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The Rice Thresher
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There's no better way to avoid catcalls of "sophomore slump" than by pushing back the release of your band's follow-up album a couple years. Then again, this course can backfire. The Stone Roses spent five years making their second album and broke up afterwards. Elastica's sophomore album, which sputtered and started for five years, was a critical disappointment. How can you make relevant music if you haven't done it for the past half-decade? Now, Fort Worth rock band the Toadies are releasing Hell Below/Stars Above, six and a half years after their platinum-selling debut, 1994's Rubberneck. This is a Toadies rebirth. Hell Below tears open with roaring guitars and frontman Todd Lewis' scream, a baptism of fire and speed. The intro, "Plane Crash," rocks out fast, while Lewis sings about where the band's been and where it's going - for instance, the manifesto "We're creeping into your living room/We're crawling into your bed." It even turns melodic in the bridge - a reminder of how the Toadies can interject a melody into the harshest tune, sounding like a hard-edged Pixies. I predict that this album will burn through the modern rock charts. It ought to. It's all greasy, roaring guitars, simple, repetitive lyrics and Lewis' made-for-rock voice, a rough-hewn wail that doesn't falter. But then, the title track shows the Toadies' oft-hidden versatility. The first half of "Hell Below/Stars Above" is outright punk, as Lewis leads a singsongy chorus in "You're in love, you're in love/Hell below me, stars above." The song then breaks into a slow bridge accented by a guitar solo in the background, growing into . Southern gospel? In fact, the second half of the album reveals a more sentimental hard rock band. The closing track, "Doll Skin," is basically a straightforward nostalgic love song, albeit one etched with Lewis and Clark Vogeler's great feedback-y guitars. But then, terms of endearment like "Hey, skin like a doll" sound a little, well, insincere coming from the makers of "Possum Kingdom" and other songs about killing women and disposing of the bodies. At first, "Jigsaw Girl" seems to be another sign of the Toadies going soft: It opens with Lewis tenderly requesting, "Give me your hand/and I will hold it forever." But a couple lines later, Lewis sings, "I keep you near/scattered around my apartment." The Toadies haven't lost their wicked Southern gothic side. The Toadies play at Numbers (300 Westheimer) on Thursday. - Mariel Tam
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