedy (Wilco).

Golden Smog B+ Another Fine Day (Lost Highway)

Where Soul Asylum seems stuck in '93 – with the Top 40 on its mind – the Smog moves forward and trades the twang of its two previous CDs for raw anything-goes rock 'n' roll.

Mr. Johnson is the band's secret weapon, belting out lead vocals on four tunes, including the Kinks-like opening track, "You Make it Easy." Mr. Murphy, who didn't get to sing lead on the Soul Asylum CD, flexes his muscles on the power-poppy "Corvette." And now that Wilco has gone avant-rock, Mr. Tweedy gets to return to simple roots-rock on lovely ballads such as "Strangers" and "Listen Joe."

But many of the CD's finest gems belong to the Jayhawks' Mr. Perlman and Mr. Louris, especially the latter's ripsnorting "Another Fine Day." With the 'Hawks on hiatus (or broken up, depending on whom you believe), Another Fine Day reminds us what a wonderful band they were – and what a promising future the Minneapolis scene once had.